Lew’s announced several new rods for 2019, and the first one I got my hands on was the new Lew’s Custom Speed Stick Super Grip Rod. It’s unique selling point is a custom flat sided grip that keeps the rod inline on the back cast to prevent rod roll and black twist. This is said to produce a more fluent, longer cast and better overall handling while fighting fish. These are my experiences with this new bass fishing rod for 2019 from Lew’s
The new custom built grip is the draw
Not only did Lew’s launch a new line built around new Winn Grips, but they also borrowed some engineering from the golfing world to apply it to a fishing rod. The Super Grip features a flat top section to keep your hands inline on the grip on casts but more importantly on the hookset, when the taper and load on the rod needs to feed down the spine of the rod.
This keeps the rod on its spine allowing you to apply maximum pressure on a fish and keeping the rod from rolling into a less flexible part of the taper. So you should have a stronger rod with more lifting power along the spine with the rod locked in place by the unique Super Grip.
Detailed, comfortable and functional
My experiences are all good so far with the rod. It casts well, loads well, fishes well and performs well on the hookset. The grip is really comfortable and detailed really well. The rod balances well and the grip actually makes the rod feel a touch lighter to me with a reel on it. That might be because I use the full cork handle Ledge rods a lot and it could be that I’m just not use to a full Winn Grip yet.
Flat side for rod control throughout
The flat spine does take a bit to get used to on the Winn Grip. It’s fine on the cast but then laying your hands on the rod took a minute to find that perfect sweet spot to hold and fish it. Then the key is to keep the blank in your hand the same way every time and throughout a cast, retrieve and hookset.
Good looking on a combo
I paired the Lew’s Super Grip rod with the Lew’s Custom Speed Spool MSB reel. It’s a great looking and fishing combo. I mostly fished a jig on the
Fishes a lot like the Custom and Custom Pro blanks
This is the Magnum Bass 2 rod which is just a bit longer at 7 feet, 3 1/2 inches. The tip has a little more castability and little more umph. I really like this rod for casting a jig to brush and fishing a hair jig. I’m sure there are some other good applications as well. Probably be a great worm rod, a great football jig rod. Maybe even a good big topwater or Chatterbait rod.
Solid guides and wraps
The detail, construction and precision on the builds is really well done. It looks sharp and fishes well. Baits even down to 1/4 ounce casted really well on the rod. It was sensitive even with the full Winn Grip thanks to what it calls its Lew’s exclusive VTR (Vibration Transfer Ring). This ring gives you a direct contact point to the blank so you get a lot more sensitive connection to what your lure and bass is doing on the other end.
Good tips and rod tapers
The Lew’s Super Grip rod is sensitive. It loads well and casts well. I think they did a good job on this rod. If you like the Custom Speed Sticks or Custom Pro Speed Sticks you will like this rod. It may just be a matter of grip preference for a lot of anglers. It’s worth picking one up and seeing what you think on them. I’ve been pleasantly impressed with them.
The Lew’s Custom Plus Speed Stick Super Grip Rod comes in between the original Custom Speed Sticks and the Team Lew’s Custom and Custom Pro rods at $179. You can already find them here on Tacklewarehouse.com in six actions and many retailers should be getting them for sale if they haven’t already.
