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Topic starter
March 14, 2026 4:04 am
Designo DLR C67MHRST4S Ltd Racing was in use quite a bit last year and has been in hand a bunch since recently/finally getting a green light from the doctor to start fishing again (I had rotator cuff surgery at the end of August last year for a torn tendon and partially torn Deltoid).
As expected, the level 7 build once again impresses, as the blank excels in multiple areas, such as sensitivity, power, and rebound. Nice fast taper that loads up beautifully on the cast. I’ve been married to tossing a Tokyo and Gika rig on this rod. Needless to say, it’s been a blast with a tuned/slightly modded 24 Steez on board.
I’ve taken many, many fish on this stick/combo, but last weekend (my 2nd outing of the year) was a bit of a highlight. Towards the end of the day, shoulder starting to ache a good bit, I was tossing the Gika/Reins Ring Craw up onto a saddle. Couple of hops into my 4th cast, I get hammered and it was a good one. A few big head shakes and minutes later, I put hands on her. Coming in right at 24” and full of fire, it was a fun battle to say the least.
The Designo handled that fish beautifully, and I was confidently able to keep her out of the nearby brush, etc. A great workout for the rod and yet another testament to the quality of Kamiya’s builds.
March 14, 2026 2:06 pm
Hells Yeah, brother! So happy to hear that you are healing up well enough to enjoy your pastime again.
Great job and helluva donkey catch!
FWIW, I've been running my homemade Jika rigs this spring for smaller-med sized plastics and even 6" Yum lizards. It is a really effective rig.
RISE and triple_illusion reacted
Topic starter
March 14, 2026 4:27 pm
@dragon1 thank you, bud. Just gonna keep it real…that’s all I know. It’s been a really tough couple of years, but a lot of stuff is finally showing up in the rear view mirror.
Healing has been slow, but steadily improving and I’m incredibly grateful for that.
Couple of hurdles remain, but I’m very excited to get past those, get back on track here and on the main site. I promise you guys, I have been very busy behind closed doors, working hard on a lot of projects. There’s a ton of content, MC’s and reviews on standby and/or nearing completion. I’m truly excited to share it all this year.
As far as the Gika goes…. I am seriously on a few year binge with it. Love the action it imparts on many baits and it’s been highly effective for me at a great number of different lakes.
Topic starter
March 14, 2026 4:27 pm
@triple_illusion Thank you, my friend.
dragon1 and triple_illusion reacted
March 15, 2026 5:04 pm
Awesome rod and awesome fish! Is it any similar to HFAC-67MH-ST? That’s a rod I got to try and want to get at some point but this one you have might be even cooler. 67MH ST seems to be a common length, power, and arrangement for a lot of JDM rods for bottom contact.
Topic starter
March 16, 2026 7:59 pm
@hkbasser I would have to say it’s not very close to the HFAC67 in taper. The HFAC’s are a bit softer in the tip section, whereas the “4s” designated ST’s from Designo tend to be a bit more stout/crisp. The HFAC’s are no slouches, absolutely love mine, but a Level 7 Designo Blank is good 1+ steps up in responsiveness, sensitivity, and overall performance.
I’m also in the “fear no short rod” camp. A lot of people, especially in the US tend to shy away from shorter rods for bottom contact and other duties, but I am definitely not one of them. Taper and backbone section will often make a short rod fish a lot longer…if you know what I mean. A 6’7” rod is very much capable of great things.
Unfortunately, it’s another reason many people miss out on experiencing some truly fantastic Rods. Their loss, unfortunately…
dragon1 reacted
March 16, 2026 8:06 pm
@rise Very cool! I wish I could see a taper chart, I can sort of picture what you are talking about though. I haven’t handled the Fact rods long enough to know all their intricacies other than the fact that they were decently crisp, during a trip back to my hometown I fished with a couple buddies with a fleet of evergreen rods and tried. If this designo rod is more crisp it must be freakin crunchy LOL. If you get a chance to show me how it is loaded I’d love to see. Is the butt section forgiving enough to be considered sticky?
Topic starter
March 17, 2026 12:02 am
@hkbasser I can get some taper pics together at some point in the near future and post them. I included those in the reviews I do on the main site, and this rod definitely deserves its own writeup…even though it’s one of the contenders in a big bottom contact shootout article that I’m currently working on. Regardless, I’ll get some for ya.
igl00jx reacted
March 24, 2026 3:22 pm
@hkbasser I would have to say it’s not very close to the HFAC67 in taper. The HFAC’s are a bit softer in the tip section, whereas the “4s” designated ST’s from Designo tend to be a bit more stout/crisp. The HFAC’s are no slouches, absolutely love mine, but a Level 7 Designo Blank is good 1+ steps up in responsiveness, sensitivity, and overall performance.
I’m also in the “fear no short rod” camp. A lot of people, especially in the US tend to shy away from shorter rods for bottom contact and other duties, but I am definitely not one of them. Taper and backbone section will often make a short rod fish a lot longer…if you know what I mean. A 6’7” rod is very much capable of great things.
Unfortunately, it’s another reason many people miss out on experiencing some truly fantastic Rods. Their loss, unfortunately…
I am getting more mature because i can remember a time when a 6'6" rod was the thing.
Nice catches man.. I have been tied down with work ( OEF) so thats been it. Glad to see someone is out there catching the big ones.
Topic starter
March 30, 2026 12:23 pm
@goldrod thanks, my friend. It’s been really nice to be able to reset again and do what I’m passionate about. I thought I had a pretty good idea about how tough the lengthy recovery process was going to be, but i was wrong and it was much worse…🤣
Just glad to be back at it and even happier to have some things taken off the “life” plate.
Those shorter sticks have been and are definitely still a thing in my lineup. I’ve just watched more and more people move away from them here in the states…unfortunately.
