Okay, so the first thing you’ll notice about the GLoomis GWR 901C
is the color. The bright aqua color (GLoomis calls it “Seafoam Green”) is hard to miss — and rest assured you’ll always be able to spot which rod is yours in the boat in an instant. Color aside, does the rod live up to the manufacturer’s claims of being extremely light and sensitive and an excellent stick for large topwater plugs and soft plastics?
Features & Specs
The GWR 901C was designed with inshore saltwater fishing applications — flats and shallows, specifically — in mind. Redfish, specks, baby tarpon and other medium-sized saltwater marauders on poppin’ corks, topwater hardbaits and soft plastics were were the fish I believe the design folks were thinking about.
• Length: 7’6″
• Line Rating: 10-20 pound test
• Lure Weight; 1/4 to 1 1/4 ounce
• Action: Extra-Fast
• Power: Mag-Medium
• MSRP: $245
The GWR 901C also features beefy, saltwater-grade guides:
And a blank-through handle design to give you more sensitivity…
On the Water Test
Well, we don’t have any greenwater flats fishing in my neck of the woods (unless you count the old truck tire beds in the Natomas Drainage Canal near downtown…ah, never mind), but I have been doing quite a bit of “brownwater” flats fishing on the California Delta for striped bass, where topwater poppers and swimbaits are my two main weapons of choice.
While I’ve been happy with my swimbait rod, I’ve been searching for the ultimate stick for chucking Pencil Poppers and other surface baits to stripers. I’d been running a crisp 7 footer that had a super-quick action that didn’t load up well when casting the big poppers — or when a fish would eat one and I haven’t been happy with the overall performance. Enter the GWR 901C…
My first thought before I even made a cast was that I was going to hate the color (you see what I mean…that seafoam green really makes an impression). The first day out, my buddies gave me some grief about it too, but quite honestly, I really like the hue. It took a few days for it to grow on me but it’s now kinda of my “signature” striper rod…”Foamy” as it’s affectionately known now.
Anyway, enough about the color. For sporting heavy-gauge line guides, this rod is amazingly light and I can cast it all day without any problems. It’s got a pretty soft tip which loads up nicely with a popper, allowing me to expend a lot less energy when casting.
That slow tip section is also important when a big striper inhales your plug — he can take the lure down without feeling a whole lot of resistance, which is a huge key in getting these fish to stay hooked — kinda like plug fishing for salmon and steelhead, which this rod would work for, too…
For working poppers and walking the dog, I wish the tip was just a hair faster. The give in the top third of the rod means I have to pop a little harder and reel faster — the later I’ve been able to compensate for by using a high speed reel. But it’s definitely not too slow — I can still set the hook with authority with the rod.
In a total fit of laziness one afternoon, I didn’t change rods when the bite switched from poppers to swimbaits. What I quickly discovered was the 901C turns out to be one hell of a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce swimbait rod as well! It casts the baits really nicely and has some give to it when a striper grabs the lure. The exposed blank in the handle also helps me easily differentiate between rock rubs and soft tale grabs. It’s now my number one swimbait rod. Foamy in action…
You can also see the rod put the wood to a mid-teener striper in this short video:
Conclusion
There’s really not a whole lot I can say about the GLoomis GWR 901C other that it’s my new favorite striper stick. Yea, $245 is a bit spendy in this economy and the action is just a tad softer than I’d like, but overall, the thing is absolutely sick! You could say my fishing pals are now “green” with envy but that would be cheesy…anyway, 5 STARS!
