I have a Raider Mexican Fire II Spin rod designed by Ian Miller and Shimano. I love the cork grips, and the colour is very distinctive. As well as the cork grips, there is also a great pistol grip style shape which fits the hand very well.
The rod is light and sensitive, but it is a tough graphite and durable structure.
Teamed with this great rod is an exoskeletal design reel from Quantum – the Exo PT 300 to be exact.
The gears on this reel are so smooth, and overall it is very light. I have all my reels set up for left-hand motion, because I cast with my right hand.
I run a pink braid on this reel, and it seems to do better than a similar set up with yellow line. I read somewhere that pink is harder for fish to see because of the way the light reflects off it in the water. I don’t know the science, but this rod catches probably twice the fish than a similar rod and reel with yellow line.
