Aji Mebaru X

Aji Mebaru X is Daiwa's entry rod for Japanese light saltwater game, the ajing and mebaru fishery. Aji is Japanese horse mackerel, mebaru a small inshore rockfish. Both are fished at night around harbor lights, pontoons and breakwater with jigheads of roughly 0.5 to 2 g, plus split shot and Carolina rigs when distance is needed. The American analogue is ultralight speckled trout or panfish work: 1 to 4 lb class line, sub-gram lures, and a bite that registers as a tick or as the line simply stopping.

The blank uses Braiding X carbon tape on the butt to hold the section straight during a hookset at long line-out, K guides with Alconite rings chosen to shed tangles from thin braid, and a compact Fuji TVS reel seat. Carbon content is 85 to 88 percent, lower than the chinning and rockfish tiers, which keeps the tip forgiving. Two-piece lengths run about 5'10" to 7'6", lure ratings 0.3 to 5 g on the ultralight models and 0.5 to 8 g on the light, PE 0.1 to 0.4, mono 1 to 4 lb, blanks 64 to 79 g. Most models use solid tips for bite detection, with a single tubular model for anglers who prefer to work the lure actively.

Every model is spinning, the JDM norm for light saltwater. Sub-gram jigheads do not load a baitcasting spool, so the baitcaster-heavy layouts of the chinning and hard rock fish series do not carry across.