My New Kistler Z Bone
I’ve had my share of good flippin sticks, but my 7’6″ Heavy Kistler Z Bone LE with Fuji Micro K Guides is the best one I’ve ever had.
The blank is built by the legendary Gary Loomis at his newly formed North Fork Composites in Woodland, Washington. I hate to break it to G. Loomis fans out there, but Gary Loomis hasn’t been involved with the company for years and the latest G. Loomis rods are just fancy Shimano’s.
That being said, the first thing I noticed about my Z Bone is the parabolic bend. It’s got plenty of backbone, but still has uniform bend throughout the rod. Those of of us who like to flip with 65 braid know that you’ll end up losing a lot of fish with too stiff a rod and I believe this Z Bone blank is the answer. The tip is light enough to provide some forgiveness to braid which has no stretch and the parabolic bend actually fights the fish for you.
The sensitivity is ridiculous with the high modulus graphite blank created by none other than the legend himself, Gary Loomis, and the micro guides take up less area on the blank making it even more sensitive. It’s hard to put into words a how much more sensitive this rod is.
I’m not sure if it’s due to the micro guides or the blank itself, but the Z Bone is more versatile. The typical lure rating on a heavy action rod is 3/8 to 1 ounce but my Z Bone is rated for 1/4 to 1.5 ounces meaning it can be used for more applications.
Another cool feature for flippin with braid is the Micro K Guide which virtually eliminates the line wrapping around the guides. I was a little skeptical at first, but they really work. I had a buddy of mine wrap braid around a guide 5 times on my Micro K Guides trying to prove me wrong but it came unwrapped with ease.
I love this thing paired with a Shimano Chronarch D7 and 65 braid. It’s always sitting on my deck and have an extra heavy on order which is rated for 1/2 oz to 6 oz. No, it’s not a typo…. 6 oz and probably lighter than most of the rods in your collection.
