I’ve had my Kistler Z Bones built with the Fuji Tangle Free Micro K Guides and they’re the best on the market. As advertised, they truly are tangle free and keeps that annoying braid wrap around the guides and tip.
They’re the ideal guide for a frog rod or flippin stick but suitable for any rod where you do not want the line to wrap around the guides.
I’ve had this dilemma with every type of line out there so it’s a better product no matter what line you use.
I envision a day where all my rods have these guides and the days of line wrap being over.
Here’s a little demonstration of how these guides work. They show a full size version on the vid but I like them in the Micro version.
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.
I honestly can’t wait until I can get my hands on the soon to be released Kistler Z Bone. These rods will be offered in a ST model which utilizes an IM (intermediate modulus) blank and in a LE model with a HM (high modulus) blank both built by the legendary Gary Loomis at his newly formed North Fork Composites blank factory. Each Z Bone will be custom built to order and will also offer the option of adding the Fuji Micro K Guides which promises to solve the problem of the line wrapping around the guides as you commonly see with braided line.
These rods should be available for order around Q2 of 2010 and I can’t wait to get my hands on one. I love the new LE handle kit with EVA grips and the weighting system that lets you balance the rod to your liking. Kistler rods are already light and sensitive and can’t imagine how much better the Z Bone will be.
