CAUTION!!! Be prepared to spend a bunch of time on the sale forums if you pick up a Railsplitter Rod from MudbuM. Yes, they are that good. You will be selling all your other rods trying to get some extra cash for more Railsplitters.
A white composite of Linear S-Glass/40 ton Toray, the 8' blank is damn near perfect for everything except XXXtra heavy duty use. Although I don't normally care for white rods, the white finish on the Railsplitter rods is striking. Very well done.
The reel seat, simply the best. The same Alps aluminum reel seats I use on all my custom catfish rods are found here on the Railsplitter.
Grip material, again, the best available. X-flock on the 12" fore and 12" rear grip, awesome!
Guides (10 + 1) are your standard stainless steel without inserts that all the catfish guys and gals love, except me. But, these guides are pretty much trouble free.
Even the butt cap is way better than any other catfish rod I have seen. Tapered to be smaller at the bottom it slides right out of the Driftmasters without hanging up like every other catfish rod on the market.
I put the Railsplitter through some serious testing before even using them. I checked the bend with 32 ozs, very nice. Then I sent a lob cast across the yard without much effort. I'm not recommending casting 2 pounds on a rod rated to 10 ozs, but it didn't complain. I think I will keep my casting weight under a pound total with these. I then put the Railsplitter in one of the Driftmaster rod holders with the drag on my Shimano Tekota 500 tightened down to max (about 18#). I then pulled straight down until the drag slipped. Very impressive. This rod will have no problem handling 20# of drag. Pulled that hard it has a nice moderate bend to about 4' down the blank where it gets into some serious backbone.
I'm going to introduce a new term to my rod reviews right here in the Railsplitter rod review. That is "Shutoff". The term backbone gets thrown around everywhere talking about rods. Even rods I consider to have very little backbone are said to have GREAT backbone. Well, if you think about an actual backbone, they are meant to bend. But a rod the "Shuts off" stops bending at some point. This Railsplitter rod shuts off at around 50% of it's length. This is the perfect amount of shutoff for me. The top through the midsection gives a nice controlled bend with some nice power in the midsection. The tip is pretty fast to bend allowing for easy casting. The bottom end is stout! It has tons of lift.
32 ounces hanging.
Pulling 18 pounds of drag.
I can't say I've tried every catfish rod on the market, but I've tried MANY. Some of them are too soft, some of them are too stiff. I say this Railsplitter rod from MudbuM is just right.
There isn't a true catfish rod on the market I can recommend more highly. The $159.99 price puts this rod at the top end of catfish rods price wise. But with components I would use on my custom built catfish rods that cost much, much more, the Railsplitter Rod from MudbuM is a real bargain.
You can pick them up here.
https://mudbumusa.com/supply-shack/mudbum-railsplitter-rods/
Chuck
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