Honored to share this unsolicited review of the Palmarius L Series rod I found today on 360tuna.com by John Borrelli a long time board member going back to 2015 I believe. Thank you for the support and fishing the rods John I really appreciate the review

https://www.360tuna.com/threads/long-fall-jigging-...

I had contributed to an old thread which became a long fall jigging rod thread, since I have begun fishing again this year I thought I would start a new one on the subject. In the time since the last thread I have purchased and used the Palmarius Leviathan L2 (150g -400g) and the Phenix Longfall 710H (200g-480g) slow jigging rods.

Before I begin let me state the kind of fishing I do. I go out on big party boats in New England five to ten times a year and jig in about 250 feet of water for fish in the 1lb (damn redfish) to 15lb range, fish like cod, pollack, haddock, cusk ,etc. I haven’t owned that many slow jigging rods. I am a novice. I have no affiliation with either of these companies.

If you don’t want to read all of my rambling comments, let me sum up my experiences with these two rods:
If you want a rod that can do traditional slow pitch jigging and long fall jigging equally well, then get the Palmarius. If you already have a great slow jigging outfit and just need a long fall rod, and you can get the Phenix for less than list price then consider the Phenix, unless you can get the Palmarius for less then list then get the Palmarius!
In other words, I really like the Palmarius.

I used the Palmarius with my Jigging Master Pe-2 reel with carbon fiber T handle(which is lighter than the stock ball handle). I think any similar pe2 sized reel would be fine. I loved the balance with my JM reel and the Palmarius. I used pe3 and pe4 lines with 40lb test mono connected by an FG knot, and had no problems with the knot and guides. The Palmarius uses small guides but not what I would call micro-guides. Jigs I used with this rod include jigs in the 230 gram to 320gram range. These included 250 and 300 gram JM diamond eye jigs. I also used 300 gram Slow Emotion Slippy jig and my most used jigs the 230 gram and the 320gram Nomad Buffalo jigs. I was catching fish like mad on the 230 gram jig until the crew told me to stop it as I was getting into too many tangles. The hook combination I was using, (and now won’t use anything else) was two single decoy 3/0 hooks attached to the jig with Owner split rings, the medium pike assist hook was used on the top and the short pike on the bottom. I also stopped using a swivel and went back to using the JM solid 8 ring, call me superstitious but I have more luck with this set up.

On the Palmarius rod

I think the Palmarius is a beautiful looking rod. I also have a Jigging Master Violent series #2 slow jigging rod which is also a beautiful rod but the JM is more blingy kind of like Kate Upton, while the Palmarius is more elegant like Grace Kelly and the Phenix looks like...it has a great personality.

The Palmarius is also light, nimble and feels like an extension of your arm it basically has all the best qualities of a high end slow jigging rod. The rod action of the Palmarius is excellent it has a punchy recoil and like my JM rod it feels alive when you are jigging with it. Now I have never used the Evergreen Poseidon Long fall jigging rod to compare actions. It may be that that this prototypical long fall rod has a softer action. It may be fair to describe the action on the Palmarius as being like a longer slow jigging rod that also does long fall jigging extremely well.

Both long fall rods are spiral wrap rods which I prefer and I believe both rods are neutral spiral wrap rods, which are great. Both rods also seemed very sensitive with perhaps a slight edge to the Palmarius but really the differences would not be that significant and probably be more dependent on the line setup you are using.

Did i find any weaknesses with the Palmarius? Well I am a Masshole so I would have to be able to find something wrong, right? Well the only thing I could come up with is that the Palmarius is a two piece rod so you would have to be Ok with issues around two piece rods. The Phenix is a one piece rod.

On the Phenix rod

The Phenix rod with its one piece construction seems to be an extremely well built , rugged ,durable rod. It doesn’t have that delicate feel that a lot of slow jigging rods have. Unfortunately, the Phenix 710H is also more cumbersome, heavier in weight( that is as in ounces of weight), seems too large and so these qualities make it lees enjoyable to use as a slow jigging rod but it is OK as a long fall rod. I used this rod mainly with my old Shimano Ocean Jigger 3000 reel. The jigs I used included the Sea Floor Control 350 gram Gawky jig, The 300 gram Slippy, The Nomad 320 gram jig( which is basically a nice copy of the SFC Gawky), and JM Diamond Eye jigs in 250 , 300 and 400 grams. I caught fish with all of these jigs on this rod. I think when I can catch fish, in my fishery, with a large 400 gram jig then the rod is working for me.

The Phenix rod also uses sensibly sized guides rather than micro-guides ( like on my JM rod).

I should also mention, though this may not be applicable to the average slow jigger, but on one day I brought with me 6 ounce and 8 ounce old-school diamond jigs. I rigged a single Gamakatsu open-eye Siwash hook with a plastic squid and did some old school style cod jigging. With this style, I used my JM reel and PE3 line with 30 lb test Pink Ande mono and casted the jigs out and jigged back to the boat. I now prefer vertical jigging but between these strong north Atlantic winds and currents and the alternating drifting, parachute anchoring and traditional anchoring of the boats, I sometimes just want to cast away from all the lines. I mention this because I was surprised by how well the Phenix rod could underhand cast. It casted like an old school conventional rod. I didn’t cast with the Palmarius.

Well I hope these comments will be useful to some, All the best, john