Akios fishing rods in New Zealand.
Since 2010 Akios has gained traction all over the world as a quality reel brand, in recent times they have also been making their mark with high end modern surf rods, we believe some of the best surf rods available in NZ.
If your reading this then no doubt you’re wondering if these Akios rods are any good, to be honest we wanted to know how they would be received by experienced local NZ based surfcasters.
The current Akios range consists of five surf rods and there was only one thing to do, get these into the hands of some local surf casters. Unfortunately the “Three Piece Beast” known as the AirPower wasn’t available at the time having sold out within two days of release by Akios. Don't worry we'll follow up on that front at a later date.
So here we are a few months down the track, having found a couple of customers who happen to be dead keen surf casters based in the Bay of Plenty. Having got these into the hands of a couple decent Kiwi blokes, we asked them to give us some feedback, an Akios rod review of sorts using the four rods available at the time, the Akios HellRazor, Endurance Pro, AirSpeed Surf and the AirTorque.
So what did they think about the Akios rods?
"Johnny Anderson and I have been using the Akios Endurance Pro Dual tip, the Airspeed and the AirTorque for a few weeks now and we love them. Johnny has also owned an Akios HellRazor for a few months now.
Firstly these rods are very different to what's currently available in NZ (the Shimano Carbolite may be an exception from what I've read about them) in that they are not as fast action a blank. This means they are a little softer through the mid-section giving a more parabolic curve (sometimes known as C Curve), the fast action rods are described as a J Curve.
The Akios surf rods are best described as Continental style fishing rods that are the go to in Europe & the UK, very light, very thin in the tip (almost scarily so) and fitted out with quality K guides. The technology in these rods is light years ahead of what's currently available here. The build quality is excellent with steel ferules at the joins. They go together very easily and stay together (but do come apart unlike another rod available in NZ).
As the price increases across the range so does the ability to load them up more.
The Akios AirTorque (pictured) will cast an 8oz lead with ease (but why would you in NZ). Recovery from casting of the blank across the range is excellent.
My go to slidebaiting rod at the moment is a Penn Prevail 12' O/head 15-24kg but I'm looking forward to slidebaiting with the AirTorque for that big king off the sand - I have no doubt it will be awesome.
Rods I've used in the past are Veritas, Solaris, AFAW (Anyfish Anywhere) 4&Bait, AFAW 6&Bait, ReelRods Pendulum Pro (CTS S8), Loomis Franklyn, Powerplay 22fxl. Rods I'll be using from now on - AFAW 4&Bait, Akios any of them!
My only peeve with the range so far is they don't do an Overhead version yet, but I believe there's one coming in the spring - bring it on!"
- Nic Clegg
The weight of the Akios rods is amazing and Nic kind of said it really but there's a few other things I love about them, the hand grip on the bottom and also as you get up the higher range they have a counter weight in the butt where the grip is that works its way down in ounces to improve your cast.
Believe me I thought it wasn't a thing until I tried to cast the Air Torque without them and it changed the whole rod, the Air Speed has them also.
They are all three piece rods and the Endurance Pro has an extra tip, can I also say the rod bags are second to none with each rod section having its own compartment so they don't touch and scratch and all that jazz.
If you're mad keen pair one up with the Akios Airloop R10 reel, you will be impressed..."
-Johnny Anderson
Akios surf rod range Updated 19/10/2021
• Akios Fury FX420
• Akios HellRazor SS420
• Akios Endurance Pro RS2
• Akios Utopia SX420
• Akios AirSpeed MKII Black
• Akios AirTorque 435
• Akios AirPower SRS
• Akios AirPower 435 RXP
View the Akios product range now, worth the read why not share it, have comments, feedback or questions feel free to fire away below.
Looking for other surf rod options, see our entire surf rod range.