Okuma has quietly rolled out a third generation of its Tournament Concept rod series, and the first detailed look at the new TCS B family has come from California saltwater - not a bass boat. Davey Nguyen of Davey's World Fishing has been fishing the rods around his home harbours for the first part of 2026 and walked through two of them on camera.
The TCS line carries about a dozen years of history at Okuma. Nguyen took the moment to remind viewers where the rods came from, and why the name still carries weight in tournament circles.
"The original TCS rods were designed by professional bass angler Scott Martin. This is about 10 years ago. He was on our staff, Okuma staff. He went over to the factory, designed these things from the ground up, and he fished them hard in all of his tournaments. FLW when he was doing that, getting out winning that Forrest Wood Cup was really, really awesome."
Martin and Okuma have since parted ways, but the rod family stayed with the brand and has been refined twice. The B is generation three.
The blank is built from 30-ton graphite, without the UFR tip section that anchors some other Okuma rods, and the brand has added three new models to the lineup for 2026. The 7-foot-6 medium-light and medium in the spinning column has caught Nguyen's attention as a dropshot stick that he described as fantastic for the application. The full spinning range now runs 6-foot-9 to 7-foot-6.
On the baitcaster side, the chart still runs from 6-foot-9 to 7-foot-11. The 7-foot-11 is offered in heavy, extra-heavy and double-extra-heavy actions. Nguyen had the heavy in his hand for the walkthrough, paired with a Komodo 350 and 50-pound braid for harbour A-rig work.
The blank, he said, was perfectly suited to flinging the multi-bait umbrella rigs at California saltwater bass.
"I have 50-lb braid on this when I'm fishing out here in the salt and it absolutely just loads up nicely. You can really get that long cast, get that bait out there as far as you want to do, let it sink down, and then just get it right on back to the boat."
The Komodo 350 was a deliberate choice. Spotted bay bass, calico and sand bass are the bread-and-butter targets, but Nguyen noted that yellowtail and other harbour pelagics will eat a big A-rig too, so the reel needed enough drag to handle a surprise.
The spinning rod he featured was a 6-foot-9 691 - a medium-plus, slightly heavier than a true medium and lighter than a medium-heavy. He has been fishing it with a Hookup Bait jig dropped vertically beside dock pilings and boat hulls from the kayak. The taper, he said, is slightly more parabolic than the baitcasters but still loads at a roughly moderate-fast rate.
Fuji K-concept guides feature across the family, and the model numbers and lengths have not changed across the three generations. The TCS B refinements are about action, feel and the new spinning models added to the chart, not a wholesale redesign.