Hydra Blanks

[bassinbrady03]

Anyone used them?

 

If so how do you like them?

 

Are they sensitive?

 

Whats the difference between the OS and NG series?

 

Can you compare them to St. Croix blanks (Only blanks I am familiar with) are they on par with SCIII or more like SCII maybe SCVI

 

Thanks,

Brady Leatherwood

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Brady,

 

I don't have a lot of hands on with the Hydra product but St Croix does sell blanks and Rainshadow and MHX are two other good lines that have competitive offerings. What leads to looking at a custom and Hydra specifically? 

[bassinbrady03]

Brady,

 

I don't have a lot of hands on with the Hydra product but St Croix does sell blanks and Rainshadow and MHX are two other good lines that have competitive offerings. What leads to looking at a custom and Hydra specifically? 

 

Im not looking at custom sorry if the post is misleading. ALX rods uses them. Their rods look good but I had never heard of their blanks and wanted to get some feedback about them before I purchased one of their rods.

[Hogsticker]

They make great blanks. The NG series uses a scrimless blank, the OS series does not. Most of the fast action blanks measure on the slower end and are a little closer to a moderate fast, but not quite. As for the ALX rods, the build quality is really good. I'm not a big fan of the Kigan guides, but that's personal preference.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

I like the Kigan clip style hook keeper. Hyrda seems to have a good rep with custom builders. I'm sure they're fine. The total build determines how it will fish and there's only one way to find out and that's to try one. 

[cidgrad96]

ALX Rods are produced by Hydra - so same company. The blanks are built specifically for Hydra, to our specs. The IKOS line uses OS series blanks. We import these blanks from overseas and have them built specifically for us. They utilize a midmodulus blend with an ultra fine scrim for added hoop strength. Our ZOLO line uses our US made NG series blanks. We use a midmodulus material with no scrim - so you have a final higher modulus rating because we only use one material throughout the blank. This creates a very quick, responsive blank and you will feel things very differently. All our blanks are proprietary. 

 

I agree that we do not produce super fast blanks and our fast action is a little slower. That is deliberate as we believe it contributes to fewer lost fish.

 

All the rods are built in Aiken SC. That is something we refuse to compromise. We would be bigger if we did, but we're ok with that. We use Kigan guides as we have had fewer failures and greater performance than any other brand of guide over the last 5 years. Thanks DVT - I personally designed that hookkeeper and Kigan produces it. It's called the XLA-HK (ALX backwards). 

 

For full disclosure, I own Hydra/ALX Rods. This is not meant as advertising. I thank the current sponsors for their patience and appreciate the opportunity to one time make sure the right information is communicated.

 

Thanks again for the opportunity!

 

Alex

President, Hydra Fishing, LLC

[kickerfish1]

I snagged a Maestro spinning rod when the folks at ALX had a Christmas sale. Had heard great things prior but finally decided to pull the trigger. I feel that the rod/blank/build was really solid at the $200 price point. There were a few sloppy epoxy spots but nothing major. I purchased the rod for performance and versatility and not looks. I run all my rods through a low - high test. I want to see where they excel so I fish them with light finesse baits all the way up to heavier presentations. I was surprised how well it did with dropshots on the lighter end and even the hooksets I was getting fishing weighltess flukes in heavy cover. My initial intention for the rod was a designated tube/shakey head rod. It does these things well too. Basically it is that one spinning rod you can take with you to fish most every spinning rod technique. Sensitivity and overall versatility of the rod where very good. Wish the the trim pieces came in other colors and the build quality was a bit better but I am more than impressed with the rod and blank for the money. Its sort of a half custom half off the shelf production rod.

[sarcazmo]

My dragger is one of the few rods not built by me I decided to keep.