Abu Garcia Ike Rods, Is Mike Using Them?

[WPCfishing]

The Ike rod's look pretty nice. If you watch his rod video's you'll see he has framed each rod specifically to it's task. Anyone own one? Please post your opinion. Compare it to other rods in the same price range.

 

I don't think Mike is using these rods. In fact I'll bet all the pro's are using custom built rods with sponsor labels on them. What's your take on it?

[rippin-lips]

I don't think Mike is using these rods. In fact I'll bet all the pro's are using custom built rods with sponsor labels on them. What's your take on it?

You'd be wrong to assume such a thing.

The majority of pros use off the shelf rods from their sponsor. Nothing custom about them.

JT Kenney - Halo rods with Bps reels

Ish Monroe - Daiwa

Randy Howell - Daiwa

Aaron Martens - Enigma Aaron's edge rods

Boyd Duckett - Duckett

Ike - Abu was the Veritas for a while now Ike's

Tracy Adams - Cashion

Kvd - quantum

Brandon Palaniuk - Abu Veracity and Ike rods

Chad Pipkens - Powell

[Jrob78]

You'd be wrong to assume such a thing.

The majority of pros use off the shelf rods from their sponsor. Nothing custom about them.

 

Agree completely.  Pros aren't using custom rods if they have a rod sponsor.

[WPCfishing]

You'd be wrong to assume such a thing.

The majority of pros use off the shelf rods from their sponsor. Nothing custom about them.

JT Kenney - Halo rods with Bps reels

Ish Monroe - Daiwa

Randy Howell - Daiwa

Aaron Martens - Enigma Aaron's edge rods

Boyd Duckett - Duckett

Ike - Abu was the Veritas for a while now Ike's

Tracy Adams - Cashion

Kvd - quantum

Brandon Palaniuk - Abu Veracity and Ike rods

Chad Pipkens - Powell

 

Thanks Pal, I'm glad you feel that way.. If a rod is good enough for Mike it's good enough for me. I may just order a few of his rods Monday. They offer all the components I want on a rod other than cork which isn't a deal breaker for me. If anyone else see it differently than rippin-lips let us know.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

At the end of the day Professional........... Is a sales and marketing advertising business. As such sponsors get an exaggerated amount of credit for individual success. I doubt there's anything sinister going on but I'm sure there are circumstances of a non sponsor Rod, reel or bait employed at times and lots of prototypes not yet or ever available to the public get used. The mere fact that angler x used a particular product is the last reason I'd base a purchase on.

[Senko lover]

Do you realize how many combos the pros have? And how much it would cost to have that many custom rods made and wrapped to look like his? 

 

Ike makes a lot of money doing what he does, but I reeally doubt any pro would do that with all the rods they use, that would just cost way too much. 

[HoosierHawgs]

At the end of the day Professional........... Is a sales and marketing advertising business. As such sponsors get an exaggerated amount of credit for individual success. I doubt there's anything sinister going on but I'm sure there are circumstances of a non sponsor Rod, reel or bait employed at times and lots of prototypes not yet or ever available to the public get used. The mere fact that angler x used a particular product is the last reason I'd base a purchase on.

Baits, they for sure use different baits that aren't from sponsors. As for rods/reels, they probably don't, or at least not very often.

[Montanaro]

Custom rods take time to build...and money.

Pros are hard on rods.

Pros also have tight budgets.

Its simply not economical or logistical to use custom rods unless sponsored by mhx or mudhole.

[WPCfishing]

Has anyone checked out his rod video's?

They're short but right to the point.

The rod specs are in my wheel house.. Even the reel seat with a conventional seat nut

which is important to me are part of the specs. It's not the oversized aluminum clicker nut.

[Bluebasser86]

Edwin Evers fishes BPS Carbonlite rods and reels and does alright. Most rods and reels are good for a year or two, and when they break they can just get new ones. Doesn't work the same for the average angler though. 

[Glenn]

I've fished with Ike on 3 different occasions now - no custom rods on his boat.  They're all off-the-shelf, sponsor-supplied, rods.  The exception are a few rods that are prototypes.  But, as anyone that knows beta software, they're not ready for prime-time yet.

 

I've fished with several other pros, and that's pretty much status quo.  Maybe a few have a favorite specialty rod or two they hang onto through the years (rarely custom), but usually they have a full arsenal of sponsor rods. 

 

This works for the sponsors, especially.  They want folks to see the pros use the same equipment you can get at the local tackleshop.  It sells product.  Simple as that.  There's zero incentive to supply their pros with custom gear nobody can buy.

[WPCfishing]

I've fished with Ike on 3 different occasions now - no custom rods on his boat.  They're all off-the-shelf, sponsor-supplied, rods.  The exception are a few rods that are prototypes.  But, as anyone that knows beta software, they're not ready for prime-time yet.

 

I've fished with several other pros, and that's pretty much status quo.  Maybe a few have a favorite specialty rod or two they hang onto through the years (rarely custom), but usually they have a full arsenal of sponsor rods. 

 

This works for the sponsors, especially.  They want folks to see the pros use the same equipment you can get at the local tackleshop.  It sells product.  Simple as that.  There's zero incentive to supply their pros with custom gear nobody can buy.

 

So You got a look at his rods.... Did you cast any of them? Overall what did you think of them?

[blckshirt98]

If anything, the pros will have a custom line of rods created with their name attached, with length/actions/specs worked out with the pro, for mass public production.

[F14A-B]

Y'all forgot KVD & Quantum.. I have a spinnerbait vid by him & on his porch there looks to be about 100 rods bundled up, supplied by Quantum of course..before hack & Ike got famous ( & signed ) they were fishing Shimano gear ( years ago )

[Glenn]

No, I did not cast them.  But I did ask about them, and he explained what I already said above, and showed me the rods he was using.  They were stock.  2 were "non-sponsor" rods, but only because his sponsor didn't have any rods that had those particular specs yet.

[ww2farmer]

Please post your opinion.

What's your take on it?

Well, since you asked nicely......I could care less, and I think the whole "the pros use secret stuff made by unicorns and fairy's" argument to be ridiculous and often put forth by ignorant buffoons.

[deaknh03]

Well, since you asked nicely......I could care less, and I think the whole "the pros use secret stuff made by unicorns and fairy's" argument to be ridiculous and often put forth by ignorant buffoons.

Your ignorant..unicorns cant make rods..

[WPCfishing]

Well, since you asked nicely......I could care less, and I think the whole "the pros use secret stuff made by unicorns and fairy's" argument to be ridiculous and often put forth by ignorant buffoons.

 

 

ww2farmer, Where's the argument? A question was asked, it was answered by multiple members and became a discussion.  

[WPCfishing]

So let say a company sent you 25 rods to test for them. How much time do you think it would take you to evaluate all of them? 

[Logan S]

When Boyd Duckett was with Carrot Stix they were giving him rods that were different from the normal production models...Not sure how much different they were, but from what I remember they were higher performance rods not available to the public which looked identical to the production models.  Boyd claimed he didn't know and made the issue public when he found out, it was a sort of a big deal when it happened.  So there is at least one example of the pro's getting 'special' rods.  Despite that, I would still bet that most if not all of the pros are using the same stuff you can buy off the rack.

 

They go outside the sponsor box on baits all the time.  They do it with rods/reels less frequently, but it happens.  Just an example I noticed this year was Edwin Evers using a JDM Shimano Exsence DC as the Havasu event.  He didn't really make it public knowledge but he certainly didn't try to hide it given that he had BASS live cameras in the boat the whole event.  

 

Speaking specifically of the Ike rods, I'm not really interested in them...But a friend of mine had a spinning model at one of our last tournaments and I made a few casts with it during practice.  I was surprised at how nice it felt, I don't think I would buy one myself but I was impressed for sure.  In my book it is a quality rod.  

[Jrob78]

They go outside the sponsor box on baits all the time.  They do it with rods/reels less frequently, but it happens.  Just an example I noticed this year was Edwin Evers using a JDM Shimano Exsence DC as the Havasu event.  He didn't really make it public knowledge but he certainly didn't try to hide it given that he had BASS live cameras in the boat the whole event.  

 

That's funny, I noticed that too.  He also used a Megabass spinning rod in, I believe, the St. Lawrence tournament.   Season before last he used a black Daiwa with clear cork knobs during Bass Fest.  I couldn't tell exactly what reel it was though.  It's funny seeing a guy like that branch out and use different stuff.

[Logan S]

That's funny, I noticed that too.  He also used a Megabass spinning rod in, I believe, the St. Lawrence tournament.   Season before last he used a black Daiwa with clear cork knobs during Bass Fest.  I couldn't tell exactly what reel it was though.  It's funny seeing a guy like that branch out and use different stuff.

Evers is interesting, his two biggest sponsors are Megabass and BPS.  One is the big box store 'everyman' type of company and the other is (arguably) THE top-tier of high end gear.  I think he is an enthusiast tackle guy behind the scenes...His deal with BPS likely has stipulations for using their gear most of the time at public events.

[imagine29028]

Evers is interesting, his two biggest sponsors are Megabass and BPS.  One is the big box store 'everyman' type of company and the other is (arguably) THE top-tier of high end gear.  I think he is an enthusiast tackle guy behind the scenes...His deal with BPS likely has stipulations for using their gear most of the time at public events.

Probably might be associated with the Nitro deal too...just a hunch.

[JGBassinAL]

I know two pros on the elite series that have a custom in their boat. There is no label on the rod, just raw blank with all components needed to complete the build of the rod. So do I think there are some pros out there that have a custom in their boat? Of course. Do I think they have a custom in their boat that is made to look like their sponsors rods? Absolutely not. They don't try extremely hard to hide it, but they also don't flaunt it either. 

[zell_pop1]

When Keith Combs beat Ike in the Texas bass tourney two years ago, Ike was using full cork rods, there are no full cork Abu rods. I've seen other pros do the same thing,and in my opinion the pros use high end rods but keep enough sponsored ones around to make it look good.