Starting Over

[XzyluM]

Over the weekend, I decided to start over fresh since I have a much better understanding of how I prefer to fish and what I like to use. I was originally going to unload all eight of my Duckett rods since I have been wanting to move away from the micro guides for awhile now. After rejecting the first lowball offer, the buyer quickly countered with a much more reasonable offer. Long story short, I ended up selling all my rods and my Lew's Tournament Pro reels as well, but ended getting pretty close to what I was looking for. I was planning to keep the reels.

 

I figured I would just order Lew's again and go with a different brand rod. But after a bit of research, I am starting to lean toward the Daiwa Tatula SV103 reels. I'm not a fan of the Type R color scheme and would prefer the SV spool. I'm also wanting to see if the Daiwa brakes are as good as everyone says they are. Nothing against my Lew's reels, they were always solid and customer support was excellent. I'm just ready to try something different and the SV spool seems like the way to go. Thoughts?

 

Rods is where it gets a little more complicated. I'm leaning toward Dobyns Champion and picking up 5 or 6 to start. One of the things I ended up doing with the Duckett rods was having multiples of the same rod. Maybe because I just liked picking up another rod and not having to tie on another lure. The other was Duckett can be all over the place with their rod weights and lengths and I just never nailed down different rods that I thought would be versatile enough for different things. I do prefer longer rods and that's why most are 7'3". 

 

734C or 735C - I'm looking to pick up two of these. One dedicated to texas rigs and the other dedicated to jigs. I normally use 3/16-1/2oz tungsten weights for soft plastics. I pretty much stick with 3/8-1/2oz jigs for now. I'm mostly pitching into or around submerged grass or isolated grass and pads, laydowns and wood. This is probably the hardest one I'm been trying to nail down.

 

733C - Light texas rigs and weightless. Maybe some heavier shaky head like 1/4oz.

 

735CB Glass - All around treble hook rod. Mostly squarebills like 1.5 and traps 1/2oz. Shallow cranks and maybe mid divers.

 

736C or 766FLIP - Punching 3/4oz and up in heavy vegetation. Frogs.

 

Chatterbaits, spinner baits and toads would fit in somewhere. I lot of people recommend the 735CB for chatterbaits, but I have always thrown them on a MH/F. 735C gets recommended a lot for frogs, but is that toad or hollow body frogs? I have seen a lot of people state they hated it for frogs. I mostly toss toads around vegetation.  I haven't decided if I wanted to get a sixth rod or not at the moment. Everyone seems to recommend stepping up one power on the Dobyns rods. Any feedback would be great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LAO162]

Try different rods in your hands and on the water before buying a bunch of rods.  You may find you like different brands for different techniques.  Good luck!!

[XzyluM]

5 minutes ago, LAO162 said:

Try different rods in your hands and on the water before buying a bunch of rods.  You may find you like different brands for different techniques.  Good luck!!

Yes, that is true and I don't dispute that. I just tend to stick with the same brand for rods and reels. It's a personal thing, but probably more of an OCD thing.

[Finnz922]

Frogging most use the 735. You may be right on the one power heavier. 

 

 I did a similar thing with Irod. But i owned a couple first. Good luck.

[Angry John]

Any reason to not try the daiwa tatula rods.  Been hearing great things.  Also the megabits xx rods are on closeout and can be had at around 200.  Might be worth checking.  I totally get running one series of rods I am making the shift to all st croix.  There rods just do it for me, and made in America. 

[XzyluM]

21 minutes ago, Angry John said:

Any reason to not try the daiwa tatula rods.  Been hearing great things.  Also the megabits xx rods are on closeout and can be had at around 200.  Might be worth checking.  I totally get running one series of rods I am making the shift to all st croix.  There rods just do it for me, and made in America. 

St. Croix Avid is also a possible option. I have heard good things about the Tatula Elite rods. I prefer the feel of cork which kind of takes a few other options away. I am not deadset on Dobyns which is why I posted, but currently the way I am leaning. 

[Angry John]

I like the handle design and trimmed reEl seat on the dobyns rods.  The action is a little more moderate than I like and the reason most people that like them fish braid imo.  The avid is where it all started for me with Croix and I am still a fan of that line.  The handles on the ltb series do nothing for me at all so it's the avid or elite for me.  I fish there avid 74hf for frogs heavy swim jigs and swim baits up to 2 Oz and it's one heck of a rod.  The casting models I like the regular series and spinning I like the avidx.  Seems great to have two options on the same group of rods.  I got my son the 68mxf spinning rod for Christmas and I use it a lot myself.  

[Deleted account]

11 hours ago, LAO162 said:

Try different rods in your hands and on the water before buying a bunch of rods.  You may find you like different brands for different techniques.  Good luck!!

This ^.  "I am starting over but still researching" will most likely lead to another "starting over". Not intrinsically a bad thing if the goal is to play with tackle and $ is not an issue.

 

[Chance_Taker4]

I would try rods out before buying them. I prefer the Kistler KLX and Helium reel seats and sensitivity vs the Champion series. Which is a good thing since they are cheaper and lighter. As for reels you can't go wrong with Daiwa my only opinion is I don't like the SV Spool for long casting techniques.