Ark rod reviews needed

[Speedy Turtle]

I see there's a big sale at TW for ark rods at the end of this month and heard good things about them including on this forum. Anyone else wanting to chime in on these rods and their thoughts on them?

[swhit140]

I checked out the Invoker Pro, main thing I disliked about it was the diameter size of the tip guide. It is extremely small compared to any other rods I've owned/used, so I ended up returning it.

[Speedy Turtle]

1 minute ago, swhit140 said:

I checked out the Invoker Pro, main thing I disliked about it was the diameter size of the tip guide. It is extremely small compared to any other rods I've owned/used, so I ended up returning it.

If you don't use a leader though, does that really matter? Or if you don't use it when it's cold out?

[Kevhead19]

I have the Tharp series Money Maker (7'3 MH/F) and had a BHittay (7'4 MH Mod Fast composite).

 

I really, really like the action of the blanks. I dislike the micro guides but I have just decided to use straight copoly or braid as needed with these. 

 

The Money Maker is a stout MH and I would say it's more like a heavy with a flexible tip. I use it for texas rigs, jigs and frogs when it's not crazy deep pads/grass/slop.

 

The BHittay is an excellent chatterbait / crank rod. It seems better with 1/2oz + trailer chatterbaits for me though. I sold due to mainly using 3/8 size and wanted something slightly less powerful. Thick diameter and weight on the composite but that comes with the territory.

 

I am eying the Grinder model during the upcoming sale.

[swhit140]

2 hours ago, Speedy Turtle said:

If you don't use a leader though, does that really matter? Or if you don't use it when it's cold out?

Just personal preference, not saying it is a bad rod or anything. 

[Jig Man]

I have 5 of their products in the boat right now.  They are rigged with Arig (2), wiggle wart, shaky worm, and buzz bait.  Most of them will see action tomorrow.

[new2BC4bass]

3 hours ago, Kevhead19 said:

I have the Tharp series Money Maker (7'3 MH/F) and had a BHittay (7'4 MH Mod Fast composite).

 

I really, really like the action of the blanks. I dislike the micro guides but I have just decided to use straight copoly or braid as needed with these. 

 

The Money Maker is a stout MH and I would say it's more like a heavy with a flexible tip. I use it for texas rigs, jigs and frogs when it's not crazy deep pads/grass/slop.

 

The BHittay is an excellent chatterbait / crank rod. It seems better with 1/2oz + trailer chatterbaits for me though. I sold due to mainly using 3/8 size and wanted something slightly less powerful. Thick diameter and weight on the composite but that comes with the territory.

 

I am eying the Grinder model during the upcoming sale.

I purchased the same two rods, but haven't used them enough to give a review.  I read the same thing about the Money Maker.  Fishes more towards a Heavy.  The B-Hittay seems to be well liked.

 

OP. Which line, or lines, are going on sale?

[Speedy Turtle]

7 minutes ago, new2BC4bass said:

I purchased the same two rods, but haven't used them enough to give a review.  I read the same thing about the Money Maker.  Fishes more towards a Heavy.  The B-Hittay seems to be well liked.

 

OP. Which line, or lines, are going on sale?

All ark rods 25% off starting April 28

[new2BC4bass]

14 hours ago, Speedy Turtle said:

All ark rods 25% off starting April 28

[RichF]

I have 2 Snipers and an Invoker Pro (replacement for a broken Sniper).  The Snipers are nice little rods but not worth the $200 retail tag.  I would say these should've retailed for around $120.  I got all mine for less than $100 when they were on closeout at TW.  For what I paid, they're fantastic.  Strong, light, and sensitive enough.  I broke one boat flipping a bass.  My fault as it had an extra fast tip and I got a bit overzealous.  I paid the $60 and asked for their 7'0 MH composite Invoker Pro.  I like it a lot.  It's stupid light for a composite rod.  I really only have 2 small gripes:

 

1.  It's much more stout than I thought it would be.  I was hoping to use it for small cranks and squarebills mostly.  It's a bit too stiff for those.  It's an awesome spinnerbait/bladed jig rod.  It will serve as a multipurpose, moving bait rod for me.  Spinnerbaits, larger treble hook baits, lipless cranks, and maybe even a buzzbait every now and again.

 

2.  The entire guide train is a touch off (shifted to the right, up the blank).  Definitely a bit of a quality control thing, but it doesn't affect the performance of the rod.  It just bugs me a bit.

 

The Invoker Pros are a great deal at 25% off and Ark's replacement program is pretty good.  I was going to get more before I put a new Levante and Legend Glass in my hands this spring.

[Speedy Turtle]

23 hours ago, RichF said:

I have 2 Snipers and an Invoker Pro (replacement for a broken Sniper).  The Snipers are nice little rods but not worth the $200 retail tag.  I would say these should've retailed for around $120.  I got all mine for less than $100 when they were on closeout at TW.  For what I paid, they're fantastic.  Strong, light, and sensitive enough.  I broke one boat flipping a bass.  My fault as it had an extra fast tip and I got a bit overzealous.  I paid the $60 and asked for their 7'0 MH composite Invoker Pro.  I like it a lot.  It's stupid light for a composite rod.  I really only have 2 small gripes:

 

1.  It's much more stout than I thought it would be.  I was hoping to use it for small cranks and squarebills mostly.  It's a bit too stiff for those.  It's an awesome spinnerbait/bladed jig rod.  It will serve as a multipurpose, moving bait rod for me.  Spinnerbaits, larger treble hook baits, lipless cranks, and maybe even a buzzbait every now and again.

 

2.  The entire guide train is a touch off (shifted to the right, up the blank).  Definitely a bit of a quality control thing, but it doesn't affect the performance of the rod.  It just bugs me a bit.

 

The Invoker Pros are a great deal at 25% off and Ark's replacement program is pretty good.  I was going to get more before I put a new Levante and Legend Glass in my hands this spring.

Like the guide train isn't exactly on the opposite side of the spine?

[RichF]

1 hour ago, Speedy Turtle said:

Like the guide train isn't exactly on the opposite side of the spine?

Yeah, like if you look straight up the rod, the guides are aligned fine (with each other), they're just shifted a tiny bit to the right up the blank.  Again, nothing that messes with the performance.  Just an annoying aesthetic thing.  I actually caught quite a few on it over the last 2 weeks and it worked great. 

[Speedy Turtle]

4 hours ago, RichF said:

Yeah, like if you look straight up the rod, the guides are aligned fine (with each other), they're just shifted a tiny bit to the right up the blank.  Again, nothing that messes with the performance.  Just an annoying aesthetic thing.  I actually caught quite a few on it over the last 2 weeks and it worked great. 

Wouldn't that affect performance though since it's not directly across?  Did you notice that with all your snipers and invokers? And how did you even notice that its misaligned? When you set the hook?

[RichF]

I may not understand what you mean by "not directly across." If you look down the blank, the guides are straight,  just attached a touch to the right instead of straight down Broadway. This is the only of the 4 Arks like that.  I absolutely did not notice it while fishing, setting the hook, or fighting fish. It's honestly not really noticeable. It took my dad awhile to see it (he laughed at me and said "only you would notice that"). 

[Jig Man]

1 hour ago, RichF said:

I may not understand what you mean by "not directly across." If you look down the blank, the guides are straight,  just attached a touch to the right instead of straight down Broadway. This is the only of the 4 Arks like that.  I absolutely did not notice it while fishing, setting the hook, or fighting fish. It's honestly not really noticeable. It took my dad awhile to see it (he laughed at me and said "only you would notice that"). 

That sounds like a quality control item.  I haven’t been there in over a year with this Covid thing.  I’m not sure who is running it now.  I was told that owner was having some memory issues.  His wife, daughter or son in law may be managing now.

[DitchPanda]

I have the Tharp series money maker as well and agree its heavier than most medhvy rods ive used maybe like a mag medhvy or light heavy if that makes sense. I don't have a ton of time with it but have caught a few jig\ Trig fish on it and like it real well so far.

[Bassin_Harrison]

I purchased the Reinforcer 7'3 MH/F during the Black Friday sale when Ark was 30% off. Haven't got a ton of use out of it because I'm in New England and the weather has been all over the place, but I can tell you a few things...

 

1. Like others have said they definitely run heavy. I'd say my MH is almost as stout as my 7'3 H, has more give in the tip as well though. I wasn't too mad because I fish a lot of grass and like to power fish, I would throw a horny toad or smaller size frog on it if I needed to. I throw big worms in the summer and this will be much better than my frogging rod. 

 

2. My reinforcer is sensitive for sure, I've read that the Invokers are sensitive rods as well, but have no personal experience. I got it to fish jigs/t rigs with and I'm satisfied in that department. Haven't had many hooksets with it yet sadly, but what I have had felt solid and didn't feel too stiff. I will admit this is my first rod over $200 though so I may have lower standards of sensitivity. 

 

3. For what I'm about to say, keep in mind I have small-medium hands. The reel seat on the Reinforcer is a little weird for me. The texture feels nice, but the size is a little big especially if you have a large framed reel. I started out with my Tatula SV (2017) on there, but hands were starting to hurt. I just couldn't palm it well enough and my fingers were sitting weird on the reel seat. Put on an Lew's with an SLP frame and that problem's gone, hand feels fine. I'm going to but the Tournament Pro LFS to keep on there permanently. 

 

Hope this helps. 

H

[Goby]

Just received two ARK Reinforcer spinning rods, this is my first experience with ARK rods. I ordered directly from them, paid full price.

 

The 7'1" Medium spinning rod has extremely crooked wrapped guides. It has horrible quality cork, more than 50% of the total surface area of the cork on the handles is filler. 

 

The 7'3" Medium Light has two large scratches on the blank, one between the rear split grip, the other in the butt section of the rod. It also has that burnt logo in the cork at the butt of the rod placed very crooked and when I was removing the plastic covering the cork on the butt end of the rod, there was like a glue or something that caused the plastic to pull a pretty big chunk of cork off the rod, the quality of cork on this rod is very nice and the guides are wrapped straight. 

 

If you could somehow combine the two builds, you would have a very nice rod, but neither rods are up to par, especially for their price range. I just received them late on Friday, so I have yet to see how ARK will handle this, but I am requesting both rods to be replaced  at ARKs expense "they cover return shipping" and inspected prior to shipping so I don't have to deal with this again. 

[Goby]

Update:

 

I sent the rods back via UPS, they arrived to me late in the day on a Friday, within an hour of getting them I had already emailed ARK Rods explaining the defects I was unhappy with. I immediately packaged them back up as they were sent to me and printed a label. As soon as UPS opened Monday morning, I dropped the package off. Shortly after, ARK called offering to send me a return label to swap out for new rods, but I had changed my mind on wanting them replaced, I just wanted a refund anyway and like I said, I had already shipped them back myself. The rods just were nowhere near as nice as they look on the website, as I know others have mentioned on this forum.

 

Thursday they were delivered and UPS had literally snapped the tube and both rods in it, apparently I did not properly declare the value and now I am only going to get a $100.00 back out of the $700.00 I spent. I had never printed a label myself before and obviously made a $600.00 mistake. I originally called UPS and was told by UPS the package was not delivered damaged and there was no way damage that bad would have been missed, the driver would have noted the damage, but I later found out UPS was wrong and the driver had noted the damage. I admit, when I thought my leg was being pulled, I was very frustrated with ARK Rods and I wasn't the nicest guy, but as soon as I found out that UPS had in fact mislead me, I apologized immediately.

 

Where it really gets frustrating is, ARK accused me of having used the rods and that none of my claims about the defects were accurate. They literally were telling me I was a liar and was trying to rip them off. They went on to say because I had removed the rods from the packaging "a plastic bag they slide them inside", which I had put the rods back inside the bags prior to shipping but obviously the bag was no longer sealed and the fact I had taken the plastic shrink wrap off the cork, I would not have got a refund anyway even if the rods weren't broke. How else are you supposed to inspect a rod? I took great care to put the bubble wrap back on the rods and made sure they were packaged up just as they had came.

 

I never so much as put a reel on either rod, I didn't have to, I saw all the flaws and had no desire to use their product after giving it some thought. Right or wrong, as a customer, I think I have the right to return something if I don't like it and have not used it.

 

In a nutshell, my thoughts on ARK Rods, out of the two rods I have held, they are not nearly as nice as they look on the website and the attention to detail/build quality is horrible. I never got to experience the performance part. 

 

I spent $700.00 and MIGHT get a $100.00 of that back from UPS, got called a liar by ARK, disrespected and let down.

 

Maybe someday I can write a song about it and recover my money.

 

If you don't take anything else away from this, always make sure you insure your packages for the proper amount before shipping.

 

 

[AmmoGuy]

I bought two of the Ark Cobb Series series spinning rods during the TW sale. 

 

One of which was sent right back to TW because the guides did not line up with the reel seat at all. TW replaced it, and the new one seems to be ok, other than one guide being set a little crooked, a few spots of sloppy epoxy drips on the blank itself. 

 

The other rod I thought was ok, until I fished with it. The reel seat started squeaking and popping on the rod blank when I was fighting fish. It is obviously not epoxied correctly. I called Ark, and they do not have that model in stock, so he told me to call back in 3-4 weeks when they are expecting some more to arrive, and he could swap it. 

 

I really wanted to like Ark for some reason, but this is my second attempt (first was with an Invoker Pro that had an issue as well), and I guess it will be my last. 

[Ricardo Borralho]

Hello

Ark invoker pro is sensible rod ? 40ton with nano tube. Is best for jigs and Texas Rigs?

 

[LootyDjibouti]

On 4/15/2021 at 10:14 AM, RichF said:

 

1.  It's much more stout than I thought it would be.  I was hoping to use it for small cranks and squarebills mostly.  It's a bit too stiff for those.  It's an awesome spinnerbait/bladed jig rod.  It will serve as a multipurpose, moving bait rod for me.  Spinnerbaits, larger treble hook baits, lipless cranks, and maybe even a buzzbait every now and again.

This interests me about the Invoker Pro. I’m looking for a rod for those applications and fish from a kayak in small lakes and personally prefer 7’ to the 7’4” B-Hittay or 7’4” TFO Tactical Glass I’m also considering. Plus “stupid light” is a nice plus vs the relatively heavy B-Hittay. 
 

Clearly I need to get these in my hands but there’s apparently zero ark retailers around South Jersey according to their website. 
 

Always funny when you buy a rod for one thing but it ultimately finds a different purpose for you.  

[GetFishorDieTryin]

2 hours ago, LootyDjibouti said:

This interests me about the Invoker Pro. I’m looking for a rod for those applications and fish from a kayak in small lakes and personally prefer 7’ to the 7’4” B-Hittay or 7’4” TFO Tactical Glass I’m also considering. Plus “stupid light” is a nice plus vs the relatively heavy B-Hittay. 
 

Clearly I need to get these in my hands but there’s apparently zero ark retailers around South Jersey according to their website. 
 

Always funny when you buy a rod for one thing but it ultimately finds a different purpose for you.  

Can't help you with what model to get as far as crankbaits go, but I really like my 7'3 MH F Essence as a do it all MH, perfect for a yak or jon boat in the shallow ponds/lakes around here.  Dicks in Deptford has a Catalyzer, so if your in that area stop and check it out to get a sense of how they feel.  Check Dicks website to see if they offer to send models to that store for pickup because Blackwater, TD or any one else in the area sells them that I know of.  

I think Arks are decent for the money but they obviously have issues with quality control.  A component on my reel seat broke after very little use.  The rod was delivered to ark on April 13 and just today Justin called me and told me it was being processed and should be shipped next week.  I think they save money by using unskilled workers and that's why you get decent blanks for the price.  I dont think any one else offers a 36t for 70 or a 40t for just over 100.  If they got their act together a little bit and fixed the quality control issue they would be far more popular.  

Blackwater had some of the lighter 13 Fate Black CB rods, they're rated 3/16-3/4 so they would be good for flat sides light cranks.  I think they're composite but the 13 cranking rods are stupid light even there 7'3 chatterbait/cranking rods rated to 1.5oz feel crazy light.