TackleTour

Im shocked about the Dobyns rods. I for one actually like them. Then again, Im not a big "rod" guy. Im good with a St Croix Mojo, Dobyns Sierra. I put my money into reels. On the average, I wont spend more than $150 on a rod, and never pay full price on one.

What I can say is that I sold my Megabass Perfect Pitch due to buying a Omen Black, and liked the Omen better for punching. It was lighter and crisper. Weird I know, but understanding that everything is subjective to the individual. I wont spend big money on rods, mostly due to that money could be instantly shattered to pieces at any moment.

LgMouthGambler wrote:Im shocked about the Dobyns rods. I for one actually like them. Then again, Im not a big "rod" guy. Im good with a St Croix Mojo, Dobyns Sierra. I put my money into reels. On the average, I wont spend more than $150 on a rod, and never pay full price on one.

What I can say is that I sold my Megabass Perfect Pitch due to buying a Omen Black, and liked the Omen better for punching. It was lighter and crisper. Weird I know, but understanding that everything is subjective to the individual. I wont spend big money on rods, mostly due to that money could be instantly shattered to pieces at any moment.

It can all be lost in a moment in this life.
One the water you can always tell the guy who lost it over the side.. Been there too.

goldrod wrote:

LgMouthGambler wrote:Im shocked about the Dobyns rods. I for one actually like them. Then again, Im not a big "rod" guy. Im good with a St Croix Mojo, Dobyns Sierra. I put my money into reels. On the average, I wont spend more than $150 on a rod, and never pay full price on one.

What I can say is that I sold my Megabass Perfect Pitch due to buying a Omen Black, and liked the Omen better for punching. It was lighter and crisper. Weird I know, but understanding that everything is subjective to the individual. I wont spend big money on rods, mostly due to that money could be instantly shattered to pieces at any moment.

It can all be lost in a moment in this life.
One the water you can always tell the guy who lost it over the side.. Been there too.

Im hell on rods.

Daiwa Steez rods as already mentioned several times - I've never actually handled one but the word has been out on that series of rods for a long time it seems. I actually passed on getting a few at cost due to the bad reviews. St. Croix, I'm not really a fan of their rods, but the lower end stuff does feel heavy/dead to me. Legend and up get great reviews though.

Dobyns, dang not sure I want to dip my toe in this discussion - was all Dobyns about a year, year and half ago - Champs for moving baits and extremes for bottom contact - had about 15 of them - their Mil/Vet discount is very appealing. Xtasy came along, thought about upgrading, but really was put off by that amount of money for a China-made rod. So decided to try an NRX instead, which turned into about 8 NRX's and a bunch of sold Dobyns. I still have a few champ xp's for crankbaits, but otherwise I've moved to all NRX and a few Classic GLX's as well. So in short, I agree about the Dobyns/Made In China argument - it just took me a while to get there.

Don't really care for Megabass or Omen, not saying they are overhyped, I just don't care for those skinnier reel seats/handles - cramps up my hand over a day of fishing - I still prefer the old standby Fuji and similar. The NRX seat works great for me and of course the classic GLX as well. The MB did not, I bought, tried and sold one pretty quick about 2 years ago. Probably fine rods, just not for me.

DirtyD64 wrote: Trust me, you aren't alone. I went to Tackle Warehouse to read some reviews on the Champion XP series (again I considered a Dobyns for a bit) and sure enough, the reviews concerning guides breaking and quality control are showing more and more. Cheap labor outsourcing can really tank a company.

This is interesting. Because *if* Gary Dobyns is listening and cares about his company's reputation then he should want to make some fast changes like switching to Fuji or some equivalent quality guide rather than some cheap chinese knockoff's now bringing him increasing bad reviews for putting such cheap components on rods- and then such high artificially inflated prices.

A company can only buy favoritism and contrived positive reviews for so long before reality catches up to them...

I have to wonder if Falcon made this move ahead of a sellout?

LgMouthGambler wrote:Im shocked about the Dobyns rods.

I would have given you my Dobyns rod! And the others I have passed up...

Nothing quite like full custom on special blanks made by special people- in America or UK, and to some Japan and other...

And I can tell you there is really only a handful of them worth anything...

I know you have at least one custom rod. What blank is it on? I forgot what he uses? Point Blank and MHX I think?

ShimanoFan wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:

ShimanoFan wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote: Trust me, you aren't alone. I went to Tackle Warehouse to read some reviews on the Champion XP series (again I considered a Dobyns for a bit) and sure enough, the reviews concerning guides breaking and quality control are showing more and more. Cheap labor outsourcing can really tank a company.

This is interesting. Because *if* Gary Dobyns is listening and cares about his company's reputation then he should want to make some fast changes like switching to Fuji or some equivalent quality guide rather than some cheap chinese knockoff's now bringing him increasing bad reviews for putting such cheap components on rods- and then such high artificially inflated prices.

A company can only buy favoritism and contrived positive reviews for so long before reality catches up to them...

I have to wonder if Falcon made this move ahead of a sellout?

I read through the comments on TWH, I think that some of the comments come from staff and employees. -Just my thinking when I read some of the post. You used to be able to say more now TWH is filtering a lot of post and I know for a fact that the comments I have made have not been posted. Not that they are all negative but truthful from MY PERSONAL Experience. At the end of the day its about making money and I understand that, however the reason why we communicate is so that one of us doesnt make the same mistake as the next guy or we give any company the benefit of the doubt and try again. For me, I will not ever buy a falcon rod as long as I am living. Each his or her own and I won't speak bad about them just answer if questioned from MPE. I dont have money to throw away, and when I am out on the water that is MY TIME to shake off the weights that I shoulder and enjoy life even if I dont catch nothing.

78Staff wrote:Daiwa Steez rods as already mentioned several times - I've never actually handled one but the word has been out on that series of rods for a long time it seems. I actually passed on getting a few at cost due to the bad reviews. St. Croix, I'm not really a fan of their rods, but the lower end stuff does feel heavy/dead to me. Legend and up get great reviews though.

Dobyns, dang not sure I want to dip my toe in this discussion - was all Dobyns about a year, year and half ago - Champs for moving baits and extremes for bottom contact - had about 15 of them - their Mil/Vet discount is very appealing. Xtasy came along, thought about upgrading, but really was put off by that amount of money for a China-made rod. So decided to try an NRX instead, which turned into about 8 NRX's and a bunch of sold Dobyns. I still have a few champ xp's for crankbaits, but otherwise I've moved to all NRX and a few Classic GLX's as well. So in short, I agree about the Dobyns/Made In China argument - it just took me a while to get there.

Don't really care for Megabass or Omen, not saying they are overhyped, I just don't care for those skinnier reel seats/handles - cramps up my hand over a day of fishing - I still prefer the old standby Fuji and similar. The NRX seat works great for me and of course the classic GLX as well. The MB did not, I bought, tried and sold one pretty quick about 2 years ago. Probably fine rods, just not for me.

The majority of my Megabass rods are either Fuji ECS or ACS seats What model did you have?

goldrod wrote:

ShimanoFan wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:

ShimanoFan wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote: Trust me, you aren't alone. I went to Tackle Warehouse to read some reviews on the Champion XP series (again I considered a Dobyns for a bit) and sure enough, the reviews concerning guides breaking and quality control are showing more and more. Cheap labor outsourcing can really tank a company.

This is interesting. Because *if* Gary Dobyns is listening and cares about his company's reputation then he should want to make some fast changes like switching to Fuji or some equivalent quality guide rather than some cheap chinese knockoff's now bringing him increasing bad reviews for putting such cheap components on rods- and then such high artificially inflated prices.

A company can only buy favoritism and contrived positive reviews for so long before reality catches up to them...

I have to wonder if Falcon made this move ahead of a sellout?

I read through the comments on TWH, I think that some of the comments come from staff and employees. -Just my thinking when I read some of the post. You used to be able to say more now TWH is filtering a lot of post and I know for a fact that the comments I have made have not been posted. Not that they are all negative but truthful from MY PERSONAL Experience. At the end of the day its about making money and I understand that, however the reason why we communicate is so that one of us doesnt make the same mistake as the next guy or we give any company the benefit of the doubt and try again. For me, I will not ever buy a falcon rod as long as I am living. Each his or her own and I won't speak bad about them just answer if questioned from MPE. I dont have money to throw away, and when I am out on the water that is MY TIME to shake off the weights that I shoulder and enjoy life even if I dont catch nothing.

I know they filter ratings because I submitted a couple of negative reviews that never got posted, like for the total piece of crap Rico I got from them.

ShimanoFan wrote:

LgMouthGambler wrote:Im shocked about the Dobyns rods.

I would have given you my Dobyns rod! And the others I have passed up...

Nothing quite like full custom on special blanks made by special people- in America or UK, and to some Japan and other...

And I can tell you there is really only a handful of them worth anything...

I know you have at least one custom rod. What blank is it on? I forgot what he uses? Point Blank and MHX I think?

Quite a few. They are Point Blank, Liberty, MHX, and Phenix.

i have been very lucky with the steez rods. the only one that i've had that i didnt really care for is the 7'2 mh flexlite. it's a bit tip heavy, and not as parabolic as i would like. i've had the 7' mh svf, 7'1 h harrier, 7' m flexlite, now i have the 7'1 h & 7'4 xh xt's. i would really like to find a 7' mh for 5/16 oz jigs.

as far as disappointment, probably a 7'1 mh omen 2. the rod feels great in hand, and balances nicely with any reel i've put on it, but it just is dead to me. i've got a 6'10 m omen 2 that is a fantastic rod and really sensitive, but not stout enough to me for t-rigs. that's why i ordered the 7'1 mh.

i also just got a rod in a couple of weeks ago that's not impressing me much. it's a 7'2 h power rod that is an updated model. i've only fished it once, so i need to give it another trip or 2 before i pass judgement.

@Mr. Penn

Maybe the 6’10” was an omen?

LgMouthGambler wrote:

ShimanoFan wrote:

LgMouthGambler wrote:Im shocked about the Dobyns rods.

I would have given you my Dobyns rod! And the others I have passed up...

Nothing quite like full custom on special blanks made by special people- in America or UK, and to some Japan and other...

And I can tell you there is really only a handful of them worth anything...

I know you have at least one custom rod. What blank is it on? I forgot what he uses? Point Blank and MHX I think?

Quite a few. They are Point Blank, Liberty, MHX, and Phenix.

I can vouch for the Point Blank...I have a custom stick by the same builder that is a tank.

The NRX rods have always been a joke to me. Way too many are built poorly. Many models are very tip heavy. Don't forget the quality control issues and the poor cork. I often wonder about the world's sanity when it comes to the NRX. Are people really so anxious for status that they are willing to throw that much disposable income away? I had lots of fun stoking the fire on the "Loomis Built Quality" thread.

FishingwithBranden wrote: I can vouch for the Point Blank...I have a custom stick by the same builder that is a tank.

Tank? Good? or Bad? This one not translating for me... Durable? Built like a tank? On track? Please expand on description.