Who Makes the BEST Jig Rod? | Pt. 2!

What's up out there? Kip here with Omnia Fishing. We've got another rod bending for you today. The Bassmaster Elite Series just kicked off a couple of days ago. Today we were watching Bill Owen put on an absolute clinic with the jig and it's got me and the rest of the guys here at the Omnia HQ more fired up than ever for open water. A few months back we actually did a jig rod bending part one and we said we'd do a part two because there are hundreds of j ig rods out there and everybody's got a favorite. So we're going over a few more today. Jig fishing happens to be one of my favorite ways to catch bass all season long. So let's get right into rod number one. Of course we got to talk about the NRX line from G. Loomis. This is the NRX plus 854C. So it's a 7 foot 1 heavy power fast action. Came in at 3.9 ounces. Pretty impressive for a 7 foot 1 heavy powered rod. It's rated from 5/16 to 3/4 of an ounce. I've personally found that especially in the NRX line but Loomis in general seems to under power their rods. I think you could get away throwing you know if you wanted to throw a Texas rig on this rod you definitely could. You could probably get up to that ounce range. No problem. So super popular jig rod here in the G. Loomis NRX plus line. Let's take it to the rod wall. The NRX 854C JWR. All right here we are with that NRX plus 854C JWR 7.1 heavy fast action. I've actually owned this rod in the past. Super awesome. It's an awesome rod. I will say loading into this rod it's got a ton of power. I've said this in the past but I'm a braid-de-leader guy for most applications. For me this was just a little too much backbone for braid-de-leader. Something's going to fail when you've got a rod. This stiff you've got your connection not let alone your not connecting your your line to your lure. So personally I prefer a little bit softer jig rod but if you are a big line straight floor dude if you're old school you're a mono guy. You can definitely set the hook on oath a jig on this rod. Super light in hand recoil guides about halfway up the blank. A really tough rod to beat in the jig category. There are some other popular ones in the NRX line for a softer one. The 853 is a great choice. A lot of people like the 873 Carolina rig rod for a jig and of course the 894 as well. A little feel like a little bit longer rod but this is rod number one the 854 NRX plus from G Loomis. All right rod number two this is a rod that is completely different than the one we just looked at. It's not your stereotypical jig rod but we had to talk about it because this is the rod that Seth fighter one of our good friends likes to throw jig on. It is definitely a braid-de-de-leader rod it's a lot softer but nonetheless I've used this rod as well and it is awesome for your lighter jigs. This is the seven foot medium medium heavy extra fast to two elite AGS from diala. It's Brent Ailer's rod actually it is called their power finesse rod. Power finesse sounds kind of backwards right as it powers it finesse. It is actually a little bit of both from when I've used it it's got a really light tip and then you it's almost like a medium powered tip and then you eventually hit some medium heavy backbone. So really really cool rod here it came in at four ounces flat super light the ratings on it are eight ounce to one ounce. This is what I'm saying when I think Loomis under powers their rods a little bit there's no way this rod handles more than that 854 so super light in hand the AGS guide train absolutely helps with that it feels like nothing but let's bring it to the rod wall the to to to elite AGS seven foot medium medium heavy extra fast. All right back on the wall with that to to elite AGS the seven foot power finesse rod one thing we get asked about a lot is can you run braid to a leader through AGS guides right on the package when you when you order one of these rods it tells you not to. Personally I've done it with every AGS rod that I've owned Seth obviously does it as well as long as you were tying a thin enough knot you really shouldn't have any issues. Fg goes through there no problem and Alberto goes through there no problem I wouldn't go with like your uni to uni something bulky like that you will hang up in these guides and as many of you know AGS guides are liable to break rather than bend so as long as you're careful use it then not not an issue but to the actual bend definitely an extra fast action just imparting a little bit of power you can see that tip is the only area that really wants to bend but I was actually kind of shocked I owned the previous model of this rod and it didn't feel like it had this much power after that initial tip section I'm way into to the medium heavy part of this rod it feels like I'd have absolutely no problem throwing half ounce 5/8th ounce even jigs on this rod especially with a braid to a braid to a leader but even for your floral guys this would make an awesome like weightless Texas rig rod like a fluke or a Senko or something like that and I think it'd make it killer spinnerbait rod too it's got a nice short handles of your roll casting around cover or or docks or something like that this would be a sweet option it's been one of my favorite dockskipping rods definitely a cool one here in the dial with titula elite AGS line of rods all right for rod number three we are going back to the opposite end of the spectrum this is the falcon cara seven foot four heavy I call it a moderate fast it's rated from a half ounce to an ounce lua-royd and it came in at 4.1 ounces a seven foot four rod heavy power coming at 4.1 ounces it's really impressive I will say I don't think they do a bunch of counter weighting in this rod it's a tiny little butt section so I imagine 4.1 ounces is just what you get there's no counter balance here but regardless of that it feels really good in hand still it doesn't feel tip heavy and really cool rod this is just from looking at it going to be more of your power fishing jig rod your heavier jigs around thick cover probably a floral rod so I'm excited to get this one on the wall the seven foot four heavy moderate fast in the caroline from falcon all right back on the wall with the falcon car a seven foot four heavy mod fast and if you just give it a little pressure definitely not as quick as that to tool rod we looked at earlier you can see even just with a little bit of pressure there it wants to load a little further but that tip section is stiff it's pulling back on me quite a bit I have to apply a little bit of pressure to get it to actually bend so my initial thoughts seem to be fairly accurate here this is going to be your big jig fit cover big floroc arbon 20 pound 22 25 pound florro and this is a rod that that Jason Christie has had a lot of success with in those scenarios definitely bends further into the blank again got a ton of power but with that mod fast action I don't think this is limited to just a jig I could see this being a really good mag draft rod early in the spring late in the fall a bigger bait rod offshore football jigs chickens or preacher jigs as some of you guys like to call them definitely a more versatile rod than just a jig rod on your heavier side of the spectrum so cool rod here in the caroline from falcon again this is the seven foot four heavy mod fast all right the next two rods that we 're looking at are for the guy that likes a little bit longer jig rod maybe this isn't your rod for up close pitching and flipping or you know skipping under docks fishing that heavy cover maybe this is your rod that is you know on the outside of a weed line where you've got some room to work with and you want a little bit longer rod that loads up a little bit further allows you to fight the fish a little bit better so these next two rods are going to be a little bit longer actually both of them I believe are going to be seven foot five and this one is the die with steves AGS bottom contact too this has been a super popular rod in the original steves line and now in the the new one as well but it's a it's a really popular football jig rod anything where you're dragging a jig a carolina rig techniques similar to that but I think you'd make an awesome jig rod as well or texas rig rod when you're off the bank a little bit flipping in that deeper mill foil or deeper vegetation in general this would make you kill a rod it came in at 4.4 ounces not as light as I thought it would be with the AGS guides and obviously the high quality blanks that you're going to find in the steves but it does feel really really good in hand as far as specs go on the rod it's a seven foot five medium heavy heavy so unlike that that's a tool we looked at earlier was a medium medium heavy this is going to be essentially one power up from that it is rated from quarter ounce to an ounce 12 to 25 pound line it's slightly more powerful than a medium heavy and a little bit longer than your typical do-all casting rod but this is a cool one one that I've been interested in they also make this rod in the zillion line which I'm a big fan of so let's take it to the wall the die with steves AGS seven foot five bottom contact two all right back on the wall with that steves AGS bottom contact two and give it a little bit of power they label it a fast action and I can definitely see that it does have more power than a traditional medium heavy again they label it a medium heavy heavy so it sits somewhere in between there it's a seven foot five rod which personally speaking I know a lot of guys that like to run a seven three to seven six jig rod for me the the longer end of that scale is a little too long I like something more in the seven foot seven three personally but I will admit with a longer rod you get the rod itself actually loads a little bit further just because of the length of the rod and it does help your landing percentage so you can see the train of thought there this rod screams again to me I know I said it before but football jig Carolina rig this would be a sweet rod super light AGS guides feels like nothing when you're holding it and these steeds rods are extremely sensitive something I didn't mention with the other rods but that lumus is obviously super sensitive and this one's right up there too this has not been the most price conscious video of all time a lot of these rods are four hundred dollars plus but with a bottom contact technique like a jig you get what you pay for the the higher you go in price the lighter the blanks the thinner the walls of the graphite they use and that ultimately leads to a more sensitive rod if you pair that with braid on top of it you're going to feel almost everything that that's down there so cool rod from diala the steeds AGS bottom contact to seven foot five medium heavy heavy fast action all right our fifth and final rod in this week's rod bending is a rod from dobbins got to give a shout out to our guy Trey harple he's the one that actually recommended we bend this rod he also does a great job cleaning your bay casting reels so if you need him serviced definitely reach out to him he's a master but the rod that we're talking about is the dobbins ecstasy series it's their 755c it's their their split handle variant they also have it in a full cork but this is a mag heavy fast action rod it's rated from three a's to an ounce and a half pretty uh pretty large weight range there and it came in at 5.1 ounces now weight is not everything with a jig rod especially a rod at this price point it's this is a 500 plus dollar rod dobbins is very well known for balancing their rods extremely well so they definitely have some weight in the back half of this rod here in the butt section and it feels incredible there it feels like there's nothing out in front of this reel so it is the heaviest rod that we're talking about today but it actually feels like one of the lightest in hand i'm not kidding you there it feels awesome this is the rod that i haven't used personally i know a couple of our our warehouse guys have used the ecstasy line and i've spoken barely highly of it so i'm excited to get this one to the wall again dobbins ecstasy 755c and this is a 7 foot 5 mag heavy fast action all right here we are with that dobbins ecstasy 755c uh and bending it right away actually has a lot softer tip than i thought it would i'm i'm not as well versed in dobbins as i know some of you guys are out there but to me when i look at mag heavy i'm visioning a broomstick of a rod that's not the case here it's got a really live tip actually and you could definitely if you're comfortable skipping with a longer rod this could definitely do it and once you get into power or once you give it some power you're actually getting to a really stout backbone so i don't know you get you dobbins guys tell me this if this is kind of what they're they're going for but it feels like a softer tip and then that mag heavy really hits in the backbone or in the back section of this rod but super sensitive graphite here from the in the ecstasy line feels incredible in hand and again this is for you guys that prefer a little bit longer jig rod um i again i could see it playing in those same scenarios that that bottom contact too did for me it's a uh deeper vegetation texas rigorog uh jig rod carolina rig rod but for you guys that like a longer rod definitely don't hesitate to look at the ecstasy line specifically the 755c all right that is going to wrap it up for this week's rod bending of our best jig rods part two like i said there are hundreds of jig rods on the market we could make part three four five of this series so if we left your favorite jig rod out of this video be sure to leave it down below if we've got it here we'll definitely bend it in part three and a reminder if you are not an omnium pro member you know a lot of these brands that we talked about today tough to get a discount on but if you're an omnium pro member you get 10 back on all of your orders including these rods so make sure to check that out start a seven- day free trial if you haven't already if you are liking the content that we're putting out you want to see more rod bendings please let us know by leaving a like subscribing to the channel and we are extremely excited for what 2025 has to hold for us here at omnia fishing as well as just the fishing season in general it's going to be a great year so make sure you stay tuned and we'll catch you next week back at the rod wall