Who Makes The Best Swimbait Rod? | Polish Pete

Video Transcript

What's up everybody, this particular rod bedding series, as you could already tell, is featuring swim bait rods. That's right, we're going to focus on some of our most popular swim bait rods and some new ones we just added. Swim bait's no lie, just a full transparency has not been an early focus of omniafishing. I think any of you that are currently our customers know that, it's not on purpose, I mean it was on purpose, just because we needed to fill out a lot of other categories first, we're a young company, and as we start scaling up, swim baits is kind of tough, right? You can get regionally specific, a lot of the most popular stuff is really hard to get, small quantities, garage guys, and we want to support that style of swim baits too. So I think to start it all off, we're probably going to be a better, we're going to serve as a swim bait community better by focusing on the durable side of things, by durables in our world and retail speak, it's, that's the rods and your reels, right? Line the rods and re els, that kind of stuff. So we're going to focus on it, we're just getting that kicked off. Obviously with our major suppliers, like your dive with Shimano, St. Croix's, Gee, all those brands like that, we 're going to carry their bigger swim bait stuff. But we know that in that swim bait community, a lot of it gets pretty technical and their specific swim bait manufacturers out there, and none bigger than these guys right here, Leviathan. Leviathan was recommended to me as I did my research on this, plus our buyer, Jacob, some other people that work here at Amia. This brand seemed to have an extremely popular following, and I can tell why right away. I'm not just saying that everybody here was super impressed. There's a couple models of these that feel lighter, crisper, and more alive than some of my bass fishing rods. And I mean that are some of my traditional bass fishing rods, I should say, not, not the swim bait rods aren't bass fishing rods. But eight footers are pretty long rods for us, especially in e-commerce or ship around. We're going to have a seven nine finesse model here soon that we'll be bending for you. But right now we're going to kick it off with this one here. Why? Because it's got the coolest name in the world. It's called the dirty dragon. That's right. The dirty dragon here from Leviathan is an eight foot extra extra heavy swim bait rod. This thing is rated up to 16 ounces. I'm going to tell you something that feels extremely underrated for this thing so far. It feels like I could just chuck two gallon, you know, two gallon of jugs of milk all day long with this thing and have no problems. This thing's insanely powerful. I don't even know if it's going to bend on the wall. We're going to go try and bend it anyway. But if you are a swim bait angler that's looking for a rod that's going to handle those big giant oversize baits, this is the rod for you to hear it on me fishing so far. This thing is absolutely brute. But you know what? It doesn't feel that crazy big because or heavy. It's 9.6 ounces, but they've got the big long hand on here. They've balanced it beautifully. It 's got a double locking system on the chuck up here and really lock that thing down to lock your reel down. Is this thing's going to be your power swim bait rod. Let's go bend the Leviathan dirty dragon from the Omega swim bait series. All right. We're here on the bend wall with the Leviathan dirty dragon from the Omega swim bait series. Leviathan is these rods are made with earth four composite blanks, which is Gary Loomis's new company. We're blank manufacturing. They're designed in Texas. And you could tell. This thing is serious. There we go trying to bend it. And just like I imagined, this thing is stout. It has got tons and tons of power. I feel like I'm going to rip the hook attachment. We tie this our line off to on this. I feel like I'm going to rip it out the ground, even bending it like that. And I've got to put my body into this. This is an extremely stout, powerful rod not going to load up and launch a bait like a traditional casting rod would. You're going to need the weight of that bait to do the flying for you. This feels like a lot of casting kind of thing. I'm not an expert swim bait fisherman by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I don't think I've thrown anything anywhere near the ratings at the top end of this thing in my life. So certainly not to pretend I'm an expert in this, but I just wanted to give you guys an example on the big end of the rods we have here of how powerful and how stout these swim bait rods can get. And I'm sure some of you that do fish swim base understand the meat need for some of a rod with this kind of action and power. As you look here, this thing almost feels like a really, really fast action rod because it's really hard for me to even get to that middle part of the back up there, leaning into it here. It's hard to even get it back that far. But as you can see, as you bent it, if you did hook a giant fish or you had a really big bait on, you went to go cast a really super heavy bait, it does load all the way up. It's just that powerful that it takes a lot to get it there. But you know, on the Ben wall, it looks like a really super fast killer jig rod and like a hundred foot of water or something. This thing is a super sweet rod from Leviathan. They're not the cheapest, but man, they're made the USA. They're technique specific built for all the different size swim baits out there. And they feel really high end in hand. If you're into swim bait fishing and you want to try something on the premium side of things, I don't, I think the price point on these is insanely impressive for what you're getting . So far, if I was jumping into this end of the pool, which I think I might be here soon, I definitely check these things out. I'm going to be an owner of one of these rods very soon. All right, now we're jumping right over to more of a price point swim bait rod. And that's because it's a volume seller for us here at Omnia fishing. This one here is the Dobbins fury. This one is a 795 swim bait Sb. So 795 Sb is rated from one to five ounces. So you're smaller end of the swim bait scale. But man, it feels light. I weighed it at 7.6 ounces. So it's two ounces lighter than much heavier, more powerful counterpart. Obviously, Dobbins has offerings in the heavier ranges. And even higher end offerings on this. But we wanted to touch on this rod because this thing's coming in like our live run 130 bucks. Insanely good value for what this rod is. It feels really nice and hand is light feels light. It's balanced out very well . And let's face it. These rods usually tend to balance out all right because the handles are insanely long on swim bait rods. And you're putting big reels on them. So they don't get really tip heavy on you even though they're super big powerful rods. This one though, like I said, we had to mention it because we sell a ton of them. And it's because if you're someone like me that deploys the swim bait very sparingly, like I don't do it a ton, right? I don't spend all day long swimming fishing most of the time. I hope to change that here in the future. But most of the time it 's a tool for an exact moment in time for me when I'm on the water. So I'm I'm one of the people in this camp that would look for the best value I could. And this is a rod that's obviously shown to have that kind of value to a lot of anglers out there. Price points, incredible. And we have not seen these things come back at all. So obviously they're built very well. They're durable. They 're handling the swim bait use they're getting. But there are rated on the lower end weight wise, the swim bait rods. So some of the more popular stuff that's out there, just big, you know, pre rigged soft swim baits, smaller glides, the mass produced kind of glides and stuff like that. This rod would do that just fine. This type of stuff, honestly, that I'm fishing with. So this is the Dobb ins Fury 795 SB. Let's go bend it and see how it does compared to the other swim bait rods on this list. All right, 795 SB from Dobbins in the fury lineup, because the furies are really high volume sellers. That's why we're pointing this one out. As I pointed out before, I don't want anybody to think Dobbins doesn't make some of the higher end versions of their rods with these swim bait series to go up against some of the other ros are bending. This one is an extreme value to us. There's a couple of people that work here at Amia that suggested we try this one because not only the sales line, but they also think it's one of the better rods in the market for the money. And it's because this thing's versatile outside of swim bait fishing as well. That's why we really want to touch on this thing. This thing would be just fine throwing some other stuff other than swim baits as well, like big umbrella rigs and things like that as well. It's not overpoweringly heavy at all. It's not super long that you couldn't do other things with it as well. The action as you see here is definitely a little slower than the previous rod I bent. And that might just be due to power. It could just be this thing's a lot easier to bend because it's rated for those lower weights. Hence why I think it's also a much more versatile rod. If you're looking to throw a giant plug like some like 10 XD stuff, you could get away with that with this rod. Obviously the umbrella rigs, like I said, and your smaller swim baits, some of your pre-rigged or like weed less rig swim baits. Like if you want to just throw like the freeloader or or some of the ones you just put a big owner beast hook in and stuff and you want to rigged up and in the boat rod marker, it's yeah, it seems like a big rod for that. But man, it's not too stout that you couldn't handle that. I think your landing percentage would be just fine on this. This is a great rod to have in your boat if you're not just a purist swim bait angler and you want a rod that could handle those bigger baits when you're in that scenario. Love the price point on it, love the action of it. It definitely feels like a very versatile rod and a hell of a price point. Check out the Dobbins Fury 795 SB for your swim bait need. Here's a unique one and this one's been really popular and it's been we've been asked by customers for more rods like this one as well and I've gotten even the swim bait manufacturer that I've mentioned that to mad at me when I say that. But it obviously seems to be a need for this style of swim bait rod. This one here is a die with a Tula but it's in a seven foot three. So it doesn't sound that short in the regular world but in the swim bait world that's very short. It's still got that long swim bait handle on it but it's shorter in length. It's a heavy power but regular action. This thing's rated up to four ounces which is on the definitely on the smaller side of the swim bait rods. But this is a perfect rod for some of those accurate close quarters casting stuff that a lot of people are doing with swim baits. You see a lot of people throwing like the tiny clash and the smaller style swim baits even the pre rigged swim baits and things like that. The soft style ones as skipping docks throwing them around laydowns and heavy cover when you're really close to them. This would be an ideal rod for those things. If you were fishing around your trolling motor or trying to make low low slung cast can be harder with those big long rods. They're designed to be loaded up and kind of cast that a ways out there. So if you're going to make pitches and like little accurate cast with it this could be a perfect rod for that. It feels extremely light. I haven't weighed it yet. This one comes in a little bit you know it's just under $200. I think it's like a hundred and seven hundred eighty dollar price point but it's a unique swim bait rod. It also features that double style locking nut on the front that I've seen from some of the higher end swim bait manufacturers. So that could be a feature that's interesting to some of you if you've had issues with your trucks backing off on you. But this is nice because you can put any kind of really real you want on this. You wouldn't need to have a dedicated larger swim bait reel on it. You can put this one here just happens to be one of my personal reels that I use for bigger baits on it because I don't throw really much stuff and anything really super big right now currently. So this rod bounces out nice feels super light but it feels like it's more of a technique specific swim bait rod. It doesn't feel as versatile as the others. Let's go bend it and see if it changes my mind on the wall. All right as promised on the bend wall here with that seven three to two. Swim bait rod. This thing is five point five ounces. I have a gut feeling this is going to be the light of swim bait rod we weigh. That's pretty obvious right it's seven three it's much smaller looking than the other ones a blank even look smaller. It is regular action just to state it it's as moderate as can be. It's a little stouter that I felt like it was with just a line on it. I mean if I just try and bend it with my wrist it's it's it's it's a it's not by any means super super stiff. I've I've even picked up stiffer flipping sticks for just like you know flipping a Texas rigor a big G but it's stout it's powerful. I wouldn't be scared to throw like a Chad Shadd or something like I've thrown on something like this at all. It is unique that it 's this short and I I'm willing to bet that a lot of you tournament anglers that aren't dedicated swim mid anglers could see a use for this rod. I kind of am personally I'm liking this thing a lot more the real on it and line on it bending it than I did just looking at I always figured I'd find something more in the middle like that seven nine range bigger little bit heavier power than this so I could kind of cover all my bases with swim baits that I would get up to but man this thing feels legit in hand. If you are gonna look for I would say just a rod that kind of slides in your rod locker that's not overly big that's perfect for throwing a big bait around some heavy cover and I don't see why you be it obviously that much of a disadvantage on a long cast of it. I mean it is obviously not gonna throw a giant bait very far and it is a little soft for some of that really big swim bait stuff so you know this would definitely be although the rods that we've been so far and I think the other ones we're gonna bend more of a technique specific swim bait rod. If you are somebody that's fishing bodies of water that the fish are holding on specific pieces of cover this would be a rod for your smaller baits and targeting specific pieces of cover. Really cool rod from dio. Good host of them for doing something a little different. Back with another swim bait rod in our best of the swim bait series here especially the swim bait rods. This one is from spro and this one also is made in america and I'll tell you what for the price point on this one this is a great value and this is a pretty unique rod in itself. I just got done bending a rod that I said would be the lightest for sure. I was wrong this is tied with it it's 5.5 ounces as well just like that to tulah 7.3 that we've been previously. Also interesting this thing is rated even lighter weight than a tulah which I would have bet would have been the lightest rated to swim bait rod. This one's only rated up to three ounce it is a heavy power it's a moderate action. It looks like it doesn't have a ton of guides on it which is kind of something and kip and myself looked at thought it was kind of interesting and the handle seems longer than a lot of the rods in the same kind of length range but this thing feels alive it feels like a real it feels like it's almost a shame that you just fish swim baits with it like you could do a whole bunch of stuff with it but this handle is obviously designed this rod is designed by the folks at sprou and kgb for the Chad Chad. The Chad Chad being like a two and a half ounce I think ish swim bait which is the swim bait that especially of the ones that are kind of readily available out there in the marketplace is the one I've gained a lot of confidence in right. I think there's a lot of people like me that are kind of I wouldn't say new to a swim bait game but certainly not expert or even hardcore or even close to a hardcore swim bait angler it kind of gives us the confidence to say okay maybe I will buy a spendy or start buying some spendier ones because I think I give it and I can I can fish it effectively. This is a rod design specifically for that. This one's right up my alley it's growing on me quite a bit ever since we got him here we've actually turned these a couple times already and I think we're gonna be ordering more in here soon because we're down pretty low on inventory and these again they're untainted blanks here that they feel really crisp and light. I don't think you need to put this bigger reel on here either you could put a smaller reel on here and it still feel balanced this thing feels really really light and hands so let's go bend this KGB from spro made in America cool rod here let's see how it does and what if this action truly is as moderate as they say. All right as promised we're here with that KGB spro rod and we're gonna bend this thing and it is moderate and it feels really it did with the line on it this is one that I kind of felt like it was gonna be like this you know a lot of times you hear us talk on this wall it surprises us what the action can be this one is right in line with what I thought it would be and I'm gonna be honest with you I already I kind of had my eyes on this one before we did this bend and this just reinforces a lot of what I thought I think this would be a killer rod for me you know I'm very interested in for the comments in this video not because I'm asking for a ton of comments like a lot of people do it it's literally more about we're learning here at Omni as well we have a couple anglers here at Omni that are truly swim bed anglers they buy a lot at high end they're part of the drops they get on top of that stuff but most of us are not I would say avid swim bed anglers this rod feels to me like something that would be in a confidence inspiring that I could throw the type of swim base that I currently already have and I have confidence in fishing and be kind of like a gateway drug into some bigger heavier duty stuff like the leviath and stuff I was playing with earlier really cool rod from spro here I'm impressed with it it feels like really finessy and light powered for a swim bait rod but it feels like a universal rod to me that I could deploy a lot of like that even like the spro megalodon I'm good that that bait's been growing on me but mag draft style baits you know baits with the owner beast hook in it that I'm throwing the bigger versions that I throw a lot of line throughs bigger line throughs in the spring and this would be a perfect rod for that I mean really would that big long handle be something to get used to but I understand it the more I throw some of the bigger baits when I get up into that you know when I've thrown that five six seven ounce style baits this rod is now rated for that it 's still on the lower end of that scale with that three ounce rating but if you don't already own a spro Chad Chad you do yourself a favor and buy one they are really nice I've had a lot of good luck with them myself and this is the rod to throw them with the Made in America KGB Chad Chad rod from spro back with another rod from the Leviathan that brings us to the point we wanted to make with this video to say this is just our dipping our toe in the water of swim bait rods here at omnif ishing we are going to be adding more it's going to be a slower process than it is typically where we onboard you know tens of dozens of brands at a time you know with a category if we're going to take our time kind of pick off some we really do want to hear from you guys what are some of the brands out there that that are shining and some of the specific rod models that are really shining that's why we're doing this video honestly like this is a this is what we've got right now and this is what's been selling for us or what we think's really cool and we want to hear more and obviously we realize we have a small swim bait rod assortment compared to some of our competitors out there and then we want to grow that over time we we realize it's an important category for us here as we add more swim baits got to have more swim bait rods right i'm going to say so far we're blowing away with the vyth and stuff this one right here is the one that really made us jump on this bandwagon with the vyth and this one here is a eight foot heavy mod fast rated from two to six ounces this thing came in at seven point five ounces if you were standing here is the only way i can make you believe me out of all the rods that we've literally picked up including like the little seven threes and stuff this thing feels the lightest it feels like weight it it balance absolutely beautifully it is at north fork composite blank if you didn't hear me on the other one and it has a double locking chuck on the front so no problem with bigger reels with bigger real seats on i didn't know i have a smaller one here and this reel makes this thing feel insane i want to put a one -ounce weight on this thing and just flip with this thing let alone it be a swim bait rod it feels powerful but it feels alive and super light and balanced most impressive of the swim bait rods i think especially this one feels high end it feels really high it doesn't feel like a bang for your buck rod or anything like even though the price point for an american made rod is really aggressive it feels super high end i'm excited to go bend this one on the wall let's go check out this leviathan model here the eight foot heavy mod fast all right we're here with that leviathan and that eight foot heavy mod fast model out of all the rods we picked up this rod actually is this is a personal rod of nick moraz who works here at omniafishing this is one of his personal rods this thing feels really fast without being on the wall like when you're just bending with a line on it and it makes i don't know this like i can't keep i'm kind of glowing about this rod because of all the swim bait rods we've been bending this one feels really high end it's like when you pick up an nx or the steez age you have something really feel that difference like this thing feels expensive man this is why you have the wall this is why we bend it i really thought this thing was going to look a lot faster on the wall than it is it is absolutely mod fast it's moderate you know and it's way more powerful than i'm making a look there this one's you know just a wrist bend there that's what you can get out of it you got to use your arm pigeon really lay into this one it's a powerful rod it feels more powerful than it's even rated at but up to six ounces there i think that makes this one i know i've changed my opinions we got through videos but we're really doing this real time step one by one this feels like the most worst of the whole bunch this one not only feels light enough and just fun enough to fish that i would throw you know a two and a half ounce swim bait all day long a two ounce swim bait even stuffed in a one and a half ounce it got bay enough hooks on it to me that'd be my only concern is it got big enough hooks to handle the power of this rod but i'm maybe you could throw just about anything you wanted on this thing up to about you know probably it this is at the high end rating of six ounces that's big for me yeah i think that's big for a lot of traditional anglers you know i know a lot of you hardcore swim baiters throw a lot bigger stuff than that but six ounces is big for me that's that's a big big bait and this thing feels like you're gonna handle every bit of that and even lighter stuff if of all the rods you bet today this one definitely feels like it's something super special but you know you're gonna pay a little bit more than the other rods are talking about too but for us manufactured rod with high end componentry with a high end blank like this it's it's really a pretty aggressive price point to be honest with you i love the material they wrap the handles with the handles feel long i thought this would be a lot more grabbing and maybe stealing my shirt from me all the time it's not it but it does feel like it would remain tacky for at least grippy for you in the rain it's got kind of a a coated texture in here that is it's not like slippery or by any means by that but it's i like it because it's not digging into my skin or grabbing my shirt pad really cool rod here from Leviathan that this is an thato mega swim bait series we've got a i think four rods in this family on the site even a finesse version we're gonna get to later we're gonna be bending more swim bait rods as we add more to the site we want to hear your feedback like i mentioned earlier on what other swim bait rod companies and models are out there i'm going to save for our dip on our toes in the water of the swim bait world so far i'm impressed with the assortment we already have i don 't really see any duds amongst the stuff we've been there is some obviously it's pretty technique specific stuff and then there's some versatile stuff you know if you like high-end stuff that 's what you're into this would be a perfect rod should be that all around swim bait rod to me i really like this one check out the Leviathan swim bait rods and all the other swim bait rods we talked about at amiuffishing.com [Music]