Our FAVORITE Rods of 2024! | Joe Ponessa

What's up everybody, Joe from Omnia here and today we're doing a rod bending session of my favorite rods from 2024. Right in front of me here just to get started we have the Poisona Drena 7.3 medium heavy. This has become one of my favorite rods that I own. It weighs in at 3.9 ounces. It's really a truly a multi-function style medium heavy rod but I was using this mostly for flipping and pitching shallow sparse to medium cover. I wouldn't use this for like really topped out heavy mill foil but I would use it for that mill foil that grows up just below the surface. Seems like we don't get too much topped up stuff out here anymore like we used to but this thing has plenty of power. It's got the carbon monocoque handle. This is the old version, the new versions on the way and they're kind of the same but just a little bit flashier I would say. If you're on the market or even considering this rod I would say you won't regret owning this thing. This has become my favorite rod, my number one rod from 2024. Let's bend it on the wall. All right we have the 7.3 medium heavy poisona drena. This is a regular faster. I don't know if I mentioned that before but as soon as you load it up you can see the way it bends here. I'm actually not as technically inclined as these other guys are doing the rod bendings here but I'll do my best. If you give it a little bit of power this thing does have a lot more power than you might think. Just picking it up when I first started using it. I thought this was going to be like a 3.16 thounds or a quarter ounce Texas Rig rod but I've had no problem fishing all the way up to half ounce for things like pretty much all of my braid dual leader jig and Texas Rig fishing. This was my main rod for that application. This is the 7.3 medium heavy poisona drena. All right my next model choice here for my top rods from 2024 is in the Shimano X-pride line. This is the 7.2 heavy Shimano X-pride casting rod. The X-pride B the second generation of these rods. This has been my number one jig rod but not for a braid dual leader. I do think this rod's a little too powerful for a braid dual leader setup unless you're fishing incredibly heavy cover but this was kind of my like structure jig, dock skip and jig, style of rod. I like to run 20 pomf floor carbon on my dock skip and setup when I'm skipping a jig. I just feel like once the fish is hooked and they get wrapped around those posts real bad you can kind of just lean on them they'll come off whereas I've had trouble with braid breaking before around dock posts occasionally but this is the 7.2 heavy fast from Shimano in the X-pride series. All right we're on the rod wall with the 7.2 heavy in the X-pride this weighted at 4.1 ounces. Pretty lightweight rod and you'll notice here right when you put the rod pressure on it does this is a true heavy action I would say rod heavy with a fast heavy power fast action rod. Like I said before this thing has plenty of power but I don't like this for a braid dual leader setup when I'm flipping just because I feel like it's almost too powerful and you can rip the hook out of the fish's mouth. That's where I like to use that poison adrena instead but everything you know my heavy floor carbon 17 to 20 pomf floor carbon this is in my opinion the best floor carbon jig rod you can buy on the market at just under 300 bucks 279 I think but plenty of power in this rod pretty much everything you'd ask for the 7.2 heavy style of casting rod. All right what's up everyone we're back again here this is my third choice for my favorite rods of 2024 this is the dioistese AGS 7.2 heavy this is what they call their power pitch rod. In my opinion unlike the x-pride this rod actually I was able to use braid dual leader successfully flipping with this rod. In my opinion from what I've noticed this rod feels like it has a little bit more of a moderate or more parabolic action to it compared to that x-pride which allows you to get away with a braid dual leader setup. I was going back and forth all summer long a braid dual leader or straight floor carbonomist rod excellent rod AGS guide train on their super super sensitive rod. One of my favorites from 2024 the steeze AGS weighs in at 4.3 ounces it's actually one of the heavier ones of all the rods I brought here today but they all came in between 3.9 and 4.3 ounces let's check out the dioistese AGS 7.2 heavy. All right we have the dioistese AGS 7.2 heavy this is what they call their power pitch rod and as you can see here when I'm bending it it feels like this rod like I mentioned before it feels like it when you're fishing it it might not be easy to tell here but when you're actually fishing it and battling fish this thing does feel like it's a little bit more parabolic a little bends a little further in the blank than the 7.2 heavy x-pride which again allows me to get away with b raid dual leader when I fish with this rod super sensitive super powerful the steeze AGS 7.2 heavy. All right what's up everyone we're back again this is another rod from my top rods of 2024 this is the G lumus NRX plus 8.93 c for all you lumus nerds out there I just ready to go with a length and action the 7.5 extra heavy or extra fast medium heavy rod I love this rod this became one of my favorites this year weighs in at 4 ounces and I was going back and forth again a lot of these rods that I use you know a part of the year when I'm fishing shallower doing a lot more flipping and pitching around you know beds or cover shallow stuff I ran more braid but as fish get off deeper and offshore I a little bit more floor carbon this rod was great for both applications for things like offshore football jig or like I use it a lot for like a wobble head style bait with straight floor carbon like 15 to 17 pound florro and then in the fall I actually ran this rod I threw a swim jig on this rod quite a bit mostly because you can get great distance with it with a 7.5 but once you get bowed up on a fish you can just kind of lean into and start pulling you don't really have to set the hook awesome rod the G lumus 7.5 medium heavy extra fast all right we are on the wall here with the G lumus NRX plus 7.5 medium heavy extra fast it's 8.93 jwr casting rod and this is the kind of your true extra fast it doesn't take almost any pressure to get the tip to start to dance on this rod super sensitive super lightweight awesome rod for your like a deep bottom contact type of rod I would say or like I said I was using a first swim jig too later in the fall great power on this rod medium heavy extra fast the G lumus NRX plus 7.5 medium heavy extra fast all right everyone we're back with my final rod from my best rods of 2024 and we had to throw at least one spinning rod in there this was my drop shot rod for most of the year this is the St. Croix AVID 7 foot medium light fast action rod I have had this rod since probably 2011 I think or 2012 they just recently came out with a new re-release of the AVID they have this exact model I've held it in hand it makes me want to buy more this got a little bit nicer handle on here this old style had has this knob style handle here but the new one has a more sleek a fore group I would say but the St. Croix 7 foot medium light fast action spinning rod weighs in at four ounces let's check it out on the wall all right again here I am with the St. Croix AVID 7 foot medium light fast action rod this was my drop shot rod I do a lot of fishing around here in the cities I fish to the Denny super 30 series of the buddy mine and pretty much all large mouth fishing you know outside of the bedtime fishing early in the year for small mouth it's pretty much all I'd say like submerged vegetation large mouth fishing for the most part a little bit of rock and dock thrown in there too but for my deeper water drop shot rod this is my number one choice it just loads up I love the action on this rod when you're fighting a fish it's just really fun to use and the fish always stay pinned that medium light action almost it almost kind of like you know the power of this rod kind of lends it to be almost you know it's got a fast action tip when you're battling that fish they really kind of stay pinned it's more like a moderate action rod it really feels like in hand so this is my my one spinning rod choice from 2024 this is the 7 foot medium light St. Croix AVID spinning rod that wraps it up from my favorite rods from 2024 make sure you check out all of our rod bending videos in the series and look for more on the way leave a comment below if you see any rods or know of any rods you'd like to see and make sure you check out more at omni-fishing.com [Music]