TACKLE
TECH
By Justin Onslow
echnological advancements in the
bass fishing industry come in waves.
Some are immediate. Others, like
the advancements in the way fishing line is
designed and produced, are slow and steady,
pushing techniques and tackle into new eras
over the course of years, or even decades.
Count rod design among the latter,
though, not so curiously, technological
advancements in fishing line and rod design
have gone somewhat hand-in-hand.
Even a decade ago, monofilament fishing
line still had a massive market share in the
bass fishing industry. Being a high-stretch
option, mono was the reason many anglers
preferred rods with ample backbone and fast
tips to drive hooksets home and keep fish
pinned all the way to the boat. With high-
stretch mono, heavier rods with faster actions
made sense for a lot more techniques.
Now, with low-stretch fluorocarbon and
braided line the overwhelming favorites for
most tournament anglers’ preferred tech-
niques – an arsenal that grows with the ever-
expanding lure market – technology and
design elements of fishing rods have seen
massive leaps in recent years, and the popu-
larity and availability of myriad specialty
rods is the result. Specialty rods have been
around for a long time, but the market seems
to now be flooded with models in every com-
bination of length, power and action an
angler could want.
“We’ve kind of learned over the last 10 or
15 years that with less stretch in your line
and sharper hooks, you can get away with
not having a stiffer rod,” says the MLF Bass
Pro Tour’s Justin Atkins. “If you have a rod
that has a lot of tip that loads up into that
solid back wall, it drives that hook home.
Your catch ratio goes way up, and your
break-off ratio goes way down. It’s a more
efficient system.”
Paired with the fact that rod-making
technology has improved through the years,
and with it the ability for companies to pro-
duce those rods at a smaller cost to cus-
tomers, the options are almost literally end-
less when it comes to optimizing rod choices
for each individual technique.
Gone are the days of carrying one rod
model for half the lures in your boat.
T
60
ALEX DAVIS’
SWIMBAIT SECRET WEAPON
Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit veteran Alex Davis is part
of Shimano’s pro-staff, and he’s played a big role in helping
the company design rods that are perfect for some of the
favorite techniques he employs. Among them is a Shimano
Expride casting rod Davis exclusively turns to for throwing
medium and large swimbaits in open water.
“It’s a 7-7, so a little bit extra length for longer casts, and
that rod’s actually parabolic so you don’t lose as many fish,”
he explains. “It’s not like your traditional 80 percent back-
bone and 20 percent tip. You lose less fish with it.”
Davis will often use a 7-foot, 2-inch fiberglass rod for
some of those same swimbaits if he’s fishing around grass –
allowing him to more easily pop and twitch his rod tip to rip
baits through the grass – but that specially designed
Expride is his go-to for throwing a swimbait offshore around
rock, ledges, brush and just about anything else not green
and growing.
FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020