New Crankbait Rod

[FlatsNBay]

Well my old tried and true Powell crankbait rod is going on 13 years old and is showing signs of wear. Although I've been a huge fan of
Powell rods, in recent years  they've gone away from many of the rod sizes that I love and some of the models that I like are no longer made.

I decided to pull the trigger on a new rod company. I was really impressed by the selection of Ark Rods and I was able to physically handle and inspect their entire lineup at ICAST. I really liked their selection and several of their rod lineups are more in my price range compared to many other companies.

I just ordered one of the new Ark Randal Tharp series crankbait rods. I picked The Grinder model which is a 7' all purpose MH composite rod. I took advantage of the labor day sales. Ill give you guys a good review after I give it a good workout.

[loomisguy]

Ark makes a good rod.Louie Zhang sold Halo to start the company and he's done a great job.
Another one to check out is the Alpha Angler rebound . It's glass which turns some folks off but it's a perfect wiggle wart/rk/crawler and squarebill rod.

[D.W. Verts]

I guess that shows how old I really am. I LIKE my glass crankbait poles.

Dale

[FlatsNBay]

Me too DW. That's what I ordered.

[J.W.]

Are most of the commercially available glass rods out there hybrids (graphite with a glass tip) now? I'm assuming they are, but I've never bought one.

I have built a couple of hybrid glass/graphite rods off of some NFC blanks, and I'm really liking them. Most of the rod is graphite, but the business end is Zentron glass. Plenty of flex in the tip for trebles, even using braid/fluoro, and there's still enough backbone through the graphite portion to rip a trap or a squarebill through grass.