Hi Mick, new subscriber and loving Ur content. I'm located in cairns recently moved up north 6mths ago from chilli Melbourne and loving the new fishing experience up here. It's a far cry from the days down sth walking the fresh freezing streams chasing trout lol. Anyway l mainly target jacks and barra snag bashing and love my smaller 3, 4, 5 inch plastics, big fan of the chasebait 4inch minnows so gives you some idea of the weights I fish approx 3/4 Oz etc. My current go to rod is a dobyns fury Fr663c paired with a diawa HRF Pe 7.3 , 30 lb suffix and 40lb hard rock leader. I love the outfit but have come from using shorter rods typically with moderate tappers to allow be to skip cast with minimal wrist action and rod allowing me to load up lures and cast with ease etc. My qst is ( sorry for long drawn out explanation lol ), love noticed u also like Ur extreme xp 402 and use much similar size lures, do you think it's a more suitable rod to my application and has the beaf to muscle big jacks and barra from snags if needed or do you find the soft taper gives to much away to fish at start of hook up? The guys at complete angler are pushing me more towards a 403 model but lm worried I may regret going to firm and loosing that tipy loading action I enjoy that I don't appear to have with the fr 663c i have. Cheers mate any advise would be greatly appreciated 👍
Hey mate, so basically how the Dobyns rod models work are that the first 2 digits in the code are the length and the last number is the power, so a 663 is a 6’6, 3 power. I generally use alot of the 4 power rods for barra and that’s a 10-20lb rod. A 3 power is 10-17lb and while that’s enough power for what we have you lose the soft tip in the shorter length. The higher up you go in the series with Dobyns the faster the blank action gets so my 702HP (7ft, 6-12lb) rod has an extremely fast taper, meaning it loads up really fast and the power comes in with the first 2 ft of the rod bending. That gives me a crisp, soft tip but plenty of power, I’ve caught a few fish over a meter with this rod and my biggest barra on it so far is 116cm. They are a high end rod with a price to match and yes it’s my favorite rod but it’s price can blow out a budget real quick! As you go back down in the series to a champion XP you’ll find the 703c is a very similar rod due to not havin as fast of a taper as the HP, then down to the Sierra the 704c is similar again, I noticed you asked bowly which rod he was using and he didn’t want to answer exactly what but it was a 704c Sierra which is a 10-20lb… I hope this is making sense but my best advice is to drop into Compleat Angler, Tackleworld or Lee Longs as they all have a good range of Dobyns rods, if you’re in at Compleat have a look at the Kaden series which is the newest series which sits in the same price point as the Sierra but has a much higher quality blank but sacrifices the Fuji guides. The blank is very comparable to a champion extreme so worth a look at the 713c in those also! Good luck finding the perfect rod ✌🏻
Cheers mick for taking the time out of Ur busy work schedule and personal life much appreciated. Your the first RU-vidr fishi that has actually taken the time to explain in detail and answer clearly what I'm after so thanks heaps mate. I think I'm keen on same rod as you have and lm a big believer in qlty items so not fuss with pricing so much. Another quick qst, what reel apart from what u use would you suggest to suit rod. I do like both shimano and diawa so not at all biased to brands but rather looking for a free light spool reel to cast those lighter lures yet have some stopping power when needed. Cheers again mate.
No problem 👌🏻it’s been pretty good the last month or so in the creeks! Best part about barra and jack fishing in winter is the fish get a lot less pressure! But yeah I can’t wait for warmer days also!
