Lure fishing for Bass

Dorset Fishing Rods 9’6″, 8-28g Plugging Rod

I had an excited Richard from Dorset Fishing Rods on the phone a month back to let me know he had some rather special new blanks in from Japan. I was down in Dorset that weekend so we meet up so I could have a look at what he had, I was particularly taken by the 9’6″ (2.9m) 8-28g blank. With a quick double handed wiggle, then a full blown cast and the usual “Get a hold of that tip” and giving it a good old bend I was instantly impressed with the recovery especially considering this blank is designed for lures between 8-28g and that it only weighs 85g, with a sensitive 2mm diameter tip and a 13mm diameter butt the action would best be described as medium fast, though classified in the Japanese domestic market as fast.

The easy part was deciding that I wanted a rod built form this blank the harder part was choosing the rod furniture to go with it, which is made no easier when you realise the vast selection of real seats, grips, eyes and finishing touches that Richard offers. To be honest though this is the beauty of having a rod custom built for you, it’s a personnel experience and you try to include specifics from rods you have liked and exclude things that bug you.

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I opted for a Fuji down locking reel seat, which for me is a must on a lure rod, in my opinion they give the most comfortable grip where your hand is positioned on the foam grip and not on cold metal parts or the plastic threading of a up locking seat, they also have the advantage of not becoming loose as you fish. I also opted for small shaped EVA foam grips to keep the weight down.

I have a personal preference for a simple clean finish to a rod and Richard has achieved that beautifully with all components and whipping in black with silver accents, the standard and quality of finish is perfect, you’d have to spend an awful lot of money to get a finish like this on an off the shelf rod.

Fitted with Pacicfic Bay, Model SV, Minima 4, rings which are stainless steal with a Titanium Carbide (TiCH) coating. These minima guides weigh 20-30% less than ceramic ring guides yet due to the way the liners are swagged onto the guides from both sides they are much stronger, so no more ceramic rings popping out half way through a session, I think your going to see a lot more of these guides on retail rods in the coming years.

You can see in the picture above the minimalist design to the guides, it almost looks like a normal guide that has already lost it’s ceramic liner.

So how does it fish, well I picked up the rod and although conditions weren’t perfect I got straight out onto a rock mark to give it a go. This rod is light, very light and paired up perfectly with my Shimano Rarenium CI4 FA 4000, casting is a dream and the rod can punch out a Duo Tide Minnow Slim 140 Flyer, 21g with ease. I then tried a Xlayer rigged with a Decoy Bachihead SV-67 – 1/4oz (7g) head which was equally impressive in it’s ease of casting and distance achieved. The feel and feedback from the sensitive tip was especially noticeable when fishing with the Xlayer all aided no doubt by the feather light guides.

Apart from the 9’6″ length I really think these Pacicfic Bay ring guides aid casting no end, they stand away from the blank enough to cut out any chance of line slap against the blank, nothing is slowing down the line and all the power generated from this easily loaded blank is converted into distance.

I’m sure this is going to prove to be a great all round rod for UK bass fishing from the shore, it has the length and power to cast lures into a head on wind, on calmer days their certainly won’t be any muscle fatigue considering the distance achieved with a simple flick and with it’s light weight I’d be happy fishing with it all day.

Though conditions were not ideal I still managed to land the little fellow above and about a dozen 2 pound Pollock, which certainly put a smile on my face, the rod bends over into these small fish beautifully so I’m looking forward to hooking into something a little bigger to see how it performs.

Richard also has these Japanese 8-28g blanks available in 8’6″ and 10’6″ as well as plenty of others suitable for lure fishing, visit his site, email him at: mail@dorsetfishingrods.co.uk or give him a call on 01305 850431