Who Makes the Best Flipping Rod?

Video Transcription

What's up everybody? We're back with our third edition of Rod Battles here at Omnia Fishing. We are going to bend some flipping sticks. Now I know that's a pretty general term flipping. There's a whole bunch of different techniques associated with the overall term flipping. Could mean a lot of different things. Flipping a jig, flipping a Texas rig. There's a lot of different offshore ones, big, thick vegetation like punching type flipping sticks. There's all sorts of different stuff like that. A lot of argument to that. But this is requested by our consumer base. They wanted us to see kind of verse three most popular flipping sticks. So we take this data that we collect, whether it's through fishing reports, our surveying we do, and sales data.

Dobyns Fury 765 Flip

One of our three most popular flipping sticks, this one being the Dobyns Fury. The Dobyns Fury 765 to be exact. The 765 flip. So this one here is a medium-heavy power, but a fast action. I'm excited to bend this one because this rod comes in in an extremely affordable price tag. This rod here is one of our most popular rods we sell period for this technique. So I'm not familiar with it. I don't own this rod. I do own a couple of Dobyns rods but I do not have this one. So I'm interested to see what the action is like on this Dobyns Fury. Let's go bend it.

Alright, so here we are with the Dobyns contender in the fight. This one's the Dobyns Fury 765. So stated before this is a medium-heavy power rod with a fast flip action they call it. They actually put flip in the action there. So I'm guessing Gary Dobyns and his team with all their experience decided this is a perfect action for a flipping rod. Let's give it a bend here. We load it up and it's exactly what it says. In fact it's certainly a fast action. I'll give it a little bit of action here. It's a little bit of a, yeah it's fast. It's got a lot more power than I thought it was going to have. This thing is extremely light and balanced for its price point. That's really not part of the bend thing here I know but I just have to point that out. I was picturing this as I was holding it in the first part of our video here that this was going to be a lot softer rod than this. This is a real flipping stick. This is a lot stiffer than my, a lot more powerful than I have some higher end versions and families in the Dobyns rods in the same exact model actually. Big surprise here on this one. This would be an extremely versatile flipping stick. You could run some big straight braid on this thing or some big fluoro. It's not too stiff. I mean if you really load it up and power it up it bends down far enough that you could even do some of that. I know it's controversial but the line to leader flipping stuff we do up here in Minnesota a lot. Really cool rod. I'm very impressed. The action is exactly what was stated. This is truly a flipping stick. So kudos to Dobyns so far at least from my experience. This is what you want to see in a flipping stick a lot of times. There's a lot of power right away as soon as you go to set the hook with a Texas rig or jig. You want to be getting that hook and that fish right away but I want to have enough power in this rod. Then when I get them to the side of the boat if I'm going to be as dangerous as to do a boat flip or really really pull on that fish as hard as I can to get them out of cover. We're using a lot of the rod to fight the fish not just the tip of the rod. So kudos to Dobyns. This is a cool rod. Very impressed with the Dobyns Fury 765 flipping rod.

Shimano Zodias 7'5" / Heavy / Fast

Here I am with another contender in our flipping rod battle here at Omnia Fishing. This one is the Shimano Zodias 755 heavy, fast action. Now obviously the Shimano Zodias rods are very popular not just because of their price point. They're very good, very affordable price point line of rods but their actions are touted amongst the industry. A lot of my friends who are even not Shimano purists all will give these rods their flowers. If you're looking for a value in your rods it's really hard to beat these in a lot of their actions and powers. Very impressed with their Monocoque handles on the back of the Zodias series of rods. They do have a lot of sensitivity for being in their price points and their actions are true to form. Shimano's done a really good job matching up their descriptions with the actual actions on the rods which believe it or not it's not super common. I think that's why a lot of you would even watch a video like this. So I'm excited to bend this thing and see what the Shimano's 755 flipping stick is. This has been reported to us by a lot of our customers as one of the best flipping sticks on the market. Check out the Zodias 755 heavy fast.

Alright as promised I'm here to bend the 755 heavy, fast action, Zodias rod. Once again this data was brought to us that this was one of our most popular flipping rods not just by sales which I can promise you that's probably a big factor in why this rod's there. We sell a lot of this rod for this technique but our consumers have reported back to us that this is a desirable flipping stick. This is one of the best ones in the market. So as I'm going to do here load this sucker up and we're going to see that just as stated this is a fast action rod. It is rated as a heavy power and I will say it's not as heavy as the rod I bent previous to this. That was a Dobyns Fury medium heavy. Power is a little less than that. Honestly though I would still rate this as a heavy just from my experience. It's got lots of power. As you can see if I stop faltering the rod by pushing down in the back or using my body to kind of load the rod up the way I would if I was fishing. If I just use my wrist to try and load this thing up unless you see that there. Look how powerful this rod is. It's just that top the fast action of the rod that's so I'm getting a hook set. I'm getting penetration with the hook immediately when I go to set the hook with this rod. Very impressive. That's what you want in a flipping stick a lot of times is that fast action to get that hook driven home. There are arguments against that. That's why we're bending some of these but this would in my opinion be a fast action, heavy power rod. Interestingly enough though this is not as powerful as the Dobyns rod that was rated as a medium-heavy. This rod actually has a little bit more forgiveness than that rod does. So this rod for any of you that are braid to leader flippers, I know that's controversial but it is happening and more people are adopting to that year after year. I do it myself. I know it's weird but I do like it myself. I like the fact that this is more on the lighter side of a heavy power rod. I still would hinge it as a heavy power though because I'm telling you right now might be hard to translate across the camera there but it's taken a lot to get this rod to bend to here. This is truly a flipping stick and it is a very versatile flipping stick and I'm very impressed with it. If you're in the market for a flipping stick you definitely want to look at this heavy power, fast action, Shimano Zodias.

Falcon Cara Amistad 

Back with our third contestant in our flipping stick contest and this one was a major surprise to me. This is the Falcon Cara Ama\istad extra heavy flipping stick from Falcon rods. We just put Falcon in last year towards the end of the year. We just got the Falcon rods in. We've been asked for them for a while but we hadn't had the room in the speed of our expansion and we're still a newer retailer so warehouse space and all that plays a big factor in a lot of our decision making but we knew and we had identified Falcon early as something we would get at some point and we got them in. We have had a hard time keeping this particular model and several other Falcon models in stock. Obviously you think geographically with Falcon with Lake Falcon down to Texas just the whole Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas area being super popular for Falcon rods. Mike McClelland and Jason Christie. A lot of the faces of Falcon are very popular in that region of the country and they do some flipping, they do for sure but it's a little different than our grass flipping up here. Hence why I was a little surprised when I saw this rod's action and length and that it was being requested as being or being promoted as one of our three most popular flipping sticks. This is a 7'3" extra-heavy, extra-fast action so should be pretty interesting to bend this one and see how it stacks up against the other two rods which were the very common action in flipping or length I should say in 7'6". We saw medium-heavy, we saw heavy, now we're seeing an extra-heavy and extra-fast. Very interesting that this one this early has made itself and is a player in our flipping battle so let's go bend the Falcon Cara Amistad extra-heavy.

Okay I'm here now with that Cara Amistad extra-heavy so this is a flipping stick indicated by Jason Christie that this is one of his favorite flipping sticks. I know Mike McClelland has said this this is one of his favorite rods. There's a lot of the Falcon pros that have touted this as a very special rod and I will tell you I wasn't familiar with it it's a newer rod series to us I'm surprised that this fast we have this much data back on it that it's that popular flipping stick we do do a lot of surveying in the part of the country where Falcon rods is really super popular so that might be a big factor in why it made it into this trip but odd that it's 7'3" so it's three inches shorter than a typical flipping stick that we would see it be popular anyway it's an extra-heavy power which that's understandable but typically you see that heavy power being about the most and extra-fast action so let's give it a bend here full cork candle, everybody who follows me it all knows that that makes me happy but oh it is uh it is what stated it is extra-heavy and it is extra-fast I know it's looking like it's bending in that fast portion like that top third but I'm going to tell you right now I have to give it to it to get it there this thing wants to set the hook when you think about setting the hook you don't have to even move your wrist it feels like you're going to get them they bite it they're probably getting starting to get the hook in their mouth. If you are looking for a fish mover this is a very cool rod for you and it is light and it is balanced with this reel on it anyway this is just one of my personal reels that I have laying around here so I threw it on here and it balances great and it feels super light. Lots of looks like there's a ton of guides on this thing but the action is exactly as stated it is extra-fast I'm uh I'll give it a hard hook set here and you see it it does bend you know into the meat of the backbone of the rod when you really give it the beans and you pull tons of pressure on it so you could do some boat flipping with this thing and not be super worried about it but it is stout I mean this is 20 plus fluoro at a minimum in my opinion or big braided line uh not so much aligned to leader rod this thing is stout and it is it is going to pull on that knot pretty hard. You're going to test your knot tying ability even though I'm a fan of that uh if you're doing line to leader with this rod you're you better tie good knots this thing is the real deal when it comes to a flipping stick. So if you're looking for a very powerful flipping stick that's not super long look no further check out this Falcon Cara Amistad extra-heavy. 

Thank you so much for tuning into our rod battle this edition was the flipping edition. We saw the Shimano rod do exactly what they always say uh it was a heavy power it was a fast action we saw the Dobyns rod and the medium-heavy, fast action and do exactly what they said it would say in fact if I had a knock on that one it just it felt actually heavier than a medium-heavy power-wise but I'm going to tell you right now that rod is as light as a medium-heavy it feels in hand like a medium-heavy till you go set in the hook with it. Very impressed with that Dobyns Fury rod. The Shimano does exactly what you expect Shimano to do uh and that's that's that's do their job and do it right so that that Zodias is is now no big surprise that it's in there. Big surprise for me was that Falcon Cara why was it even in this contest this early for us as a retailer anyway? I know the rod's been around for a while but what is that thing and where I I got to find a reason to use that thing it feels like it's like a big fish rod probably why they call it an Amistad but you could do a lot of stuff with that rod and some seriously heavy cover without it being an eight foot or a 7'11" and if you are somebody who looks for a flipping stick that doesn't want the long rods so if you if you've got boat limitations or anything like that you should check that rod out. I see now why it's so popular with some of our consumers and a certain consumer section in the in the southern part of the country but man that thing's cool. I got to find a reason to fish with that thing. So those were our three flipping sticks that we thought were a great value. You should check them out, let us know what flipping sticks are missing in the comments and other battles you'd like to see with other techniques of rods. And if there's other ways you want to see us pick them whether it be enthusiast price points entry level price points different ways to head to head up some rods from different manufacturers so as you saw lots of different actions there from the manufacturers go pick which one works best for you [Music]