Denali Puts the Lumber to Their Rod Lineup
Posted by Todd Hammill on Fri, Jul 23, 2010 @ 09:00 AM
We visited with FLW Tour pro Ray Scheide for a bit in the Denali Custom Fishing Rods booth at ICAST last week. He was anxious to show off the new rods he's been fishing this season on the FLW Tour. And it was interesting to hear how Scheide got hooked up with Denali.
"I saw their rods at the Forrest Wood Cup and told them I wanted to get a set of their rods to try on tour next year," Scheide said. "But I was up front with them. I told them if the rods didn't work out, I'd send them all back and that would be the end of it. I didn't want to sign a deal with a rod company without their products being something I believed in and proved they could withstand a year on tour."
So he used the rods this season on tour and after the first couple of tournaments he was calling to find out what he needed to do to be on their prostaff. He went from skeptic to eager connoisseur in just a few tournaments.
When he had bass in some gnarly cover and was wrenching on them as hard as he could with the rods bent over, he couldn't believe they didn't break. He was trying to break them just to see what their stress point was. After that he was convinced.
Back to the new line of rods. This year Denali introduced their high-end rod line. The Noirwood series features a high modulus / high strain rate fiber in the blanks with the lightest fiberglass scrim available. The rods feature split grips, further reducing the weight and a trademark Asian Hardwood foregrip. But probably the most unique feature of the new rods is the textillium graphite handle that actually better transmits sensitivity from the blank to your hands rather than dampen it like cork and foam do.
They also feature ALPS Light XN guides that are 28% lighter than standard guides but also have SS316 Stainless steel for strength and corrosion resistance.
We held the rods and they were very well balanced and that new grip was very comfortable.
These rods are not in everyone's price range however. The MSRP ranges from $329 for a 7-foot medium-action spinning rod to $399 for a 7-foot, 3-inch heavy-action casting rod. The rods are all made in America.
For those anglers more budget conscious, they offer a bunch of great rods in their Jadewood and Rosewood Series. The Jadewood Series rods range from $79 to $119 and there are 11 rods in that series.
The Rosewood is actually two series -- the Rosewood Matrix Series and the Rosewood Shadow Series. The Matrix Series has nine rods in the lineup that range from $149 to $199 and the Shadow Series has seven rods in the lineup that range from $179 to $219.
Again it's based on features, materials, components, etc. They offer High-modulus BSTI-10 blanks, Portugese cork grips, ALPS Light XN guides, Rosewood foregrips, etc.
Again these rods have some unique features and offer multiple rods based on your budget. Definitely worth a look and several new pros jumped on board in the last week.
