Powell Diesel Crankbait Rod 705CB

[Dave63]

What you get for 69.99 is a nice, lightweight rod that excels at throwing crankbaits. I couldn't tell you how much it weighs and honestly, I don't care since I have a big fat hunk of Daiwa Procaster on it...but, it feels marginally heavier than a comparable graphite rod, but you'd expect it to since it's glass. The blank is flat black except for where the windings have been finished. The accents are wrapped in red thread. It has EVA grips. There's no foregrip. The downlocking reel seat has exposed threads at the front of the reel seat. If you have rough threads (mine had the reel seat assembly loose and up the blank when I took it out of the tube and bag and it bouncing around may have caused it) or grab your rod in front of the reel, this could be an issue for you. I used it for 4-5 hours on Sunday and never noticed it.

I used it to throw everything from squarebills to SK 5 and 6xds this weekend and it handled them all with zero issues. The sensitivity is really good. You can feel when you are ticking weed and hitting bottom or wood. The shallow runners loaded up the rod perfectly without it feeling too stiff. When running the deep divers it has a nice gentle parabolic action when bowed up without feeling mushy, if that makes sense. I never felt that the rod lacked backbone or was overpowered by the deep divers and we were cranking deep weeds. Hooksets are easy with a nice gentle sweep. Most importantly, after losing a tourney last week because of fish pulling hooks out with the other rod that I was using, this weekend I lost no fish at all. Zero. Thanks to that, we finished 2nd.

Would I buy another one? Hell yes, in a heartbeat and not just because it made me some money this weekend. It's a damn nice rod, especially for the price. I paid a total of 74.99 with second day air from TW. The lack of warranty does not bother me at all and don't let it bother you. It swings way over it's weight, price wise and isn't that all you can ask for?