Skeet Reese Rods

[bassbandit25]

Has anyone else tested the spinning rod made for shakey head fishing? If you have I'm curious to if you have the same opinion as me or maybe i've just become picky. I got it for my birthday and i got it in the mail and felt the action and from my rod building experience if felt like absolute s*** . I decided to give it a try on the water anyway and it has some of the most amazing feel I've ever had in my hand. But the down side to it is it was a tad too long for skipping shakeys under docks, and also the backbone is terrible no matter how hard I hit the fish. I guess i just wanted to see what you all thought and also warn people against.

[daltonstratos]

I just recently given the oppertunity to make some casts with one of my friends Skeet Reese Rods, I have to say I was very unimpressed. The blank used felt extremely heavy compared to most other rods I have used before. It also lacked sensitivity and balance. This rod unlike the one previously mentioned was a bait caster, not a spinning rod. I am a fairly experienced rod builder and I would say, even for the low cost it is still not worth the money. I am not sure if this is because I have a firm grasp of the pricing of the materials that go into a rod, or because I am privileged enough to be able to fish with some of the more high end bass fishing equipment available. After this first bad encounter with the rod I went to the local tackle shop and took a look at some of the rods. The easiest way to see how much care is taken in building the rod is to check and see if the guides line up with the backbone of the rod. I went through every Skeet Reese rod in the store; none of them had properly placed guides. Throughout my time spent building rods I have come to the conclusion that if the guides are not placed on this backbone it can cause extreme loss of power on a hook set due to the rod bending in a direction other than directly opposite of the fish. Overall, I would say these rods are not a good buy for most anglers. If I was purchasing a lower end rod I would defiantly lean more towards buying a Dobyns or Mojo rod before a Skeet Reese.

[JoeJ]

hmmm, I don't know anything about the Skeet Reese rods, but lining up the guides to the "backbone" or "Spline" of a rod really has zero effect on the performance of the rod. Straightest axis is probably a better way to go. Just saying that very few rods are built on the spline. Turns out to be old information.

[cedar1]

I just recently given the oppertunity to make some casts with one of my friends Skeet Reese Rods, I have to say I was very unimpressed. The blank used felt extremely heavy compared to most other rods I have used before. It also lacked sensitivity and balance. This rod unlike the one previously mentioned was a bait caster, not a spinning rod. I am a fairly experienced rod builder and I would say, even for the low cost it is still not worth the money. I am not sure if this is because I have a firm grasp of the pricing of the materials that go into a rod, or because I am privileged enough to be able to fish with some of the more high end bass fishing equipment available. After this first bad encounter with the rod I went to the local tackle shop and took a look at some of the rods. The easiest way to see how much care is taken in building the rod is to check and see if the guides line up with the backbone of the rod. I went through every Skeet Reese rod in the store; none of them had properly placed guides. Throughout my time spent building rods I have come to the conclusion that if the guides are not placed on this backbone it can cause extreme loss of power on a hook set due to the rod bending in a direction other than directly opposite of the fish. Overall, I would say these rods are not a good buy for most anglers. If I was purchasing a lower end rod I would defiantly lean more towards buying a Dobyns or Mojo rod before a Skeet Reese.

I dont know how you can pick up a rod in the store and determine the guide spacing is wrong. Did you static test every rod you picked up? If not you have no way of knowing and as JoeJ said alot of custom builders are building on the straightest axis. Tests have shown that the "backbone" as you call it means nothing in building a rod

[Jwags]

X3. Spine has no functional value in rod building. When fishing, it's impossible to detect whether or not the rod you're using has been built on the spine. The only time you can detect the spine on a rod...is when you're testing to find the spine. It's the old kind of stuff that someone made up one day and said ,"Hey, we should build rods on the spine!"

Reminds me of the old PA deerhunters who used to say "Once a spike, always a spike." Boy, they couldn't have been more wrong!

jeremy

[Musky Glenn]

Seems like spine was more noticeable with older fiberglas than graphite. Musky Glenn

[RayburnGuy]

OK guys, I have absolutely no experience with rod building and these may sound like a dumb questions, but I sure would like to get a better grasp on this.

What exactly are you calling "the spine"? Is it located in only one spot on a rod blank or can the rod be turned to any degree of a circle and the part of the rod that faces up be the spine?

And if the guides are supposed to be placed along the spine what about spiral wrapped rods? (never used these either)

thanks,

Ben

[smalljaw]

OK guys, I have absolutely no experience with rod building and these may sound like a dumb questions, but I sure would like to get a better grasp on this.

What exactly are you calling "the spine"? Is it located in only one spot on a rod blank or can the rod be turned to any degree of a circle and the part of the rod that faces up be the spine?

And if the guides are supposed to be placed along the spine what about spiral wrapped rods? (never used these either)

thanks,

Ben

RayburnGuy, the spine of a rod is where the natual bend of the blank occurs. Some believe placing the guides along the spine, on top for casting, bottom for spinning, makes a difference and others think it makes no difference. As for the Skeet Reese rods, if you use braid they are ok I guess but I don't care for them, I have a great shaky head/finesse jig rod that I got in September. It is a Fenwick Elite Tech smallmouth spinning rod, 6'9" medium power, extra fast action, the reel seat is incredible, the rod is very sensitive, I was feeling bites in 26' of water using a 3/16oz shaky head on Berkley Trilene 8# XT. The XT has less stretch than a lot of other mono line but I can only imagine how sensitive the rod would be using flourocarbon or braid. Anyway, if the original poster is unhappy with the skeet reese rod, try the Fenwick, it is an awesome rod and I loved it so much I just got a casting rod in the same series.

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks Smalljaw. I really wasn't interested in the Skeet Reese rods, but was just curious after reading about locating the guides along the spine. Especially on the spiral wrapped rods. And I haven't heard much about this type of rods in a good while so they may not have caught on anyway.

thanks again for the explanation,

Ben

[BobP]

Ben, guys usually want the spine of the rod to be either up or down, for the esthetics if nothing else. It's naturally disconcerting to sight down a custom rod you just got and see the tip bending off to the left or right. As far as spiral wraps go, they always start at the top of the blank and transition to the bottom, so the spine is still in line, whether it's turned up or down.

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks Bob. I know when buying rods I always looked down them to see if they were straight, but just thought they were a bad blank if they curved off to one side of the other.

[piratefishing]

I have it. It will catch fish. Just not comfortably. The blank is terrible. Once I get a new drop shot/spinning rod it's going to be a hammy down for the girlfriend.