HTO N70 Labrax Special N7094ML 9’4’’ 7-42g lure rod review - £394.99
You don’t need me to point out that we are not talking about a budget lure rod here, indeed at around the £400 price point the four N70 Labrax Special lure rods from the UK company HTO are aimed at the top end of the current lure rod market here in the UK where only a certain percentage of anglers either can or will spend this sort of money on a lure fishing rod. I have nothing to do with HTO but I have worked in fishing for a long time now and I know a lot of people in the industry. I was asked to take a look at these four lure rods back in about January I think it was, when the world was still normal and the phrase social distancing meant nothing to any of us. I took the rods out and went through the gears with a bunch of different lures, taking into account that the casting weights of the rods had not been set and the question was asked of me what I thought the rods could do. I remember being rather surprised at how light and responsive all the rods felt (8’9’’ 6-40g, 9’4’’ 7-42g, 9’9’’ 8-44g, 10’4’’ 9-46g) because all of them could also easily deal with 40g metals at absolute full power, yet when I clipped on a DoLive Stick or a smaller surface lure the rods felt absolutely sublime. Then the world went mad and out of the blue in August a finished version of the 9’4’’ HTO Labrax Special which I note was rated 7-42g arrived here at home for some further thrashing………………
There are plenty of people out there with far more knowledge than me of how a fishing rod is made and how one goes about describing things in a more technical way, but that’s not me anyway. How a rod works for me out in the real world is where I like coming from with these reviews. I will admit to holding back for a while with this review because it’s hard to describe this HTO N70 Labrax Special N7094ML 9’4’’ 7-42g lure rod when I honestly cannot recall ever fishing with a lure rod quite like it. It’s incredibly fine and precise in the tip, to the point that you think no bloody way am I putting a 40g metal on this thing, and it strikes me that HTO have taken inspiration from what is so good about the much cheaper Nebula, instead of going down the more Japanese style, now discontinued Shore Game route - if indeed there is such a thing as a typical Japanese (sea) bass rod. With regards to these N70 Labrax Special rods, I am thinking about the very slim and fine tips, fast actions with a lot of grunt in there, what looks like a slightly thicker butt section to help drive the rest of the rod, and in some respects a rod that just doesn’t fish like it looks. This 9’4’’ HTO Labrax Special looks like it’s going to be a longer, light lure rod when you look at its profile, but now put a heavier lure on and really go at it and it’s bloody amazing. I asked the question of a lad I know on Facebook who has bought one of these rods if he could try and describe it, and I reckon he hit the nail on the head when he said something along the lines of “it’s a really powerful lure rod masquerading as a light lure rod”. Exactly.
I thought I’d go asking a bit more about how this new family of rods came to be, and I managed to get this out of an HTO source: “By adding the m4 resin to the carbon we increased strength and elasticity. Basically, the carbon sheets the rods are made from are treated with the resin which fills in any gaps around the carbon atoms producing a much stronger and more elastic blank. Honestly, what we didn’t count on was the effect this would have on the action of the rod and when it came to testing we were, quite frankly, astounded. It seems that this treatment, as crazy as it sounds, made the rods almost seem adaptive to the weight of the lure that was being cast. So much so that it caused us to completely redo the casting ratings making them much wider than we ever thought possible. For instance we would put on a Patch 100 and whack it out and then all agree that yes, this is probably the perfect casting weight for this rod, ok, lets try something heavier and see what happens, lo and behold, every lure we put on we get the same result “ this is the perfect lure for this rod”, right up to like 45g. so basically everything from 9g to 40g that we put on felt absolutely perfect, hence the very wide casting ratings. So, yes, we accidentally made a rod that seems to adapt to the weight of the lure you are using, it’s alive!!!”
So this not remotely cheap HTO N70 Labrax Special N7094ML 9’4’’ 7-42g lure rod is rated to cast 7-42g lures, and because of my time with the four rods in the range at the start of the year, I tried to almost start again with it. 7g is perhaps a little generous at the lower end, but then again I don’t take any lures weighing only 7g out fishing with me, and I think this rod does really well with say a 10g surface lure in calm conditions. If I go on the rods I am so used to fishing plus the many rods which have come through my doors here at home, it’s incredibly rare to find a lure rod that can fish say 10-18g lures so well but then seriously not grumble a single bit when you clip on a new 35g or 40g Savage gear Surf Seeker and absolutely frigging belt it out there - and I mean this thing doesn’t feel like it’s trying at all. I really like the Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g (Jig Max 45g) lure rod that I reviewed the other day for example, but when you’re banging out a 40g metal you know to slow down with the rod a bit because you’re towards the top end and you can feel the rod asking you to do so to get the best out of it - not with this 9’4’’ N70 though. Not at all in fact. The mid-section of the rod just doesn’t feel like it’s straining at all, and yes, I have blasted heavier lures on this rod because I don’t own it. You can also imagine I am sure how far the Patchinko goes on this rod when you catch it right.
So this is what slightly freaks me out about this rod, and also in some respects I guess justifies what HTO are asking for it. I can fish all day long with this stunning little Shimano Stradic 2500HG-FL spinning reel strapped to this rod and I feel as deft of touch as I have almost ever felt with a bass lure rod in my hand, but then I can just as effectively secure by beloved and more manly Penn Slammer III 3500 reel (just noticed that it’s on sale here) to this rod and bang my new Savage Gear Surf Seekers and Sandeel Pencil 125 and 150 lures out into a proper bit of surf. It’s one of those rods which to me feels as nice in my hands with a lighter or a heavier spinning reel strapped to it, indeed I was night fishing last night with the Slammer on this rod and within about five minutes the extra bit of weight of the reel feels completely correct. By rights we should really be talking about two different lure rods here, but somehow the bods at HTO have gone and made a lure rod and indeed range of lure rods that are as versatile as my Shimano Exsence Genos S90MH/R 9' 8-48g lure rod which I still can’t stop stroking and is still the single best lure rod I have ever fished with - yet the two rods are very different and I like the fact that you can arrive at the same sort of solution via a few different routes.
From the HTO website: “Fitted to the blank are Fuji Titanium Framed Torzite 2 K spinning guides. We chose these guides as they are super light to fit in with the featherweight blank, they are also highly efficient. Their design dramatically reduces line twist and gives the line a much more direct motion of travel through the guides for more efficient and accurate casting. They are suitable for both braid, fluorocarbon and monofilament. A Fuji VSS reel seat completes the rod, with a Winn grip handle that is soft to the touch, provides excellent grip and is light.”
I really like Torzite guides on a lure rod whilst accepting that they do bump the price up, and a fair few years ago now I had a good feel of some Winn grip rod handles at the massive iCast show in the US and was interested to see some lure rods over here fitted with these grips. So we have that now with this N70 rod I have been fishing with, and as much as I like what are some fairly slimline Winn grips on the rods, there is no getting away from the overall handle design being a bit of a Marmite thing. I could easily live with it long-term but I can’t get away from disliking the fact that, as with the first generation of the HTO Shore Game rods, there is nothing but a double-locking couple of plasticy/non-grippy screw fitting things where the back of your reel-hand sits as you cast and fish with the rod - and I wish there was something tangibly grippy for the back of my reel-hand to naturally sit on when everything is getting wet especially. All is fine with the handle configuration on this rod until your hands get wet, but to be fair it’s not as if my hand suddenly starts flying off the rod. Perhaps it’s just me and how I prefer my grip(s) to be? The actual handle itself is a bit longer than on many of the lure rods I come across these days, but after a while with the rod I don’t even notice it.
My handle gripe aside, this amazing and not cheap HTO N70 Labrax Special N7094ML 9’4’’ 7-42g lure rod is almost the very definition of sharp and precise and wand-like. You’re not going to get loads of anglers dropping around £400 on a lure fishing rod, but at the same time this is such an easy rod to fish with and it would work well for so many bass anglers, yet at the same time it’s an incredibly technical bit of kit that I think rewards a good casting technique - not me then! - and puts lures exactly where you want them to go. Wind it up and it’s an absolute casting machine. I think it’s a ballsy move for a UK tackle company to sell lure rods at this kind of price, and I can’t help but respect HTO for sticking their necks out and going all out to make a range of four lure rods that stand on their own and can’t be compared to say your French and Japanese lure rods. To me this stunning HTO N70 Labrax Special N7094ML 9’4’’ 7-42g lure rod is more than able to stand out in an increasingly crowded market, and whilst as a consumer I’d obviously love a rod like this to be around the £300 mark, when compared to other high end lure rods I have fished with I have no complaints at the roughly £400 UK price tag. Yet again I am going to have to run away when the courier comes a calling to pick this thing up……………….
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