If you read my blog then it’s pretty obvious that firstly I find lure fishing tackle really interesting, and secondly that I am a complete sucker for the shiny stuff. But what also floats my boat in a big way is finding more “budget” priced lure fishing gear that is really rather good. A lot of anglers can’t or won’t spend huge amounts of money on high end fishing tackle, and these days especially with how cheaply so much stuff can be made, there is no good reason why the lower priced stuff can’t be bloody good. Three years ago the HTO Nebula 9’ 7-35g lure rod appeared on the UK market and because I thought at the time and still think now that it’s an incredible lure fishing rod, it’s been my go-to, around the £100 mark lure rod ever since then. The problem is though that the 9’ 7-35g Nebula actually has an RRP nearer to £150 now, rather than the £119.99 it was when I reviewed it here, and for reasons which I guess are largely down to the current mad state of the world, it’s a rod that is often out of stock here in the UK. The same with the cheaper but arguably a bit better suited to a wider range of anglers, the Maximus High Energy-Z 27M 9' 7-35g (review here). A fantastic rod, but how often are they in stock?

I don’t know whether a company like HTO went and developed the Nebula range of lure rods by themselves, but completely by mistake I went and stumbled upon the same blanks being used by a different tackle company a while ago. Those rods are not available here in the UK so it makes little difference anyway, but my understanding is that there are a bunch of different ways in which a tackle company might go about bringing fishing rods to market. You can choose to believe me here or not when I say that I have taken it upon myself to go looking for some cheaper lure rods, it’s me doing it off my own back for no other reason than I want to. Nobody has asked me to do it, and please bear in mind that we are not talking about me developing or not developing lure rods with Savage Gear - that would be something else entirely. Savage Gear are part of Svendsen Sports, and Svendsen Sports own a bunch of different brands. There are some really good fishing tackle companies out there, but I simply can’t imagine any of them saying to somebody like me “go on Henry, have a look through our catalogues and see if you can find any decent, cheaper lure rods”. The way they work is simply not set up for more off the cuff stuff like this to happen, but because of my relationship with Savage Gear, I am able to get access to some of the gear from Svendsen’s other brands. A while ago I thought why the hell not, so I’ve been trawling through a bunch of trade catalogues and then asking to see some specific rods………..

The top of the range SG sea trout lure rod being put through its paces in Denmark

Now I might be doing some work with Savage Gear, but the fact is I know very little about their fresh and saltwater lure fishing rods. I went through their rod catalogue and asked to see a particular lure rod and it doesn’t do it for me at all, but via some advice and suggestions which came out of something I put up on Facebook the other day, I have a few more ideas for Savage Gear lure rods which I am going to try and get hold of and see what they are like. I did have a few casts with their top of the range sea trout lure rod over in Denmark before the world went mad, and whilst I could tell how serious the rod was, Scandinavian sea trout lure rods tend to have very fast actions together with what I would call relatively soft tips to try and help protect hookholds in a fish which is notoriously good at shedding them. If you like these types of lure rods then I would urge you to check out some of the specialist sea trout saltwater lure rods, but in general they are not for me.

For various reasons I don’t want to shout about the lure rods I have been asking to see yet, save for the fact that I can’t find most of them here in the UK and/or they are nowhere near the bass lure market, Svendsen Sports as I said own a few different brands, when I go looking at the Euro prices and then convert to £UK we are talking about lure fishing rods which should be under the £100 mark if they ever ended up here in the UK, and I can assure you that whoever is responsible for the rods I am asking to see has no idea what I am doing. None of these rods have been made with bass lure fishing in mind, indeed I wonder how many UK anglers are aware of just how much lure fishing there is in freshwater especially all throughout Europe, so it’s been a case of me looking for the right rod lengths and casting weights, and then asking the grownups if I can please get hold of a few and see if they might be any good for our fishing. I can only do this because I can get access to this kind of gear, and it would obviously make absolutely no sense for me to go randomly buying spinning rods in the hope that I find a good one. There are most likely a bunch of European spinning rods out there which could work well for at least some of our saltwater bass fishing, but because of my access I am concentrating on Svendsen Sports brands.

It’s so good when the cheaper gear gets put through its paces and works so well

And I have come across three rather interesting spinning rods recently, with one of them in particular being a serious standout with how nice it is. I have to assume that most “regular lure weight” freshwater based lure fishing in Europe is done with lure rods of 9’ or less, because I haven’t yet been able to find a lure rod longer than 9’ for the weights of bass lures which the majority of us might fish with. I don’t personally mind because 9’ would be my preferred length of lure rod overall, but it’s interesting how the traditional European route with the longer rods tends to be for much heavier lures, and that if you want longer rods for the more “regular lures” and how we tend to fish for bass here in the UK and Ireland, we tend to need to look to Japan and their (sea) bass rods. I don’t actually know yet whether I can “encourage” the grownups to make available any rods which I come across and really like, but I’m going to give it a good go because three of these rods I have stumbled across so far are more than interesting, and one in particular easily goes up against anything else I have come across with similar prices and specs. At the end of the day I am hardly going to change the world here, but what’s the harm in having a look and seeing if I can help make some really good, cheaper fishing tackle that bit more accessible? I would argue that we are already doing it with our new Gravity Stick soft plastics and Surf Seekers when you look at the prices they are selling for - pricing is nothing to do with me I might add - but if I get my way then there will be more and more of it……………….

Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

I’ve set myself a task - to find some really good lure rods for not too much money

© Henry Gilbey 2023