If you read this blog and look at the photos, you will have unknowingly seen plenty of photographs on here where me or a friend are fishing with these new Savage Gear lure rods which have just hit the market. I reckon we first started working on the (more expensive) Defiance SG8 and (cheaper) Defiance SG4 ranges a couple of years ago now, and I was heavily involved in specific rods within the ranges………….

From the start the head designer wanted to use the carbon handle designs you can see on these Defiance SG8 rods, and I wasn’t going to complain at all because I had such good experiences with these types of grips when I bought those two Shimano Exsence Infinity (sea) bass rods directly from Japan a few years ago. My understanding is that these types of carbon-style handles eventually became commercially available and I have fished with them so much now on these SG8 rods that anything else feels a little strange when I first pick it up. I made sure we went for the matt versions of these handles on these rods because the grip is really good with wet hands. All the new SG8 rods have a very different and more subtle look than the previous SGS8 range.

Here are some of the technical specs for the Defiance SG8 rods:

Synergrip Carbon handle design
Titanium Fuji SiC Guides
Rubberized Fuji reel seat
4X Wrap V2 carbon technology
Reset Accelerator Technology for extreme fast recovery of the blank (I have absolutely no idea what this means, but the rods are fast!)
Competition Ready-to-fish neoprene rod bag (so pleased with this, I was not a big fan of the SGS8 rod bag things, it was something that got somewhat lost in translation around Brexit and the pandemic)
Japanese Torayca 46T carbon blanks

And on the subject of the previous SGS8 range of lure rods. I keep a close eye on various “resources” out there, and over time I became aware of what sounded like a few too many breakages. I can’t help but take rod breakage reports with a slight pinch of salt because I very rarely come across an angler who would ever admit to angler error, but a few too many rods seemed to be breaking at one point and it was not right. I still have the final samples of the SGS8 rods here and they have been thrashed so hard for so long now with no issues at all, and I tried my absolute best to get to the bottom of what happened. I didn’t really get anywhere, but I do know that different factories have been used for these new Defiance rods. I also know that Savage Gear has implemented a far more robust quality control process to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. This sort of stuff is way out of my control I might add, but obviously I am one of the anglers on the ground who is heavily involved with this gear. I want things to be right and I am so sorry if anybody had a duff experience with an SGS8 rod.

The main Savage Gear rod designer also came up with the “look” and components for the cheaper Defiance SG4 range of rods, and when I got the first round of sample rods I was blown away by how good they look and feel in the hands. A completely different visual side of things to the previous SGS5 rods which I was a huge fan of, but changing things up was never a problem from my end and I really like how these cheaper rods look and perform.

Here are some of the specs for the Defiance SG4 rods:

Special shaped EVA handle design
Stainless Steel Fuji O Guides
2X Wrap carbon technology
Reset Accelerator Technology for extreme fast recovery of the blank (see above!)
Competition Ready-to-fish rod bag
Japanese Toray 30T carbon blanks

So what did we do to create these two new ranges of lure rods? I will mix in that info below, but there are various rods in both ranges which I had nothing to do with because they are intended for markets I am not involved with. Below are the specific rods which I had full involvement with:

Savage Gear Defiance SG8 rods:

Defiance SG8 8’6’’ (2.59m) 7-32g, 128g rod weight - we started from scratch with this rod above. Very fast and light but doesn’t remotely overpower the lighter lures.

Defiance SG8 8’8’’ (2.64m) 9-42g, 136g rod weight - we started from scratch with this rod above. I was after a very, very fast and precise, slightly more powerful, slightly shorter rod. Definitely one of my favourites.

Defiance SG8 9’ (2.74m) 7-32g, 132g rod weight - we took a fair bit from the original SGS8 9’ but made some specific changes to sort of open it up. Nice and fast and light, very easy to fish with, this thing deliberately won’t bite back at you and it’s meant to be a stunning allround lure rod with the sort of casting weight that will work for most bass anglers.

Defiance SG8 9’ (2.74m) 9-44g, 137g rod weight - we started from scratch with this rod above. Very fast, but deliberately feels somewhat different to the shorter 8’8’’ 42g rod above. This one is my go-to for the open coast when I am moving around and fishing different marks in changing conditions. I tend to look to fish into wind when I can on the open coast, and I can’t help but be a fan of tips that don’t flap around in the breeze and annoy me. When we got this rod right I was over the moon.

Defiance SG8 9’6’’ (2.90m) 7-35g, 148g rod weight - we took a lot from the original SGS8 9’6’’ rod with this one. If you like a longer lure rod for your day to day bass fishing then this thing is a peach. Very responsive, deliberately won’t bite back at you.

Defiance SG8 9’6’’ (2.90m) 10-45g, 151g rod weight - very close to the same blank as the original SGS8 9’6’’ 45g, and this is purely down to the fact that I think these blanks are as good as it gets for a more powerful 9’6’’ lure rod. Awesome rod, plenty of power but so easy to get at, I am a massive fan of this one.

Defiance SG8 10’ (3.05m) 10-45g, 167g rod weight - making a 6’’ longer rod that was similar in action to the 9’6’’ version wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but this is the one rod in the range which surprised me the most. It was going to take one hell of a rod to get me away from the (cheaper) SGS5 9’6’’ 45g for my surf fishing especially, but this new SG8 10’ 10-45g rod has done it. If a 10’ long lure rod can be effortless then this thing is it. Absolutely incredible lure fishing rod.

Savage Gear Defiance SG4 rods:

I am being entirely honest here when I say that I have always believed our previous SGS5 range of lure rods to be THE best roughly £150 rods around. It’s only my personal opinion of course, but when it came to producing the rods within this new SG4 range that I was going to be involved with, I basically said let’s start with the previous SGS5 blanks and make a few tweaks where we felt it was necessary. You can go on and on trying to change things for no reason if you aren’t careful, so damn right we started with the original blanks then made a few subtle modifications. I am genuinely blown away to have these rods on the market with such good fixtures and fittings and have them for a similar price or even cheaper than the original SGS5 range.

These are the Defiance SG4 rods I was directly involved with, and there are plenty more interesting rods in the range:

Defiance SG4 8’6’’ (2.59m) 9-35g, 147g rod weight
Defiance SG4 9’ (2.74m) 9-35g, 156g rod weight
Defiance SG4 9’ (2.74m) 12-46g, 169g rod weight
Defiance SG4 9’2’’ (2.79m) 9-42g, 159g rod weight
Defiance SG4 9’6’’ (2.90m) 9-35g, 162g rod weight
Defiance SG4 9’6’’ (2.90m) 12-46g, 172g rod weight
Defiance SG4 10’ (3.05m) 12-46g, 187g rod weight
Defiance SG4 10’ (3.05m) 18-56g, 196g rod weight

You can also find these Defiance SG4 rods here if that helps.

Defiance SG4 10’ (3.05m) 18-56g out in Portugal. It sends ‘em!

Note that I am not trying to tell you at any point here what sort of lures or types of lures I think might be best for each rod. I think it’s far too confusing to go down that route. Talk to one angler who likes a softer tip for soft plastics then talk to me who likes a stiffer tip and never the twain shall meet. Nope, we have deliberately made these rods to efficiently cast the range of lure weights within the stated rod casting weights, and the rest is up to you. I am bloody proud of these new Defiance SG8 and SG4 rods. I fish with them a hell of a lot because I quite simply want to, but nothing changes on this blog when I am so often messing around with different items of fishing tackle from a range of tackle companies because it interests me so much. You all have a good weekend and big thanks if you got this far!

Defiance SG4 10’ (3.05m) 12-46g out in Portugal

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Our brand new Savage Gear Defiance SG8 and Defiance SG4 lure rods are on the market