Review - the three 9’ Favorite Black Swan rods - 902M 6-24g (£280), 902MH 10-36g (£290), 902H 16-56g (£320)
I don’t envy the Ukranian fishing tackle company Favorite when it comes to trying to better this range of Black Swan lure rods. I have fished extensively with a fair number of these rods now, and not one single thing has got in the way of my early thoughts when I started to play around with the Favorite Black Swan rods. Compared to literally anything else I have fished with, these rods could easily be double the price and still be decent value for money. It’s only my opinion of course, but my opinion happens to be that the Favorite Black Swan lure rods are almost unfairly good……………
Thanks to some photography work I did last year with a couple of the Favorite lads, I got early access to these three specific 9’ long Black Swan rods we are going to talk about today - the 9’ 902M 6-24g, 9’ 902MH 10-36g, and the 902H 16-56g. I am not privy to why Favorite chose to release the shorter 8’5’’ versions of these rods before the 9’ ones, but it was interesting for me because I got to fish with the three 8’5’’ rods first, then I could compare the slightly longer rods when I got my hands on them. If you have already pulled the trigger on one or more of the shorter 8’5’’ Black Swans then you have got yourself some serious gear. If you haven’t got one but might be thinking about it, there are some subtle differences between the different rod lengths, and I think it makes for some interesting rods. These longer 9’ rods all have slightly longer handle lengths if that helps.
Let’s look at the Black Swan 9’ 902M 6-24g first then (read my review of the shorter 852M 6-24g here). It’s just ridiculous how good that rod is, and as I have begun to obsess about moving further up estuaries and fishing a lot with creature baits and other such lures I might work along the bottom or along the edges, I like the rod even more. This longer 9’ version is just as good for the lighter side of lure fishing if that is any help, but somewhat surprisingly perhaps, pushing the 6-24g design up to the 9’ length has seen the Favorite designer Ivan make the rod feel a touch more together if that makes sense. A slightly more powerful tip and the rod feels so much like one complete length of carbon with how it so seamlessly blends into itself. I love it.
This Black Swan 9’ 902M 6-24g is still very much an incredible lighter lure rod, but I personally feel a touch more comfortable pushing this thing a bit harder out on the open coast especially. If the heaviest lure you might fish is the regular Xorus Patchinko surface lure and the coastline you fish doesn’t need pretty bouncy conditions to get it going then I would suggest that this Black Swan 9’ 902M 6-24g could easily be THE one lure rod you need. Literally feed its lightness and responsiveness with a Shimano 2500 or C3000 spinning reel and you will have a setup that to me is as good as it gets. One of the really lightweight and more expensive 4000 or C5000 Shimano reels from the Vanford or Vanquish ranges also feel awesome on this rod. Casting and twitching the DoLive Sticks around on this rod honestly makes me giggle every single time I do it. It’s so bloody sharp and responsive and you can feel that bit more steeliness in the tip over the shorter 8’5’’ version. I can punch both sizes of my Savage Gear Gravity Stick Paddletails and Pulsetails around with such precision - they absolutely fly! - and I can really feel that unique kick from the Slender Scoop Shad paddletails when I swim them on this rod. Then I go and lose myself up a quiet estuary and there is little more I can imagine wanting from a lure rod. I do turn to the shorter 8’5’’ version of this rod more for the lighter estuary stuff I increasingly find myself doing - mainly because a slightly shorter rod is a touch easier for the ninja-fishing - but I’d be sorely tempted by the longer 9’ 902M 6-24g if I could get away with 24g lures and under for the bulk of my bass fishing. Which, let’s be honest, I can. I have used this rod in some pretty bouncy open coast conditions and it always surprises me how capable this thing is. A staggeringly good fishing rod which by rights should cost far more.
Now let’s get into the Black Swan 902MH 10-36g which perhaps we can call a more “standard” lure rod with how it’s rated up to 36g. There is nothing remotely standard about how this thing fishes though. I was already smitten with the shorter 852MH 10-36g (review here), but something about this slightly longer 9’ version sits even better with me and how I would use a lure rod like this. I have fished with a hell of a lot of 9’ long lure rods rated around the 30-35g mark, and I genuinely can’t think of one I prefer to this Favorite Black Swan 902MH 10-36g. Take everything that the shorter version can do but add a touch more power as the mid-section blends into the tip.
This rod can still do from light to fairly powerful - I can hit the 35g Surf Seeker as physically hard as I can hit a lure on this rod with not a hint of feeling like I need to hold back - but for some reason those extra few inches of high-end carbon fibre have slightly tightened up an already very sharp and responsive rod in that 852MH 10-36g. I’d happily take either, but tie me down and I’m going for this longer 902MH 10-36g. I have fished the heavier Penn Slammer IV 2500 spinning reel a good bit on this rod and as an outfit it feels great, but with how light these Black Swan rods are I can’t ignore how good the lighter Shimano reels do feel on these things. If there is a better lure rod that shares similar specs for literally any money out there then I haven’t come across it yet - bearing in mind yet again that we all like different things. I still don’t know how Favorite can sell a rod like this for a smidgen under £300 in the UK.
And now we can finish on the daddy of these three rods, the Black Swan 902H 16-56g. Tie me down and tickle me with creature baits and I would still say that the most impressive lure rod I have ever fished with is the shorter version of this 9’ Black Swan, the shorter 852H 16-56g (review here). Not because I always need a lure rod that is as capable of fishing 50g+ lures as it genuinely is a 12g lure, rather than overall the Black Swan 852H 16-56g is utterly ridiculous as a lure fishing rod. The slight feel of an increase in overall power with this longer Black Swan 902H 16-56g makes it feel slightly less accomplished to me if we are talking about a freak of a rod that genuinely can fish the 4.5’’ or 6’’ DoLive Sticks (rigged as per this blog post here) as well as a 40g or 50g casting jig - but as a rod that embraces the rough stuff and laughs at big boulder fields and masses of fizz? Give me this Black Swan 902H 16-56g over the more expensive Shimano Exsence Genos 9’ 48g rod any day of the week.
I have to laugh when something like the Savage Gear Slap Walker 125 or the Xorus Patchinko fly out on this Black Swan 902H 16-56g, and when those seas get hectic and I am bumping something like my beloved (both sizes of the) Savage Gear Sandeel Weedless V2 along and over rough ground, it’s something else. The feedback I get is as much as I can envisage feeling, helped massively by a tip that doesn’t bounce around and a lot of power throughout the rod. Plenty of power, but not nearly too much power to bite back at you. A somewhat easier and smoother feeling lure rod than that Genos 48g rod which has done me so proud, I love this cannon-type Black Swan 902H 16-56g - but the shorter 8’5’’ version is SO bloody good and versatile that if money were no object I’d like to own both! You all have a good weekend. Drink lots of water and cover up or slap on that Factor 50 sunscreen. How incredible is this weather?
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