Savage Gear SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g lure rod review - around £200+ (this rod is much more versatile than the rating might suggest)

I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse about this review, but I had nothing to do with any of the SGS6 rods from Savage Gear. I do know the bloke who helped design them all for the European market (of which we are technically no longer part of I guess), but I was never part of the SGS6 process. I wasn’t sure if any of these SGS6 rods were ever going to appear on our market, but out of the blue a couple of them appeared here at home and I can find a few of them on UK tackle websites/shops if I go looking………….

But this Savage Gear SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g rod wasn’t actually one of those rods which arrived out of the blue. There is a 9’ 12-42g version which did arrive and which I have fished with a fair bit (it’s so my kind of rod), and because it was quickly apparent that it was doing more for me than the more powerful 12-42g rating might suggest, I then asked if I could please see the shorter 8’3’’ 12-42g version which I am reviewing here today. If we are talking about shore based lure fishing for bass only here then I wonder if there’s much of a market in the UK and Ireland for a rod like this. Until I got to fish with this rod I don’t think that from “my” SGS5 and SGS8 point of view I’d have ever requested at the very least a sample of a lure rod which could deal with 42g lures at “only” 8’3’’ long - boat fishing often requires different rods of course - but the lad in Europe who got a rod like this made obviously understands the different markets and anglers.

I have sometimes been accused of only liking the lure rods I review on here before which is sort of missing the point of me doing these reviews on my own time and having no inclination to spend time fishing with stuff I don’t like, so I am sure you have already worked out that I kinda like this SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g rod. And I do, but in fact I seriously like this rod. I don’t happen to obsess about lure rod lengths and I enjoy fishing with different lure rods because it interests me on a number of different levels, but even so I wasn’t quite sure how a rod rated 12-42g might work at 8’3’’ long. This might not seem like much to you, but you need to bear in mind that I can’t recall fishing with a lure rod rated over 35g which has been under say 8’6’’ for a long time now. By all means give me an 8’3’’ lure rod rated say 5-25g, but 12-42g? Mmmmm………

The tip and the way it works on this rod is just sensational though. I have had a few waggles with the lighter SGS6 8’3’’ 7-25g, and whilst I can see it having interesting potential as a somewhat lighter lure rod (but I can’t pass judgement on a rod I have hardly fished with yet), in truth that rod feels a touch tippy to me for my more general use - which is why I was so interested to see what they did with this more powerful 12-42g version. I am surprised there is no 7-35g version of the SGS6 8’3’’, but with how versatile the tip is on this 12-42g I have been fishing with I guess there was almost no point. As I was alluding to in the title of this blog post, you sort of need to slightly ignore what 12-42g might imply, because this rod is way more versatile or all round than you might think. It’s so easy to fish with. It can easily put say the 40g Surf Seeker out there at full power and the rod isn’t straining at all, but it’s when I fish with the more regular lures that we might use, that’s when this rod really comes to life for me. I was surprised at how far the Patchinko or the almost stupidly long-casting Slap Walker 12.5cm/20g surface lure go on this rod, and I really like how good it feels to bump my Savage Minnow Weedless or Sandeel V2 lures along the bottom on a “shorter than I have been regularly fishing with” lure rod. I do like how fishing with the rod tip up to work lures along the bottom like this feels considerably more efficient with a shorter rod.

Nobody asked me to look at or review this rod by the way, but by fishing with it like I have, it’s made me reevaluate how I think about rods like these. Give me a while with almost any length of lure rod that I like fishing with and it can soon feel pretty normal in an applicable environment, but I can’t get away from how good a sub-9’ rod feels in the hands when I am using certain techniques (yes, you guessed it, I love fishing the different models and sizes of Gravity Sticks on this thing). This SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g rod can obviously land any bass we might ever hook in the UK or Ireland, and for all my liking say a 9’6’’ or even 10’ lure rod for big surf fishing, in reality you could of course fish with a rod like this if you were so inclined. I do think that there are times when a longer rod can really help, but don’t let anybody tell you what to use if you like doing it a different way and it works for you.

MY GO-TO FISHING RODS, REELS AND LINES

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MY GO-TO FISHING RODS, REELS AND LINES //

I have to use the word “sharp” to describe this SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g lure rod, because it is, but the tip on it is more subtle than 12-42g might suggest. Call it a rod that can efficiently cope with a 42g lure, but don’t let that 12g lower end rating suggest that dropping down to something like the smallest size 10cm/10g Slap Walker surface lure (missile!) is in any way a compromise on this rod - because it isn’t. You know how I can’t stand fast lure rods with soft tips which collapse, and this SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g rod is miles away from that sort of rod, but the tip also isn’t a poker. This rod wouldn’t be nearly as good if it didn’t have a lot of subtlety in the tip section, and I like how a slightly more powerful rod can feel if it’s as good as this thing. I could easily use this rod for a huge amount of the bass fishing I might do, and I would hazard a pretty good guess that it would also be a fantastic rod for chucking lures for wrasse as well (it’s on my list to do).

I don’t know what this rod weighs but it feels very light to me, as indeed it should. The fixtures and fittings all seem to be good (Fuji stainless steel SiC K guides), albeit the Fuji reel seat is a touch fiddly with its dual locking sort of system thing. I like the actual design and feel once the reel is secured in place, but for bass fishing I don’t personally see much need for a dual locking thing. I can’t tell you how the rod balances with different spinning reels because firstly I don’t really understand about the whole balance thing - I’d rather fish with a rod and reel instead of trying to balance it on my forefinger - and secondly because I have only used my beloved Penn Slammer IV 2500 reel on this rod and it’s such a stunning outfit to fish with when set up like this. I don’t know if any of you here have any interest in a lure rod like this, but if you have ever hankered after say the very expensive and rare as rocking horse doodoo Shimano Exsence Genos “Wild Contact 90” S90MH/R 9' 8-48g lure rod, then I implore you to at least have a waggle with this stunning Savage Gear SGS6 8’3’’ 12-42g rod. No, it’s not the Genos because they are two different rods at very different prices, but I can do just as much with this SGS6 12-42g as I can the Genos, and in many respects I prefer the way the tip works on the much cheaper rod for lighter lures especially. This Savage Gear rod doesn’t seem to be that easy to find here in the UK yet, but I have found a few Ebay links and used them in this blog post. You all have a good Platinum Jubilee weekend, isn’t the Queen pretty amazing?

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