Westin W2 SBass 9' 9-35g lure rod rod review - at £94.99, another very interesting sub-£100 rod

I don’t know if it’s because lure fishing for bass seems to be getting more popular here in the UK, but I would suggest that even during times of increased prices for almost everything, we have never had it so good when it comes to really good lure fishing tackle for very sensible money. A while back I reviewed the very good, sub-£100 Sakura Ryokan 902MH 9' 9-35g lure rod, and for this review I am taking a look at another sub-£100 lure rod, the £94.99 Westin W2 SBass 9' 9-35g. Same sort of price, same sort of specs, but have we got another winner here?

In a word, yes! I am not at all privy to how Westin are going at the “SBass” lure fishing market, but I have to take my hat off to them for launching a “budget” lure rod like this. There are also two longer 9’6’’ SBass rods in this W2 range, rated 9-35g and 12-42g, plus a rather interesting 4-piece travel version at 9’ 9-35g. Just because a lure rod around the £100 mark might be 9’ long and around the 35g rating does not make them all the same though, but something’s going on out there. As with that Sakura rod, this new Westin W2 SBass 9' 9-35g is a cracker.

The handle length on this Westin rod is closer to being the right length for me and how I like to fish when compared to the Sakura rod, and I recognise the shape of the Seaguide SXOHLSG premium Guides. We used Seaguide guides on those roughly £150 Savage Gear SGS5 rods, and I really like them. Braid just goes out so well through these guides. I also like the Seaguide XVS reelseat that Westin has used on this rod.

I have learnt a fair amount about what you can and can’t get into a lure rod blank at different price points. When you find a good rod at around this £100 price, you can actually get a hell of a lot of good stuff - as with this particular rod - but the one thing you don’t quite tend to get is the level of subtlety in the tip that you can find when you spend around £50 more on something really good like like our new Savage Gear SG4 Defiance rods or the awesome Favorite Totem range of rods. This isn’t remotely a complaint I might add, because material costs are what they are and the likes of Westin are creating to a specific price point here. I give the company a lot of credit because it does feel like they have got as much subtlety into the tip on this W2 SBass 9’ 9-35g rod as they could for the price - but £50 more on exactly the right rod does buy you a touch more. Just like you get more with my Epic Berlingo over say an Audi! It’s unavoidable, and note the words “right rod”. For the money, this thing is a peach.

It’s a bloody good lure fishing rod when you start fishing with lures from say 14g and upwards. For sure you can cast a 9g lure on this 9-35g lure, but then you could technically also cast a 9g lure on an 8oz beachcaster if you needed to. If the equivalent Sakura is a weapon, then this particular Westin rod does have a touch more precision when you start cycling through the different lures. Get it in your hands, strap a spinning reel to it, and go out fishing. I can bang the 35g Seeker an absolute mile on this rod, but it also makes a hell of a good fist at fishing something like either of the Gravity Stick Paddletails on a weedless hook with no belly-weight (something I don’t do enough of I might add). A surface lure like the very long-casting Savage Gear Slap Walker 125 goes out a mile and fishes very effectively at range, but I also want my 9-35g rod to bump the smaller Savage Minnow Weedless 10cm/16g around.

And this Westin W2 SBass 9' 9-35g does it pretty damn well. If you want to spend no more than £100 on a lure fishing rod that will potentially do all of your bass, wrasse and pollack fishing, AND you need the rod to grow with you as you branch out into different techniques, then you need to see this thing. I know I have said it a bit recently, but it genuinely is incredible how good a proper lure rod can be these days for very sensible money. You all have a good weekend. I am grabbing my passport and heading up to Essex to do some TNT Sports fishing commentary with their Andy Ford at the massive Penn Crouch Open competition on Sunday……………….

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