Colt Series Rod Review

Friday, September 8, 2017

Colt Series Rod Review
by Justin Broulliard

First Look:
Visually, the Colt is another sweet looking rod. Everyone loves a good rod that performs on the water, but nothing beats a rod that looks and feels good in your hands. These rods are balanced and feel good, plain and simple. The actions are what you would expect from each model if you have any previous Dobyns experience.

I had a tournament on Sunday so I planned to spend a long day Saturday looking around the lake. I have been on the water quite a bit this year but I have not had the opportunity to go out by myself and cover water. I spent hours looking at my Humminbird Electronics looking for isolated cover that holds smallmouths. With that said, I wanted to try the new rods and catch some fish!

On the Water:

CL 705CB:
I began the day in search mode looking for largemouths. I was tossing a Lucky Craft Jerk bait on this rod looking for bites. I got into a little stretch where I was able to catch a few on consecutive casts. The action on this rod is perfect for throwing a jerk bait a long way, but it’s also strong enough to rip the bait from the grass. I was locating a group of fish with the jerk bait and then slowed down and caught them flipping.

Another use I have from this rod is throwing topwaters. It was deal calm and I was dying to see if I could get a surface bite. The water temperature had been declining due to colder nights and I thought some fish may be shallow. I threw a Krank5Baits custom painted Whopper Plopper 90 around some grass and quickly had a bite. The fish was smaller and did not require much to get it to the boat. On to the smallmouths!

CL 734C:
After an hour of not finding any quality largemouths, I knew I had to check some smallmouth stuff. My partner for the tournament has been catching some quality largemouth and if I could find some smallmouths, we would have a good shot. I graphed for about 4 hours before fishing again but I wanted to catch a few and see if the quality was there. I tossed around a 3/4oz Football Jig on a tapering point with the 734C. Typically, I would limit this rod to 1/2oz baits but I needed a heavier jig and wanted to see how the rod reacted.

As expected, it worked flawlessly. I have always thought that the 734 was a great rod for flipping smaller baits in grass because it’s not hard to use all day but it does have a significant amount of power! I was able to grab a few 2.5 # fish and saw all I needed from the area and the rod. I look forward to doing some light Texas rigging in the grass with this rod this fall!

CL702SF:
This time of the year, when I am on the water, I usually have a few different rods rigged up with a drop shot. I was very excited to give this rod a shot! After a few more hours of covering water with side imaging, I found a small group of fish relating to a large boulder on the end of an unmapped point, in about 36 ft. of water. I spun around and dropped an X-Zone Slammer Mini up ahead of the boat. Instantly I hooked up and fought a good sized small mouth around the boat. During practice, I do not use a landing net so it took some careful playing to get the fish within hands reach. The rod was impressive and I continued about my day!

As I continued to scan around, I made way over to a large flat in the main lake. I began looking around the mapped humps and contour changes with no luck. I spun around and headed towards deeper water, zig-zagging, looking for a needle in a haystack. I was watching bass live on my phone and happened to look up to catch my screen filled with bait. And when I say filled, I mean lots and lots of bait, with fix mixed in! I marked a few fish scattered in between. My first drop, I hooked into a big fish. It immediately came to the surface. I was able to scoop it up and get in the boat. A 4.75# smallmouth according to my spring scale and back into the water. This is a spot I felt confident we could do some damage the following day!

CL703SF:
Once I had found the motherload of what looked to be good sizes smallies, I tried to duplicate it other places with no luck. I ended my day tossing a Tube bait on a 1/8th oz. weight Although I only caught one more small largemouth, I knew I needed a more finesse tactic for tournament day when we were fishing in the grass. My partner was dialed in on the largemouth and I wanted to give them something else to look at. The 703SF was awesome. I figured in the future this rod would service a whole lot of different tactics. Sometimes with a drop shot I like to up the weight to 2/3 oz. and size up the rod. This will more than be enough rod for that heavy weight, but it also has a very similar tip to the 702. All around great rod for lots of different things.

Final Thoughts:
The tournament day went exactly how we had planned it to be. We started on largemouths for a few hours without a big bite. We moved to the smallmouth school I had found and went to work. Rotating between a Champion Series 702SF and the new Colt Series 702SF, we were fortunate to get 5 big smallmouths into the boat before losing a solid fish. The school stopped biting and we spent the last part of the day flipping grass. We culled 2 times with solid green fish and finished the day with 6 fish for 23.47# for the win! It was cool to spend some time with a brand-new series rod and put them to work and immediately find success.

As with any series in the lineup, I am comfortable with any rod in my hand on tournament day. Given the performance of the Colt Series, and the awesome price point, I would rate the rods higher than the Fury Series, and equivalent to the Sierra Series rods. As I have said before, I like having extra rods in my locker than can handle multiple different baits and this series allows me to do just that. With 8 rods currently available in the lineup, covering many different presentations and techniques, it’s a no brainer to have these rods available and ready to use at all times.

Quick Notes/Comparisons:

• The 705CB Colt Series seemed to be faster of a CB rod than the Fury or the Champion, but it still had the power.
• Side by side, the spinning rods in this line up felt identical to the Champion Series, and maybe slightly lighter than the Fury Series.
• With a 6’9” option in the spinning rod line up, I am looking forward to picking a couple up for lighter drop shot and ned rig baits. Typically, I use heavier weights than most on a drop shot but there are days when a lighter option would be beneficial to me.
• The 734 in any series is becoming my most all around used rod. The Colt is no exception. This rod can be used for so many different tactics!
• Once of the best features of the Colt Series is the feel. The rod feels good in your hands, with a comfortable grip and the Hi-density Hypalon is actually very appealing.
• The Colt Series is technique specific, designed with Dobyns history and reputation in mind. Gary designed these rods to allow you to grab and go on the water for popular presentations at an affordable price.