By the third day of staring at fishing tackle for 10 hours a day, you're pretty much becoming numb to sales pitches and industry buzz word lingo bingo. We wandered into the 13 Fishing booth Friday afternoon and it was a breath of fresh air. The company is young, energetic and offering a novel concept at least in their rod design -- the make everything.
We talked with Matt at length on what they are doing different and what they want folks to know. They obviously put a lot of thought into their brand, their image and more extra effort in their products. Their ice products took off last winter and they hope to have the same impact with their rods.
They are releasing two new bass fishing rod lines -- Envy and Omen. Their also releasing a unique young angler line called Ambition. They will also have new reels coming but they didn't have those quite ready for ICAST. So what is unique about 13 fishing. The make EVERYTHING. The hats in their booth, they made them. They didn't send off to a hat company to have them made. The rods in their booth. They made everything on them.
Take their Omen rods. They made the blanks, they made the grips, they made the reel seat, they even made the guides. Everything on the rod was made by them. And they improved on several designs that many rod makers all share. On the through grips that allow you to feel the rod blank, they exposed the blank on the side where your finger tip rests not where the back of your knuckle rests. Intuitive thinking.
We are going to be reviewing all their lines in greater detail later. But basically their high-end Envy series is what Stetson Blaylock uses on the FLW Tour. It has Japanese 40-ton Toray graphite blanks, custom made grips, recoil guides that will soon be replaced by improved guides of their own creation. The rods were light with a ton of back bone and very unique action fast and xtra fast action tips. Very impressive feeling rods. They will retail for $225-$260 depending on length and action.
The Omen rods are a step down with 30 ton Japanese Toray graphite, Evolve Titanium Y guides with Zirconian Inserts, 5-year limited warranty and a price point of $100-$130 depending on length and action.
Jason was excited about their Ambition rods, designed for kids who are beyond a "Snoopy" pole but not quite big enough for Dad's tackle. That's Jason's son Jett. He's 8 years old but only weighs 50 pounds. He can cast a spinning rod well but has a hard time fighting fish on a 7-foot rod. These rods will feature smaller grips and better actions for kids at a shorter length. Best part is they will be $30 for the rods and $50 for their combos. Awesome!
