Keith Combs has established himself as one of the top bass anglers in professional fishing. He’s won three Toyota Texas Bass Classics, an Elite Series events and had several top 10s on both the Bassmaster and FLW circuits. He’s consider a master with a deep crankbait but is also very versatile with topwaters, spinnerbaits, and flipping jigs.
Being an accomplished and versatile angler gives him a good basis for designing fishing rods. He has been with Power Tackle Rods since the beginning and recently designed rods with them featuring RainShadow, ALPS, and ForeCast components from Batson Enterprises. I’ve been using a couple of his new Power Tackle Keith Combs Signature Series rods and thus far have had very good experiences with both the topwater rod and the spinnerbait rod.
What you will like about these rods
The Power Tackle Keith Combs Signature rods come in 10 models covering techniques from soft jerkbaits to deep crankbaits to flipping. The rods feature light Rainshadow blanks that offer very good sensitivity and great power and durability. They incorporate the ALPS Miniguide System as well as the ALPS Textouch blank through reel seat and dual locking nuts.
The Miniguides are small but not micro guide small, which I prefer. I like small lightweight guides, but I feel microguides have a lot of drawbacks on performance of a rod. This rod casts really well with very smooth and fast transitions from guide to guide. The tip is strong and durable.
The Textouch reel seat and dual nuts add a nice secure connection for your reel to the rod. The blank is exposed in the back of the reel seat so you are feeling the rod blank with your fingers as you fish and palm the reel. The reel seat is very comfortable and easy to hold and fish with all day.
The handles are an oversized light EVA foam. The grooved split grips give you great comfort but also great grip, even in wet conditions. The oversized rod butt gives you a nice cushion when you lay the rod against a rib and set the hook hard. Do that 40-50 times on a good day of fishing, and you will see what we mean about that rod butt.
My experiences
I’ve caught several bass on spinnerbaits and topwaters with these two Keith Combs Signature Series rods. The topwater rod measures 6 feet, 10 inches with an extra-fast action and medium power.
The spinnerbait rod features a fast action and medium power. It casts a 1/2-ounce and 3/4-ounce spinnerbaits equally well. It loads well on a hookset, and I could feel the vibration of the spinnerbait easily with this rod. The rod has good back bone for driving a single hook and absorbed the shock of short striking fish that hit close to the boat perfectly.
I had a couple good afternoons catching some big bass on spinnerbaits with the spinnerbait rod and really got to see what these rods could do having to feel my spinnerbait coming through brush, getting a bite, fighting a big bass up and away from cover. Very impressed with the actions and power of the rods, the lightness of the blanks and the comfort of the grips.
I could roll cast both rods easily around cover and isolated targets so they had very responsive tips and I never felt the rods were ever overpowered by the weight of my lures.
These rods retail from between $199 to $235 a rod depending on the length and action purchased. You can find them at tacklewarehouse.com, powertackle.com or retailers that carry Power Tackle rods.
