Glenn May: Hey, folks. Glenn May here with BassResource, and I'm here at ICAST 2015 with Keith Combs, pro angler, been on the circuit for years and years now. Keith, why did you choose Batson rods?
Keith Combs: Well, I had a really unique opportunity with Batson components. I fished with Power Tackle rods for the longest time, and we kind of teamed up this past year. We're using all Batson components because they have everything. That's one thing I liked about them. When I went to them and went to their factory and kind of saw what they offered, it's such a wide variety of quality products, and for me that was a big deal because I want to match a rod to a certain technique. Having that variety of a quality product, that's key. That's a big deal for me. So it was a good match.
Glenn: Okay. I've been looking at some of their products here, and I see they have the Eternity rod blank, the Immortal rod blank. I know the Eternity is their top of the line, and I know some people immediately flock, like, "Okay, I'm just going to get the top of the line one," but there's actually specific techniques and purposes for the different types of rod blanks. I know you have a couple different ones. Why did you choose like say the Eternity over the Immortal and vice versa?
Keith: Well, there's ... the Eternity is a great rod blank, but actually for my signature line, we chose several different blanks, and it was just all about the feel. It's what I was looking for that technique. Maybe they had an Eternity rod blank that felt good as a worm rod, but they didn't have exactly what I was looking for in an Eternity for a spinning rod. So we went through and put on multiple different variety of blanks, hundreds of blanks, and they have a lot to offer. We just matched them to what I think the perfect rod would be.
Glenn: So for example, what do you have set up for a jig rod?
Keith: Well, I have two different jig rods. This one right here that I'm holding, this is a 7'6 jig rod. I have one for flipping. I have a jig rod for casting. I have a finesse jig rod. So I have several different models. But I think you need to be, and that's something that they offer is so many different options that you can get very specific and you can match a rod to that specific technique, which is going to help you catch a lot more fish.
Glenn: Exactly. For example, I was looking at this. You have to see this here. This handle, this is a carbonite handle. It's made out of carbon fiber with this unique lock washer here to help get that reel seat locked in place. Walk us through this a little bit. What do you have here? And you also customized it a little bit, didn't you?
Keith: Yeah, we did change it up. Number one, one thing that I'm looking for in a reel seat is I definitely don't want my reel to loosen up in a pocket. I don't want my reel to pop off. When you're flipping heavy braid or something like that, or even when you're cranking and you have a rod that has a lot of flex, it does happen. So what we did is we went to a double lock nut, and with that, it's going to make sure your reel never loosens up. It never comes off in the pocket. You're never going to have a reel pop off when you're fighting a fish. So that was a must.
I always want to have a finger on the blank. So you see we have a blank through here. We also have one back here. I don't have a foregrip, so actually I have three fingers on the blank at all times. That's going to add a lot of sensitivity. It's also going to cut down on weight. You may say, "Well, that's not going to cut down on much weight," but when you're only dealing with a few ounces, that's a big deal.
The feature that you're talking about, we added a coating on here, and it's just a rubberized coating, and what it does is it just makes it very, very comfortable. It also makes it anti-slip in your hands.
Glenn: Okay. Look at this. They've got a couple of different ways you can do this reel seat. Here's the spinning, and you can bling it out with the blue anodized. Or here's another way to do it with bait casting. This is what it's all about. You can completely customize it out with top quality components, and the cool thing . . . your line, what do they retail for?
Keith: Well, our rods, they range in price from $189 to $230.
Glenn: Exactly. A lot of people would think a custom rod would be extremely expensive, but it's right in there with most other rods that you can buy off the shelf.
Keith: Absolutely. I challenge somebody to go out and really look at the key features that make a rod. We discussed the reel seat. We have a very high quality blank. We have 11 guides on here. They're double-footed, double-wrapped all the way to the top and a tip top. We have put the best components that we can find in a rod, and we still have a very reasonable price.
Glenn: Nice. Thanks so much, Keith. You guys, you got to go check this out.