Welcome to Part 1 of the Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide. (You can read the Introduction to this Guide here) The first piece of tackle we are going to look at used for punching heavy cover is the rod. All rod’s are not built equal when fishing the nasty stuff. A rod used for punching/fishing in extreme cover has three primary functions. The first is to deliver a bait (weight, skirt, hook and soft plastic) that can be up to 2 or 3 ounces into almost impenetrable cover effectively. The second is hook the fish. The third? Keep it hooked, and extract it from said cover. Obviously rods designed for tossing spinnerbaits or fishing dropshot, or even a worm and jig rod will have characteristics that make those rods perfectly suited for their particular applications, but they wont work so well when applied to others, like using a dropshot rod for chunking spinnerbaits. Lure weights, actions and power are dialed in for each rod and make it difficult to fish these rods across applications, resulting in inefficient casting, inefficient hooksets, lost fish, and tackle failure. These differences in rod designs and styles are magnified considerably when you are looking at fishing cover that amplifies the stress on all aspects of your fishing tackle to limits that normal tackle would fail miserably (and spectacularly).
So how have rod companies and pros approached designing their technique specific punch rods? First up we look at major rod manufacturer Wright & McGill’s approach.
Al Noraker of Wright & McGill worked with Skeet Reese to design his new punch rod:
“Skeet asked me to build him a very fast, stiff and powerful rod for punching through thick hydrilla and weeds with 3 ounces or more of weight. He wanted a rod that could then get fish out of very heavy cover quickly and hold up to heavy braided lines. The rod will built is 7’11” long, is rated for 50-80 pound line and 1-4 ounces of lure wt but can easily handle more. The rod tip is stiff and the butt section is very heavy. Skeet loves this rod for this purpose and uses it often.
Bob Myers of Wright & McGill regarding the blank technology Wright & McGill used for the punch rod:
“S- Curve Technology. This process combines T – Glass with High-density graphite as the core of the blank. Carbon yarn, PBO fibers and glass fibers are then woven into a combination of T-Glass and high-density graphite. It is then wrapped by carbon tape and high density graphite to eliminate cracking and to increase breaking strength.”
Skeet Reese and Wright & McGill’s thoughts on their rod design reflect the harsh realities of fishing in heavy cover. Tackle durability when subjected to nasty cover is a big concern.
Next, we go from one end of the rod market spectrum from the major manufacturer Wright & McGill to a lesser known, but just as viable rod maker, ALX Rods.
Technique Specific FTW!
Alex Dziengielewski, owner of ALX Rods had this to say about his company’s approach to the design of their punch rod, the ‘Power Bolt’:
The BNF Special/TFPS rod blank under load, showing the flex characteristics that ALX rod designer Alex Dziengielewski uses as starting point for his punch rod design.
What we’ve found is a couple things – this is based of pro staff and customer feedback – you need a rod that is stout and can absorb all that impact, you have to be able to set a very heavy wire hook, and you need the rod to stay buttoned up. A more moderate action – the blank flexing a little deeper than your worm rod – is a huge help for absorbing impact and staying buttoned up. The tip is less likely to be flexed past the point of failure since it bends further into the blank. You also get more power because you fight the fish in the middle of the rod blank.
Hooked up and loaded up with the ALX TFPS “BNF Special” rod in real world conditions. You can see that this rod performs exactly as Alex of ALX rods has designed it, with a smooth parabolic transition from tip to backbone.
This blank (the TFPS blank, ed.) was really designed for this purpose, so there wasn’t a lot we had to do. It was really important during design to space the guides with the flex of the blank so you didn’t create more stress in certain areas. This technique just lends itself to potential issues, so maintaining a solid guide train spacing is key.”
The rod designs these two designers have come up with show variations in design philosophy, but for the most part have been different executions on the same theme: a heavy powered graphite rod from 7’6″ to 8’0″ with a softer tip that transitions into the backbone of the blank in a smooth, parabolic fashion. Why these attributes? The longer lengths give greater distance when pitching, more line take up on a hookset and greater leverage when prying big bass from that gnarly cover. Combining this with the rod blank’s heavy power gives it the backbone to set the hook effectively in the midst of the nastiest junk, and the power to muscle the fish from its location quickly. The soft tip allows for smooth pitches and flips, and allows the angler to impart subtle action to the bait once it penetrates the surface. The softer moderate fast to fast action tips of punch rods have just the right amount of give and flexibility deeper into the blank to minimize the loss of fish on the hookset and extraction, giving the angler a little easier task when fighting the fish, but sacrificing pure fish moving power due to the softer, gradual, parabolic transition from tip to backbone.
Here’s an extreme example of what happens when pure fish pulling muscle in the blank is sacrificed (sacrificed is a little harsh, compromised might be a little better, but still, there was a sacrifice made in backbone vs. tip) with a little softer tip for fishability. The rod just didn’t have the oomph to get to get the fish up and out of the nasty stuff quickly enough. To be fair, it also could have been that I didn’t set the hook quickly enough and the fish got down and deep into the junk before I had a chance to get it turned. Either way, you can see that two-handed pressure on the rod has the blank stressed down to the handle and the rod has no muscle left to give, so I’ll have to take the boat in and get the fish.
The attributes of the heavy power blank but softer tip flexing deeper into the blank are accentuated by the use of reels with locked down drags and the lack of stretch inherent in braided line that put additional stress on the rod during all aspects of Punch Hoggin’ heavy cover.
And now, here is the beauty of having so many rod companies with different design philosophies, a completely different approach and solution to the same problem of designing a rod to fish in extra heavy cover effectively.
I recently had the great opportunity to talk with 2007 BassMaster Classic winner and owner of Duckett Fishing, Boyd Duckett, about his company’s newly released extreme heavy cover specific rod, the White Ice “Terry Scroggins Pro Series Model DFWI78XXH-C, and how it was conceived and executed.
Boyd Duckett with his new White Ice Pro Series rods.
Boyd Duckett has been fishing competitively since 1977 (age 17,) and in 1979 fished his first travel circuit; Jerry Rhyne’s ‘Fisherman’s Bass Circuit’ , with such notable anglers as David Fritts, Mickey Bruce, Peter T, Rowland Martin, Hank Parker, Orlando Wilson etc., and has purchased, used, enjoyed, discarded or broke more tackle (good and bad products) than most regular anglers will ever see (even hardcore tackle junkies!). An already successful businessman, he started his company Duckett Fishing in 2009 to bring the highest quality, cutting edge, no compromise, focus driven, fishing tackle to the everyday angler at an affordable price. Duckett Fishing manufactures it’s rods from the ground up; from the concept and design of rods on paper and CAD, to rolling and manufacturing their own rod blanks and components, to the finished product that you see on tackle store shelves. That ‘in-house’ manufacturing allows Boyd and Duckett Fishing the freedom to create highly technique-focused fishing rods without sacrifice or compromise.
When it comes to XX heavy cover, XX heavy power technique specific rods, there are a LOT of rods on the market to choose from, (in the rundown at the end of this article you will see just a small fraction of the rods available), and typically, a traditionally designed and manufactured super heavy powered rod uses a blank with more material and wraps of graphite to achieve it’s strength, resulting in a heavier and unbalanced rod.
When Duckett Fishing was designing the White Ice Pro Series line of rods, Boyd approached his pro-staff member Terry Scroggins about designing his ‘perfect’ signature rod. Terry Scroggins, (known on the B.A.S.S tour as ‘Big Show’ and as arguably the preeminent XX heavy vegetation/grass mat/flipping angler on the tour) was unimpressed with the extreme heavy cover, super heavy power rods available on the market at the time. He felt that the available rods weighed too much, were unbalanced, or both, making them uncomfortable to fish for extended periods in extra heavy cover. He wanted Boyd to create the ultimate no compromise rod that was all power and strength, no sacrifice given to anything that would impede applying maximum leverage and power to the fish, and that had just enough flex in the tip to pitch 1+ oz. lures. He also wanted it to be as light as possible and perfectly balanced and be as capable using 65-80 lb test braided lines as it was 25 lb test fluorocarbon (a must in clear water or pressured XX heavy covered situations). A tall order, even for a company that can build any rod blank it desires and that supplies blanks to numerous outside rod companies, but Boyd and Duckett Fishing were up to the challenge.
Utilizing Duckett Fishing’s rod building and manufacturing capabilities to it’s fullest, Boyd began to design Terry’s ‘XXH’ rod the way he designs all of the rods for Duckett Fishing, from the ground up. For the XXH’s blank, Boyd didn’t use an off the shelf blank from his extensive stock (Duckett Fishing also manufactures blanks for other rod companies), but applied an extremely labor intensive dual helical bias blank rolling process that Gary Loomis had used and perfected in his salt water blanks in the past at G.Loomis to create a blank focused only on achieving the goal of extreme strength and durability combined with ultra light weight and balance. This entailed starting with a carbon fibre scrim base for extra strength without adding weight, then using the highest quality Toray T800S graphite prepreg material in multiple 45 degree cross wraps to achieve the desired ‘XXH’ strength and power without any excess material and weight. Additionally this process, along with the specifically designed shape of the prepreg sheets enabled Boyd to keep the more of the blank’s weight near the butt of the rod, a necessary part in achieving the all important balance that Terry was looking for.
At this stage, many rod companies would be happy to wrap some standard guides on the blank, put a trendy split grip handle and reel seat on it and be happy to call it a day. Boyd and Duckett Fishing however are not that type of company. Boyd Duckett, the man credited with introducing the micro guide into main stream rods over 4 years ago, was only getting started. He designed a new, heavier framed micro guide (0.71 compared to 0.50 for a regular micro guide, a thickness increase of around 30%) with nanolite rings to help the tiny guides withstand the rigors and pressures fishing with heavy braided lines without grooving and cracking.
The placement of these heavy duty micro guides was also critical to the balance of Terry’s XXH. With standard, non-micro guides, there is a liberal amount of leeway (up to an inch) of guide placement on a blank without a noticeable decrease in performance. However, with micro guides, it is critical that rods have the precise combination and spacing, and this combination and spacing changes for each type of blank and application. With it’s custom rolled blank that was designed with weight distribution as one of the primary goals ( resulting in more weight in the butt end of the blank), Duckett Fishing was able to have more guides near the tip of the ‘XXH’, achieving maximum sensitivity due to the number of guides being placed optimally where they were needed for line management and sensitivity (sensitivity = line contact on the guides transmitted to the rod blank, therefore more guides at the tip increases the line’s ‘movement and vibration’ transmission to the rod blank, hence to the angler). This higher number of micro guides near the tip was incorporated into the rod design and is instrumental in achieving the goal of perfect balance for the XXH.
Boyd then used an in-house designed reel seat with a deeper reel foot cavity than normal to ensure that a reel’s foot would be locked down tight and unable to pop out or shift during the extreme duress the reel would be put through during home run hook sets and fighting giant bass in thick masses of vegetation (check 1:40 to 2:10 of my Fishing And Messing With GoPro video for an example of this occurring haha!). The 17.5” long handle/grip/reel seat area was located on the blank at the precise point where maximum leverage could be applied to the fish. The 17.5″ handle is long enough for an angler to use their body as a fulcrum for leverage or to tuck under their arm when extracting reluctant bass from nasty cover, and is ergonomic and comfortable when performing fishing related functions like pitching, working baits, hook setting and reeling with 1-3 oz baits in unforgiving cover during long days on the water. The lighter ‘split grip’ handle configuration (again designed into the rod from it’s conception) was used in place of a ‘full grip’ configuration due to the inherent balance in the blank construction and is made of EVA (Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate) foam for durability and comfort.
So, take this indepth process, build a prototype, fish it hard in the worst conditions and cover imaginable (Florida and Alabama), work out the kinks, rinse and repeat half a dozens times trying different lengths and configurations, until the rod design is precisely 7’8” of exactly what you’re looking for in a pure power extreme heavy cover rod, choose a color for the rod, and you’re good to go, ready for shipping right?
You couldn’t be more wrong. Even something as simple as a rod’s color has been thought out by Boyd. He believes that a plain black graphite blank is the most visible rod shade/color for the fish to see against a blue or cloudy sky. Add that rod moving and jerking around while pitching and working baits while physically close to the cover and that wise old kicker bass that’s seen it all before might just get spooked and leave the vicinity. Since the fishing world and average angler isn’t ready for a sky/baby blue rod, the next best color is white, which is what Boyd has chosen. You would think that the White Ice color chosen for the rod is too bright with the sun shining on it and that it would be even worse than a black rod, but you’re looking at the top of the rod. The fish sees the bottom of the blank, which is shaded and a nice neutral gray that blends in with clouds and sky nicely.
The XXH rod Boyd Duckett and Duckett Fishing created for Terry Scroggins ended up being exactly what they had set out to achieve:
– a no compromise, no sacrifice, no nonsense rod with just enough tip to pitch 1+ oz baits perfectly, and that applies unadulterated power and leverage immediately upon hook set to bass in the worst types of cover imaginable .
– a perfectly balanced 7’8” XXH heavy powered rod that is extremely sensitive due to it’s use of the highest quality graphite and precisely placed micro guides.
– a rod built with the best heavy duty components available for utmost durability, which meant making them in-house, resulting in the confidence to fish in and withstand the extreme forces involved in XX heavy cover fishing.
-a rod that offers the angler precisely balanced handling and ergonomics tuned specifically for extreme cover fishing.
As we can see from the previous examples the rod designers from Wright & McGill and custom builders like ALX rods discussed, Duckett Fishing has a wholy different approach to the tip and taper of their XXH for compared to the Wright & McGill Skeet Punch Rod and the ALX Zolo Power Bolt/BNF Special rods. While those two companies employ a softer parabolic taper (imagine a ‘C’) that blends into the backbone farther down the blank, letting the rod do some of the work and therefore more forgiving to the angler but sacrificing power, Duckett Fishing employs just enough tip flex to pitch baits effectively, ( more of an ‘L’ ) that transitions immediately into the full power of the backbone. This delivers maximum power and leverage to the fish, and relies on the angler’s skills to fight the fish effectively. Two completely different approaches, three if you consider Wright & McGill’s innovative use of S-curve glass and graphite composite technology. Which philosophy is the best? There is no easy answer, but the best aspect to all of this is that you as the angler get to decide by honestly assessing your XX heavy cover fishing skills, tendencies and preferences, and by getting out on the water and fishing.
Below, you will find a breakdown of some (but not all) of the available technique specific rods for punching heavy cover.
| Brand | Model | Length | Power | Action/Taper | Guides | Handle Length & Grip | Lure Rating | Line Rating | Price(USD) |
| ALX | TFPS “BNF Special” | 7’11” | Heavy | Mod Fast | 11+tip | 15 3/4″ (full) | 1/2 -3 | 25 | 240.00 |
| ALX | Zolo-B Power Bolt OBC795MF | 7’11” | Heavy | Mod Fast | 11+tip | 11″ | 3/8-3 | 25 | 195.00 |
| Tackle Warehouse |
Max Punch Rod Heavy 806CF | 8’0″ | Heavy | Fast | 10+tip | 15 3/4″ (split) | 3/4-2 | 50-80 braid | 169.99 |
| Powell | Max Medium Heavy 7105 | 7’10” | Med Heavy | Fast | 10+tip | 15 1/2″ (split) | 1/4-1&1/4 | 12-25 | 169.99 |
| Dobyns | Champion Flip Heavy 805 Flip/Punch | 8’0″ | Heavy | Fast | 10+tip | 15″ (full) | 3/8-2 | 15-30 | 249.99 |
| Megabass | Black Jungle F8.5-710 XBJ Punching And Swimbait | 7’10” | 8.5 | Med Fast-Slow | 10 +tip |
16″ (full) | 3/8-6 | 16-30 | 679.00 |
| Quantum | Tactical 7’11” Heavy Hack Attack | 7’11” | Heavy | Moderate | 9+tip (micros) | 14 1/2″ (split) | 3/8-2 | 15-30 | 139.99 |
| Wright & McGill | Skeet Tessera 7’11” Punch Rod | 7’11” | XHeavy | Extra Fast | 9+tip (zirconium) | 17″ (split) | 1-4 | 50-80 | 89.99 |
| St. Croix | Rage 7’11” Heavy | 7’11” | Heavy | Mod Fast | 12+tip (micros) | 14 1/2″ (full) | 1/2-2 | 14-30 | 170.00 |
| iRod | Genesis II 7’11” Bub’s Punch Rod | 7’11” | Heavy | Moderate | 9+tip (micros) | 17″ (split) | 1/2-2 | 50/70 (braid) | 149.99 |
| Duckett Fishing | White Ice 7’8″ Extra Extra Heavy DFWWI78XXH-C | 7’8″ | XXHeavy | Slow Taper | 11+tip (micros) | 17.5″ (split) | 1-3 | 80lb (braid) | 209.99 |
Stay tuned for updates to this rod chart as I get more information on different rods.
Coming soon, the next installment in the series: Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing’s Punch Rig Guide to Reels
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide: Introduction
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 1: Rods
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 2: Reels
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 3: Line
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 4: Weights + Stops
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 5: Punch Skirts
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 6: Hooks
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 7: Plastics/Baits
Punch Hoggin’ With Bass Nasty Fishing: The Punch Rig Guide Part 8: Technique and Strategies
Bass Nasty Fishing 