13 Fishing Omen Black 2 rods

[RuddyDuck]

Anyone use these? Wondering how you like the casting versions and if you had any issues with this new version, such as Tip or eye breaking issues.

Thanks.

[Todd S.]

Dan-I got a 7' medium casting last spring, only fished it a little bit tho, but its a very nice rod for the money imo

[bassfshin24]

I have 2 of them and they are great especially for the price. I have a 7'3 M and a 7'1 MH. Very light and very sensitive. Seem like they are pretty durable too, at least compared to the first generation ones. I did like the first gen rods but man their guides were weak. 

Edited January 25, 2017 by bassfshin24

[Juan Grande]

I bought an 7-3 Omen Black 2 last year.  Like bassfshin24 said, quality rod with good sensitivity.  I did have one of my guides come unseated. It didn't fall off, but you can rotate it around the rod pretty easily.

[RuddyDuck]

Thanks for the reviews! I thought you had one Juan, but my memory was blurring a little. I just bought a Lews TP1 at Gander(20% off sale), but now was second-guessing myself if I should get the Omen instead. I thought they were higher priced, but the 7-1 is a little less than the 7-3. I do like the golf grip on the Lews though.

 

The one negative to the Omen is that bright shiney cork handle. All my other rods are EVA's and My wife would spot that thing on the garage rod rack like a Hawk on a mouse!  The Lews blends in with my other white rods. Tough decisions.

Edited January 25, 2017 by RuddyDuck

[bassfshin24]

Haha that's funny stuff. I haven't heard much about Lews rods. I did just read a post on another fishing forum about a guy that is sick of the Lews rods because they keep breaking. But I don't know what model he was using. I would give the Dobyns Fury lineup a good look at too. $110 is a great deal and they seem like really well built rods. I have one of them and my only issue is that the power is on the lighter side of things. I bought a 7'3 H for jig fishing and it feels way more like a MH. I bought it for a new jig rod and now use it as my buzzbait rod and C-rig rod. 

[RuddyDuck]

That seems to be the tricky thing with rods, you never know how they really feel and fish, until you fish with them.

 

[MN BassFisher]

I have 2 of these rods and I have had no problems so far. They feel quite light and have worked well in battle with Bass up to 4.5lbs, no giants yet but soon 

[MN BassFisher]

On another note, I was at Gander getting a few items for a recent Ice Fishing trip up to LOTW when I noticed on an endcap they had No. 8 Tackle (sister company of 13 Fishing) rods on sale. I picked up a Hellbent MH Casting rod (HB2C7MH) for $25 to try for my soft plastic frogging. I'm sure it will have its flaw but for $25 I'm going to find out! It feels much better and significantly lighter than the Mojo Bass I'm replacing.

[RuddyDuck]

20 hours ago, MN BassFisher said:

On another note, I was at Gander getting a few items for a recent Ice Fishing trip up to LOTW when I noticed on an endcap they had No. 8 Tackle (sister company of 13 Fishing) rods on sale. I picked up a Hellbent MH Casting rod (HB2C7MH) for $25 to try for my soft plastic frogging. I'm sure it will have its flaw but for $25 I'm going to find out! It feels much better and significantly lighter than the Mojo Bass I'm replacing.

 

I tried one of these last year. Looks decent and stuff, but I broke the tip lifting in a 1lber once. Then I got another and one of the guides was all rough on the outside. I returned that one too and gave up on them. Think I had the same one as you. Not sure how it will work for frogs but for $25 it should work for something. I thought the action wasn't that stiff. I tried it for t-rigs, but it really wasn't very sensitive even with flouro. Then again with a retail of $60, I probably shouldn't of expected it to be.  I thought it would maybe make a better spinnerbait, swimjig or chatterbait rod. 

[MN BassFisher]

3 hours ago, RuddyDuck said:

 

I tried one of these last year. Looks decent and stuff, but I broke the tip lifting in a 1lber once. Then I got another and one of the guides was all rough on the outside. I returned that one too and gave up on them. Think I had the same one as you. Not sure how it will work for frogs but for $25 it should work for something. I thought the action wasn't that stiff. I tried it for t-rigs, but it really wasn't very sensitive even with flouro. Then again with a retail of $60, I probably shouldn't of expected it to be.  I thought it would maybe make a better spinnerbait, swimjig or chatterbait rod. 

That's good to know! Yea, I'm not expecting much seeing the retail price and considering I paid $25 but thought I'd give it a try. I'll try to put it through the ringer this season and see how she performs. The only other No. 8 Tackle product I've used is the Hellbent Aramid ML rod for Walleye's and it actually performed quite well this last season. I thought it was very sensitive, I could feel crayfish pecking at my jig/minnow in close to 30fow. It also had enough backbone to bring a fat 24.5" eye off the bottom in 32fow and enough bend to keep the jig pinned in it's mouth during some big headshakes and runs.