At the very top of the Dobyns lineup is the Xtasy Series

Impressions: I remember fishing with Gary at Clear Lake the same month he first introduced his original Champion Series of rods. At the time Gary talked about his dream to one day offer a complete spectrum of rods, including not only a more affordable series, but also enthusiast rods that could rival even the most premium domestic and JDM offerings. At the time Dobyns was all-in on Kigan components, and the Champion Extreme rods provided a peek at what the company was able to do in terms of making rods that were both light and sensitive.

One of the key differentiators on the Xtasy line versus other Dobyns rods is the use of Fuji Torzite guides

With each season Dobyns Rods continued to refine their lineups, improving the actions and tapers for specific bass fishing applications, including refining, or in some cases, completely changing their blank materials in an effort to improve sensitivity and durability, and ultimately transitioned to Fuji components across almost all their rods.

The Xtasy Series took everything that the company learned while designed the premium Extreme HP Series and takes things to the next level with the combination of Toray Nano graphite blanks and Fuji titanium Torzite guides.

The Xtasy rods are designed to be the very best that Dobyns offers, and yet when you look at them they feature the most understated styling of the entire portfolio. There are no bright colors, orange or blue logos, and even the thread wraps are an understated silver and gold, which matches the overall grey tones throughout the rod.

Though the Xtasy makes use of modern materials the styling is surprisingly classic including full cork grip handles

Even the handles on the Xtasy Series feature the more traditional full grip, but look closer at the rods and the quality of the build shines through. The cork used on the rods is rated AAAA from Portugal and is some of the cleanest we have seen to date. The grips are finished with composite cork, gold rings, and an anodized aluminum recessed butt cap.

The rear is finished with some composite cork and an attractive aluminum DR recessed cap

The Fuji reel seat is finished with an aluminum and carbon fiber hood that attractively conceals the seat thread, and as your eyes transition up the blank you can see the Kevlar and carbon fiber wrap which not only adds durability but also gives the rod a bit more enthusiast appeal. Overall, the attention to detail in the Xtasy build is excellent.

The Xtasy Series consists of a relatively small lineup of only ten models, five casting and five spinning, that are all designed primarily for fishing contact baits and finesse applications.

Real World Tests: I fished the Dobyns DRX724C for two complete seasons targeting largemouth bass in the Delta, and other Northern California lakes. I fished the rod with a variety of reels, actually a lot of different reels, in an attempt to find my perfect pairing, and primarily spooled up with Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line and utilized the Xtasy across a variety of different techniques beyond just contact applications.

I paired the Dobyns with a number of different reels including the Shimano Metanium

There were multiple times over the last year that I started writing this review, and then I would discover something different about the rod and how it behaved in certain situations, ultimately changing the way that I fished the Xtasy, and also my eventual take on the entire series.

Next Section: Some unexpected attributes...