Flipping Week : iRod's Bub Tosh Punch Rod!

Total Score: 7.94 - GOOD - BEST VALUE AWARD!

Introduction: The warm weather is upon us and as the air and water heats up, bass move to seek shelter from the sun by burying themselves deeper and deeper beneath the matts and overgrown shoreline vegetation. For the avid bass angler, this means one thing. It's the beginning of one of the sport's signature seasonal techniques, flipping. We've gathered a handful of rods from the popular, to the obscure, to the new, to the rare, all to be featured in our first ever Flipping Week! First up, we take a look at one of the most affordable, yet hard to get flipping sticks on the market to day. Introducing our look at iRod's IRG7114P-H, aka, Bub's Punch Rod.

Quality/Construction: Since its debut, iRod's Bub's Punch Rod has been perhaps the most popular stick in the company's lineup. It's certainly been one of the more difficult to acquire as it seems to constantly be on back order.

Introducing iRod's IRG7114P-H, aka Bub's Punch Rod.

The IRG7114P-H is a seven foot eleven inch (7'11") stick featuring a split rear grip made of Eva foam and a kind of light satin finish over a sanded blank. The guides and blank on our test model were perfectly aligned and straight. Overall, it's a good, clean build though a little more care could have gone into the epoxy work towards the top of the rod.

This rod's guides and blank are straight and true.

Performance: I matched this rod up with an Abu Garcia Gen 3 Revo STX spooled with 50lb Suffix 832 braid. Half the time I fished the braid straight, the other half I tipped the line with a 20lb Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon leader.

Matched up with a Gen 3 Revo STX spooled with 50lb Suffix 832 Braid and ready for action.

Casting: Traditionally, flipping sticks are long, like right up to the tournament legal length limit long. While sticks approaching eight feet (8') in length can sometimes prove unwieldy to cast, with flipping sticks, it's all about pitching and of course, flipping. These are close quarter, stealth presentation techniques that allow the angler to precisely place their baits in a very small area within a given target. The longer your rod, the greater your pendulum, the better the distance you're able to achieve for these stealth presentations.

While flipping is a bit of a stealth presentation, punching is much more deliberate.

The IRG7114P-H has a good tip for presenting baits combinations in the area of half or three quarters of an ounce on up. Like its name suggests, this rod is designed for punching. Punching presentations are less precise than a traditional flip or pitch and there's really no stealth involved whatsoever. It's a pretty deliberate and unorthodox presentation and this stick handles what it was designed to do very well.

The IRG7114P-H features a lightly sanded blank topped with a subtle satin finish.

Sensitivity: 30-ton grade graphite is a good, mid-grade material that delivers the most sensible blend of sensitivity together with durability. Durability is the key when considering applications like punching. But thanks to iRod's choice in guides and the minimal grip design, the IRG7114P-H is better than I expected regards to sensitivity. The guides aren't the most glamorous you'll find on any rod, but the combination of a very small insert together with the SS frames delivers very good sensitivity to the blank.

Guides are Pac Bay Minimas featuring zirconia inserts.

Match this guide design together with a split rear grip, Fuji split reel seat and it almost feels like all you're holding while fishing is the blank. It is builds similar to this that will provide the best performance of which a blank is capable.

Flexing the rod's tip, it feels like a fast action rod.

But when loaded up with a fish, the bend is much more moderate and right where you want it to be for punching.