Price & Applications: The Epitome is the most advanced Edge rod built to date, and the X-Ray Air Carbon blank utilizes both the company’s newest graphite and resin blends, along with a new process and tooling. With all these attributes I don’t think anyone would have been surprised if Edge priced the Epitome as a flagship product, with pricing above the $500 mark. Gary, Aleks, and the Edge team decided that the Epitome needed to be a statement maker, and to do that they wanted to put the new rod in as many hands as possible, and thus launched the rods with an aggressive price of only $295, and $495 for two-piece rods. This is an excellent price for a US made rod with this level of performance and quality. It helps when you own your own in-house blank production including some of the component supply chain.

Competitors often have signature butt caps, on the Epitome there is EVA foam. Not a long of "bling" here.

The MBR725-1 is in keeping with the idea that a mag-bass rod can be used for a variety of bass applications. I found it on the lighter side and very good for fishing contact baits 3/4oz. and below, but the more moderate taper also makes it surprisingly versatile for moving baits like smaller bladed baits and even some hardbaits where the rod is capable of absorbing shock and keeping trebles pinned. Though the rod can feel very light at times when there is a fish on the line it feels lively and will load up in the mid-section, and I found it a very fun rod to fish for both largemouth bass and smaller stripers.

Though the Edge Epitome MBR 725-C is a lighter medium heavy rod it also behaves with an unexpectedly fast action, making it feel both crisp an quite versatile. This rod is very well suited for fishing contact baits but that more forgiving action under load also makes it surprisingly good for fishing reaction baits like smaller crankbaits, jerkbaits, and even blade baits.

With the more moderate lighter power that I observed with the MBR725-1 I am really interested to see how a true Heavy or X-Heavy blank would feel with the new X-Ray Air Carbon design. The team is working on two new swimbait rods, and I am very curious how they will handle heavy baits and vicious topwater strikes.

The more I fished the Epitome the more I found it exhibited a very fun personality and I found myself constantly wanting to fish it more to experiment with more and more baits. Short of pitching and throwing big baits this rod is surprisingly versatile

As mentioned earlier Edge offers blanks for a variety of builders but the only place that anglers can get the Epitome currently is directly from Edge. The team admitted that they only have a certain amount of capacity today, and it makes sense that with a limited amount of production they would reserve resources for their own signature brand. The good news is that Edge is making both complete rods as well as Epitome blanks available to the public, and hopefully supply will ramp this year.

The Epitome is also certainly capable of fishing bladed jigs

Anglers that are already fans of Edge rods likely have already ordered an Epitome, but those that haven’t sampled an offering from the brand should consider these rods. The Epitome looks and fishes like a much higher end rod than the price would suggest. The Epitome is arguably the best Edge rod that Gary has ever built, and it is without a doubt the best value when considering performance per dollar at the $295 dollar price point. Which brings us to availability. The current MBR 725-1C has been so popular that it has gone through periods of selling out since the launch. When I checked the company’s buy page, I found that the price was posted at $495 and listed as on “backorder,” but if you try and purchase the rod it cannot be added to cart.

The Epitome pairs well with almost every reel. While the Zenon was perfect the Revo reels were not bad on this rod either

I reached out to the team at Edge to confirm the current/official retail price and Aleks helped provide some additional color. The 725 casting is currently on backorder and not available to purchase until they catch up on current orders, and the system defaults to an MSRP of what the rod would cost if sold through traditional retail. He confirmed that once Edge catches up on orders and turns ordering back on again the factory direct price of $295 will display. As of the publishing of this review Edge does have the spinning version (MBR725-1S) available for purchase at the $295 price, but my guess is that this too will go on backorder once word gets out.

The Epitome fishes like a much more expensive rod and is just as refined and sensitive as many rods retailing for twice as much, or more

I was glad to hear that the $295 price point is still current on the Epitome rods, but supply has been an ongoing challenge. The high demand has put stress on the company’s fiber supply, and I hope that Edge is able to increase their output as this really is a great rod for the money, and I really would like to see more Epitome rods become available from the originally planned bass line, and swimbait specific sticks. Based on what I've seen on other swimbait rods that make use of NFC blanks, like the Leviathan Omega, I cannot wait to see what these new generation X-Ray blanks can potentially do.

Rods like the Leviathan Omega make use of NFC blanks. I'm excited to see these new blanks and how they will feel configured as a light yet powerful swimbait stick

In terms of competition the Edge Epitome competes with other rods that bear his name but the most fierce competition may come from other rod manufacturers that are also embracing new graphite and resin blends and carbon grips like the new similarly priced Trika rods which retail for $299 and the Abu Garcia Zenon which retails for much more at $449. These rods do not feel as light as this Epitome rod but do come with their own merits, and another major factor that they have going for them is that they are readily available.