I�ve had a few Dobyns Rods. They all were the older gray Champions. The 735c is one of my favorite rods.

Ever since I moved to San Diego, I�ve gotten into saltwater fishing big time and I recently decided to order a Champion 734c from TW for light surf fishing with jerkbaits, swimbaits, topwaters and spoons. Most of those baits i�ll throw are between 3/8 and 3/4 oz with some 1 oz baits being thrown occasionally.

None of the stores around here have a lot of Dobyns in stock right now but I felt pretty sure the 734c was what I wanted so I went ahead and ordered one.

When I got my 734c I was pretty surprised at how different the action was from the older gray champions. The new black/blue rods seem to be slightly faster.

So my question is.... can I really use this rod for jerkbaits? I�m a little nervous it�s going to be slightly too fast for jerkbaits.

I really need to get the best out of one rod for all of those approaches. With surf fishing, I only bring one rod with me and a backpack and walk a mile or two down the beach.

Do you think it would be better for me to keep this rod or exchange it for a 733c? I throw a lot of 4� swimbaits on a 1/2 or 3/4 exposed hook jig head so I don�t need to set the hook through plastic or anything like that. I think the 734 would definitely be better for swimbaits but again, I throw a lot of jerkbaits too.

Another thought I had was that I read some of the other Dobyns series of rods are slightly slower and more moderate in action than the champion series? Maybe another 734 in the Sierra or fury line up would be better for me?

Appreciate the input. Thanks!

The 734 is VERY similar to the 733, maybe a tad bit slower, but not much. It should work fine for your application. If you do not like it, I would go to the Fury rod, as it is a tad slower as well. Hope this helps. PM me if you want furth questions answered. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

I have several Dodyns rods in various weights. The 734 is hands down my favorite for many things. Really an �all around� rod for many baits. Dobyns descriptions of their weights with the terms �heavy�, �med-heavy�... are not as heavy as they describe them(IMO). Their �4� weight rod like the 734 is listed as �heavy� which it is not(to me). The numbers for example stand for: 7�3� rod and �4� weight = the 734 model. The 734 is med-heavy at best(to me). That being said I love the 734 for almost everything. Buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, medium sized swimbaits....and for soft plastics(�worm fishing�) and jigs it is perfect for everything except really big jigs or plastics(10�-12� worms....). I have a 733 and use it for smaller square bills, Yellow Magic�s, small swimbaits, great jerkbait rod...but feels to soft/light for most everything else for my style/taste in bass fishing. The 733 is definatly faster but noticeably lighter in weight also. Last summer we spent a week in Destin Florida and I brought along a 734 and it worked great for surf fishing for me using spoons, crankbaits, topwaters.... I might be a little bias but you can�t hardly go wrong with the 734 for almost everything.

Hmm, thanks. It's difficult since I've never actually fished the 733/734 or 703/704 rods but I bumped into a friend on the water yesterday and he had one of the gray 703c rods. It felt like an awfully fun rod that would have the tip I might need for some of the lighter jerkbaits.

I actually just got out of a tackle store about an hour ago. One rod caught my eye. It was the Curado 7'6 model in a medium/moderate action rated for 3/8 to 1 oz. lures and #10-25. It has a light tip but still a fairly powerful backbone and it sort of felt like I could whip a spoon a long way out there with that rod. Looked to be one of those really fun rods, but wasn't sure the tip would be enough for the 1/2 oz to 3/4 oz. swimbaits I also fish a lot of the time. Hmm. Decisions, decisions!

Do you think I could actually cast a pointer 78 with the 734c? Just make a decent cast and get it out there fairly decently with something like a Curado 200e7 with 30 lb. braid and a short fluoro or mono leader?

The 734c is rated for 1/4 to 1 oz. and a pointer 78 is 3/8 oz. but I just sort of have a hard time convincing myself I can fish something that light on the 734c if needed.

Still on the fence... Tag and the handle wrapper still on the 734c.

It really a personal taste thing to some degree but like I said above while I love the 734 and it�s my �go to� for most everything. Jerkbaits however are actually one of the things I like the 733 for. Most jerkbaits do not cast the same as say other baits that weigh the same. For instance: you can cast a 3/8oz spoon a mile(with any rod) but a 3/8oz jerkbait is completely different. Tends to tumble in the air, catch the winds.... So for these I prefer the faster tip and lighter weight of the 733.....but we are kind of splitting hairs on this.

361v, I definitely agree with you. I think the rod will be fantastic for 3/8 oz lead head swimbaits but maybe not so much for the smaller jerkbaits. I just need to be able to cast that bait decent enough into some of the close by troughs and holes.

It�s just that I�m still a bit surprised at the change in blanks. I think if I had this rod in the older gray blank, i�d definitely go with it and make it work. This black/blue blue blank has me stumped. It really doesn�t seem to have that same type of slightly moderate to fast action all of the gray rods had. This one seems much faster. Hmm. Wish there was a store around here that had the new 733c in stock!

Appreciate all of your help. This pix is from maybe two or three years ago. This is my first ever halibut and it's a little hard to see in the picture but I got it on a Dobyns Champion 735c and a Lucky Craft 110 jerkbait.

I had been struggling with figuring those halibut out, and then once I got my first one, it started to become so much easier and now I now get a few legal sized ones over 22" every year. My PB halibut is at 30". That was an amazing fight out of the surf on a 4" swimbait tied to #50 sufix 832 and #20 Big Game leader on a Phenix M1 711ML and a Curado 300e. Definitely had the right gear that day!

The 734 and 733 are fast action rods. I only have experience with the 734, but to me, it's more of a mod-fast action. When I spoke to Dobyns about the rod, they suggested the same thing, and mentioned it's the preferred rod for spinner baits, buzz baits, and horny toads. The rod has a much more parabolic bend to it compared to their extra fast action rods. For jerkbaits, Dobyns suggested the crankbait series rods. I use the 704 graphite crankbait rod, and it works very well. You could you use the 765 or 705 graphite cb rod, if you wanted a heavier rod for salt water fishing.

Thanks, I ended up fishing the 734c yesterday. It's a pretty cool rod. A little too much for the smaller jerkbaits, but I can throw those baits out there decent enough. it's a really cool rod and I think I might eventually want to get a 733 in spinning for when I'm throwing mostly the lighter stuff.

Cool story, though. I ended up going to mission bay for 45 minutes right around sunset to fish from the bank just so i could throw the 734 for a bit. A monster school of corvina came through right at sunset blowing up on baitfish and there were massive boils everywhere . Those fish were probably in the 5+ range and bigger. Those fish grow up to 10-11 lbs mostly. I had the smallest and lightest jerkbait in my tacklebox tied on at the time. I was fumbling around with my box trying to tie a big topwater on to reach those fish. In that minute or so, they blew through the area and moved out to the middle of the channel, probably around 100 yards away....

I kept on hoping they'd come back through the area and move back into casting range but they never did. Dang....!!!!!!!!! With corvina, sometimes they're gone as fast as they appear!!! Definitely awesome seeing that, though.

I also have the 733 and 703 spinning rods. The 733 is very different compared to the 703, not just 3" in length. The 733 has a lot more back bone and less tip.

5-20, I will tell you what I tell all my clients when I am guiding! THROW WHAT YOU GOT, THE FISH ARE EATING, MOST OF THE TIME, YOU JUST NEED TO GET IN FRONT OF THEM AND NOT MATCH THE CATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless the lure wasn't heavy enough to cast to them. Hope this helps next time. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

Sometimes.... you guys....give me the Forrest Whittaker eye