1 hour ago, Eynt said:

Smaller companies like Kistler was a completely different experience.  I broke a zbone model within warranty and they said they would give me a big discount to replace it.  But the discount was based on inflated MSRP so it was essentially the same original price I paid when they ran their sales.  I opted just to throw the rod away.   Have not bought Kistler since. 

Wow that's awful

4 hours ago, Eynt said:

 I broke a zbone model within warranty and they said they would give me a big discount to replace it.  But the discount was based on inflated MSRP so it was essentially the same original price I paid when they ran their sales.  I opted just to throw the rod away.   Have not bought Kistler since.    

Same experience.   $199 to replace a broke Helium that I paid $199 new.

  That was pretty disappointing. 

      I was also disappointed in the Heliums when they switched from NFC blanks.

 However, I will say that five of my favorite rods are all Kistler.  I just need to avoid breaking them.

4 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

it's cause Pfleuger discontinued their upper-end casting reels. I still consider the Patriarch one of the best casting reels out there

Same, Ken. 

15 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Same experience.   $199 to replace a broke Helium that I paid $199 new.

  That was pretty disappointing. 

      I was also disappointed in the Heliums when they switched from NFC blanks.

 However, I will say that five of my favorite rods are all Kistler.  I just need to avoid breaking them.

I like his spinning rod handles. I’m not a fan of split grips but I love the way he does them. Sucks the way he does warranty/replacement. I haven’t needed it but…

Done with Dobyns, no phone support. Replacement guides? Please allow three weeks for delivery.

4 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

Done with Dobyns, no phone support. Replacement guides? Please allow three weeks for delivery.

Wow. That’s disappointing. I remember back in 2015 I broke a tip top guide (totally my fault) and called to ask for a replacement. They said they would send it out no charge. When I received the box, it had 2 new tip tops in it. I was very happy with their customer service at that point.

20 hours ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

Done with Dobyns, no phone support. Replacement guides? Please allow three weeks for delivery.

That sucks. Talking to Gary on the phone was a big part of why I was so loyal to Dobyns rods. 

22 minutes ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

That sucks. Talking to Gary on the phone was a big part of why I was so loyal to Dobyns rods. 

That train left the station, good while it lasted.

Tom

Well that’s a shame, I’ve never been a fan of those rods but I know they are wildly popular. Truthfully, I hate this for you all.. especially for the guys who are heavily vested in the rod brand. 

 

Nah, I'll let them figure it out.

There's a reason I switched from Dobyns to St Croix.

6 hours ago, Glenn said:

 

Nah, I'll let them figure it out.

I’d appreciate if you’d elaborate.

Check the date of the OP.

21 hours ago, Glenn said:

Check the date of the OP.

Oh, I knew it was old. Just making sure I wasn’t missing anything. Thanks for clearing that up.

Gary Dobyns is a special man and the reason his rod business was successful. Gary is the guy who would give you the shirt off his back.

Gary taught more bass anglers angers how to safety drive their bass boats if they ask him about chine walking for example, he loved to help others and went out of his way to do it.

I remember when  Gary decided to have Lamiglas build application specific rods as a business. I was talking to Don Iovino who at that time had his Doodling rods made by Phenix and was considering changing to Lamiglas.

My relationship with Lamiglas was over a 35 years and highly recommended them. I remember telling Gary his business plan offering a wide range of application specific rods wouldn’t work. I was wrong with crow feathers sticking out my mouth.

Gary always loved to hunt and that is what he is doing now.

Tom

On 9/30/2025 at 7:50 PM, Glenn said:

Check the date of the OP.

 Should I have started a new thread?

 

When I last posted in this thread, you could still get phone support and guides were sent out the next day.

It seems some people thought this was a brand new announcement.  No big deal.

 

Moving on....

Pay attention to this model.  Leader in  west coast tournament scene sees an opportunity to apply his expertise and design bass rods that fit his vision. That vision is realized with ups and downs but his word is gold.  He became a business man and created a promotional model based on trust and relationships.  He reaches the retirement age and overcomes physical issues and sells his business and his name and reputation. The buyer doesn’t care about the morals or values of that seller. Relationships are severed without a thank you.  The promises it will be business as usual are broken by the new owner.  Dealers are dropped, pro staffers are dumped.  
 

trust and relationships are a hard thing to waste.  Glenn’s right. Time to move on.

1 hour ago, Columbia Craw said:

Pay attention to this model.  Leader in  west coast tournament scene sees an opportunity to apply his expertise and design bass rods that fit his vision. That vision is realized with ups and downs but his word is gold.  He became a business man and created a promotional model based on trust and relationships.  He reaches the retirement age and overcomes physical issues and sells his business and his name and reputation. The buyer doesn’t care about the morals or values of that seller. Relationships are severed without a thank you.  The promises it will be business as usual are broken by the new owner.  Dealers are dropped, pro staffers are dumped.  
 

trust and relationships are a hard thing to waste.  Glenn’s right. Time to move on.

Are you saying that is the deal with GSM acquiring Dobyns? As far as I know no dealers were dropped or prostaff eliminated.  I can only speak to Yamamoto brand and they did not sever relationships or have any questionable business tactics.  I assume the same attitude would be with the Dobyns line. 

2 hours ago, Columbia Craw said:

Pay attention to this model.  Leader in  west coast tournament scene sees an opportunity to apply his expertise and design bass rods that fit his vision. That vision is realized with ups and downs but his word is gold.  He became a business man and created a promotional model based on trust and relationships.  He reaches the retirement age and overcomes physical issues and sells his business and his name and reputation. The buyer doesn’t care about the morals or values of that seller. Relationships are severed without a thank you.  The promises it will be business as usual are broken by the new owner.  Dealers are dropped, pro staffers are dumped.  
 

trust and relationships are a hard thing to waste.  Glenn’s right. Time to move on.

Is that what @Glenn meant?

Guessing what Glenn actually meant is this was announced like a year ago so why are we all of a sudden talking about it again...on another note I just bought a new xtasy 753c sh on amazon for $317. Thought about putting that in the latest sale thread but saw this and figure I'd mention it here and add I still like these rods...don't really care about the P.E. buyout all that much and Gary still seems to be there for now. Love the streams he does w/ hellabass on youtube almost every year except for the fact that I seem to end up buying a new rod after watching one almost every time.

 

 

On 5/5/2024 at 11:26 AM, redmeansdistortion said:

This goes for a lot of companies across many industries.  The founder has a vision, starts the company, the company earns much respect and reputation, founder(s) sell out because they're wanting to retire or do something else, parent company slowly dilutes the acquisition to the point it's only recognizable by name only.  I can't think of any company that was bought out that ever retained the vision and reputation of its founders.  It just doesn't happen, especially with many publicly traded companies that shave dollars any way they can to appease shareholders.  In these cases, the value of the company is based solely on brand recognition and not the actual products.  Products slowly start to decline in quality as bean counters begin to replace the engineers. Eventually, engineering and labor is sent elsewhere to maximize profit.  That stuff doesn't happen overnight, it's a long and drawn out process that can take many years, if not decades.

Called that one.  I'm actually surprised it took such little time though.

I got an email from GSM right after they acquired Dobyns saying they only wanted people with a certain amount of social media presence.

I knew I was done but honestly, I don’t really care even with the pro staff discount when you add back in the shipping I could almost get as good deal through ALF by trading some of my old rods and picking up some new ones.

Anyway, Dobyns still makes the best moving bait actions going and if I needed a new tiptop guide, I would just go buy one.

 

On 10/4/2025 at 6:03 PM, Brian11719 said:

Love the streams he does w/ hellabass on youtube almost every year except for the fact that I seem to end up buying a new rod after watching one almost every time.

 

 

Watched one of those vids live a couple months ago or so.

 

Bought a rod the next week.

 

I was sold on Gary after the first minute.

I need to get new tips for 2 of my Dobyns rods. Took about 6 minutes on hold today to get GSM on the phone, they sent me a parts request email while I was still on the line. I was told tips will take about 3 weeks to ship, no cost, if they're not in stock they will provide the fuji part # so I can source them. So far so good, we'll see how it progresses.