Product Review: Tatula XT 701MHFS

By Nabeel Issa

When it comes to picking a new rod, I like looking for “bang for buck”. That is, something that ticks all the boxes for me for what is a “good” rod as well as being in the affordable range.

Cheap and expensive aren’t always good indicators for the quality of a rod and I have a set of criteria I like to follow when looking at a new rod and more often than not, it will work splendidly for the application. Paying more can mean extra features or paying less can mean a reduction of features. But knowing what you need and finding a rod that fits that is far more important to focus on.

A rod I have been using for close to a year is the Daiwa Tatula XT 701MHFS spin rod. I was looking for a light in-hand rod that I could use as an “allrounder” for most of the fishing I do and fit well with a 4000 sized reel. It needed to be on the cheaper side as I wanted to purchase two of them. One for myself and one for my son. If you fish with kids, you will know they tend to gravitate to the things the parents use or like, so us both having the same spinning rod made sense. (My son always goes for my favourite Daiwa Exist Reel!)

Like I said, this was to be an all rounder rod, so it needed to handle a wide range of lures, locations and fish. Threadfin salmon, mulloway/jew and snapper were the main culprits and fill most of my weekends. The rod also made its way on our annual barra trip and found itself at home throwing jerkbaits at some nice fish up to the metre mark.

So how did it perform? Amazingly! I love this rod. Moreton Bay is my local waterway and it provides us with so many different options for fish to chase. On any given day I could be throwing a vibe for a threadfin salmon or jew, hopping a light plastic for a snapper on the edge of a reef and then casting at feeding tuna schools. A rod that can be at home in multiple scenarios is worth its weight in gold.

Below are a few scenarios that I use this rod for, you may find that some will translate to the types of fishing you do.

1 - Shallow Water Snapper - Fishing for snapper in less than 2m of water is a lot of fun, it can be tolling on your gear too as there is heavy structure that the snapper make their way back to. I run 15lb braid and up to 20lb leaders for this style of fishing with jigheads in the 1/8th and 1/6th range. The rod throws them a long way and still has a lot of power to turn fish when needed.

2 - Threadfin Salmon - This can vary in depth from 3 meters up to 15m. But generally here I am throwing a soft vibe at fish spotted on the sounder. Being in that medium ground for line class it still has a bit of power behind it that the rod doesn’t fold when working heavier lures. I can confidently fish a 20g lure without feeling like its putting any strain on the rod.

3 - Barramundi on Jerkbaits - Possibly my favourite encounter so far with this rod. A recent trip to Kinchant Dam saw us throwing jerkbaits at barramundi. This style of fishing lends itself to a crisp actioned rod that can impart twitches to the lure to get it to “dance” on the spot. We landed close to 20 fish, most coming on the Tatula rods. They were a dream to use in this instance and I’m going to be using them again when we head up soon!

If you are after a rod that you can use for most scenarios, I highly recommend looking at the Tatula XT range. I’ve held off writing about mine until now as I have had a really good chance to push it to its limits. I’m a big fan!