DAIWA FISHING TIPS: Luke’s Phantom X travel rod & Revros 2500 – Mark Gercovich

We all have items that we become attached to…sometimes for practicality, sometimes for sentimentality. Maybe it’s the cricket bat that feels just right so you just keep taping up, that old piece of clothing that’s so comfortable, but your wife wants you to get rid of or that special lure you always put in a spread.

Only a couple of sessions into an 8 week fishing jaunt through Queensland my eldest son decided that a Phantom X MFS 703 travel rod matched to 2500 Revros reel was now “his” rod .

Sentimentally he loved it as he was knocking over plenty of fish on it. Practically the combo was actually doing a good all-around job on many of the angling scenarios we had been encountering. He used it for casting plastics around rivers, flats and shallow reefs, caught mid-sized river and billabong barra on it, extracted big tarpon and trevally from tight places, threw metals at school mackerel and used it on both creek and dam bass. As the Australian cricket selectors well know, a good all-rounder is hard to find and that’s a fair range of applications for one outfit! Considering he is usually pretty good at grabbing the most expensive outfits in the quiver ( “Cos it feels the best dad!” ) on any said trip, I was stoked he was happily using the rod I had actually intended him on using.

The flexibility of the 3 piece rod was handy when travelling and should be into the future any time he wants to take “his” rod anywhere. Yet its action was great, the fact that it was a three piece seemed unnoticeable. Sometimes it seemed too heavy for some of the light applications, other times I was sure it was going to be too light and he would get smoked by things he was under gunned for, but in the end he continued to catch fish on the combo without too many dramas.

So if you’re in the market for a flexible, yet affordable travel combination, have a look at the Revros 2500 and Phantom X MFS 703.