Alpha Angler
For most of us die hard anglers we all have a certain brand rod we have used for years. That precious time together makes it tough to switch. Its kind of like your favorite hat or coffee mug, when you switch things up sometimes it just doesn’t feel right. In the past I had always used Lews rods because they were priced fairly and I was pretty happy with them for the most part. I never really tried any super high end bass fishing rods except for a few friends here and there. When I did use them I thought they were nice but not worth the $500 price tag some of them came with.
About two years ago my teammate and fellow FishIn48 fishing guide ( Conrad ) kept telling me about Alpha Angler From what I remember we had went out to Bartlett Lake and I was throwing a jackhammer on my new Chatterbait rod and it just didn’t feel like it was the right action I needed. I was losing more fish than I should have and then Conrad told me to put my reel on his Chatterbound It was the best bass fishing rod I had ever used. The rod was loading up perfect and I wasn’t missing any fish on the chatter from then on. It has the S-Glass composite which makes for a soft tip and a very light rod but the backbone will drive that hook in and you will be amazed by how much power it has.
Once you get a little taste of just one Alpha Angler rod you will want them all. I immediately went and bought as many as I could. Some of my favorites casting rods are the Rebound and Mag Rebound, which are killer cranking rods. I like the rebound for your midsized cranks, squarebills and 5XD’s. The Mag Rebound is one of those rods where you are just like, WOW. You can’t believe how light it is and how much easier it is to throw deep cranks for a long period of time and not be exhausted.
For spinning rods, the DSR will blow your mind and it should be the only drop shot rod you ever use again. The other spinning rod that is a must have is the Wrench. It is great for nekos, senkos and shakey heads. We are stoked to have Alpha Angler rods on our boats. I wouldn’t want anything else when taking our clients out on guided fishing trips in Arizona or competing in tournaments. We spoke to Jake Boomer, the owner of Alpha Anger for a little Q&A. When Jake isn’t working on Alpha Angler he is fishing the NPFL. Below he will give you some more information that will probably make you switch your arsenal to the Alpha Army sooner than later.
If you want to join the Alpha Army go to their website and use code FISHIN48 at check out to save some money
The Alpha Difference
Q: How and when did Alpha get started?
A: Alpha was started in 2011 as a small custom rod outfit. At the time, I wanted the revenue to help fund my tournament fishing addiction. In a few short months, I realized the value of the information I gleaned from anglers who wanted custom rods. My customers were the greatest source of rod building knowledge since they were the ones on the water, trying to solve problems. From 2011 on, I mentored under some exceptional custom rod builders who not only taught me about the industry, but introduced me to multiple component and blank manufactures.
In 2017 we went national. Our only Elite Pro Staff member was Brandon Palaniuk. He really bought into the idea that anglers should design the rods, and the more input from avid anglers, the better. In fact, the inception of many Alpha models didn’t start with me or Brandon. It’s usually a customer who calls, needing a specific action for some bait and we are off to the races.
Q: What makes Alpha great and really separates you from the other brands?
A: The biggest difference in Alpha is the freedom in our designs. Since we’re a direct-to-consumer company, we have a great freedom to work with anybody and everybody in the industry. Some vendors make the best crankbait blanks, so we buy from them, while others make the best finesse blanks and so on. This keeps our options open to new technology as it becomes available. For instance, some of our most successful rods utilize blank designs from the salmon/steelhead industry market. Our glass crankbait rods originated from the saltwater industry. For Alpha, there are no boundaries when it comes to making the best rod for the best technique. The second thing you will notice about Alpha is the simple design. Our priority is performance, and we’ll never add anything to our rods with out purpose. The goal is to build the reliable, high performance fishing rods and sell them for wholesale prices directly to the customer.
Q: What’s your favorite rod ?
A: My favorite rod is probably the Zilla and for the last few years it has been our best seller. It’s a 7’3″ Medium Heavy casting rod that’s extremely versatile and has won more money for our anglers than any other model in the line-up ( except for maybe Palaniuk’s DSR. ). It took 6 years and multiple prototypes to develop, and were still talking about improvements on a regular basis.
Q: Tell us about the direct-to-consumer with no retail partners
A: We decided to build Alpha Angler as a direct-to consumer company for two major reasons. First, we wanted to have high end, performance products that sold with out retail markup. Customers can buy our products for half of what they should be priced if they were in retail.
Second, and most importantly, we wanted to eliminate the retail layer in our business, so that we could directly communicate with the anglers buying our products and catching fish. The direct-to-consumer model keeps us in direct contact with our customers and their feedback. It’s no secret that many of our recent designs have originated from our anglers. Really good products too. I mean ideas dont originate from a group of designers sitting in a room full of computers!
Q: Are any other guys on tour using Alpha besides Brandon Palaniuk?
A: Most of our guys are fishing at a high level. Obviously nobody is fishing like Brandon right now, and it’s pretty awesome to be part of. We signed John Soukop, the NPFL star who is now leading the Bassmaster Opens point race. His knowledge and attention to detail is off-the-charts, and is already affecting our product designs.
That said, we have guys at all levels of the sport, which is important. I love the feedback from an angler grinding to make it to the next level, living on Top Ramen as much as the feedback from top level guys. Professional guides like Conrad Demecs, Scooter Griffith, and Captain Andy Full are excellent partners as well. They’re on the water daily, and are exceptionally good at teaching bass techniques to their clients. Their feedback is gold!
Q: Any new changes or future plans for new rods coming soon?
A: Oh yeah, the question of the hour here at Alpha is…”What do you guys have coming out soon!?” We love it, and were always working on something. We’re in the constant process of upgrading, testing, revamping on all of our products. I know that’s not what people want to hear, so the short answer is YES! In the next few months we’ll have some changes to current models, and maybe a few ones as well. It really depends on what our customer want most. They’re in control!
