Designing the ultimate bream quiver

I’ve been a die-hard tournament bream angler since fishing my first event in 2008. Designing INFEET for Daiwa Australia was my chance to create a dream bream quiver and arm anglers with a specific range of rods purposely designed for the techniques that dominate the tournament trail.

After many hours of planning, research, and testing, we’ve delivered a line of rods that now serve as a mainstay for many tournament and recreational anglers alike. In this piece, I will run you through the behind the scenes on the design of the INFEET rod family, with a few sneakpeeks at what might be in store for ABT’ers in 2023.

The first step in designing any new product is to talk to fellow anglers. Luckily at Daiwa, we have some great brains to consult for that very purpose.

Initially I got together with Kris Hickson and Mark Crompton to discuss their go-to techniques and what characteristics of rods they preferred for each action. From there, I considered my own preferences and experience and put pen to paper on an initial INFEET rod range. As you could imagine, even from such a small sample size we each had our own personal preferences and ideas.

The next step was to take that range and expand the brains trust, bringing in experience from all angling backgrounds. This included consulting Kayakers like Daiwa anglers Dale Baxter and Darren Weda, as well as predominantly landbased anglers, non-boaters and more, as we wanted to accommodate different types of fishing techniques and features to suit.

This is also an everevolving process – even after the rods are out, I continue to gather feedback from end users and our pro-team. Even after fishing these rods for almost four years I’ve got my own ideas on how to make them even better. That’s what’s so rewarding about product development – there’s always new technology to utilise, a new technique to cater to or even something as simple as hook keeper placement to refine and improve on. We’ve always got lots of things on the go at Daiwa and rest-assured the learnings from this range are being implemented in future designs that we think ABT’ers will love!

This is by far the most fun and rewarding part of the process. This is where I can start spec’ing out the rods based on various technologies and components available. The great thing about Daiwa is we own our factories – with six throughout the world that in a normal year I would visit at least annually. Owning our factories and having engineering and design teams both in those factories and in our head office in Tokyo means we create and develop components and technologies that nobody else has, which really sets us apart.

The grip and handle setup of the rods is a big focus for me. It’s what immediately catches the eye of consumers, and is a chance for me to implement something new and striking. The handle is also the area that is your direct contact to the rod, it needs to be comfortable and functional.

For the INFEET series, we designed a whole new reel seat from scratch, which was featured on the entry-level price point.

Almost all Daiwa Australia rods now use reel seats designed and developed by Daiwa, and they’re not something you’ll find on any other rods. Personally, I love the Neo Traditional reel seat which is used on the mid-price INFEET Z range, it’s a throwback to the old wooden reel seats featured on Heartland Z rods from Daiwa Japan but created with the newest carbon composite materials to create something incredibly lightweight.

When it comes to guides, the obvious choice is Fuji. But there’s more you can do than just stick to the basics. Take the INFEET Z range from the tip section of the rods, without excessive cost increases that put the rods out of reach for all but a select few.

Now a few grams here or there might not seem like