OFF! pro Terry Bolton and Denali released a new Signature Series rod designed for offshore bass fishing. Bolton’s new rod measures 7 feet, 2 inches in length.

“I had always used 7-foot rods growing up fishing offshore and they did alright, but I knew that we could get improved hook-setting capabilities if we added a couple inches,” said Bolton, a 10-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier. “At the same time, it was important to still keep it manageable, so we ended up at 7 feet, 2 inches, which I think is really ideal.”

The rod was designed to be as versatile as possible, without sacrificing the ability to excel offshore.

“One of my favorite things to do growing up was to throw a big worm or a jig on offshore structure, and I wanted this rod to be able to handle a 3/8- or 1/2-ounce weight, or a 3/4- to 1- ounce football jig,” added the Paducah, Ky., native.

Through the testing phase, Bolton found a multitude of other applications in which the rod excelled.

“I’ve been absolutely killing them using it as a swim-jig rod, and it is also an ideal finesse jig rod for fishing around rip rap, docks and other shallow cover. I have even been using it to throw smaller worms and plastics around grass and it fishes great. The first prototype needed some more backbone, but after we got that figured out, we had a pretty good working model. After that, it was just testing until the final change, which was to decrease the handle length a bit to make it easier to manage. After that last change, it was about perfect.”