Dave Lefebre's with a new rod company, and it's a pretty interesting story. Interesting because it's his third rod-sponsor change in recent memory, but it's not a jump-around, grass-is-greener type of thing, he said.
Instead, he's followed the same group of rod designers – when they left a company, he left too and followed them. He started with G. Loomis, then followed the group when they left to start Rogue. After disagreements at Rogue over rod breakage, the group left to form Setyr, and Lefebre followed. He stuck with Setyr, but after a communication breakdown – he hasn't been able to reach the company president in a while, he said – he decided to emigrate.
He chose Dobyns Rods. Why?
"There have been some problems communicating with Setyr going back on 2 1/2 years or more for me," Lefebre said. "Last season I started thinking about it and whenever I came across people with different rods, I asked them what they were and how they like them. Honestly, everybody seemed to mention Dobyns or Duckett rods. Then last year I finally got to touch a Dobyns rod – Derek Yamamoto had one – and I was like, 'Man, these are sweet.' Then I knew I had to make a move.
"I didn't make the decision just because of the quality, though," Lefebre added. "It was all the recommendations from people too. Dobyns was pretty much always the top of the list."
