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In the market for a new fishing rod? Get ready, because you’re either going to love the current marketplace or you’re going to hate it.

Online or in your local tackle shop or big box retailer, you’ll find a massive variety of all-purpose and technique-specific rods. It can be exhilarating and maddening at the same time. For basically the same reasons, you’ll hate the process of picking out a new twig. There’s no way around it, the market is flooded with great options – at seemingly all price points.

Last year, I began to accumulate a small arsenal of the new-age jumbo, jointed glide baits. Some looked like small trout we catch in the Lake Erie tributaries and inland streams around Western New York. Others resembled sunfish my kids catch off the dock.

Ranging in weight up to 4 ounces or more and in length up to 9 inches or longer, these forage-imitating behemoths are not only works of art in some cases, but they have spawned the need to have the proper equipment in order to fish them effectively. That meant rod and reel companies needed to develop gear to heave and retrieve these big baits – and anyone who’s fished with these baits will agree, it’s a heave, not a cast, when you have one tied on.

I started scouting around in search of a quality rod with which to start my glide bait heaving. I didn’t want to just go with any old heavy-action rod. Not every rod manufacturer has a swimbait rod in its lineup, so I didn’t have to sift through an endless array of options.

I finally landed on the Daiwa DX Series swimbait rod. Introduced at ICAST in 2014, the DX Series is a no-frills lineup of casting and spinning rods that Daiwa hopes will be a player in the sub-$150 price range. Featuring IM-7 graphite blanks and natural cork grips along with Fuji aluminum oxide guides and reel seats, Daiwa packed a lot of high-end components into the DX rods while keeping their customers’ wallets in mind.

The matte black finish on the blank pairs well with the rod’s simple, stout construction. A beefy hook keeper is conveniently placed just above the fore grip and has yet to cause an issue with my line while casting or retrieving.

For an 8-foot rod, I expected the medium-heavy DXSB ¬model – it’s rated to for lures in the 1- to 6-ounce range – to feel heavier than it is. The handle makes up nearly a quarter of the rod’s length, but the balancing throughout makes it very comfortable to work with. There are heavy, extra heavy and extra extra heavy action models in the DXSB series as well.

I didn’t go easy on my first outing with this rod. I first tied on the Deps Slide Swimmer 175, a 7 1/2-inch, 3-ounce Huey of a bait and had no idea what to expect when I reared back to cast. I was just hoping my knot held up.

It was surprisingly easy to load the rod and launch the bait a long distance. The lengthy handle (it’s nearly 24 inches from the butt to the top of the foregrip) took some getting used to, but it’s a big advantage when casting and once I settled into a rhythm with my retrieve, it felt natural having it nestled between my elbow and rib cage.

Fatigue was never an issue and when paired with a wide-spool Daiwa Lexa 300 casting reel loaded with Daiwa Samurai braided line, you have a powerhouse pairing that won’t fail you.

After a few outings of throwing different glide baits, I tied on a five-arm umbrella rig and the rod handled that with ease as well. The extra length gives you the ability to make extremely long casts. I know if this rod can handle big glide baits, it'll be a breeze to fish soft-body swimbaits like those made by Huddleston. Rago, Osprey or Savage, among others. The medium-heavy action allows you to feel plenty of feedback from the bait and the tip has just the right amount of give.

This isn’t a rod for jerkbait fishing. It’s not built for frogging either. It’s a heavy-duty big swimbait rod, plain and simple, and it performs as such without a hitch.

If you’re just getting into fishing more with bigger baits like I was and don’t want to fork over half a rent payment, the Daiwa DXSB rod is a great option, especially with a price tag of $110.