Rods at the ready?

[wargoth]

I am wanting to start gearing up for the upcoming season, so, I figure a good place to start would be with a GOOD rod and reel setup or two.

I have a few semi-decent rods (they catch fish, but that is all I can really say for them) I fish alot of soft plastics, spinnerbaits, some cranks, and I am starting to play with jigs. If I was going to purchase 1 new setup, aimed at max versatility, what should I be looking for, and what should the next 2 rods be. I am looking for length, power, and reel speed not necessarily brand.

I have noticed I have a tendency to favor lighter power rods over heavier ones ( the 7' MH just seems too damn stiff for anything but frogging) but I dunno if this is a quality issue or a lifetime of perch-jerking and bluegill-bashing issue. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Currently I have:

• 1 - MH 7' Lightning Rod w/ Abu 6600C

• 1 - M 5'6' Cherrywood w/Shakespeare cheapy baitcaster.

• 1 - ML 7' Pinnacle TriWing w/ Pinnacle Platinum

• 1 - ML 6'6" Spinning (Hand me down Berkely)

• 1 - UL 5' Spinning (Gander Mtn. Guide Series)

• 1- ancient 5' or so steel rod with a Shakespeare Marhoff 1964 (model GE) Yes, I do intend to use it this season... LOL.

The above would be most suited for ??? (technique / bait / firewood)

[lunker-lander]

If your going for versaitility, your going to be looking for something around 6'6'' - 7'.

My most versatile rod right now is my Falcon LowRider 6'7'' Bass Spin, Spinning. This is a Medium-Heavy power rod, and she will fling about anything and have the power to hoss it back out. I pitch spinnerbaits and topwater on it, but I have, (and it works amazingly well), flung jigs, small/medium cranks, and texas-rigs. This is a very good rod for it's price. I am soon looking to pick up another, (7' MH though), for searching open-water with large, 5/8-3/4 oz., spinnerbaits. They are a cheaper-priced rod, a quality brand, and one hell of a rod. You can probably find this rod for around $115 at many of the major-retailers. I got mine for $109 at a local tackle shop (knew the manager and got some free tackle with it...lol). Here's the link to their website.

WWW.FALCONRODS.COM

Here's a link to Tackle Warehouse's rod selections. (7th rod down the list...)

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descp...LCON-FLRS.html

Hope this helps 'ya!

-Lunk-

[lowrider]

wargoth, i get lost in all the rod stuff pretty quick, but i wanted to toss in my opinion on a reel. just got a new ABU Revo SX 7.1 ratio and after just one trip i am sold. i was always a old style round reel user (and still will be) but this thing is great. i put it on a bass pro extreme rod 7ft mh. it'll be my goto for most things

[Fish4food]

My OPINION is, your first rod to buy is a MH, fast action, 6'6"-7' baitcaster.

Rod number 2 to purchase would be a MH, moderate action same length as above, for cranks.

Rod number 3 to get would be an extra fast action rod for throwing plastics and dock skipping. Again, same length as above. This I would buy as a spinning rod setup.

With those rods, you could cover the majority of fishing styles out there. I use all the same speed reels, about 28 inch line pick up, but for the cranking rod, you could go down to 20 or so if you prefer. I would rather adjust my cranking speed than get used to a different reel. All my spinning reels are the same, and all my baitcasters are basically the same reel. If you get "hooked" on a specific technique, you could then buy a rod specific to that technique.

Remember, this is my OPINION, you buy what you feel fit's you best.

As far as what you already have, try them and see what works for them if you already haven't. The first one would be a good jig rod, and you could maybe do some deep cranking with it too. Rod 2, I don't know. Rod three could maybe work for shallow cranks and dock skipping. 4 could maybe be used for T-rigged and whacky rigged worms. 5 could be used for catching bait for Bass. The last one could be cleaned up and put on a wall somewhere.