rezbass

That rod would be good for the applications you are looking at. A 7' medium in the Avid series is a great all around rod. The TDA 153hst is an equally impressive reel in my opinion. I use that exact reel for traps and love it. I might go with a medium heavy for the worms, depending on the cover you are fishing.

anything in the st. croix line up castaway fully exposed blank reel seat, not sure if it has a name... fuji alconite micro guides spiral wrapped

I haven't had teh pleasure of using any of the zillions or sols yet, but have 3 of the tda's and a couple of the tierras. I absolutley would recommend either of teh tda's or the tierras. If the zillions are better than either of those you couldn't go wrong with one of those either. I still have a bunch of old td hi and td pi reels from the mid 90's that are still going strong, as well as a few of the tdx and tds reels from the early 2000's that are still going. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED BY TEAM DAIWA REELS. PERIOD.

"back in the 90's watching my FAV BASS PRO Denny B. always Flipping a JIG with his Daiwa S Rod and TD-X Reel" Ditto... I have used Team Daiwa reels since I first bought a td2 pi back in the early 90's when I was 14. I still have that reel and it is still going strong. I strongly doubt I will ever use anything other than Daiwa. Now rods that is a different story. I started with Team Daiwa rods as well, then went to fenwick and then loomis, but have since switched to custom built rods built on St. Croix blanks that I build myself. I have even modified a couple of my older TD-S rods to better suit my style of fishing, and still use them today.

It would work fine. You may want to go to a medium heavy though for added distance on casts and palying fish at close range with that heavy line which won't stretch a lot.

It depends on your definition of sensitivity, and how the rods are bulit. I would say that the stiffer rod would be more sensitive in most cases however. If you are going by feel, the stiffer rod should be a little more sensitive. If you are going by watching the tip, then the one that bends most easily will be more sensitive. So, long story longer, it is in the determined use of the rod and how it will be used that really determines which is more "sensitive".

I would second mantrap if you are in the Park rapids area... Bemidji area I would go to Lk Bemidji, Plantagaenet, Cass lake, Wolf, Little Wolf, Big, or even Leech though it's huge. Most of these lake also offer other species to target as well.

tdx paired up with a 7' croix LT sweeper series that I built spiral wrapped with alconites as a pitchin' rod for jigs.

If you have $200 to spend why not get a TDX?

I did run across avids on sale at my local gander mountain for $99.99. I think they had a half a dozen or so left...