DTack

If I were you, I would be looking at the Dobyns 764c Champion as well. It does have a bit more power, what size fish are you fishing for? Smalljaw brings up a good point with the hook type.

Another vote for the dx743

I read this post and responded before getting to the last post, I'm sorry. I agree with what has been stated full and split grip are preference. Most of the standard Champion rods are offered with the choice between the two for this reason. My personal preference is full grip. It hangs up on sweatshirt pockets less when switching hands and is just plain a comfort deal for me. Either way I think you will love the 734 if you go with it. Have fun

It's been brought up that rivers can vary... As general use which covers clear and dirty rivers all remaining somewhat shallow... Small red/orange crankbait (kvd 1.0 or 1/8 oz speedtrap) 78 or 100 size Lucky Craft Pointer usually something with chartruese on it 1/8-3/8 oz darthead with chartruese or off-white 4 or 5 inch yamamoto grub 1/4-1/2 oz spinnerbait in white and chartruese with silver gold blades

Arkie 1/4 or 3/8

My biggest memory is "remember when" they had the 1998 Bassmasters Classic televised and you got to watch Denny Brauer and George Cochran go back and forth for the win? That made me want to bass fish about as bad as anything. Remember when the dropshot was the "always lucky" rig in translation? Remember when flippin' sticks didn't have triggers? Remember when braided line was coming out and you didn't have to say "I wish I could get a fish out of there" anymore? Remember when 7' rods were LONG?

Exactly... I wouldn't mind if a company dropped their existing warranty since it IS expensive to the company... but you would think there would be some type of price drop as well. Doubt you'll see it, doubt Shimano will lose many fans anyways... They have a lot of guys gut-hooked. If I were the type to buy a Loomis rod in the next couple years I would DEFINITELY hang on to my receipt as I wouldn't be surprised to see this carry over to Loomis in the next 2-4 years.

No new products, I don't believe they have a booth.

I honestly haven't noticed a difference on subsurface baits like ripbaits or crankbaits. On topwater I put a red hook on the front of every topwater I own with trebles. Spooks, poppers I would say 9 out of 10 fish have the red treble in their mouth. I quite frankly don't care why they eat it, but they sure do.

I basically use a RI sweet beaver about 80% of the time. If I have someone else with me I will sometimes have them throwing a Berkeley Havoc pit boss. Typically I feel the bait is falling fast enough I'm more concerned on color. I tend to shy away from baits with too many appendages or legs as they tend to get caught up in heavier cover. Another bait I really like is a zoom ultravibe speed craw. The first thing I figure out is if I want some type of craw or bluegill color. I really use the same baits regardless, I just want to match up color as I think that's what they identify with. Most of the time I feel if something falls quickly by the fish and is in the right shades or near the right shades of color, they will eat it. Around here we have a lot of grass and a lot of fish spitting up craws when we catch fish. Also, fish will sometimes spit up a bluegill. Green Pumpkin is always a solid starting point for bluegill imitation (and depending on color of craws a good craw imitation as well. For the craws I try to get some evidence from a fish or from pulling up grass and finding pinchers to see what color the craws are. Champlain is a pretty well known lake, you may be able to do some type of search to find out what color craws typically are there during summer. Sorry I kind of rambled on, I hope this makes sense. If you have anymore questions please feel free to ask.

Just going to echo here, either the 703, 704 will work. I would recommend the 733 or 734 personally. I am a huge fan of the 734 and typically prefer a bit heavier action rod than most. My PERSONAL choice for what you've described would be the 734, whichever rod you choose I know you're gonna be happy once you fish with it and hook your first good one on it!

This is why (in my opinion) buying quality gear that you personally love has true value. Cool to read this! I don't think technology on rods and materials used to build them changes THAT quickly to a point where it is extremely noticable... I feel more companies should concentrate on actions of their rods versus "new components" as constantly advertised... I feel rods are often dressed up to the point that action becomes a secondary concern while companies would rather advertise the "new components and lightweight build" while these aren't negatives I don't think they are as important to me as what a rod does once I hook a fish on it.

I definitely feel you can get away with 6 colors and cover everything you need. I primarily throw about 3 colors in each different depth category. I will use Strike King’s colors to hopefully make this easy on you. I’m not the greatest crankbait fisherman and would never claim to be. I feel confident in catching fish on them however. I will say, this list can depend upon where you live as well. I live in California and we face adverse water conditions. We have bodies of water where the clarity can be about 2” down to ultra-clear water with 20’ visibility which causes me to carry a few variations. I basically want colors which will cover a shad, a bluegill or brighter shad color, and a craw color. Once again this list is trying to cover just about every water condition you could face. I used the 1.5 colors for reference, not sure if these colors are available in all baits listed or not, but I’m sure there will be comparable colors in other models. Sexy Shad bluegill or firetiger chili craw Clearwater minnow Black back/chart or Cataouatche special I've never looked at Strike King that close but another favorite that they don't offer in the squarebill is either chartruese with blue or purple back. That's usually what I consider my bright bluegill color which I included Bluegill or Firetiger as a replacement. Hope this helps.

I think Duckett is definitely a smart businessman within the industry. Think it was a great idea of him to introduce the reels in 2 colors. I noticed he changed the grips from the prototype (old ones looked nearly exact to the gen 3 revo grips). Smart move again if you ask me as it helps to set the reel apart now that some have "personalized" grips with the company name on them. They're sharp looking reels in my opinion and with the black and white colors I think he will have a lot of different people wanting to try them. I like the shape of the reel as well, similar to the gen 2 revos and lew's bodies. I wish Shimano and Daiwa would have stayed a little more towards their Zilliion and Curado e shapes, seems now they're either making them wider (tatula) or longer (curado i) not a big difference but enough to notice. Either way, I think this was a smart move by Duckett and I'm sure these will sell for the company. I'm happy with what I use but these will likely do well for him.

Any type of price range that you're looking to stay within? Is this going to be a dedicated rod (only for crankbaits) or would you like to try to use it for some other techniques as well?

I can't comment on the light braid as I don't use braid that light, I'm sorry. I can tell you, when I used to dropshot on a casting rod I would put 6lb fluoro (trilene 100% stuff is thick but not manageable) on an old Citica 100d. I never had problems with backlash or any of the like so it can definitely be an option!

With that price range you're going to have a lot of great options, in my opinion you could be using the highest quality anyone could ever need. What type of waters do you fish? Where are you from? Any particular baits that are your favorite to throw? Do you tend to flip and pitch more, or are you casting? What type of line do you like to use the most? As far as a reel, I think we have the strongest selection of $120-$200 reels that have ever been available. The biggest recommendation I have is if by any means possible spend as much time as you can with a reel attached to a rod before you purchase it. Even if you're pretending to cast (switching hands after the cast if you do so when fishing) retreiving. With all the great options we have the reels will feel different for different people. I had a Gen 3 STX which I was absolutely crazy about, loved it, had a smooth extremely strong drag, casted great, pitched great comfortable handle, nice lightweight size. The problem I ran into was fishing with the reel for a specified technique and having it in my hands for a couple of hours... I just couldn't hold the reel comfortably at all. It was a HUGE bummer, other than that I absolutely loved the reel but it simply wasn't comfortable, caused problems with the way I felt through the day and also my hooksets suffered greatly. With that being said, my friend used the reel and absolutely loves it, sold em to him and they are still going strong. It's all about what is comfortable in the end. As I've said, you have options so try to feel them as much as you can. With the price range you have and answering some questions which have been asked, you're going to get an incredible setup that you'll enjoy fishing with for YEARS to come. That's pretty cool if you ask me!

Just going to echo here, I use 70lb braid for all of my topwater... (spooks, frogs, buzzbaits, horny toads, poppers, propbaits) it's just simple for me, the only change I sometimes make is certain baits (spooks, poppers, propbaits) I will tie on a 6-7' leader of @15 lb mono. I think the 50lb is an all around great choice and you'll be very happy with it.

I will echo the other two, I throw braid and a locked down drag, heavy rod. No problems "pulling it away from fish" or "not hooking em good" problems for me. That includes spotted bass as well.

7' graphite rod made for crankbaits and ripbaits would definitely be my choice over a fast action rod.

Of the two I would go with Phenix. If possible try to handle both in a store before you decide.

Are you concerned the 734c is going to be over-powered by a 1 oz bait? I personally wouldn't be concerned about that, I've thrown the 6" wooden punker on that rod and also caught fish on the rod with the 6" bait without a problem. Although the rods may be rated differently (6 power vs 4 power) they are likely going to handle the same weights efficiently. I truly don't think you will be disappointed with either choice. More so just a matter of preference to how you would like the rod to load when casting and when hooking fish.

If you can go 7'3" (not sure you can) then I would strongly consider the 734c. That is the number one rod I use with Super spook and larger walking baits (I've thrown the 6" wood lunker punker and caught fish on it with the rod). 734c is also one of my favorite chatterbait rods, I can't recall throwing a 1oz swimbait on it but the punker weighs 2.4 oz. The 706cb would be great for the topwaters but I can't really commenet on how it would do with a swimjig or a chatterbait. For a bait like the mattlures (I know it's not your primary use for the rod) I would recommend something a little different. Please ask anymore questions you may have.

If you're going to use a rod for punching and for frogs, make it one rod 7'6" or over. Learn to fish with it and cast with it once you start getting bites you'll be happy you bought a longer rod.

I guess I will provide my input on this. I don't think it's necessary to backreel any longer, new drags are just all around better and LEARNING to backreel does take some time. If you want to learn to do something new by all means go for it, I just no longer think it is necessary. When using lighter line, I am typically making long casts... I set my drag rather tight, if a fish bites at the end of a long cast... I set hard, I then loosen my drag if needed as the fish gets closer to the boat. There are some that will say this is horrible advice, but if you can do something on the fly, it's not a problem. It all depends what you're comfortable with, with multiple largemouth over 8 lbs and multiple spots over 6 lbs on 7lb test line I know that it works. Another thing I like to say is take your time, typically if you have a fish hooked in the first place you can fight the fish for a long time without losing it to a hook popping out. Good luck and know that practice makes perfect!