RichF

You will be able to cover a lot with a medium and medium heavy spinning. Just remember, jigs, cranks, and spinners can mean a lot of things. What specifically do you plan on throwing? Small cranks will be fine on spinning but I wouldn't throw anything that runs deeper than 6ft. Deeper diving cranks won't be fun to throw on spinning tackle. There are also a million different types of jigs and not all of them will work on spinning tackle. Same with spinners. Are you talking about inline spinners or spinnerbaits? Oh, and straight braid is completely fine. I used it for years when I was younger and had zero issues. It's best to not get too crazy with gear until you start getting more experienced. There's so much stuff out there, it will make your head spin pretty quickly.

Under Armour Coolswitch (formerly Isochill) long sleeve shirts are my go to. Mesh panels in the right places and the cooling fabric is pretty legit. Simms sungaiters are awesome because they are scalloped. They fit the neck perfectly and won't ride up like the straight tube shaped ones.

I'm a big St. Croix fan and I would definitely give a nod to the Mojo, especially now that they're made on a SCIII blank. Never tried any Fenwicks but I've heard pretty good things. Check out the flea market forum. I just saw a couple Fenwick Aetos spinning rods for sale. That's one of Fenwick's top tier models. Again, I've never used one, but they get rave reviews for their aesthetics and performance.

First off, welcome to the forums and back to bass fishing! I'm not much of a spinning rod guy but I can offer a little help, I think. The $100 rod market is massive nowadays and not one that I have a ton of experience with in all honesty. I know some of the most popular rods in that category are going to the Abu Garcia Veritas, *** *** Blacks, and the Dobyns Fury line. Two rods that I think would cover most of the techniques you mentioned would be a 7'0 medium and 7'0 medium-heavy. They won't be perfect for everything but they're a good start. The medium could be used for small cranks, small topwater plugs, jerkbaits and light texas rigged plastics like senkos. The medium-heavy could be used for small spinnerbaits/bladed jigs, possibly frogs, and lighter jigs. Big, heavy stuff, IMO, is tough with spinning tackle. Braid would be a good choice for line. Maybe 15lb on the medium and 20lb - 30lb on the medium heavy. A lot of guys will suggest a fluorocarbon leader also. As for reels, I'm a big Shimano fan, so I would recommend them. You can get some pretty decent ones on sale right now in the $60 - $100 range. Look at the Sahara, Symetre, or the NASCI in the 2500 size. Another decent sub-$100 reel is the Pflueger President and President XT. Those are really popular and run $60 and $80 respectively.

I have a 7'3 Heavy Magnesium I use for froggin and it's amazing. I also have a 7'6 Heavy Helium I use for big jigs. I would say Kistlers are a touch softer than my St. Croixs and Shimanos. Like, a heavy Kistler would be between a med-heavy and heavy in the other two brands. I don't know if I would use a 7'3 Heavy Helium for punching, personally. It would probably work, but I tend to lean on the heavier side for almost all my techniques. I use a 7'6 Extra Heavy, modfast, Helium for punching.

Welcome fellow NOVA basser!

I'm a big frog fisherman and though your setup isn't ideal, it will definitely work. I have a buddy that is 100% capable with baitcasting but prefers to use a 7'0 MH Mojo spinning rod and 30lb braid. He throws a frog a lot and is pretty good at it. I tell him he's crazy but it works for him. It might be difficult to pull fish from super heavy vegetation but other than that, you'd be fine.

Definitely. And all the fish we caught were off completely different baits and structure. One came off wood with a worm, one on a spook in shallow grass, one off rock with a spinnerbait...Doesn't get anymore pattern-less than that.

Omniflex is great...for backing

Well...didn't learn a whole lot except there is at least one 20" largemouth, one 20" smallmouth, and a tiger musky. That's pretty much all I caught out there Saturday. lol

50lb FX2 is incredible braid. My absolute favorite.

And where might this be....

Flash sale on Dicks website. Jackall Gantaral jrs are $10 when you buy 2 or more.

Remember, it's not always about the actual rod weight. Your combo is going to feel lightest when it's properly balanced. One of my most comfortable, "lightest feeling" outfits is a 7'6 XH Kistler Helium with a Team Daiwa Zillion. Those both weigh a fair amount but the rod is so incredibly balanced that the combination feels super light and comfortable.

Yeah I got to imagine the crazy high water levels up there will jack things up a bit. Guess I'll find out Saturday.

I heard about the Tigers. Hopefully they steer clear of my baits this weekend. That's good to know. I don't always like having the option of both species to be honest. It can make my head spin trying to decide on which one to target! Since I'm more of a green guy, that's where my focus will be. Another question...does any grass grow south of the causeway? I've read that it's shallow and muddy but didn't see anything about the veg.

Any of you Finger Lakes guys know if Otisco Lake is green fish or brown fish dominated? I have to imagine it fishes similar to the other Fingers since they're all basically laid out the same.

Bronzeye 100%.

Around 3 or 4 ft. Nothing too crazy.

I use 8lb fluoro on my 6'8 and 7' medium spinning rods. I have two spools for my drop shot combo, one has 6lb fluoro, the other has 15lb braid with an 8lb fluoro leader. I hardly use any of these but when I do, they all work just fine.

Should be 15%.

I would guess it's going to start Friday afternoon and run for a week.

Clunn can do that because all he throws is a spinnerbait or crankbait, both of which work fine on a heavy glass rod.

I have the Rage in the same specs. The topwaters you mentioned are pretty large, with good size trebles so I think you could get away with throwing them on that rod (if you're good about adjusting your drag on the fly while fighting fish). It does have a fairly soft tip because of the moderate fast action but there's quite a bit of backbone. It's certainly not ideal for any of those techniques accept pitching/flipping plastics or jigs. It could work for bladed jigs as well, though not my first choice. I tried quite a few baits/techniques with this rod last year but never really could find a perfect match. I initially threw 5 - 7 inch paddle tail swimbaits with it. It worked ok but I wanted something a touch stouter. I tried bladed jigs after. Again, it worked ok but it was nowhere near as good as my glass rod. I used it for swing head jigs for a while and didn't care for that. I finally just used it for it's intended purpose as a light flipping rod. Definitely the best use for it. It's a bit of a weird rod to me. Definitely one of my least favorites. It'll be staying home 99.9% of the time.

I totally agree with you. My second outing with it was quite nice. I really got it dialed in. Great cast control, super smooth, and comfortable. I think Cabelas has them online for $180 right now.