fishnkamp

First you did not mention your budget. The other issue is that very few rod makers use the same standard. However if you are looking for some options to look at take a good look at these. Dobyns Fury FR 765 Flip for $110. Irod Genesis II IRG 754 Fred's Magic Stick for $150 Falcon makes some good rods as well. Look at the Falcon Bucoo series, they have the Amistad model, a 6'10 model and a Heavy Jig model to choose from. These are some good rods to choose from. Myself I have an original Abu Garcia Veritas 7 ft HEAVY and it works well. The new models in that Veritas 2 series runs around $100. If your budget allows you to spend more look at a Dobyns Champion Series DC 765FLIP or even a nice St Croix LEGEND TOURNAMENT BASS rod. they have some nice flipping and pitching models.

I have used a bunch of lines on my wife and my spinning rods over the last 40 years. I have come to the conclusion for us the Fireline original and a 4 foot leader made of p Line Cxx seems to work out great. We fish the Chesapeake Bay tidal rivers which you can run into barnacles, rebar, old ships, discarded concrete, wood pilings, etc. We also travel to big southern lakes like Dale Hollow, and Center Hill. These are deep clear water and I rarely need to change anything but my leader size. Most of the time I fish a 4 foot leader of 20 pound CXX in moss green. Sometimes out west I will go to 8 pound CXX or FloroClear.. That has worked out well even when throwing light baits like ned rigs on big, deep, grass flats.

All of my spinning rods I have the standard handle on the left. I regularly use 12 different baitcasters. All of the reels mounted on rods that I use for crank and wind baits have right handed reels on them. All of my rods that I cast and hop, jump, drag or impart action to, I use lefties on. So carolina rigs ,jigs, jerkbaits, pitchin, frogging etc have lefties on it. I do it this way for several reasons. I am right handed so if I throw a crankbait out it does not matter if I take a moment, change hands and then start my retrieve. When I pitch a jig that jig is "fishing the minute it starts falling and since I am not changing hands I am ready to strike as I follow the line down. If I am fishing a swimbait or jerkbait my dominate hand holds the rod and I am more comfortable with that when I need to set a hook. I have been a mechanic for over 3 decades. In that time my hands have taken a beating, so if I use one hand for too long it can cramp up. Changing baits and techniques means changing hands and that helps me feel better throughout the day.

The Sierras are really nice. Did you get the message I sent you?

That is funny, because I own around 9 of the Presidents and several are over 10 years old. I love them and they work flawlessly for my wife and I. As for them not being smooth, the only one I have heard say that they are not smooth are those that also say they never owned one nor ever handled one! I guess a 10 bearing reel is automatically expected to grind or something!!! You are welcome to fish what you want, but at least put one in your hand first before you eliminate it. Here is an example of what those reels can do. This past April we took our semi- annual trip to Dale Hollow. We arrived the week the big female smallies left the beds and were hanging out on main lake grass flats. They were in a foul mood so they did not want to eat anything. None of the normal baits worked. They would not touch jerkbaits, jigs, swimbaits, spinnerbaits slow rolled, shakey heads, nothing. The only bait working was the Ned Rig.. So that is what our guide had us doing out there to catch our big smallies. Most were between 4 and 7 pounds. We threw them on our G Loomis SJR 721 6 foot light action spinning rods and yes Pflueger Presidents. She hooked and landed an 8 pound cat on that rod and reel combo. We loosened her drag, and she ran from the front to the back of the boat a bunch of times. It was the funniest thing to watch and I told her she was doing a perfect Ike imitation!!! The reel flat out work. The reel that is matched up on that rod is a 6930 and it still works perfectly. By the way I do not recommend chasing catfish with that light of a setup, BUT you have to do what you can when a big fish bites. Here in Md we often catch stripers and big blue cats while bass fishing, so again you need gear that can handle it. In addition to the In addition to the Pfluegers we also fish one Shimano Symetre, and my most recent purchase was an Okuma RTX30S. That is a great reel. It is made of a carbon fiber type material I believe. It has a high speed retrieve and is super lightweight. I like the RTX reels as well as the Helios. Check those reels as well. Just be careful with the Shimanos, there are reports of some Shimano spinning reels locking or binding up and Shimano not having a solution yet. I pray my wife's Symetre does not develop this problem. This is on her frog rod and it matches the Irod well

It might be overkill depending on the size cats in the body of water. I once heard a commerciall diver refuse to goback down and complete a dam inspection. He saw a catfish larger than himself. He was serious, they had to get his partner and another diver to go back down. Man he took some severe ribbing after that. When he came in the next morning instead of his dive suite in his locker he found a ladies skirt and halter top! I am not really big into cats. I do have a friend, she is the only female fishing captain in PA, and she guides for big Susquehanna flatheads and channels. I know she started guiding with the 7 foot catfish series Ugly Sticks. She has since upgraded to custom rods. My biggest flatty was caught on one of her trips. It weighed 18 pounds. i got beat by my wife who stands just 5 feet tall. Her big one weighed just under 35 pounds and reached from the floor to her chin when two of us held it up for her in the picture. Most of my fishing is for bass and panfish.If you want to see some cool videos go look up "The Catfish Queen" or BreakLine Charters on youtube. SHe even does some hillbilly hand lining for cats. As for the reel I was trying to say I have used that 40 series reel for bass, but if he felt it was too big he could turn it into a great rig for something else.

I have never seen those specs on a Lews rod. There are plenty of others that do not publish the weights also.

I agree with roadwarrior, fishing from shore requires only a few rods with you and an arsenal of maybe 5 to choose from. Right now your spinning rod will handle all of your finesse needs. Here are some tackle suggestions to have available for this rod. I do not want you to purchase hundreds of these baits, just a couple of 10 packs in several colors each. Start with a good 5 inch grub. I like Kalins 5 inch Lunker Grubs or Zoom Fat Albert Grub as well as Yamamoto grubs. Pick up some in Bluegill (Kalins) and watermelon red flake (all 3 have these). Pick up some 4 inch ring worms in watermelon red flake, blue fleck, and black with a chartreuse tail. Another option is a Zipper worm or some smaller finesse style worms like Lunker City Ribster in chobee craw and again watermelon red flake or maybe blue halo. Add to these some good creature style baits like a Missile Baits D Bomb or Grande Bass Mega Claws. Keep it simple for most of these bait you can rig with two different style hooks. First is a stand up style shakey head jig and the other is a personal favorite of mine. Check out Bass Pro's Perfect Finesse Worm hooks. Using this we can rig any of these baits and change them easily. Here is what I am talking about. First is the stand up shakey head jig. Second is the Perfect Finesse jighead, It is my favorite way to rig a grub! They come in many colors and weights/size hooks. I only stock the green because it does not make that much difference. I do stock 1/8,1/4 and 3/8 ounce jig heads for these. Match the right hook size to the bait and the right weight to get the bait down quickly enough. I also use some of the larger Perfect worm hooks to quickly rig my 6, 7 and 8 inch worms. Lastly go look at Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers. These are hollow bodied swimbaits. I fish them unweighted and with Gamakatsu belly weighted swimbait hooks. These come in several colors. I find Houdini and white trash to be great colors as well as money shot green and any of the 'blue shad" patterns The 3rd picture shows a belly weighted swimbait hook. Now for the baitcasters. Let go over the first one. The Cousins rod is supposed to be your most moderate action rod.Match that rod up with the 6.6-1 reel and some 12 pound line like I said earlier. I want you to go tie on a few of these baits on it. Go cast it an see how well you can cast these baits, and how well you can feel these bait. First, if you do not own a few rattle trap baits then go purchase several 1/2 ounce Strike King Red Eye Shads, Cotton Cordell Rattling Spots or Bill Lewis Original Rattle trap baits. These should be in chrome and blue and fire tiger. Try throwing a 3 inch 1/2 ounce Pop R type topwater bait and both a 3/8 ounce spinnerbait and a 3/8 ounce buzz bait. Throw any small to mid sized crankbait on this rod as well. Lastly throw some kind of jerkbait, either a 5.5 inch Rebel Minnow, a Rattling Rogue or Rapala about the same size. It could also be a sinking diving bait as well. These brands are just suggestions, many companies make great jerkbaits. Let me know how this rod works with these baits. If you can work some of these baits, but not others, it tells me a lot. I am trying to help you find out how versatile that rod is. Once we figure out these two rods we can move on to the other rods you already own.

First what is your budget? There are several different camps on what specs are best for those baits. There was a long thread on this recently. Before you look at new gear, what gear do you have? Have you tried to throw them on any of your gear and did you like the feel and distance you got while trying you rods?

No it will be fine, I noticed Ugly Stick offers that rod in a combo with a 50 series reel ,so do not worry go enjoy that setup. I think that setup would work really nice for live lining bluegill for big catfish. Wait till you tag into a big ( 30 pound plus) size flat head or 20 pound blue cat. They will flat out wear you out. Oh but what fun they are to catch.My buddy says they are good eating too. I usually only eat catfish when I travel out in Tn and KY. They know how to do farm raised cats out there. YUM!

Let's start this thinking process differently. Over 40+ years fishing I have owned 11 different boats to fit different fishing conditions and my tackle has adjusted accordingly, so behind me, in my room here, sits well over 30 rods that my wife and I fish. Some do not fit my fishing areas now, but I use them when I go on vacation. We have fly fished across much of this country and even on our honeymoon in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Those rods do not fit much of my angling today. We have some very expensive 7 foot G Loomis rods. They are extremely sensitive, light action spinning rods that used to do lots of work when I fish on the Pennsylvania rivers for smallies. We also fished a very deep, clear, PA lake for fresh water white perch, so we setup some 5.5 ultralights and two 7 ft medium rods with line counter reels equipped with 6 pound braid. These look like trolling gear for walleyes, but they were setup to troll for the white perch. Occasionally you would tag into some big walleyes while trolling, so we had to look out when it happened, drag adjustments were critical! Man those fish tasted great! I miss having them in my freezer. I own 6 different spinning rods that belong to my wife. She regularly fishes these when we fish for light tackle stripers or bass. My arsenal includes 4 spinning combos and about 14 or 15 baitcasters for bass and stripers. I usually have 2 or 3 spinning outfits and maybe 9 or so baitcasters in the rod box on any given day. Here at home in MD. I fish the tidal rivers feeding the Chesapeake Bay. For the most part we are talking dirty off color water, lots of shallow water targets and the term "deep drop off" might refer to 15 feet, unless I am fishing a river channel. Most of my fishing is targeting wood, rock pilings, docks etc. The rods I carry for this are much different than when we go fish out in the TN and KY. Those lakes are deep, 100 foot plus, 60 or 70 mile long impoundments, like Dale Hollow, Center Hill and others. It is easy to see at least 5 to 8 feet down. I can leave my big punching rod and frog rod at home, but I better have a rod for Ned rigs, traps for fishing submerged grass flats, and jerkbaits. Jigs are real important there as well. I am not saying YOU need to invest thousands of dollars or own the numbers of rods we have. Actually I believe 4 or 5 rods can do it all well, if you identify which 5 meet your needs the most. Here is where we turn the question around. What type of water do you fish? Are they small, slow meandering streams and rivers, Are they big fast major rivers, perhaps ones with commercial traffic on them. Are they small ponds and small local lakes, perhaps drinking reservoirs (these are usually clearer and deeper bodies of waters). Do you fish major impoundments that are miles and miles long. How clear is the water and what are your major fishing targets, perhaps lily pads and heavy vegetation, rocky outcroppings, docks, bridges etc. Are there more smallies than largies or are there both?Do you fish from shore or from a boat and if so what type or configuration. What I mean is is it a jon boat, kayak, aluminum bass boat, or big fiberglass rocket ship. Each type has different storage abilities and restrictions. My aluminum bass boat can handle 13 rods in the rod storage compartment but it can not fit a rod 1 inch over 7 ft. this makes a difference when selecting a punching rod or a frog rod. All of these answers help determine what fits your needs best, Give me a mental picture of the majority of fishing conditions you will encounter and we can both come up with a plan or strategy, You already own some good equipment, the next step is learning how to use it best for your conditions and then that will help decide what to add to complement it. Of course my approach is to identify lures/techniques that work best on each of the rods you already have before moving on. This will require you doing some "practice fishing" with a set of lures on each rod. We can go rod by rod together. This will help you understand what "feels" good on that particular rod. Once we determine what it does well we can determine what we are missing. You biggest need could be a frog rod, a big heavy flipping & punching rod or it might be a second lighter action finesse spinning rod. Perhaps a dedicate jerkbait/topwater rod. I look forward to hearing from you so we can explore your toys and how to make them play. I am sorry if I make you go fishing as homework, but someone has to do it! LOL

Here is my thoughts. Although I have never handled the Cousins so I am guessing it is the most moderate action rod you own ( bends the farthest down the blank). If I am right the 6,6-1 reel would land here with 12 or 14 pound copolymer line like P Line FloroClear or even good old Stren Clear Blue in 10 to 12 pound test. With this I would throw small to midsized cranks, rattle traps, and jerkbaits. I would also try to throw my spinnerbaits and squarebills on this rod. Most of these baits have treble hooks and a slower reacting rod will help you hook and land more fish on these baits. The Taranis most likely would handle my texas rigged plastics and regular 1/4 to 1/2 oz jigs with a plastic trailer. I would use your 7.3-1 reel on this rod. This should also be good for swim jigs and even some baits like a buzzbait. This reel could get some 20 pound 832 braid or perhaps some 12 pound copoly or mono depending on your preference. Fluoro would work here but will require a bit of line management. The Kistler 6'9" MH fast should be your stiffest rod that you own, This is the rod I would throw carolina rigs and larger heavier weighted plastics. I would probably think about using the scorpion in a 7 something on this reel ( the one you intended on ordering) and use the 8-1 reel you already own on the frog rod. This rod would probably 17 to 20 pound line like P Line CXX copoly or Big Game. The frog rod would get Power Pro Spectra 65 pound line.

My wife and I fish with 7 or 8 Pflueger Presidents. Most are 30s and 35s, but I have used a 40 on one of my bass rods for over 10 years. Some may feel it is too big but I like the extra distance I could get with it. Here is an idea for you. Take that 40 series reel and put it on a 7 foot MH Abu Garcia Veritas rod or Ugly Stick cat rod. Use that combo to cast live bait or a jig a minnow for bif walleye and catfish. They will work really nice together.

Nate Stonefish my personal preference is a split grip[ rod and I really like the forward cork in front of the reel seat. For me it is more comfortable to lay my thumb there. It sorta feels like gripping a golf club where your thumb sits on top and directs the swing. I am not a super big fan of small guides in fact if I could wave a magic wand I would take an Avid X rod and replace the guides with MicroWave guides for truly longer casting. Big Bass for your intended purpose lightly weighted Ned rigs, tubes, grubs and even drop shotting the 69ML would be a better choice. If you go with more than 5/16 ounce weight plus a bait and hook then you probably fall more into the 68MXF. I have a friend that fishes a 68MXF a lot. He has it matched up with a super light Okuma RTX30 high speed reel. That thing feels terrific. He has landed some huge Snakehead fish on it while fishing texas rigged Sencos down on the Potomac. Right after the holidays that will be my next combo in my arsenal. By the way where are you located up in PA. I used to live near Duncannon and fish both the rivers and a bunch of lakes up there.

If the water you fish does require using that technique, then I would prioritize that rod as my first need. It is simple, you have a reel that will match up with it already. Fill that need first. You already have 1 good spinning rod for the moment. Once you have that covered, then look into the second spinning combo. What can you rade that broken rod for? Another rod from that manufacturer or anything brand you want? That Shimano Stradic is supposed to be terrific, but it is very high priced. Take a good look at the Pflueger Supreme or a Pflueger President XT. I fish a bunch of the standard Pflueger Presidents which hold up forever. Lots of guys like the President XT and Limited Edition better, but I have never needed to try them. My newest reel is an Okuma RTX 30, super light and very strong. My friend Bryan landed some huge snakeheads on that reel this past summer. I think his largest ones were caught on that spinning reel and a Tatula HD baitcaster. He regularly catches them up to 15 pounds or more. That RTX series and the Helios are really nice reels. Okuma is quickly becoming third "BIG" reel company in my opinion, right beside Daiwa and Shimano. At this point I would stay away from the Shimano spinning reels. I have been hearing about some models having issues and Shimano not having answers. I wish I knew about them before I purchased Linda's Symmetre. I am hoping hers does not start locking up like some have. Rods used for bottom contact baits require the most sensitivity. I never spend too much on a spinning reel, but rather save my money for the most sensitive rods possible. For me most of my baitcasting reels cost way more than my spinning reels do. For a very sensitive spinning rod look seriously at the ST Croix Avid X rods. Since you have a medium fast spinning rod take a good look at a AXS69MLXF. That is a 6'9" ML XF rod. It is super lightweight, very sensitive. and covers 1/8 to 1/2 ounce lures. It will handle light grubs, Ned rigs, drop shots and lots more. That rod is going to run you around $200, so if you add an Okuma RTX30 for around $75 you will have a extremely lightweight sensitive combo. The RTX 30 only weighs 6.6 ounces and the rod only weighs 3.6 ounces. You could throw that all day and never know you did.

I will second the Abu Garcia Ike series rods. I own the Ike Delay series 6'4' jerkbait rod. It is like a 6'6" rod with a bit shorter handle so you do not hit your wrist. It throws and fishes the Pointers and other jerkbaits well.

Lets look at this a bit differently. How often do you fish water that has lily pads or heavy vegetation? The only reason to own a rod to fish frogs or flip, pitch or punch is if you fish water that has heavy vegetation and lily pads. I lived in PA for 5 years and fished up and down the Susquehanna River, Raystown Lake, Beltzville Lake, Lake Wallenpaupack, Blue Marsh Lake, Lake Marburg, Foster Joseph Sawyers Lake and even Lake Cowanesque Lake up near the NY border. I even fished a bunch of smaller bodies of water up there too. I fished there from 1988 to 1995, so some of those lakes may have changed some, but in all of that time I never ran into a need to have a flipping stick or a frog rod. I never owned one till I moved back to MD and started to fish tidal water again. There are places in the Potomac River and on the Susquehanna Flats that a frog and a flipping stick are major weapons to fish with. Seriously I am 54 years old and for my first 35 + years of fishing I did not need one. Look at your water, I know you just got your boat, deck out your rig and fish for the first ten trips. See what conditions you encounter for real. Start learning what the fish in those lakes, streams, ponds do in the spring, summer, and fall. Let the fish tell you where they go, shallow or deep and then you will find what you actually need.

go with the Dobyns FR 705cb

My flipping rod has a Daiwa Tatula Type R 8-1 reel on it, it works very well. Check out the Tatula type r 8-1, and also check out the slightly smaller Tatul CT in a 8-1 or even the CT type R. Amazon has a bunch of suppliers with some very good pricing. I actually fish 1 Daiwa Exceler, 2 Tatula CTs and 4 Daiwa Tatula Type Rs. I really like these reels. I use both left and right hand reels. I use right handed reels for baits I chuck and wind like spinnerbaits, traps and crankbaits. Lures I throw, drop and hop back like jigs, texas rigged plastics, or sweep and let sit like a carolina rig. I prefer to use a lefty for pitchin and flipping so I never change hands to cast and retrieve the bait. I am right handed so I hold the bait in my left hand, then cast holding the rod in my right hand. I am in position to hook the fish as the bait falls.

Makes sense since they ship round the world everyday. Billing around the world should be easy. Glad it worked.

I have not used the 744C yet but I love my IRG 703CC Gabes Rip Rap Special. I use it for small cranks, wakebaits and traps. Most of the time it is my go to fall striper rod, The largest fish I fought on it so far was actually an 18 pound blue cat which nearly spooled me/ It ate a 3/84 Xcalibur one knocker trap. My wife throws a Genesis II IRG 713S heavy finesse spinning rod for her hollow body frogs. It works really nicely.

Check out the Irod Genesis II irg 703CC Gabes Rip Rap Special as well as a Dobyns Fury FR 705CB. One last one would be a Falcon Bucoo Micro 7 ft Cranker,its a med moderate rod. You could also go with the Trap Caster , it is a 7ft mh mf. I love mine I use it for small cranks wake baits and traps. This rod is great when fall striper time hits here on the Chesapeake Bay. They all come into the creeks and feed heavy. That makes it 3/4 oz trap time. that rod feels great with a big striper on it.

Personally I would go 6.3-1 in order to have a versatile combo. The reason to go with a 5 to 1 or 5.5 to 1 is for deep cranking with dd22s and the like. Here the stress on your hands can come into play. If you are setting that rod up with a 6.3 to 1 it will work for square bills, mid depth cranks and even traps.

Take a look at a Powell Inferno 6103 MEF or a Dobyns Fury FR 702SF,

Take a drive up to Towne Marine in Bloomsburg. There are two boats worth looking at. and