Boomstick

I will fish a 1/2oz jig in clearer water on my 6'10" MH/F, usually dragging a football jig over rocks. But I have the 7'1" H/F Jig rod which I use for jigs in thick cover and frogs as well, but sometimes I will have a frog on that rod and up to a 1/2oz jig on my MH.

Black is good in low light conditions, being night and as a good alternative to chartreuse in dirty water.

Yeah the impression that I got is that it's not too "extra" fast, and feels like it should be fine. Have you ever tried a 1/2oz jig? Nice cathes there.

Well as far as spinnerbaits, that makes sense. When the water is choppy and you're fishing a spinnerbait which is a shallower lure, the water will cause the reflections to kind of bounce around and keep the fish from getting a good look at the bait, even in clear water. As far as crankbaits, there is a little less scientific evidence but from my experience, a little wind in clear water can make the crankbait look more like a real fish. Also I should mention that on days when wind is blowing because a storm is moving in (especially later in the day in the middle of the summer when the temperature is dropping), it might be a good time to fish a moving bait such as a crankbait or a spinnerbait simply because you can cover a lot of water and these fish are often on the move looking for something to eat and will bite anything that moves. I have had some of my best days fishing in this scenario.

Well that goes for the both of us. I actually messed up the action of the rod I meant to in my initial post here as well (put R and meant F). Fighting this earache for the past two and a half weeks has not done me any favors -- just started round two of antibiotics today, hopefully they work this time. In my case, the MH/F and MH/XF should be all around similar rods, where I personally have no use for a ML/F casting rod (I go spinning for my finesse tackle). I have never used a XF rod before other than my M/XF rod, which simply has taper throughout being a medium power rated for 6-14lb line, so that's a whole different animal. I very well may prefer it for jigs and T-rigs which is the majority of what I will fish on it. I pulled on the tip and it feels fairly similar to my son's Dobyns Sierra 704C which I love for jigs and actually similar to my MH/F, although that is the prior generation 6'10", so it very well should work and I'm leaning towards keeping it.

It's what Daiwa calls "regular" or basically moderate fast although from what I gather they usually are closer to fast except the glass rods.

Yup! That's my usual spinnerbait and chatterbait rod (there are times I will step up to a MH/F too) and I can fish a crankbait or jerkbait on it as well. Pretty all-around multi-purpose rod. But I usually use it with 15lb FC although I certainly could step that up to 17lb on the 6.3:1 reel I normally pair with it and use 15lb with the 7.1:1 reel I normally use for T-Rigs and occasionally jigs.

I am sorry, I was still working when I noticed that and googled Daiwa Tatula and it pulled up the older models of the rods. I had pulled up the older version of the rod. It was supposed to be the MH/F model. It seems to only be slightly stiffer than my older model 6'10" MH/F at least, which is consistent with the rest of the newer Tatula lineup being slightly less fast than the prior gen counterparts. This rod will likely mainly see 15lb and 17lb fluorocarbon and maybe sometimes 12lb mono. Yeah that was a typo. I actually own both of the above glass rods as well.

So today I received my black friday shopping and I received a rod that was not the one that I thought I bought -- although I quickly learned that I did order the wrong version. I thought I ordered a Daiwa Tatula rod, 7'1" MH/F but the actual rod I got was a 7'1" MH/XF rod. My intent for the rod was to use it for jigs in clear water, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and T-Rigs when I want to cast them further. Am I really going to regret not sending it back for the MH/F rod? The way I see it, the only thing I might lose is casting distance. EDIT: The rod I thought I ordered was MH/F, not MH/R.

The 744 is an extra fast tip. The Sierra 704C is my relative experience here and that has a pretty has a solid tip for what is normally called a MH/F rod which is what makes it a great lighter power jig rod but not too stiff to fish a spinnerbait or chatterbait.

The 734C should be perfect for those presentations, and is also a great jig rod outside of the real thick stuff for a 3/8oz or 1/2oz jig as well. A 744C would be a little bit too heavy, and the 733C is better suited for weightless softplastics, small spinnerbaits or even a square bill.

Well it sure sounds like you have your priorities straight!

I usually sleep on the ground. As long as there aren't any major rocks then I'm good and half of the time I get a leanto (when I'm at a VT state park anyway). But I would probably go with an air mattress myself, and they're cheap enough.

The Cowboys are auditioning to become a XFL team lol

nice and simple

The way I see it, it's quite simple really. If you can afford the SV, get it. Otherwise the CT will do the trick.

Which XT model, there are several models postfixed with XT. A few years ago I bought a Supreme XT baitcaster for my youngest son. It does not brake as well as my Daiwa reels but fairly similar to my oldest son's Shimano Curado in terms of braking (and all around performance only much lighter) but has a ton of drag on hand, holds a lot of line and is extremely light and casts a mile. I also have a Pflueger Patriarch casting reel that I used last year for jerkbaits and poppers which is a dual braking reel so you can really tweak it. It's as light as the Supreme XT but brakes a touch better, for obvious reasons. I have had no problems and have been very pleased with both of the reels and you can also buy most parts for most reels right on their website rather easily.

Yeah it looks like you will be well setup. The few things I would change use the 704C with 15lb flurocarbon for weighted soft plastics and the 733C for weightless or lightly weighted soft plastics, and the 734C with 17lb fluro would be great choice for fishing 1/2oz and under jigs in open water and lighter cover. You don't usually need the 735C for a T-rig unless you're running a full punching setup. I would also consider throwing spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and even swim jigs on the 704C with 15lb line as well in open water. I use 17lb when fishing these lures around weeds too. My point here is you have choices depending on your cover, which is nice

I usually change mine every year but to be honest I could probably get 2-3 out of it. Last year I did not change out my line on one reel until I backlashed and tangled the line getting the bird's nest out in August and with a little KVD the line was not showing any real signs of degradation.

Fluorocarbon gets changed annually in mid-late May or early June, Monofilament gets changed 3-4 times a year and braid gets changed when there is not enough on the spool which is 1-3 years depending on the thickness of the braid (50+ braid gets lower on the spool much quicker than thinner braid). For mono, I will put on the cheapest mono as soon as the lakes thaw out and in mid May to early June I will repool with Sufix Siege, my more expensive mono of choice.

21ipt is on the slower side but that means you can fish it a little bit faster as opposed to 23ipt. No reason that should be "too slow". I still use my 6.3:1, 26.1 ipt reels and just fish them slower.

In cases when they follow a crankbait but do not commit, I would try something like 1/4oz popper or a jerkbait and try for a reaction strike.

It's pretty much what you can afford and if you aren't sure, my general rule of thumb is if you are using it for moving baits when the fish often tend to hammer it and you don't have to worry as much about missing bites, I would be inclined to go for the cheaper rod and if you are using it to fish soft plastics and jigs on a hot summer or winter day for finicky fish then you'll appreciate the better rod.

A couple years ago, I picked up a St. Croix Avid X 6'9" ML/XF rod for drop shots and ned rigs, figuring a ML was the way to go for the northeast (where 10 pounders are rare). It has micro guides but with thin line (12lb Sunline SX1 basically the thickness of average 15lb braid and a 6 or 8lb flurocarbon leader) I have issues passing the knot through the guides, and it's very sensitive. As most of you guys know I'm an admitted Daiwa fanboy (and I don't lie about it), but I did not get the Daiwa Tatula drop shot rod because I read that they put a thinner than normal tip on it which is fairly normal with Daiwa rods and in most cases a nice perk but in conjunction with a lighter power rod, people broke the tips off of them constantly.

I was 36 when I got diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer a year ago. The tumor they removed was almost the size of a football and while that's scary enough, that's literally nothing next to what your son has to go through. Every now and then you hear about people who survive beyond the odds. My aunt survived ovarian cancer 20 years ago when the 5 year survival rate was only 15% and she is still alive and cancer free today. So I can hope for both you and your son that he makes it through this okay.