hwright38

Power is the Medium, Medium Heavy, etc. The apex of the curve in the rod when you bend it is the action. The faster the action, the further towards the tip the bend will be. For being new to fishing, action isn't something to get super hung up on. For bass fishing, a medium power, fast action rod is right where you want to be if you only have one rod to do everything (kind of like a "jack of all trades, master of none"). To add: If a rod doesn't specify action, and you bought it in a big retailer (cabelas, BPS, etc), it's probably a fast. Ugly Stiks are, imo, closer to a moderate-fast. That won't make that big of a difference though.

The reel is a pretty good one. Should last practically forever, and is beefy enough for things like bass/walleye/medium sized channel cats/etc. I myself am not a fan of Ugly Stiks for anything other than catfish, carp, or for trolling. They're ok, but their main "claim to fame" so to speak, is being neigh indestructible. However, a Geo Metros last forever too, but no one would say they're a nice car. Sure a BMW or a Lambo are going to be much more fragile, but if you take care of them, they'll last too. I'm not saying to return the rod necessarily. If you're new to fishing, you literally won't know what you're missing. For white bass and bluegill Ugly Stiks are fine, no need for sensitivity or anything. For largemouth you'll eventually want something a bit nicer (for just a little more, the Abu Garcia Vengeance or the Shimano Sensalite will be more suited for largemouth. I'd recommend going even a tiny bit more and getting an Abu Garcia Vendetta for $70. I've had one for the better part of a decade and it's been awesome). Overall you should be fine. The first thing I would upgrade would be the rod, but you don't really need anything more at the moment. Good brands to buy from are Abu Garcia, Shimano, and Daiwa (the "big three" of bass fishing) add Dobyns and St. Croix for rods. Quantum, Pflueger and one-3 make some good stuff, but not as good. Zebco (yes you pedants, I know zebco and Quantum are the same) and Shakespeare make cheaper budget stuff (<$50). Everything else don't worry about right now.

Unless you get a deal on them, they aren't worth it over the SK stuff. I broke down and bought a Karl's club membership or whatever ($50 for a year) to buy some re-branded catch-co jigs that I liked, and ended up picking up a couple bags for 30% off. If you use a lot of Rage Tails/Bugs it could be a good investment, but you'd need to go through a quite a few packs a summer to make up the difference after the $50 fee. We'll see if I can poke the tackle monkey enough to make it worth it.

Their baits (especially the "bandito bug" and their craw) are just Strike King rage tail/bug knockoffs. They use the exact same patent for the claws. I kinda like the profile of the bandito bug more, but that's probably more catching me than catching fish. They're more of a crawdad scent rather than coffee too (which I actually prefer. Plastic+coffee=?), which probably doesn't matter imo.

For the low end of your price range, I'd take a Villain 2.0 over a Zodias or Avid every day of the week. Especially the Avid. Not even comparable imo. I'm struggling to decide whether or not to get a Fantasista Premier, or another Villain and some tackle.

By now you know it will fade, but no one has addressed if the dye will get on your gear. It does. I fish yellow braid (power pro in 15# on spinning, 40# sufix performance on casting), and you definitely get yellow residue all over your rods and reels. It's especially apparent on white or lighter colors. That said, it wipes off with a wet-wipe, so it's not a huge deal. All braid will fade, because I'm pretty sure the spectra/dyneema/whatever fibers can't be made in different colors, so they have to be dyed, and dyes will always be susceptible to fading (I mean think about how hard it would be to keep something colored that is constantly bending, twisting, scrunching, rubbing, and scraping while also being soaked and dried hundreds of times a day). ps. I also don't color the terminal end of my braid like some guys do. I do use a leader that's at least a foot or so, but past that I haven't noticed much difference switching from green to yellow braid. I'm sure it doesn't hurt though.

I fish lipless and squarebills with a 7.2:1 Curado K. Excellent reel for moving baits because of those big rubber handles. I throw the rest of my crankbaits on a Lew's Mach 1 (the old version) just because it's what I have (again, a 7.1). Honestly for everything but the bigger deep diving ones (6XD or bigger), I don't really pay attention to gear ratio or anything like that. If you fish a lot with a 6, I'd stick with it. I learned with a 7 so it's my baseline. Either way the difference is minimal.

Tungsten, if anything, would cause more damage to your line everything else being equal. Now, I have never had my line damaged by my weights, so you may just be using some funky shapes or, like another poster said, a bad batch. I only use tungsten now, and I don't recommend it. Way too expensive, but like many other things, once you taste the high life you just can't go back to the cheap stuff.

That's because that 70 in the 8:1 has the same inches-per-turn as a full size curado in a 7:1. Honestly gear ratio should only be a concern if you need cranking power (lower ratios will give you more power). For overall speed, IPT is much more important. Anything over 6:1 to me has diminishing returns as you aren't getting that much faster retrieve, and you lose out on some power if you're fishing bigger baits. To answer OP. If you buy just about any bass rod in the store, if it doesn't list it's action, it's fast. As someone else already explained, power and action are different measurements entirely. As an all around rod, a 7' to 7'6 MH fast action rod with a reel around 25-32 IPT (generally 6:1-7.5:1 gear ratio on a 100-200 size reel. Smaller will have a lower IPT per X:1 gear ratio) will be the ticket. If I could have one rod/reel. It would be a 7' MH/F with a ~7:1 gear ratio (personally that happens to be a Villain 2.0 and a Chronarch 151 MGL). Don't get a 9:1 reel. Especially that KastKing one. Marketing malarkey is all it is.

It's both. The rod is arguably more important though. Get a fast action rod. I've caught many fish on crankbaits with a fast action, but can't even work a jig or texas rig with a moderate action rod. Fast action rod with cranks >>>>> mod action rod with t-rigs.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I absolutely LOVE my villains. I'll never not recommend them. I haven't messed with the spinning versions yet, but the casting are my favorite rods hands down. They've become my personal standard for comparing other rods, and frankly I haven't found anything that comes close. The newer generation Villains are night and day compared to the older gen. Much better rods from what I've read.

That's not really the argument though. Obviously a fish isn't thinking there's something trying to trick it into thinking this is food. Visible line would make a wary fish uncomfortable though, and may spook it into not biting. There's definitely squirrelly enough fish that line choice matters in terms of visibility. However, a leader all but eliminates that worry in all but the clearest of waters (and even then, a 20ft+ leader is probably going to get your hi-vis braid out of the way). To answer OP, bass have a very keen eye, and can see color very well. They're not particularly observant however, and usually (except in the above mentioned cases of clear water and/or spooky fish), the bass don't really care about line. I personally only use yellow braid (sufix performance 40# for casting, PowerPro 15# for spinning) with a fluoro leader, EXCEPT in a frogging/heavy pitching scenario where it's straight 50# green. I don't want to drag a highly visible, suspicious material right in front of a fish if he has a clear sight line to it. I've noticed I have a lot more success bed-fishing with a longer leader than I do with a shorter or even straight braid set-up.

+1 for Curado K.

Can't go wrong with one for a $100. I'd maybe go Veritas, SLX, and 13 black (in that order) first though. I know a couple guys that seem to have formed a cult-like following around the HMG though, so they are definitely not bad.

For smaller jerkbaits it should be fine. I fish jerkbaits on a similar rod (the 6'10 villain will probably be my next rod actually) and it does just fine. Honestly though I'm not particular about my jerkbait rod, so long as it has a fast action and isn't a broomstick it should be decent.

#threadkiller

+1. Can speak from experience, the Phenix Feather in a MH is what a M feels like in pretty much everything else (love that rod btw. It is unbelievably light. Sensitivity is under-par, but I'm comparing it to rods that are 25% more money).

Had my Curado K for about a year now, and I'll say it's been a beast. All of last summer it was my work-horse reel. Everything from T-rigs to small swimbaits to cranks. Just as smooth as when I bought it. I did have two things happen/still happening. 1: I somehow managed to get the thumb bar to come all the way up, but the handle wasn't engaged. It was in free spool, but also not in free spool. Clicked down the thumb bar and re-engaged and it was fine. 2: If I back the drag all the way off (I mean really all the way off), and bounce the reel around, I can get the handle to turn backwards. I think I may have put a spacer in backwards or something playing around with the handle, and now it's able to escape the one way bearing. Tightening the drag even just a hair solves the issue entirely. Overall if you're on the fence just buy the reel. ( @LxVE Bassin ) Best reel under $200, and imo it's not even close (sorry Daiwa fans). Makes the SLX feel like a toy.

+1

+1 for the Curado K. A close second would be the Smoke S3 for me (I have no experience with Daiwa reels, I'm sure the tatulas are fine, they just don't appeal to me). The Curado 70 is an interesting reel that I would like to try some time, and it should be a decent flipping/bottom contact reel for situations where line capacity isn't a concern. It's basically a mini Curado 200I. For an overall reel, there isn't any reason to go for it over the K unless want something tiny and easy to palm (for the $20 though I'd rather have the K and spool it up with line). Can't go wrong with a Lew's in that price range either. Just get the Curado K and don't look back. (honestly all those reels will be good, that price bracket weeds out some of the lower performing reels. It's mostly just personal preference)

I use a custom 6'9 medium rod for smallmouth, and it is maybe a tad overkill for what I'm catching (a 14" smallmouth would be top-5 of the day, however). A medium light would would be a tad easier to fish dropshots with because you can see/feel the deflection when shy fish pick up the bait, but if you're looking to bring only one rod, I'd still recommend a medium personally. I feel much more confident if I hook into a lunker on a M than a ML, but I also run the risk of hooking into big largemouth and possibly stripers where I like to fish. If it's 100% smallmouth/walleye all the time, ML. If you want to use the rod for anything else, M. The avid X line is (supposedly) a very well rounded rod in weights Medium and lighter (I bought a 7'MH casting rod and returned it two days later because it was just so tip heavy for a $230 rod). For baits I like to throw dropshots and small wacky rigged senkos. I regulary cast 1/8 oz tungsten weights with a M, so I don't think you'll have much problem casting them on a ML. Small swimbaits are pretty popular too, and you may have some trouble managing them on a ML, but I can't comment on that from personal experience. This is all for spinning rods btw. I usually don't fish for walleye or smallies with a casting rod very often.

Abu Garcia Villain 2.0. Or, if you want to match that feathery reel to a feathery rod, the Phenix Feather is a good choice (get the heavy, they fish pretty light). Though if you're thinking of dropping that kind of cash on an Xtasy, you might as well get an NRX

I saw that one too, but the one I just watched was a yakdaddy video. That dude is in love with that yak. $1,600 is quite a bit to still be paddling. That seat position tho... Dang it man, now I have more questions than what I started with!

I just found a video of a guy standing up and rocking back and forth on it, so I think that sold it for me. I'll see about checking back in a few months from now with a review

How stable is it when standing? Is it fishable? If I don't go with a pedal kayak now, I'll just keep my Weber 132. It's as good as a transition kayak as there is. Maybe I'll make some outriggers so I can stand in it. May be more trouble than it's worth though. Too expensive unfortunately. I can get a Perception Pilot for under $1,500 for sure. Same story with the Native. Cool looking yaks, but just a bit too much that I'm comfortable with spending for just a yak. I would love to go all out and get a Hobie or maybe the Predator with the MinnKota motor, but alas my budget is set tight at $2k for everything including a sonar unit. Such is life