mcease

Awesome. Thank you! This is great - I will see what they recommend and try to learn from it.

Thank you. This gives me a good starting point. I am trying to piece all of this madness together and understand what works for various applications. I tend to go overboard with all of my hobbies ?. I have been doing a lot of reading, but is there somewhere that can point me to the optimal setup (or a general setup that works) for each application (I know everyone fishes differently), but perhaps length & power & action of rod with gear ratio of reel for (swim bait, then one for swim jig, then one for cranks, texas rigs, spinners, etc, etc.) OR is all of this personal preference - Im trying to unravel all of the information so I have a good understanding before I jump into buying combos.

Thanks! I'm trying to minimize the number of setups I use so this will be perfect...I will put some together something similar to yours. Cheers!

Do you have fast action tips on all of these? - I think I will go with something similar for my setups.

I was thinking about it and I think I will make the two spinning rods should work for ned rigs, weightless plastics, and light crankbaits for me as well, but can someone give me some suggestions on what rods to pair with the Stradic 4000FG and the Stradic 1000FJ I will then add a couple baitcasting rods and reels to the mix for the other applications (Spinners/Searchbaits, texas rigs, chatterbaits, jigs, swimbaits and top waters). A few more suggestions on rods and reels with the specific applicaton they can be used for would be appreciated. Thanks for the help!

Great advice - thank you. This is sort of what I want to do, but I don't mind getting some good stuff right away (and then upgrade further/change it) because I always found in life that you get what you pay for. Senkos on it work pretty well - it is hard to say because as I mentioned I am a novice, but I catch a lot of fish on Senkos using it. In terms of budget I would stick to around $150 or less for rods, and as far a reels go I like Shimano (It might just be bias though) I read very good things about the Curado and have that in my head for a baitcaster. I guess I am still trying to figure out what rod/reel/line combo to use for each application I mentioned. I would like to buy a few setups and figure out what I like and don't like as mentioned in one of the replies but I need a starting point because I have never really looked into it before.

Hi All, Bear with me because I am just starting out ? I wanted some help getting a few setups. I fish smallmouth and largemouth bass from boat or canoe. I have been fishing all my life, but I am a beginner because I really just dabbled in it a bit with no real thought put into it. I am just getting serious about learning/mastering a few techniques and expanding from there. In the past I used to throw crank baits along rocky points, but have progressed to throwing senco/weightless Texas rigged soft plastics on the edge of weed lines. I currently have a couple of reels, but did not know how to match rods to the reels or even line size for that matter. I currently have a Stradic 4000FG on a Fenwick HMG AV 69mm-2 (6'9 rod but I dont know the action) (Does this rod do well on this reel? What application should I primarily use it for?) Currently I use it for texas rigged senco fishing. I also have a Stradic 1000FJ on a cheap Shimano Medium Heavy 6'6 rod Fast action (I dont know if this combo even makes sense) I would like to get a couple baitcasting reels (I am looking at the Curado) I think I would like to cover the following: Searchbaits/Spinner Baits (open water or edge of weeds) Soft Plastics/Senco (sparse weeds) Jigheads with soft plastic trailers Occasional Topwater At some point I would like to learn to Punch right into the weed beds I usually fish in 5-15 feet of water and I would love to have about 3-4 setups that can handle these techniques - Can you suggest rod/reel combos for each technique? Does the Fenwick Rod do well on the Stradic 4000FG?) I will be reading any posts and articles I can find in the meantime. Thanks in advanced for the help - I am glad I found this forum. Cheers!

Thank you for the reply. I was going to post some more info in another section of the forum but my internet just crashed as I was doing it. I will post some more info and look forward to learning from everyone here.

I have been fishing all my life, but I really just dabbled in it - I am getting serious about it and want to have a few solid setups for different scenarios/conditions. I fish smallmouth and largemouth bass in lakes southern Ontario, Canada.