Berkley Lightning Rod. Nice rod for $40.00!

I respect smalljaw's opinion. I just bought the HMG in a ML last week. It should be here any day. 

15 hours ago, Brett's_daddy said:

Actually I want something that is the most versatile for both trout and bass, if I went with an HMG would you get the Medium-Light, Medium or Medium-Heavy?

 

Most medium lights on the market, especially at that price range, are going to be rated like 1/8oz to 1/2oz or 5/8z, to me those rods are too much for trout but my idea of trout are the 10" average trout we catch here with the occasional breeder of 17" to 20". Even those large trout won't be much for the rod you are going to use. Will it work, yes, but I think trout and bass, at least for me, is two separate rods, 1 light or ultra light and the other a medium light or medium.

11 minutes ago, smalljaw67 said:

 

Most medium lights on the market, especially at that price range, are going to be rated like 1/8oz to 1/2oz or 5/8z, to me those rods are too much for trout but my idea of trout are the 10" average trout we catch here with the occasional breeder of 17" to 20". Even those large trout won't be much for the rod you are going to use. Will it work, yes, but I think trout and bass, at least for me, is two separate rods, 1 light or ultra light and the other a medium light or medium.

So you'd go with a Medium if you could only have one rod and needed to use it for both types of fish?

49 minutes ago, Brett's_daddy said:

So you'd go with a Medium if you could only have one rod and needed to use it for both types of fish?

no, he's saying a ML would be the only compromise if you weren't going to have 2 separate rods.  and i agree 100%.

another thing to mention is where i fish for trout, it's VERY tight quarters.  anything over 5'6" is a no go for casting in a lot of my spots.  my trout rod now is a 5' UL and my lightest bass rod is a 6'6" L I use for dropshotting/ned rig.

I mainly fish ponds so there's not really many tight quarters for me to worry about.

My new reel is a Pflueger President Limited Edition size 30, the reel says it's mono/flouro capacity is:4lb., 6lb., and 8lb. Most Medium rods line capacity starts out at 8lbs. to maybe 12 or 14lb. Does that mean if i got a Medium rod (we'll use the Fenwick HMG as an example) that I wouldn't be able to use anything less than 8lb. line or I wouldn't be getting the maximum performance/efficiency out of the rod?

A ML rod sounds like a good choice for that reel.