Was wondering 2 things first what is your favorite crankbait rod I was looking at St.Croix mojo crankbait rod, Abu Garcia veritas 2.0 winch crankbait rod, and Duckett micro magic. Probably a few more i camt recall right now I was mostly scrolling through TW and looking for medium moderate rods which brings me to my second question.

I read that for cranks and baits with treble hooks a moderate action is best but some people say square bills and lipless you should use something different.

I use lipless cranks, square bills and shallow divers 6-7 ft range that's it... So will I not benefit from the MM rods or is MM still ideal for my applications? If not what power and action should I be looking for? Thank you

I fish a handful of crankbait rods in the moderate action from 7" M, to 7'11" MH.  2 are Falcon Buccos (7'MM) 3 are Quantum KVD Tour Cranking (2 7'4"MH and a 7'11"MH), and 1 Smoke 7'6" (M).  I do fish shallow cranks and some squarebills with these rods, but as to your second question about lipless and squarebills and why people say use something different.  Main reason is ripping it out of grass and clearing the bait.  It's hard to do on a MM rod.  Not enough backbone to really rip it clean.  So for those I have 2 different rods I use, a 7'MH moderate fast Falcon Bucco of which I have 2 of and a 7'2"MH moderate fast also part of the Bucco line.  Just cranking bouncing off rock and hard bottom and wood a moderate rod works great, but around grass the medium moderate seems to preform better.

I love my LTB M/M for squarebills and small cranks. I would advise against it for lipless crankbaits unless you're fishing them in open water. The reason being is that the rod loads further down the blank than a fast action so if you're trying to rip the bait out of grass the rod won't exactly pop it free. I fish lipless on MH/F rod instead for those applications and back my drag off. As far as the M/M for squarebills some don't like that it's more whippy and they don't think they can get fish out of cover with it. I haven't had any issues with that and love the feel of it. 

I have a MHF rod with a 6.4:1 reel so I should just use that for my lipless cranks? And a MM rod with a 5.4:1 or so would be good for my other cranks

Both Gulfcaptain and WIGuide are spot on when it comes to cranking rods. A lot of what you use will be dictated by the conditions and water you fish. For example, when I fish square bills for river smallmouth, I know that I'm mainly going to be using 1/4oz to 3/8oz baits and I'll be bouncing them off of rock in fairly open water so I use my 6'6" ML-M which is rated 1/4oz to 1/2oz. Now when I'm fishing larger square bills that are 1/2oz and heavier and I'm ripping them through cover I use a 6'10" MH-MF because the bait will need to be pulled free from limbs and ripped off of grass so you need a little more backbone but still benefit from some extra flex in the rod to fight the fish. So I'd say that if you are throwing square bills and lipless cranks in open water, choose a cranking rod that works with the lure weights you want to throw in a moderate taper, if you feel you may need some backbone, try a mod-fast rod out.

4 minutes ago, MDbassin said:

I have a MHF rod with a 6.4:1 reel so I should just use that for my lipless cranks? And a MM rod with a 5.4:1 or so would be good for my other cranks

If you rip lipless cranks out of grass then the MH-F will work but you need to keep mind that the rod is stiff and it can cost you fish so you may want to loosen the drag after hooking up. The M-M rod will work with your other cranks, just make sure the rod you get covers the lure weight range you want to throw, you don't want the M-M if you plan on throwing 3/4oz and 1oz cranks or if you are fishing deep divers like DT 16s and DD 22s. For reels, I use a 6.3:1 and a 7.1:1 for most of my shallow and lipless cranking needs.

That past two weeks I put my hands on every rod selling in my area from 5 different stores.

I had a budget of $100 because I refuse to pay more than that for a rod.

Out of your choices I liked the Duckett the best and (the Ghost) was my second pick.

The Falcon Bucoo was my top choice but I couldn’t find one without a flaw in the blank. There are several stories of these rods breaking and I couldn’t find one instance where Falcon took care of the customer, so that put me off buying a Bucoo. I found a Lowrider on clearance for less than a Bucoo and still was hesitant to buy a Falcon.

I ended up driving to Cabelas last and came across the Cabelas Tournament ZX rod.

I initially didn’t look at the store brand rods but the last day I looked at every single rod and the Tournement ZX was similar in feel to the Bucoo with slightly more backbone, more guides and a better grip. I also liked the guides being closer to micro but not quite that small, the one year no questions asked warranty AND they are on sale for $70

I am very pleased with the rod and for $70 I’m going to pick up another for my spinning reel.

 

50 minutes ago, 22hertz said:

 

The Falcon Bucoo was my top choice but I couldn’t find one without a flaw in the blank. There are several stories of these rods breaking and I couldn’t find one instance where Falcon took care of the customer, so that put me off buying a Bucoo. I found a Lowrider on clearance for less than a Bucoo and still was hesitant to buy a Falcon.

 

Maybe because they didn't register the warranty on their rods or comply with the policy (have to have your reciept and be the original owner).  In the 4 years of fishing the Bucco line there has been ZERO issues and never broke one.  I wouldn't ask for a new rod if I did something that caused it to break anyways nor expect the company to supply me with a new rod for my mishandling of the rod.  If you haven't fished it, don't bad mouth it.  How do you know what a Bucco feels like if you haven't fished one.....you don't. Sorry to be so blunt but it's hard to have an opinion on a rod you've never fished or owned. 

I use a Phenix XG3 glass rod for heavier crankbaits and chatterbaits.  It never did well with lighter baits so I recently got an Orochi XX Swingfire and a Powell Max3D 6'10" Mod-Fast Crankbait to try using with lighter cranks.  The Orochi XX Swingfire was chucking KVD 1.5 and 6th Sense Crush 50X squarebills a country mile.  It's a hybrid rod with a soft tip and I think I've found the *perfect* rod for those size baits.  The Max3D is one of the lightest rods I've held and to be honest I'm not sure if I like it all that much.  It was almost too light, the rod butt was a bit too short, and the reel seat is kind of odd where I can't really palm the reel the way I like.  It also felt like if a big fish hit the crankbait the rod would go flying out of my hands.  I didn't find either rod was able to cast a 1.0 size KVD farther than I can with a spinning setup.  So as it stands, I'm using an XG3 for beefier cranks, the Swingfire for cranks on the lower end of the scale, and still using a spinning rod for the smallest and lightest cranks.