I found a killer deal on a St. Croix Tidemaster 7' heavy fast today rated for 3\4-2oz. I thought this might be a good A-rig or frog rod. I got a hole $50 in the rod so I'm sure I can get my money back if it don't workout. Anything else y'all can recommend I can try on this rod? I have a older curado 300 or Calcutta 200b to pair with this rod but not limited to just those.Got to love the clearance racks this time of the year.

Smart move, definitely a great buy!

I would take a deal like that!

I don't have any experience with that rod, but I would think it'd be a decent frog rod as long as you can cast one with it, otherwise I think it'd excel with an a rig, big bait (like 10xd), or punching. Either way with what you paid for it, you can make it work for something haha. Congrats on the find!

First thought was a punching and small swim bait rod.  Single hook swim baits need a powerful rod and this would do nice.

Before "frog" blanks were common I built those rods on inshore blanks. That particular blank I'm not familiar with but sounds like it's worth a try. You might find it a tad soft for real mat punching but big moving baits should fish well on it. 

3 hours ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

Before "frog" blanks were common I built those rods on inshore blanks. That particular blank I'm not familiar with but sounds like it's worth a try. You might find it a tad soft for real mat punching but big moving baits should fish well on it. 

Yup, almost same rod was my first frog rod and doubled as my DD22 rod. Now have added hard swimbaits to the list, but rarely fish the bigger ones (2 ounces and larger) since I've been fishing SK King Shad more and more.

I've considered doing the same for a swimbait or flipping stick after handling a Legend Extreme Inshore a year or two ago.  They can handle a wide variety of weight, they're made with enough backbone to pull snook from mangroves.  

 

@Delaware Valley Tackle  - blank question - what's the difference between inshore or jigging blanks made to handle a wide range of weights from 1/2-3oz and similar weight and action bass blanks intended to handle no more than 1-1.5 oz at most? 

I have spoken to St Croix about the avid vs the avid inshore and the rep told me the inshore models blanks are powered slightly heavier. He said a ML inshore would be between a ml and medium freshwater model. He also said the inshore blanks are slightly slower in action due to the target fish.

 

Keep in mind this is just about the Avid inshore vs regular Avid spinning models.

This is a prime example of the lack of industry standards. A heavy inshore and heavy bass rod are just two different animals.  All else being equal inshore and flipping are just labels. In this case the inshore is designed to cast where as a flipping stick all about power. 

Yea, when I got into fishing I wanted a short rod to go after catfish with, so a clerk thought about it for a while and handed me an inexpensive 5' boat rod.  It is labeled "Medium" but the range is like 1/4-1.25oz.  

 

This caused a lot of confusion when I started looking at expanding my arsenal.