What should I spend my money on? TIA 

6-6 to 7' medium/fast rod and a 2500 size spinning reel.  Pick your poison - everyone has good options for either when you get above the $100 mark.  I'd be using 8# Tatsu or Invisx, but you'll hear a bunch of guys say braid, or braid with a leader.  I just find fluoro is much more sensitive than limp braid.  You're always going to have a semi slack line presentation with unweighted plastics.  Braid does not excel in these situations.

Agree with John, though I am a braid + leader guy for all

my soft plastics presentations. I prefer braid for line managing

over a spool of fluoro, although stuff like Tatsu is supposed to

be much better than other fluoros in that respect.

 

Rod length is your call, but as John suggested 6'6" - 7' is a 

good starting point. Personally 5'9" to 6' is my sweet spot,

and I use 1000 size reels. I also fish from a kayak and hate

dealing with longer rods. Shorter, lighter setups for me, but

that's not everyone's cup-o-tea.

 

2500 is a generally agreed upon size for bass fishing. Some

go heavier, lighter, all personal choice.

I do use braid and a leader sometimes, but for getting started, I find simplified setups work best, then address issues IF they come up.

 

And yeah, I run a shorter rod - 6'3".  I've been testing a 7'2" White Bird, and I'm digging the longer length for now.  It doesn't have a huge rear grip though.

11 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I do use braid and a leader sometimes, but for getting started, I find simplified setups work best, then address issues IF they come up.

 

And yeah, I run a shorter rod - 6'3".  I've been testing a 7'2" White Bird, and I'm digging the longer length for now.  It doesn't have a huge rear grip though.

 

Agreed. K.I.S.S. it to start with, complicate it later, only if necessary.

id go with a medium power xf action, 6'8" to 7'3" or so. good quality baitcast reel or decent spinning reel. bump it up to MH for fishing cover.

 

straight FC, no doubt.

 

if you are looking for specific brand and model recommendations, give a price range.

 

since you didnt, i recommend these:

NRX 852s, stradic ci4+ 2500

NRX 852c, aldebaran 50/51

I use a 6'6" Med. power Fast action B/C,Daiwa Sol reel spooled with Yo-Zuri Hybrid UltraSoft 10lb.  Any of the smaller baitcasters should be able to handle all but the lightest soft plastics. My buddy uses a 50E and another guy at our club uses a Carbonlite.

I'd go with fluoro, but I hate the stuff. I'm not attempting to steer you away from fluoro, it's just my preference.

Depends on how much the "weightless" soft plastic weights, you can cast a 5 inch "weightless" senko with a H rod anytime simply because the "weightless" senko is pretty darn heavy ....

My weightless T-rig plastics set up is a Pflueger President 6930 on a 6'0 Shimano Sellus Medium rod with 8 lb Seaguar Rd label.  Never had any trouble with that fluoro on that set up.  You could easily downsize to a 6925 on that set up.  It's an inexpensive set up, well balanced and works just fine for what I use it for.  Mostly weightless t-rig stuff but also sees action as Ned rig and other finesse type stuff.  Even though I don't use spinning gear all that much, I am deadly accurate with my casts with the set up, too.

My setups for this include 3-power Dobyns casting rods w/ G2 Revo Premiers and a M/F Kistler KLX spinning rod w/ Stradic 2500

7' rod with the highest quality flouro you can afford. 

 

 

 

 

Mike

I use a shimano curado/st croix avid 6'6" MH f and 30lb braid in cover, and a 7' m f st. Croix avid spinning rod, 10lb braid with 8lb co poly leader in open water. 

7-0 MH Hammer spinning rod, 2500 Shimano Sahara. Braid with extra long leader (like 30 yards) of copolymer.