What would your rod of choice be? And why? I haven't fished these much. I have my thoughts on what the right rod would be but figured why not pose the question here before I pull the trigger on some expensive rods.

Are you fishing for crappie?

never. 

for throwing phat fly etc

i'm going to do lots of experimenting this winter seeing just how finesse I can go. ultralight hair jigs, float n fly etc. already have float n fly rods though so not looking for any of that info. 

I've been fishing hair for many years, over the years I've went to longer rods (71/2'-8') may try longer. What I really want is a relatively soft tip for casting and a strong butt but parabolic action - flex all the way down - needs to be sensitive - I think St. Croix has come out with a hair jig rod around 8' or so , it should be of good quality - but I wonder if the tip will be as soft as I like and it will be a bit more than I care to spend.

You tried casting a 1/16 oz phat fly craft hair jigs with no added trailer? Craft hair doesn't absorb water, it's like casting a feather into the wind.

You in the Ultra Light spinning realm, 2 lb to 4 lb mono/FC line. I would look for 7' to 7'6" 1 power moderate action spinning rod.

Tom

I throw 1/16" oz marabu jigs on my Cajun Custom Rods Trigger. It's a ML power mod/fast and I use 8 lb 832.

I love my cronos 7'6" m/ml XR for the feider fly.  Longer is better for light jigs

Should add that light line is also your friend

12 hours ago, frogflogger said:

I've been fishing hair for many years, over the years I've went to longer rods (71/2'-8') may try longer. What I really want is a relatively soft tip for casting and a strong butt but parabolic action - flex all the way down - needs to be sensitive - I think St. Croix has come out with a hair jig rod around 8' or so , it should be of good quality - but I wonder if the tip will be as soft as I like and it will be a bit more than I care to spend.

Just bought the rod you speak of and have a thread started here about it. video review upcoming... 8’6 MLXF SCIV blank with a split grip and a relatively aggressive guide train.  St Croix calls it their Dropshot/Hair Jig rod.  Fished it this past weekend with a dropshot for deep Clearwater smallmouth and first impressions were good with only a minor gripe or two.  Haven’t fished hairjigs on it yet, but plan to do plenty of that over the coming weeks.  Will also try a float n fly on it.

 

 From what you describe, the rod sounds about perfect to me.  When loaded up the action is quite parabolic, and the tip is just a little softer than my 7’6 MLXF, yet sensitivity is still what I would call good to great.  

 

It is definitely a little tip heavy though, I have it paired with a size 4000 Shimano Sustain and wouldn’t want to fish it with anything smaller- I think wrist fatigue would be an issue with a smaller/lighter reel.  

St. Croix Avid 6' ML

I routinely add weight to the butt of long rods to help balance them - prefer balance over light weight (within reason of course)