I have a 5 foot 6 inch pistol grip bait casting rod.  Early nineties, I caught my personal best largemouth in less than 2 feet of water. I am a bank fisherman and am wondering, is it still useful?  The long rods are the rage and have two myself but I was practicing yesterday and  it just felt right.  Any comments or words of wisdom?  PB was on a six inch Mann's worm.

I still have some 5'6" casting rods. I am fishing from a boat and I like to use them for topwater poppers and walking style baits. If they feel good to you go ahead and use them. Everybody uses what they are comfortable with.

apparently those are great spinnerbait rods

8 hours ago, jebar01 said:

I was practicing yesterday and  it just felt right.

You answered your own question.  If it feels right, it's right.  I still have a 5'6" BPS Pro Comp Graphite pistol grip that's probably from the early '90s like yours.

Hey guys, I was looking through TW and it Lews makes a rod thats pretty close to an old school pistol grip.   The Lews Custom Plus line up has a 5'9" MH. I checked lews website to make sure The 5-9 wasn't a typo    The Lews website calls it the target casting special.   It appears to have a shorter full grip handle, no pistol butt end, but it does have a trigger.   I'm tempted to order one and see if I can make it into a dock skipping rod.   I'm sure it would be a good spinner bait or square Bill rod.   

Bruce 424, you just reminded me that I caught my first bass on a spinnerbait with that rod.

!  Up to then, mostly bass fishing with spinning rod.  Must be getting older,HaHa.  Thanks for the info.  Jim

8 hours ago, Teal said:

Hey guys, I was looking through TW and it Lews makes a rod thats pretty close to an old school pistol grip.   The Lews Custom Plus line up has a 5'9" MH. I checked lews website to make sure The 5-9 wasn't a typo    The Lews website calls it the target casting special.   It appears to have a shorter full grip handle, no pistol butt end, but it does have a trigger.   I'm tempted to order one and see if I can make it into a dock skipping rod.   I'm sure it would be a good spinner bait or square Bill rod.   

I'm sure you'd like that rod, it looks like a good one. I have a few old pistol grips that I got for under 35 a piece on eBay, and they are great car rods. One is a Falcon and the other two are old Lew's.

 

They fit easily in the trunk of my VW, it's always nice to throw a few before I come home. Being good for topwaters and small squarebills is a bonus.