Please bear with me here as this is a serious question...also, not asking about other rods for this tactic...I keep reading about guys talking about G Loomis NRX rods being the best or the best between a GLX - NRX comparison with people saying if your bottom fishing with a jig, the NRX is best.  
 

Now, and maybe I have been doing it wrong all these years, but I don’t think so as I’ve done pretty well with a jig, but when I am pitching or flipping a jig, my bait isn’t really sitting on the bottom that much.  It’s pretty much and up and down, maybe some shaking, and maybe swim it back a to me a bit....but regardless, my jig doesn’t sit on the bottom much.  If I were dragging a football jig or worm, Carolina Rigging, etc. then I’m on the bottom but pitching/flipping I am not or at least not very much.  
 

So...with this in mind, is the NRX still better for pitching/flipping jigs?

 

Also, is there a better rod for less money than an NRX for pitching/flipping (14 foot jig poles excluded).

Sounds like you are flipping like I do.  I dont flip a jig as a dead stick technique.  I flip it or pitch it out, get through the cover, hop it, and then reel back and do it over.   It is a bottom technique, but even though you spend more time hopping than sitting, d oesn't change things... u are still relating what you feel to bottom content. Maybe should be called a bottom hopping technique. 

 

 

Sounds like you are on right track.  

 

They say nrx is most sensitive out there... I dont disagree, I just dont have one.  My DX 744 is touchy as hell.. 

1 minute ago, Teal said:

Sounds like you are flipping like I do.  I dont flip a jig as a dead stick technique.  I flip it or pitch it out, get through the cover, hop it, and then reel back and do it over.   It is a bottom technique, but even though you spend more time hopping than sitting, d oesn't change things... u are still relating what you feel to bottom content. Maybe should be called a bottom hopping technique. 

 

 

Sounds like you are on right track.  

 

They say nrx is most sensitive out there... I dont disagree, I just dont have one.  My DX 744 is touchy as hell.. 

I kind of figured it was just a terminology thing but wasn’t really sure.

M, it boils down to confidence in your jig set up.

 

The bass could care less if you use an NRX or a Bass Pro Shop or Zebco rod. The bass could care less about you using fluorocarbon or braid line. The bass do care about your presentation and color selection.

 

So use the rod that gives you confidence when fishing with your jigs and don't sweat the details.

12 hours ago, Sam said:

M, it boils down to confidence in your jig set up.

 

The bass could care less if you use an NRX or a Bass Pro Shop or Zebco rod. The bass could care less about you using fluorocarbon or braid line. The bass do care about your presentation and color selection.

 

So use the rod that gives you confidence when fishing with your jigs and don't sweat the details.

 

Exactly ?

 

I stepped away from Loomis a few years back simply because I tried a Shimano Crucial, in my hands the Crucial was every bit as sensitive as the Loomis.

Nrx is the gold standard, better is subjective though. I find a more sensitive rod is better for reasons other than bite detection. Being able to determine what type of bottom your fishing through is a huge bonus, and being able to tell if your lure picked up a piece of weed increases efficiency so you don’t waste time on that cast. Being more in tune and connected to your lure is never a bad thing, well bad for your wallet perhaps ?

38 minutes ago, Bassjam2000 said:

Nrx is the gold standard, better is subjective though. I find a more sensitive rod is better for reasons other than bite detection. Being able to determine what type of bottom your fishing through is a huge bonus, and being able to tell if your lure picked up a piece of weed increases efficiency so you don’t waste time on that cast. Being more in tune and connected to your lure is never a bad thing, well bad for your wallet perhaps ?

 

I can do all that with my $100 Powell Inferno ?

With jig fishing, regardless of what rod you buy, it's going to take some time and practice to get good at it. If you've ever watched a video of a bass inhaling a jig, and blowing it out, it's easy to see why so many folks struggle with jig fishing. No rod can make us faster than a bass. A top quality sensitive rod is always important, but the best jig fisherman stay in tune with they're jigs the instant they hit the water. It takes some dedication to get good with jigs, no matter what tackle you use.

When you fish at night your sense of feel excels because touch outweighs sight.

I have only been jig fishing for bass over 60 years, more time of the water them some members have lived. If you are fishing in the dark and using any high quality high modulus jig & worm rod, garentee you couldn't determine difference between a NRX and any good jig rod. Preconceived ideas are hard admit. My performance demands are not evaluated by price tags, it all about strike detection.

Tom

21 minutes ago, WRB said:

When you fish at night your sense of feel excels because touch outweighs sight.

I have only been jig fishing for bass over 60 years, more time of the water them some members have lived. If you are fishing in the dark and using any high quality high modulus jig & worm rod, garentee you couldn't determine difference between a NRX and any good jig rod. Preconceived ideas are hard admit. My performance demands are not evaluated by price tags, it all about strike detection.

Tom

Strike detection has taken me a life time to learn.  It all begins with all of the senses combined... but yes at night you are limited and subconsciously given up on sight and depending on feel alone.  

 

Now there is a difference in a Shakespeare rod and middle of the road daiwa or shimano, but time on the water and correct matching of gear has been the game changer for me and has helped me teach my son... I plan to but a loomis and some megabass stuff, but I already know that it will not replace time on the water and keen since of feel, and good fishing sense..like counting down a jig, noticing when I should be on bottom but I feel mush...hookset! Like knowing the difference between pulling it through grass or a bass tapping on me 

 

Strike detection can't be taught, but it can be learned.  But it takes time...and patience 

 

 

2 hours ago, WRB said:

When you fish at night your sense of feel excels because touch outweighs sight.

I have only been jig fishing for bass over 60 years, more time of the water them some members have lived. If you are fishing in the dark and using any high quality high modulus jig & worm rod, garentee you couldn't determine difference between a NRX and any good jig rod. Preconceived ideas are hard admit. My performance demands are not evaluated by price tags, it all about strike detection.

Tom

One of my best fishing friends and one of the best cold water jig fisherman I know would say you don’t even need a high modulus graphite rod.  He uses a 14 foot Lamiglass cane pool with a piece of clothes hanger as his “reel”.  He also uses 25 year old Stanley jigs and only Uncle Josh U2 split tail eel pork in black.  He uses 2 colors, black/blue and black/chartreuse.  He has caught more and bigger bass than anyone I know.  Granted it’s an advantage to have you rod tip directly over or close to directly over the bait, but he hasn’t certainly proven to me that having the most sensitive rod is not the most important thing. 
 

With all that said, when it comes to fishing jigs closeup and in heavy cover, I like to use the best rod I can afford.

Sensitivity starts in the hands & continues up to the brain.

 

Let me explain it this way!

 

I could put any high end reel on any high end rod, spool it with braid for maximum sensitivity, tie on a Texas rig & then give it to my wife. She could not "feel" any difference if I had rigged it up on a Berkley Lightening rod!

 

Why? Cause what is transmitted up the line, down the rod, through the hands will be lost in the brain. She doesn't fish & would not be able to interpret what she is feeling.

 

Even for the average angler a certain amount of "sensitivity" is lost in the brain!

WRB,

 

yo

On 9/4/2020 at 5:05 PM, WRB said:

When you fish at night your sense of feel excels because touch outweighs sight.

I have only been jig fishing for bass over 60 years, more time of the water them some members have lived. If you are fishing in the dark and using any high quality high modulus jig & worm rod, garentee you couldn't determine difference between a NRX and any good jig rod. Preconceived ideas are hard admit. My performance demands are not evaluated by price tags, it all about strike detection.

Tom

You’ve mentioned before that you hold the line between your thumb and finger for strike detection, how are you holding your reel to accomplish this?

I'm sure the NRX is a fantastic all around rod. If I was to drop $500 on a rod, it would be a jig or T-Rig rod - probably a MH+/F that runs between 6'10" and 7'1" that would work for both - that is a 3/8oz and maybe 1/2oz arky head jig in lighter cover. That would make sense. When flipping and pitching, you're primarily getting bit on the fall so that wouldn't justify it for me. And from my experience with football head jigs, I usually have no problem detecting strikes when I'm dragging it sideways on the bottom either.

That said, I don't think the best rod in the world would make up for what's essentially user error. Since I got a kayak, I have fished a jig a lot this summer and I've had even more success this year (and taught my kids how to fish a jig with some success as well). I have gotten to the point where I almost always know what I did wrong when I did miss a fish, know when I missed one and I also miss far fewer than I have in years past. But I still have a long way to go.

2 hours ago, NoShoes said:

WRB,

 

yo

You’ve mentioned before that you hold the line between your thumb and finger for strike detection, how are you holding your reel to accomplish this?

This video demonstrates that nicely. Do the same for T-Rigs. I really dig a split grip for this technique as well.