So I literally thought I had a big bass a few days ago at a public pond but it turns out I literally caught a rod/reel combo that I guess some monster pulled out of the hands of some unlucky guy lol. The reel was ruined and cheap but I now am the owner of a unblemished Abu Garcia Veritas spinning rod that retails for about $100. It cleaned up perfectly. It’s a 6’6” medium heavy/moderate fast spinning rod.

 

Not sure what would be the best bait application for that type of rod. Any suggestions? Reel suggestions $100 and under? Thanks in advance. 

I don't use any MH for spinning rods, but I would think you could throw top water with it, flukes, and maybe spinnerbaits.

 

There is a STX30 for sale here in the classifieds that would make you a good reel.

topwater, med-large jerkbaits, fluke, worm, jig, lipless crank, plastics - cool find!

14 minutes ago, thunderblack said:

topwater, med-large jerkbaits, fluke, worm, jig, lipless crank, plastics - cool find!

Those and add shallow, lipped cranks to that - I use my MH/M spinning rig for Rapala Jointed Shallow Shad-Raps and DT-4s in addition to the above listed techniques.

With a lighter braid and decent spinning reel, that rod is great for cranks that weigh a quarter ounce more or less.  With the same set up, it would work ok for Brewer Sliders and other jig worms.  I would imagine that you could throw a buzz bait a long ways with that rig.  Hook ups with a buzz bait are more or less good fortune anyway, there isn't a whole lot you can do to improve your strike to catch ratio.  Same thing with a lipless crank.   How much gear do you have now?   Looks like a valued addition to your collection.  Back when I was a bank fishing bush hippie, a rig similar to that was my back up rig.   I'd try to throw anything on it.   And for the most part it worked ok for anything I tried.   MY #1 rig at the time was a 5'9" Fenwick HMG  Graphite that was on the heavy side of medium.   I generally threw 6 or 8 lb mono using an old Garcia Mitchell 300 reel.  Even when I got to the point to where I could afford other reels, I used the Mitchell 300 as my primary reel, up til the early 90's.