Tell me about the new top water rod you bought OR are going to buy soon for your top water bass fishing . 

I don’t topwater fish a lot so I didn’t go high end. But I did buy a Dobyns Maverick 734c for spoons and buzzbaits. Works fine. 
 

I also bought a jerkbait rod that doubles as a light topwater rod. I use It for small poppers. Tatula Elite ML Seth Feider. 

Most of my rods are variations of Dobyns standard 3, 4, and 5 powers. Thus, most of my rods throw some kind of top water.

I bought a Dibyns Sierra 682C after hearing it makes a good small popper rod. Plan to throw 1/4oz Chug Bugs and PopR's.

I don’t own a top water specific rod. 
Some of what I own can do it just fine, others not so much. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Shimano Expride B 6'10" Med, great topwater and jerkbait rod.

11 minutes ago, Jrob78 said:

Shimano Expride B 6'10" Med, great topwater and jerkbait rod.

 

Same here, I use the Expride  M mainly as a jerkbait rod but it has served double duty as a topwater rod coupled with a Curado DC.

1 minute ago, Reel said:

 

Same here, I use the Expride  M mainly as a jerkbait rod but it has served double duty as a topwater rod coupled with a Curado DC.

I don't fish jerkbaits much but if I did I would get another one, it's a great rod for those techniques. I have an Alphas SV TW on mine.

I bought a 7'1" Daiwa Tatula XT Rod for froggin. Havent used it too much this year but hoping next year will be different.

graphite MH blade, 3/8 to 1 oz  for a Smith Super Strike offset handle, made for round reels. 

 

 

Powell Naked Series 6104 CB Mod-Fast. It's 6'10" and in my opinion perfect for poppers and walking baits. I love fishing the Shower Blows on this rod. It's light as a feather, well balanced with my Tatula Elite, and has a great action on the cast and hook set. I really enjoy fishing it. 

 

You can see the Shimano World Pop peeping out from under the rod in my pic. I caught some nice fish my last outing on the World Pop and the rod was spot on. 

 

 

Picked up a major craft benkei 6'9" mh/mf recently with walkers like the the dog x diamante and pop max in mind. Very impressed with the quality at the price point ($130) with all fuji hardware and reel seat, it is listed as a mod-fast taper but is definitely on the faster side of mod-fast and easily powerful enough for jigs and plastics and handles the super spook (7/8oz) with ease, it's rated 1/4-1oz. After a few weeks of getting to know it I have found not only my best walking bait rod but the best skipping rod I've owned to date, it's also a great soft jerk rod, the strike king caffeine shad in particular.

50 minutes ago, Big Rick said:

Powell Naked Series 6104 CB Mod-Fast. It's 6'10" and in my opinion perfect for poppers and walking baits. I love fishing the Shower Blows on this rod. It's light as a feather, well balanced with my Tatula Elite, and has a great action on the cast and hook set. I really enjoy fishing it. 

 

You can see the Shimano World Pop peeping out from under the rod in my pic. I caught some nice fish my last outing on the World Pop and the rod was spot on. 

 

 

I have that rod in the Endurace version. Really good 

I use the St Croix Mojo Bass Topwater rod. 6'8" M/XF. It runs on the lighter side. It is a XF with less tip but it runs lighter compared to the other St Croix Mediums so it bends all the way through. Very good rod for topwater and even jerkbaits.

9 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

graphite MH blade, 3/8 to 1 oz  for a Smith Super Strike offset handle, made for round reels. 

 

 

Love the short grips for topwater walking/popping style baits.

Megabass Valkyrie 7'1'' H Med-fast. Great rod so far. With the spiral wrapped guides and the way it loads, I can bomb a frog to another zip code. It's both sensitive and powerful but not light. It balances well with bigger to mid sized reels. With all that said, it's not bad for jigs, swimbaits and big crankbaits as well.  It's somehow strangely versatile. 

Grabbed one of the TFO Tactical 6' 10" rod's and put a TW80 on it.  Works really well.  The reel seat was loose on the handle when I got it and I put some hot melt on it to keep it in place.  Otherwise it's been fine and I've caught a fish on it with no issue.  

 

The TW80 on the other hand ran great out of the box, then after the first time out apparently all the oil disappeared and it sounded like dragging pop cans down a gravel driveway.  I pulled it apart and oiled/greased and now it's fine again.  

7'2" Carbon Cranker, Medium Heavy, Moderate - $315.00

https://stcroixrods.com/products/legend-tournament-bass-2022-new-models

Evergreen Shower Blow rod.  Casts 77 sized Shower blow up to 130 ploppers. Amazing rod.

For topwater it is a two rod set up for me . For smaller poppers I have a 6' MF bait cast rod and for larger walking baits up to 130 size pencil poppers I am undecided at this point in time . Lighter is better and under 7' to prevent rod tip slap when working a bait are wants . That 6'10" rod length range in a MF or  MH Mod action appear popular .

I'm not buying any gear this year. I swear. Nothing. ?

I picked up a Halo HFX 7’3” heavy for frogging and an HFX 7’ medium crankin’ stick for my spooks.

 

VERY impressed with them

On 8/16/2022 at 9:08 AM, FrnkNsteen said:

I bought a Dibyns Sierra 682C after hearing it makes a good small popper rod. Plan to throw 1/4oz Chug Bugs and PopR's.

*The Sierra 683 may possibly be able to handle walking baits (i.e. spooks) ?

On 8/16/2022 at 11:15 AM, Bass Rutten said:

Picked up a major craft benkei 6'9" mh/mf recently with walkers like the the dog x diamante and pop max in mind. Very impressed with the quality at the price point ($130) with all fuji hardware and reel seat, it is listed as a mod-fast taper but is definitely on the faster side of mod-fast and easily powerful enough for jigs and plastics and handles the super spook (7/8oz) with ease, it's rated 1/4-1oz. After a few weeks of getting to know it I have found not only my best walking bait rod but the best skipping rod I've owned to date, it's also a great soft jerk rod, the strike king caffeine shad in particular.

Hey Rutten, how has the rod been holding up for pop-max’s and dog-x’s? I’m considering picking up a Speed-style 68HM or a 66M for walking baits / poppers.

25 minutes ago, fishingotaku said:

Hey Rutten, how has the rod been holding up for pop-max’s and dog-x’s? I’m considering picking up a Speed-style 68HM or a 66M for walking baits / poppers.

 

I couldn't find any speedstyles when I was looking in early spring.  Now, I have the 692M and 702X in the '18 Days series and am really impressed.  The M is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  I usually reach for it over the 6'10m expride.

 

scott