I was looking to purchase one rod to cover frogging, punching, and swimbaits up to 1.5 ounces. Hoping it could also help with pitching/flipping. Would a heavy, fast action 7" rod work well for this, or what power/action/length would be the perfect do all rod for these applications?

I suspect a 7” rod may be difficult to load up when casting.  😜  You might want to look at the iRod Genesis Magic Stick.  It’s 7’2” and rated for 1/2 - 2 ounce lures. I’ve used mine for frogs, jigs, Texas - rigged worms, and Magdraft 6” swim baits.  Also liked the old Okuma TCS rod with similar specs.  Both are around $150 if I remember correctly.  (I believe @WRB and @Catt recommended them to me.)

I own 4 of these for exactly what you mentioned you want it for.

GREAT rod and price point, they have held up now to 4 years of tourney fishing and I am hard on tackle. Either 7.3 or 7.4

Get a Dobyns FR735 and call it a day. Easy choice for these applications. 

The falcon Amistad is what I use for most of that.  It's my 'big stick' for heavy pitching and light punching.  I can frog with it (though I prefer a shorter rod for frogging personally).  It is what I threw 6" magdrafts on last year and other similar swimbaits.  I move my swimbaits to a bigger rod to handle bigger baits so took the magdraft off of it, but it will still do it.

 

I also used the Falcon Eye crosser to do the same things (6'11", 1/2- 1 1/2).  It is my primary frog rod but last year when I was a more limited in what I could carry I would load it up with either a frog or magdraft to keep the Amistad free for a heavy pitching setup.  Or, if I left the amistad at home one evening and needed a heavy pitching rod the eye crosser would do it.  The shorter length is great for working frogs, fine for pitching, and tougher with big swimbaits.  I think the 7'3" is the right blend for all of those things.  

This is a one of the reviews I made about the new St Croix GXR combo I got. 
It may be helpful….

 

I wanted to do a follow up report of my new GXR flipping stick.

In my previous one I gave my initial impressions of it on the water after putting it though it’s paces for that purpose. 
 

It’s advertised as a Frog & Flip combo. 
As a co angler I’m sometimes restricted on the amount of combos I can bring for any given outing and sometimes I even have to down size my bag, fortunately that doesn’t happen as often. 
Anyway, the action of 7’4” is perfect for me in every regard 

 

The Seviin reel matches up perfectly when flipping and pitching for hours. 
There is virtually no muscle fatigue as I have in my older 200 size reels I’ve been using for both #60# and 80# braid I have spooled on my other flippin sticks. 
 

This time I wanted to throw a frog with it and see how that goes.
I use almost exclusively the Scum line of frogs which are smaller and lighter than other national brands. 
Given the much faster action of the GXR, I didn’t get the distance of my dedicated frog rig but not by much. 
It kinda surprised how much I did get tho. 
 

I hooked up with about a 2lb LMB which I really wanted to do as the faster action of the GXR compared to what I’m used to would give me a better gage of its casting, hook up and retrieving ability on a smaller fish. 
 

When I set the hook I knew it, there was no doubt which is a confidence thing for me. 
It got her head up and out immediately as I’m not one who plays with them. 
 

All in all it’s now my dual purpose flipping/ frog combo.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Looks Good too

 

 

 

 

 

Dobyns Sierra 735c. Perfect. 

What's your budget?... If around 300..expride 73 XH is a great choice.. 

So forgive me for interrupting the OP’s thread but I wanted to ask a question regarding frog rods without starting a whole new thread.

 

When you use a rod rated for 1/2oz and up do you ever have trouble getting good casting distance with hollow body frogs and horny toad type baits given how relatively light they are?

Totally depends on the action of the rod, your brake setting and casting. 
 

As I said above, I use the Scum Frog which is probably the smallest and lightest frogs on the market. 
The GXR with a max rating of 1 1/2oz, surprised me with what distance I did get with it compared to my previous dedicated frog setup with a 1oz rating. 
The difference wasn’t enough to change back. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

 

 

2 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

So forgive me for interrupting the OP’s thread but I wanted to ask a question regarding frog rods without starting a whole new thread.

 

When you use a rod rated for 1/2oz and up do you ever have trouble getting good casting distance with hollow body frogs and horny toad type baits given how relatively light they are?

 

Depends on the rod and also the REEL.  For a while I was struggling with my eye crosser for 1/2 oz frogs.  It’s rated 1/2-1.5 and while it would cast overhead just fine, trying to throw sidearm it was throwing hard left every time no matter how loose I had the reel.  I was using a bigger and heavier spool reel and it was struggling to start up on a light sidearm toss and the rod wasn’t helping me.  When I swapped to an MGL spool it was night and day.  Same rod, same line, same frog.  For frogs only I’d like the rod to be just a tiniest tich lighter in the tip but the reel makes up for that.

 

For toads I have no problems because they normally weigh 5/8-3/4 and cast like a brick.

3 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

When you use a rod rated for 1/2oz and up do you ever have trouble getting good casting distance with hollow body frogs and horny toad type baits given how relatively light they are?

So  I'm probably gonna get a few people that disagree but for 1/2oz lures and anything under I pretty much go with a spinning setup. Anything over and it's a casting setup and I've personally found that 5/8oz plus and casting issues mostly go away. This does depend on a lot of variables (eg. density of the lure) but as a general rule I try to stick to stuff that is over 1/2oz if I'm on a casting rod.

 

In terms of frogs this is actually one of the main reasons I like the swamp lord and popping version. Both are 2/3oz. No issues whatsoever on my end casting on 50lb braid with a previous gen speed spool LFS. This one is a bit more expensive but it's also really soft and the hook up ratio is better than what I've seen with other frogs. As always your mileage may vary but these are the reasons I go w/ this frog and how I avoid casting distance issue with casting setups. Totally get there are probably others on here that are going to tell you they can cast a 1/16oz bfs lure 5 miles but I'm not one of them.

 

On to the OP question. Honestly any 7'4 Heavy Fast and I'd say just go with the brand you already like...chances are they make one. Without a budget it's hard to say but ideally you want a classic fast action rod so not a noodle but a little give to help a bit with casting. I would definitely stick to at least a 7'4 length wise too if you are going to be looking at swimbaits. You can get away with some smaller ones and even a smaller a-rig w/ this setup too and I did that for a bit before deciding I liked a-rigs and 6" swimbaits enough to give the bait monkey more of my money and buy another rod for that.

Dobyns Champion 736C

Dobyns Xtreme 746C

NFC Edge. EX Pro MBR 738C

 

Drop by the house anytime and check them out.

23 hours ago, MRQturbo said:

What's your budget?... If around 300..expride 73 XH is a great choice.. 

Was just gonna post this. Unless he's talking hard swimbaits. Not sure I'd wanna use this with trebles. 

On 6/13/2025 at 5:46 PM, Mike L said:

Totally depends on the action of the rod, your brake setting and casting. 
 

As I said above, I use the Scum Frog which is probably the smallest and lightest frogs on the market. 
The GXR with a max rating of 1 1/2oz, surprised me with what distance I did get with it compared to my previous dedicated frog setup with a 1oz rating. 
The difference wasn’t enough to change back. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

 

 

Good to know! I wish st. Croix would sell the rod  separately without the reel. I fish left handed retrieve baitcasters.

32 minutes ago, woolleyfooley said:

Good to know! I wish st. Croix would sell the rod  separately without the reel. I fish left handed retrieve baitcasters.

They may

If you’re interested I’d contact them and confirm. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike