I have a birthday coming up and am going nuts with all the possibilities

for all the different fishing stuff to get! one question, what do you fellows use for crankbait rods??? I am looking at bass pro qualifier rods, st. croix premier rods. why does st. croix have a crankbait rod and a glass crankbait rod. also considering bass pro crankin stick? budget is 100-125 dollars? anyone experienced with these or others in price range? thanks for your help

I Looked at all the cranking rods out there.  If I was going to buy a factory rod it would be either a Crucial or a Powell, both of which are out of your price range.  I ended up building a cranking rod with a Batson 7'0" MM and can not say enough good things about it.  You could get the same rod built for your $125 budget

Probably the best bang for the buck cranking rods are the BPS crankin sticks  when on sale.  I used to have 3 of them and they were hard to beat for the money I spent on them.  

The Crankin Sticks are well worth the money and are solid rods.  They've got descent sensitivity for a crankbait rod...I actually used my 6'6''M for soft plastics when I first got it to test just that.  Plus if you get it on sale that leaves room for extras.

Take a look at the Shimano Compre CB rods. They are good rods for about $90. I had the chance to buy 2 of them ( 7ft med and 7ft med-heavy, mod fast action) at a great discount, so I jumped on them. Fished them for better part of a day, cought only one small bass and a pike but the rods felt realy good in my hand. Then I winterised my boat (Michigan) and I'm done fishing for bass until next spring.

I hear BPS Crankinsticks are a great value for your $$$