I am looking at getting a new rod (for under $100) that will be used mainly to fish stanley ribbits and hollow bodied frogs. It will be paired with a curado e7. I do not do any flipping and pitching as this is a skill I have not really learned yet, and there are no places around me that have heavy heavy weeds or even lilly pads. This summer I found that my medium rod with fast tip would not give me the power set the hook. Of course I was using mono as well so that added stretch meant I lost several nice fish. I will be switching to braid for this setup so I know that alone will help. I was looking at a Shimano Clarus MH with fast tip b/c I like the lifetime warranty, but am open to other suggestions. My main question is do I need to get the heavy instead of the MH, and if I go with the heavy how much will that cut down on my distance in casting? Any help would be appreciated. Happy New Year!!

I use different rods for each of those baits. For the Ribbits, I just pick any 7' MH/F jig/worm rod that has braid. I'll even use a M/F rod and 12-15# CXX in open water. I don't like an X-fast tip for Ribbits and other solid toads.

For hollow frogs and rats, use a heavy duty pitching rod. Most designated "frog" rods I've tried throw a frog better than they get a fish out of the trash. I need something heavy when dealing with fish in the water willows, pads, and milfoil/coontail slop up here.

I use a 7' MH/F St Croix Avid. It's stout enough to haul 5lbers out of mats you could walk across, and it's lighter and tosses frogs better than any 7' H St. Croix has to offer even though St Croix calls them "Frog and Slop" rods.

I use Berkley Lightning Shock Rods. Thy are inexpensive, and seem to work well for me. I just set up my plastic/swim frog combo ( Shimano Citica, Berkley MH 6'6, 65# Spiderwire). Ive had no problems with perfomance, or losing fish. 5 of my rigs have them. Check them out, they may work for you too.

If you can find them, get your hands on a Field and Stream Angler series rod in 7'MH. It is around $50, and I used mine for frogs for a couple of years without a hitch. But the best thing you could do would be to wait and get a little more cash. Then pick up a better rod. There are some great ones at around $150 - $170.

I'd buy a Flipping Stick and it can double as a Pitching/Frog combo. I encourage you to try Pitching because it is not just for slop fishing. You can pitch into all kinds of structure. My flipping stick is what I use fro flipping, punching, pitching, and frogging. The rod is a G Loomis GLX FSR 905x with a Curado 200E7. For $50, you can buy the Daiwa VIP on TW for $50 (Regularly $125). Get that rod in 7'3" Heavy/Fast and you will have a nice stick. It has alconites and the same construction as the zillion rods. The carrot stix gold rods are on sale there too.

The two rods I've been using for hollow body baits are; a ETHOS 7ft MH, and a Diawa Procyon MH 7ft. Both are paired up with Calcutta reels. And pardon the pun, both work swimmingly.

I wish someone would make a 6-8 H/F for walking hollow bellies. Just sayin'.

I wish someone would make a 6-8 H/F for walking hollow bellies. Just sayin'.

I'm sure DVT would hook u up, if u asked him real nice.

I use a 7'6'' Heavy TFO Signature series rod that costs $99

One of the places I "frog" is from the bank and the further I can cast the better =7'6''.

If you can find them, get your hands on a Field and Stream Angler series rod in 7'MH. It is around $50, and I used mine for frogs for a couple of years without a hitch.

That was my first casting rod! It was pretty well balanced, had nice Fuji components, and did the job for me. I still use it from time to time as a back up rod, or it is lent to who ever fishes with me. I didn't think anyone around here had one! cool to see someone else thought they weren't half bad!

That was my first casting rod! It was pretty well balanced, had nice Fuji components, and did the job for me. I still use it from time to time as a back up rod, or it is lent to who ever fishes with me. I didn't think anyone around here had one! cool to see someone else thought they weren't half bad!

I actually heard they are closing them out to replace them with the Tech Spec style, which are horrible. I ended up picking up a 7' Medium spinning rod for $30 today, with a reel on it. Don't know about the quality of the reel, but the rod alone is worth more than $30.....

That's to bad, After reading this thread I was playing around with my Angler Series, it is the cheapest rod I own, but it balances better than anything else I have. I dont know anything about the tec specs but it is a shame they discontinued the Angler Series.

I wish someone would make a 6-8 H/F for walking hollow bellies. Just sayin'.

Powell Makes a 6'9" H/F Endurance rod.

i would get a 7.3 mh veritas it is a very stout rod

Thanks everybody for your input. Looks like MH will be enough for my purposes. That and switching to braid will hopefully help me keep more fish. Have a happy New Year. Tight Lines....

If you are in pads a MH should be fine. If you are around grass mats were you drag in a 5# fish with 5#+ of moss... I'd go with something heavier.

I just checked mine is a 7'6'' extra heavy.

Edited December 30, 201114 yr by Hi Salenity

If you can find them, get your hands on a Field and Stream Angler series rod in 7'MH. It is around $50, and I used mine for frogs for a couple of years without a hitch. But the best thing you could do would be to wait and get a little more cash. Then pick up a better rod. There are some great ones at around $150 - $170.

Dicks Sporting Goods has the Field & Stream Rods on sale for 50 percent off right now. I know nothing about this rod or the brand, just noticed them on sale today while shopping.

For a little more then a 100 bucks the Lamiglas Excel Frog rod is hard to beat. I own two of these and for a 110 bucks they are really nice fog rods.

Also at Dicks the St Croix Mojo's are 99 bucks (Normal Price I think) but you get a free St. Croix sweat shirt of which is actually pretty nice. Here again I have no clue how good or not the mojos are but my buddy bought two Mojo's and two of The Last Tour Edition PT reels they had. 89 Bucks for a Tour PT Reel! Man if they had the LFT hand models I would have bought 6 at that price.