Bass and walleye experts help

[lookinforwalleye]

Hey guys I'm not on an extremely tight budget I need these outfits, I take my fishing very serious and one or two rods will not do. My friend just grabbed a nitro and we will be spending Alot of time on the water. I want a rod dedicated to a tactic or two at most so that i can properly preform these tactics.

 

 

I hope your buddy got a Nitro big enough to carry all your gear!

[qmccharlie]

If you look at the above picture of all the rods, you can see that the type of line determined the rod choice and the bait choice, most likely with few exceptions. First, for baitcasters, as a general rule, consider the line and the bait. A softer rod and line for a faster moving bait, a less softer rod and line for a slower moving bait. For example, for big cranks and spinner baits, use a long, more willowy rod which will serve to hook the fish, braid with a leader is probably the way to go. For pitching, flipping, slop stuff, use a heavier line and a heavier rod, get a fast tip. Use spinning gear for smaller baits, jigs, drop-shots, in line spinners, small worms, follow the same general pattern, fast bait more willowy, slow bait faster tip. You don't have to spend a lot of money on willowy rods, a lot of folks use glass rods for large baits. You do have to spend a lot of money for more sensitive rods, a hundred bucks is about the starting price point for the good stuff. Try this, one heavy weight baitcaster rod as long as you can stand for flipping and pitching with a heavy line. One heavy rod or medium heavy baitcaster for throwing big baits, this one can be glass or relatively inexpensive. One medium speed, medium flex spinning rod for stuff like in line spinners, small crank baits, etc. One lightweight spinning rod for stuff like jigs and grubs, drop shots, small moving soft stuff. Double, triple, quadruple your setups as you find you need them. There are bargains out there, but it is hard to beat Shimano and Daiwa for tough reels and their customer service and repair seem to be pretty good. For rods, it is hard to beat Berkeley for cheap ones; Fenwick(which is also Berkeley), St. Croix, Shimano and many others for medium priced; high priced rods you will get what you pay for or actually what you are feeling for in rod action.

Storage on the deck, etc, can be an issue for longish rods. If you look above, you wonder where the fisherman is going to stand to throw all those baits. Overall, I catch the most largemouth on large soft plastics with spinnerbaits a close second, crankbaits are situation specific. Smallmouth, Senkos and everything else is second place. You are on your own with Walleye as there are about three of them in Virginia and I don't know where they live. I suppose if you intend to troll for Walleye, then you may troll for trout, so there can't be that much difference in the setups other than trout are bigger than Walleye in the Great Lakes. Overall, line type seems to me to be a much larger factor than the rods and reels, there is some stuff that work better with mono, with flouro and with braid, so maybe you should revise you question in that direction. It's raining and I am the only one awake so I thought I would give you an answer, best of luck.

[solopaddler]

Hey Sil, whichever style of rods you choose St. Croix is a great choice.

Fantastic rods and unbeatable warranty.

 

New on the market are Dobyn rods. Saw them at the T.O. sportsmans show and they're sweet. Maybe worth checking out.

 

http://www.dobynsrods.com/

[archie_james_c]

Not sure for Bass, but for Walleye here would be my choices...

 

Vertical Jig Rod- 6'0" or 6'3" Medium Power, fast or extra fast action, and a 2000 or 2500 size reel.

 

Rip and Light Jig- 6'6" Medium Light power, fast or extra fast action. 2500 size reel.

 

Rigging Rod (worm harness and lingy rig)- 7'0" or 7'6" Medium Light power, Fast action. 3000 or 3500 size reel.

 

Crank Bait/Bottom bouncing rod- 7' Medium Heavy power, moderate action CASTING ROD. (your rigging rod can troll or cast lighter crank baits too )

 

Finesse Rig- 6'6" Light Power, Fast Action with 2000 size reel.

 

Things I have noticed after owning and handling many low and high end rods...

 

Medium and Medium-Heavy rods...I wouldnt hesitate to run a lower end rod (St. Croix EyeCon, Mojo Bass, etc) over the super high end stuff. I own a Croix Legend Walleye 6'3" Medium, Extra Fast with custom recoils and while its stiff/sensitive...I found it hard to say "Man this 300$ custom rod is waaaaay more sensitive then this 100$ Eyecon of the same Power/Action".

 

I'd put my $$$ into the light and medium light rods....these as a Walleye fisherman you'll use a lot (if you fish inland lakes alot...I cant speak for Erie and such). I find that lower end light and med-light rods are very whippy and noodly. To get into highly sensitive lighter action rods, I'd start at St.Croix Legend Tournaments or Loomis' IMX or Walleye series.

[Cudz]

Have a look at this link. Might be worth your while

 

http://barrie.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-other-Shimano-Rods-W0QQAdIdZ264171506

[Grimace]

Not sure for Bass, but for Walleye here would be my choices...

 

Vertical Jig Rod- 6'0" or 6'3" Medium Power, fast or extra fast action, and a 2000 or 2500 size reel.

 

Rip and Light Jig- 6'6" Medium Light power, fast or extra fast action. 2500 size reel.

 

Rigging Rod (worm harness and lingy rig)- 7'0" or 7'6" Medium Light power, Fast action. 3000 or 3500 size reel.

 

Crank Bait/Bottom bouncing rod- 7' Medium Heavy power, moderate action CASTING ROD. (your rigging rod can troll or cast lighter crank baits too )

 

Finesse Rig- 6'6" Light Power, Fast Action with 2000 size reel.

 

Things I have noticed after owning and handling many low and high end rods...

 

Medium and Medium-Heavy rods...I wouldnt hesitate to run a lower end rod (St. Croix EyeCon, Mojo Bass, etc) over the super high end stuff. I own a Croix Legend Walleye 6'3" Medium, Extra Fast with custom recoils and while its stiff/sensitive...I found it hard to say "Man this 300$ custom rod is waaaaay more sensitive then this 100$ Eyecon of the same Power/Action".

 

I'd put my $$$ into the light and medium light rods....these as a Walleye fisherman you'll use a lot (if you fish inland lakes alot...I cant speak for Erie and such). I find that lower end light and med-light rods are very whippy and noodly. To get into highly sensitive lighter action rods, I'd start at St.Croix Legend Tournaments or Loomis' IMX or Walleye series.

Good advice. I would spend the money on the jigging and rigging rods. Dragging bottom bouncers and crank baits you do not need the super sensitive expensive rods as the fish will smack those baits. I use a mh bass rod for dragging bottom bouncers. I have longer trolling rods for crank baits. I am not suggesting that you cheap out on a bottom bouncer rod, my graphite bass rod is still sensitive that I can feel what the ground composition is and that comes in handy. The rods I use for jigging or lindy rigging for walleye is where I have invested the most coin. I am partial to the St Croix Avid but there are plenty of great rods out there that would be more than adequate.

[silvio]

Thank you everyone for your time now I have some homework to do lol

[aniceguy]

silvio, lots of good advise here you dont need more, only thing I can add to is that having the gear is one thing, catching them is an all together different thing. I suggest joining a bass club doing some tournaments are seeing how some of the really good guys fish and buy product.

 

Pm me if you want more info

[MCTFisher9120]

I would do this. 5 rods here

 

7'H Baitcast- Frog's,Pitching 1/2oz jigs for bass

7'MH F/XF Baitcast- Spinnerbaits for bass, light pitched plastics, big topwaters like spooks, troll walleye hardbaits with this rod too.

7'MH or M with Mod. Action Baitcast-crankbait fishing for both bass and walleye. The nice flex in a Moderate action rod will be good for topwaters also.

7'MH Spinning Rod- fishing tube jigs or with lite line drop shot

6'6-7'M Spinning Rod-jigging for walleye or use it for skipping wacky rig senkos or use it for shakey heads

 

Something like that would be a good start if you like to fish these ways.

Edited April 17, 2011 by MikeTheBassFisher

[cynmar]

I got this set up for tossing crank/jerk baits as well as for trolling for walleye.

 

That looks like the cranking stick I just bought from BPS. I liked the action better than St. Croix, Shimano and Daiwa. We'll see, it's going to go with the New Citica 200E I just bought.

 

 

Bass, get anything that you want. it's the style of fishing for the different rods. ie, slop, topwater, flipping...

[ckrb2007]

St.Croix has new walleye targeting series rods called "Eyecon". I'm going to give the "snap-jig" model a go this season. Seems like a well priced rod at around $110.00 so we'll see how it works for me.

 

I also grabbed an Abu Garcia Verdict to pair with my Abu Revo STX baitcast. Can't wait 'til the 4th Sat. in June up in the Kawarthas!

 

Colin