Capt.Bob

You are referring to the Legend EXTREME,,,,, which is split grip and does come in the length you are wanting,,,,but a bit more than a $50.00 upgrade at $410.00. The Legend ELITE,,,,, I referred to is one piece of quality, "Super Grade" cork, this is my preferred rod from St. Croix. but does not The Extreme you are making reference to,,,which is primarily the same blank with that handle ("I can't handle",,, pun intended but meant),,, can be adapted to a personal and extreme quality for around $50.00 from a quality rod smith that knows his stuff,,,including precision internal balancing at that price, and a rod becomes YOU! whatever your fit length, diameter, contour or whatever for pure perfection, but These rods were purchased in the bargain room at 60% off,,,,making the $50.00 upgrade a purely spectacular bargain!!! You maintain the factory warranty, and have it your way!!! Here are two I had done and notice this was the pre neo day's, and uses a one piece reel mount, the newer ones have a 2 piece reel mount which I personally would not have either. Here is what you can end up with at minimal cost, the smaller contoured grip in the rear with the Lew's Team Pro, is the 6'10" MXF and the fuller handle model in front wearing a Lew's Team Gold is the 7'2" MHM,,,,,both rods are precision balanced and super sensitive! But at any rate I was referring to the 7'6" Avid that is also MH not H,,, If you prefer the one piece handle and cork,,,,there are plenty of quality rod smiths that can convert the Rage to whatever you desire, and at $50.00 with pin point internal precision balancing it is a steel!!!! have it your way and don't break the bank,,,but 5 years is still all you get?? You might want to check out the Tide Master series if you can accept the 5 year warranty, the 8' H Fast is a reel power house but gains leverage with a little faster action, the Avid can be had in a salt water INSHORE SERIES there is an 8' model which is a leverage beast for overpowering anything in heavy cover, and with American built and full cork, W/ Lifetime warranty, and at only $80.00 dollars more, could be in line with what you wanting???? Check out the AIC80HF, it is a fast action but rated for 3/4 to 3 OZ lures, and 14-40# line with 1" extra leverage could be worth looking at,,,,,then there is always the Custom route, build one on the blank of your choice, if you want the 7'11" Rage blank you can build it for about the same price as the factory rod from most experienced rod builders, ( we have more than one in our community) capable of pleasing most anyone and reasonable!! Good Luck however you decide to go!!!

It is all personal, I love cork on my rods and won't change, I would give up the 5" in a heart beat and go with the Avid! I have several reasons and have had 2 Rage Rod's, for one day it confirmed all those reasons. 1) for 50+ years I have used cork rod handles even on my cheap cheap rods as a kid growing up, so I am as used to cork on a rod as I am having hands on both arms. The Avid has very nice cork, as DVT said, an expensive option, which is like leather versus vinyl for your car seats. 2)The rage uses a two piece handle and is when palming the reel is very uncomfortable, where as the Avid has a FULL CORK HANDLE,,,,,, very comfortable and with exposed blank and contoured reel mount hands down more comfortable for me. 3) Both are SCIII blank's, but from the 2 Rage Rods I witnessed, the quality from the American Made blank that has been made by the folk's in Park Falls for decades has been far better than the newly imported blanks coming from foreign build by newly trained workers,,,,,,the upside is cheaper cost, and 5 year warranty instead of Lifetime. 4) I won't settle for the loss of the Gold Star service plan and even though the upgrade program is being temporarily suspended you can upgrade when a broken rod is involved! This is fabulous, as I just upgraded an Avid to an Legend Elite when I broke the Avid over yanking on a snag, totally my fault but I ended up paying $110.00 for my mistake and walking away with a brand new Legend Elite spinning rod,,,,,the Avid was about 7 years old and used for river Small Mouth fishing, it had been horsed out of bottom snags for it's whole life,,,,,,thank God for Lifetime warranties!! 5) At the cost of $170.00 dollars for the imported model alone and coming with a 5 year warranty, the choice of having an American built rod made by Americans for decades and having a LIFETIME WARRANTY,,,,,, thru the GOLD STAR SERVICE PLAN,,,,,I'll gladly pay an extra $50.00 dollars and give up 6" for the MH MF rod over the import with less than a full handle grip and loss of cork,,,,,,,but that may not suite some,,,,why they offer the rage model for those that are willing to give up a few luxuries and still have a good blank.

I would never wish for less sensitivity, but I would never use my most sensitive rods for cranks and moving treble hook baits, as they are pretty Fast actions, to XTRA Fast actions and yes that is in my experience a prescription for loosing fish. But My MHM and MM Avid and Extreme rods are plenty forgiving and offer a good and welcome amount of sensitivity, kinda have your cake and eat it too, much nicer for me than fiberglass that just feels dead and to whippy,,,,,,I also think positively knowing what and where that crank is working and how, is a good thing.

Shoot one and if you like it go for it! Most companies today are making great bows, it's just a matter of preference. Most any bow can easily take game today with a little practice, and if you really practice they are all plenty accurate to suite most.

Nice Buck!!! CONGRATS!!!!!

I would do the deep cleaning degrease and relube with the addition of smooth drag carbontex drag washers before deciding to spend any more money on upgrades, by doing this you are going to see the biggest gains and the smallest investment, then you will know how little there is to gain in performance for the dollars spent over those initial cost. Those cost should be less than 15 bucks shipped, for the drag washers. The acetone and lube, I prefer yellow Rocket Fuel, (fairly light and good retention so you won't have to relube every week), and Cal's light drag grease,,,,,(I prefer a wet drag---but that's personal) the lubes are not considered part of the cost as they will be items you will need every time you clean and lube. This is the only way you will see how little there is to gain after these procedure,,,,as DVT said there not an upgrade but will give you the biggest improvement for the money spent.

X2,,, I don't scale it and usually start a little lighter in open water, but can always increase if I need to. When I'm in and around heavy cover that's about where I start 1/3 of the weakest link!.

What you are wanting to do is not very practical,,,,,even after a huge investment in a tuned to the max reel and perfect rod selection,,,,,you can pick up a very inexpensive sinning outfit even with a mediocre rod and do better,,,,,distance and accuracy. 1/8 oz jigs would much easier mainly because of density, I prefer my Team Lew's Pro Super Tuned running dry O.S. with 20# Sufix 832 when I through them or weightless plastics, but Turn to my 1000 Stradic for tiny ultra light crank's like your talking.

I would recamend Lew's Tournament Pro,,,,,lotta reel for the money!!! Well inside your price range, the Tournament and BB1 are also excellent choices and well below you maximum price allowance. C?ould narrow down the choice more if we knew what it will be used for!

I use mono for leaders off of braid, usually 6 to 12 foot but always Berkly Big Game, excellent abrasion resistance, it is the toughest mono I have found.

shallow water 6'3" MXF, 1000 size spinning, 15# braid w/6#fluoro. leader deeper water 6'10" MXF, 5.9oz size baitcast, 20# braid w/12# fluoro. leader light hook sets required with these rods, when I started using the XF actions I had a bad habit of setting the hook to hard, with the lighter line, I more than once broke my line using to aggressive of a hook set, now a flick of the wrist at the slightest bite and it's golden. Any reel with a super smooth drag and I prefer reels with very light weight, and faster gear ratio's.

I am very happy with my Lew's Super Duty!!! Extremely lightweight with plenty of power for Northern Pike and Muskie, I can't imagine another reel this size equaling the efficiency of this super strong, super smooth, and long casting machine. I am glad I made this switch! I took it on a Salmon Trip and although the drag was a little light for these tanks (W/both reels) in swift current it and a Calcutta 400B shared the duty of landing some real tanker's!!! It was a lot more fun with the much smaller Super Duty, but was a "reel test" and the largest fish of the trip was landed with the Super Duty. Even big Northern Pike are no problem with this reel.

You have to please yourself, either one you found will work to get you around on small waters, but both are very tight quarters, I think the canoe, although no floating platform would be a more comfortable option for longer outings on small waters and much easier and roomier to stow what gear you want in,,,,JMO

If you ever try and stop a King Salmon in a narrow river with debree everywhere, with 50 lbs test braid 14 lbs drag locked and rod healing back you will soon learn there are times a locked down 14lbs. drag,,,,IS NECESSARY!!! and quite frankly NOT ENOUGH,,, I have had to thumb my super duty with a locked down 14lbs drag to get em wowed before they were in heavy cover and gone, I also have had to say SEE YA!!! and say good by to a little braid instead of letting them have it all!! We all don't fish in the big ponds all the time,,,,, NEVER SAY NEVER!!!!! 00

On a small tin I prefer rivets for what you are doing, cheaper and will be stronger than the metal you are using them on, I would use a backup washer though and will not have a problem later!! Why pay more for overkill????

Some may be right that on insensitive rods, you may gain something besides voodo with Fluorocarbon,,,, but after 30 years fishing with nothing but mono, running Charters on Erie for very very light biting Walleye, and deep jigging for Yellow Perch, both far tougher to detect bites from than Bass,,,, after using Braid and Fluorocarbon,,,,,,,I find the braid to be capable of the slightest pickup, some maybe can't but for me I see no need for any more sensitivity than I already have,,,,I will admit I do use the finest rods in the world, maybe when you use better rods they make up for any lack of sensitivity but some may experience a lack of sensitivity with lesser equipment as some have said,,,, After nearly 60 years fishing all species and waters,,,,,,this old man prefers Braid, on every rod, and with 6 to 13 foot leaders, in only the clearest waters I will turn to fluorocarbon,,,,,the rest of the time I will use Trilene Big Game for leader duties!!

St. Croix Premier, Made in the USA and in 6'6" or 7' MF excellent all round for your needs. If no for the cranks I would say MHF, but the Med. rod would help with a little more forgiveness for the cranks and treble hook baits.

if I only had one for all species bass to pike 7'MHM, eliminate crankbaiting, 7'MHF,,,,,,I'm glad that ain't the case!! roadwarior sums up a great 3 basic rod setup everyone should start with.

You can take this to the bank. Fishing for Bliegill Crappie Perch Bass Walleye Pike Muskie Catfish, owning Moderate Fast and Extra Fast in UL, L, M, MH, and H all have benafitts when you understand what each does in the combination Weight and Action you use them for!! It does make a difference!! Couple the wrong action and weight and you will boat less takers!!!

I would never think of using anything but braid on any rod. After 35 years of fishing every mono made and knowing all it's shortcomings made braid a no brainer for me. Then the last decade or so after 20 years of seeing all the benefits of braid and the flexibility using mono or fluorocarbon leaders, I have been able to tune any outfit I own to perfection for any species or tactic I use to catch them. You will never loose any braid unless you trim it and will last multiple years once you learn how to rig it. I usually respool reels no more often than every two to four years using braid the way I rig it. Blugill to Muskie 5 to 30 lbs test, and on baitcasters 20 to 65 lbs test does it all for me!!

very good choice for everything,,,,especially the lures you mentioned, you wont do better near the price!!

Every time out, I've seen guy's blame bad line for break offs, when they were the problem using a damaged spool lip on a spinning reel, line guides will do the same thing of one is cracked or broken, these things are on a daily check list.

one of my Lew's Team Gold's on a 7' Med. or MH for Walleye and Bass, or the Lew'sSuper Duty when I'm after Pike Muskie and Salmon.

For your purpose I would have the Tournament Pro, it has a drilled shallow spool, which is lighter and has better startup which gives better performance with lighter lures. The BB1 has a deeper spool and extended line guide and is a better with heavier lures once you get the spool cranked up with less friction on the line between the spool and guide can cast heavier stuff a mile and a half,,,,, but for worms and plastic or anything under 3/8 oz you would be very happy with the Tournament Pro, that would be my choice or the job you are referring to.

Congrats on your move up!! The 200 series MG has the lighter drag in the Lew's line, step up to the Tournament or better and their drag is mush heavier than the Calcutta, up to the 300 anyways. MG is 10#, the more expensive reels are 14# which is plenty for Pike and Muskie when locked down. The MG with it's 10# is way more drag than I ever use for Bass!