kickerfish1

Another vote for the Champ 705 cb glass rod. Great all rounder too! I have used mine for spinnerbaits, spooks, and traps as well. Never an issue.

Not sure if you are open to suggestion outside of what you listed in your original post but if so I would HIGHLY consider an MBR GLX 844 or 843. You can also look at the MBR 843 NRX. All of these are, have been, or will, be available in a rep sample model meaning the prices will all be under $400 and with full warranty. The MBR or Mag Bass Taper rods from Loomis can pretty much do anything you want from a bass'n standpoint. Great feel as well! There isn't a bad rod on your list but I would lean more towards the MB Destroyer if those were my only options.

This! In fact, I normally buy the 1/4 oz weights in bulk packs of 25 or more. I drop shot in a few feet to as much as 30. For simplicity sake, not a lot of reasons to change your weights. The action of your bait should not be affected much at all by the weight other than when it is first cast out and sinks the bottom.

Interesting. You are saying that a standard Rage craw weighs nearly a 1/2 oz by itself? I highly doubt that. I would bet the standard would be much closer to 1/4 - 5/16. Your scale might be off a bit.

Get the Stradic.

When the sun starts shining in that spare bedroom you can always use it as a solar panel. Or just buy more baits and fill it up! If I had to hang all my soft plastics on a wall pegboard it would like wrapping paper

All 3 are fine options. I would say the Champion would be the least sensitive of the 3 but the best balanced and arguably the best warranty. Keep in mind the Kistler will have macro guides which is a guide that is just bigger than a standard micro guide. The Hammer uses true micro guides which is something I do NOT like nor am I fan of win grips. Of the 3 I would get the Kistler. Get on their mailing list so you will be notified when they run their big sales several times a year. When they do the Helium 3 rods are going to be right in your $200 budget and will night and day be the best option in feel alone. All give you an alternative. The ALX Zolo B Maestro. You can fish about any finesse technique you want on the rod. It is sensitive, balanced, is one of those rod where once you hook up with a fish they stay pinned pretty well. Again with a sale of some sort you can purchase the rod for well under $200.

Must not be too fond of the cameraman to give him the bird

If I was sponsored I would but since I am not I so no need to do so. Too many good rods out there to be limited to one brand.

Try it with those baits. 1/4 is the lower limit of the 844. Having a very subtle easy casting line and a good reel will help with that weight range on the 844. I fish a custom TDZ 100m on my MBR 844. I can throw the 1/4 oz stuff on it just fine though the rod doesn't want to load that weight range as well so the release point when casting it is slightly different. Also when fishing into the wind (it is always windy here in the Midwest) casting distance is not that great. If your desire is to use that rod as much as possible then just fish everything under the sun you desire and see what you think it does best at. I am basing my experience with older IMX / current GLX MBR lines. While I am sure the taper is similar you won't many of us willing to pay that sort of coin for a rod especially with as mixed of reviews as there are on it and some even saying it was more comparable to a GLX.

The 843 is exactly the rod you want of the two for everything you listed except the 1/2 oz jigs. Maybe in a pinch you could do it but the rod will be taxed to the limit. A 1/2 oz jig and trailer will pretty darn close to 3/4 oz depending upon what trailer you pick. That 3/4 oz is the upper limite of the 843. Weightless senkos, 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8 oz jigs, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits with trailers will all fish just about perfect on the 843. Two me these techniques would be two rods. Are you only limited to one rod? Do you have the luxury of bringing along a few more rods?

Stella=good / Sedona =bad. Handle should spin like the eyes on that emoji!

In like Flynn! - Order placed. Thanks Mike!

Maybe he is talking about mozzarella "sticks". You can get 4 or so for under $10. Spiral wrapped, if you pull it apart and the cheese wraps around itself!

The Helium 3s are very nice rods especially on sale. IMO hard to beat for the money. The terms high end and Helium 3 are likely not going to mix well. Meaning a Zbone would be Kistler's high end rod if that is the brand you are most interested in. High end rods for me would be GLX, NRX, Megabass Destroyer and above, customs built on high end blanks, Phoenix K2s, high end Croixs (I would never own one though), and other JDM rods like Evergreen or Gancraft. I would not even consider a Conquest rod as I just don't see them being worth the money nor can you seem to find any consistent feedback that clearly indicates the rod is above the NRX line. Just under the high end rods there are lots of options like the Dobyns Champion Extremes, MB Orochi XX, Kistler H3, various Croix rods, Phenix Ultra MBX, Loomis IMX, some custom builds, and some JDM rods like Majorcraft. I can see the performance difference between the two tiers in most cases. The key is that NO one needs the top tier to be successful or to catch fish. Plenty can be caught in that $250 - $350 tier and have all the performance and attributes a person could ever want out of a rod. Climb down into the $150 - $250 range and still plenty of great rods and choices. A step further down into the budget rods around $100 or so and you will find plenty of fishable options too. There is not any one best rod, brand, price point or blank out there. Pick the rod manufacturer, blank, rod line, rod model, etc... that best fits your personal preferences and fish it!

Tatula or Curado K would be my choice for a reel under the $200 retail price point.

Interesting topic. The answers will be screwed some as not everyone fishes the same baits, has the same type of lakes, and enjoys the same types of techniques. Should be some diverse baits listed by everyone. So if someone is posting their top 5 biggest bass and they are all on moving baits or all on plastics it may be that is their confidence bait or what they use 90% of the time. I don't weigh my fish typicall so all I have is a measurement or two and some photos if I am lucky. Off the top of my head something like... 1. Zoom super fluke in Black 2. Berkley power lizard in some sort of purple with flake 3. Topwater frog 4. Zoom Money hound 5. Jig I fish hardbaits far less than most, especially cranks and spinnerbaits/blades jigs. So 90% of the time I am tossing a jig, some sort of plastic bait or a topwater.

Think of it this way. You just took a bite of something your mother in law cooked and it didn't taste very good. But suddenly she breaks out a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies and all of a sudden you have the urge to eat again! Same way with fish! It can often be as simple as giving them another bait to look at. If they got some hook in their mouth or felt resistance during the fight they may not bit again for awhile. Only logical exception would be a bass on a bed.

Suggest hitting the gym for a good while before trying to fish with 40 ton rods. Maybe A-Jay can provide some workout pointers...

Rarely will you see me praise a sponsor on any site. This is one of the exceptions. Mike's products, customer service, and willingness to take care of his customers and listen to what they want puts him up there as simply one of the best. He offers so many colors, head styles and add'l lures and tackle that aren't offered by many other jig manufacturers. How many jig guys give you the sort of options he does for the hook? I can't think of another one that has that many options. Need some jigs? Grab some trailers while you are at it! I think I have a few hundred of Mikes jigs and jig heads! They are that good and the prices are great. How many sub $4.00 jigs would be as good or better that you can find mass produced and sold on place like TW? I would take Mike's every time and twice on Sundays! The compact spinnerbait is really under rated! I would highly suggest trying some when you put an order in for a few jigs! Do I really need to order any more? Probably not, when you have as many as I do. But what's a guy to do when he lives in a state that is now in winter with the lakes soon to be locking up for months with ice... order more jigs! Mike doesn't offer a lot of sitewide sales like this where this a discount on everything in stock plus an additional discount give on items marked down. If you were on the fence about trying any of his products you will not be able to get in on these for any cheaper! Get Some! Thanks again for the great baits and the sale Mike!

Honestly you will probably be paying more getting the gear from BPS. With Black Friday sales and EBay you could save at least 20% off if you purchase the items online. Plus you don't have to drive hours to BPS so you save both time and money.

Link says this item is out of stock? Someone got a good deal!

If you are ok with the larger sized frame then go for it. I had one of the originals and sold it for about that used but in mint condition in favor of the CT that I bought for $70 from Academy.

To clarify your original post you are referring to a reel correct? Also what model Tatula? Any Tatula rod or reel that is new for $75 would be a great buy whether it be the standard TWS classic reel or Type R, CT or CT type R, SV or any other iteration. As far as better deals go it is always a crapshoot. You may see some reels go on closeout between now and early in 2018. You may find other deals on say $200 reels for $140 but I am not sure if you would find a discount as great as what you just mentioned. I am sure there will be plenty of reels around $100 marked down to $75 or less but they won't be quite on par with a Tat mainly because many will have a composite or graphite frame.