Manifestgtr

I’ve been using an aldebaran with a 68mxf legend x for years and really like that setup. St croix’s 68mxf is a great rod for jerky baits. Shorter length works nicely for tip down heavy presentations and the tip itself feels like it was tailor made for flicking smaller baits around. The victory 68mxf is a really nice alternative if you don’t feel like spending $400 on a rod. Line choice is even more subjective…I use 30-40lb braid with an 8-10# mono leader but I would never presume to say that’s anything other than the setup that works for me.

It looks like you’re looking at the spinning rods? I can’t comment on those SPECIFICALLY because I’m all baitcasting but I can tell you this much. The Legend X is one of the finest rods I’ve ever held. They completely stack up to NRX and Conquest in my experience. The 68MXF is my personal favorite but the 7MHF is really nice, too. I have a 68MHF on the way for short range toading (a bit odd but I have a feeling it’s gonna be nice). Torzite guides, unbelievable cork and some of St Croix’s finest graphite…they’re really hard to argue with unless you need a stiffer tip section.

That’s kind of my thought process…and I love the 68MXF so much that it would be a shocker to me if the 68MHF didn’t end up being “better” than my current mojo, at the very least.

HAH that’s great I’m pretty much the same way. If it were up to me, jeans and a button down shirt are all I would wear for the rest of my life.

Not at all…function, reliability, and comfort are my top priorities at all times. Sometimes I’ll see somebody reviewing a rod and lamenting the wrapping, etc. That goes completely over my head. I understand that fit and finish can sometimes be correlated to things like build quality and reliability but that would be the only scenario where it mattered to me, personally. That being said, my lightweight frog combo looks like some sort of crazy, alien weapon: It’s a pure coincidence…the engetsu is my favorite frogging reel and I wanted to try a zodias for light frogs. But it still makes me chuckle whenever I look at it because it’s almost TOO perfect…completely on accident.

The 68MXF has been one of my favorite rods for several years. It stands up to my NRX/Conquest stuff all day. It’s comfortable, lightweight, pairs incredibly with an aldebaran and mops the floor with anything in the 1/4-3/8oz range (a vital weight range for weightless plastics). With that being said, I just bought a 68MHF Legend X for toads (got a really nice deal). My short range toad rod has been a 66MHF Mojo for the last 4-5 seasons. I like short rods for that application because they’re easy to whip under docks, etc. and the MH has the right balance of horsepower and finesse to easily chuck a weightless toad but still set the hook effectively…for me, at least… The Legend X is gonna be way, WAY overkill for toads but I think it’ll find its way into double duty for other stuff and there are times of the year when I have that specific combo in hand for *hours* at a time. So it’s a function of wanting an ultimately lightweight, comfortable rod for that role. I’m curious to see how the relatively wispy Legend X tip does with toads…come August, I’m sure I’ll have that question pretty firmly answered.

My skipping/dock combo has a 20 metanium and I use the same settings as any other reel. Minimal side to side movement with variable braking. Skipping is a technique that’s 90% user and 10% gear…and most of that 10% is taken up by having a bait that will actually skip effectively. I would just practice, try to get good with any given, reasonable combo and not worry about the braking. If you HAVE TO rely on heavy braking for certain techniques, you’re going to need to fiddle with your brakes on the fly or use dedicated equipment. Your thumb is your best friend in these situations and training it isn’t a major hassle, truly. Plus, you’ll always have all the braking you need right at your disposal.

I would go for a heavy in the legend x series. I don’t subscribe to the idea that you need a pool cue to throw frogs…I’ve never used anything heftier than your average “heavy” but you DO want some oomph to get a good hookset and haul em out of the timber, etc. Getting a good hookset with a pair of heavier frog hooks seems like it might be a predictable issue with the MH legend x…but I’ve never thrown anything other than the medium for weightless plastics which I love…it’s been one of my favorite rods for the last couple of years.

I’m incredibly brand-loyal…shimano, loomis and st croix…that’s basically it. It’s simply because I know exactly how my stuff feels, how it operates and if I’m going to add a new combo, how it will likely feel once I’m out on the water. It has nothing to do with believing this stuff is the best in the world (although in some cases, such as the conquest, I think you would at least have a solid argument). Even if it’s not via brand loyalty, there’s something to be said for consistency and predictability. That’s the only real value in brand loyalty, imo. This “daiwa vs shimano!” stuff doesn’t interest me and picking teams gets annoying quickly. That’s the aspect of brand loyalty that I’ll never take part it.

Wow, you frog with a MH Legend X? You’re a braver man than I. I have two combos that see nothing but one bait type… 844c conquest/met for jigs 1/4oz and up (I never really throw anything heavier than 1/2oz) 68MXF Legend X/alde for weightless flukes A lot of my other stuff tends to stick with one or two baits but those are the combos I’ve found to excel at one, specific confidence bait…so they never see anything else.

Yesterday was one of the better jig bites of the year…black, blue and purple all day. Dropping a finesse jig, swimming a grass jig, they wanted it all. I had two completely separate knot failures, brought on by what I believe to have been very large bass. I know the pickerel snap quite well…a jagged, sometimes frayed, toothy cut. These were very obvious knot failures on two different combos, two separate leaders of 12lb big game. They were both HARD pulls and after the first, I decided it was time to use an improved clinch knot over the normal, high speed, clinch knot I’ve been tying for almost 30 years. Another freight train hit, another twisty, undone knot. The only thing I can think of is that my leaders might be a bit long in the tooth? I don’t think that’s the case, though. I make a point to swap them out reasonably often and if that were the case, I feel like this would’ve happened to me before…

100% this is exactly how I do it and it results in at least a 70% hookup ratio for me…probably higher, but I don’t want to exaggerate and make people go ?

The horny road bite today culminated in this nice little ~3lber right near the end, taken from wayyy under a pontoon boat what a great little bait

After two seasons of trying to like my z-man toads, after a half dozen others, I’ve finally found the “best” toad…for me at least You can leave the legs intact and fish it like a “finesse buzzbait”, you can tear em a bit and make some ruckus, the hookup ratio is top notch with a 4/0 ewg (my usual fluke hook) which means it can be thrown on a MH with no problem. On top of that they’re durable, relatively buoyant and come in zoom’s nice color selection. I’m sure others will chime in with toads they like more, as is the nature of any forum and a good thing…but man. This is the first road I’ve ever thrown where I haven’t had that “man, I wish THIS was different” thought

I know it’s an old thread and decisions have long been made but in my opinion, the CNQ 844c is the greatest all-purpose jig rod ever created…I’ve never thrown a rod that equals it in that realm (in fairness, I’ve never thrown a megabass or steez so I have no comparison to make there). I have to imagine the NRX 854c and GLX 844c are of similar ilk since my NRX 853c and 803c are so nice for lighter jigs. But the thing that really sets the conquest apart is its casting “stability”…that wacky, spirally construction really adds an extra layer of predictability to each cast, pitch, skip, whatever.