Daiwa Sol On Its Way, Which Rod?

[Toeshots]

I was researching what reels are best for lighter baits and the Sol seemed to be frontrunner across the board.  It peaked my interest as I tend to throw a lot of lighter-weight Rapalas when fishing cranks and it seemed like it would be a good reel to have for lighter baits in general.  I looked around the net and I started to realize that these aren't as easy to come by as I would have thought, but low and behold I look on craigslist and there's one for $150 in good shape, so I decided to buy it.

 

Now I'm trying to figure out which rod to put it on.  I hadn't really thought about it as this was an impulse by that I did not want to let pass.  Here's what I have:

 

7' MH/F St. Croix Avid - in all honesty, I'm 99% a Lew's TP will go on this rod

7' M/F St.  Croix Avid

6'6" MH/M St. Croix Premier Crankbait

 

The Premier has a brand new BPS PQ 5.2:1 on it, but since I'm not doing much deep cranking, this may go up for sale.  It's just a hair too slow for me.  My first instinct was to put the Sol on the Premier, but the Moderate rod action makes me wonder if I'll really get the most out of the reel.  The Sol has a 5.8:1 ratio and 23.6" IPT.  Is the Moderate action rod versatile enough to handle various light-weight techniques?  Would I be better off putting this on the M/F Avid or maybe buying a more "true" M/F rod (Avid is fairly stout) that will allow light baits to load up on a cast?

 

What rod are you fellow Sol owners pairing up with this reel?

[Darren.]

Aww man, that's awesome. Would love a Sol or a Pxy. Would opt for the Avid, but since they're rated a tad stiffer I'd go for a ML, but that's me...

Congrats.

[Matt Jungblut]

either rod would work great

before i sold my  sol it was paired with a daiwa small mouth rod

[Goose52]

My Sol is on a 7' ML-F St. Croix Premier.

[Jrob78]

The Sol is a fantastic reel.  If it's in good shape, $150 is a good price.   The Sol does a great job at casting the light stuff, the problem is generally the rod.   I built a custom rod for my Sol.  It is technically  a spinning, drop shot blank.  The blanks specs are 6'10" mag medium, x-fast, 1/8oz-5/8oz.  I really like the rod but it isn't light enough to fully maximize the Sol's potential.  It is awesome for Pointer 78's, smaller topwater baits and SK KVD 1.0's but it doesn't work well with small weightless plastics, small balsa crankbaits and other light, wind resistant baits.  I think if the rod had a mod fast action, the tip would load better with the really light stuff. 

 

My point for telling you all that is to let you know that if you plan to throw really light stuff, you need to get a really light rod.   The Sol is a great reel and works great with regular sized baits.  It holds plenty of line and with a Carbontex upgrade, the drag is more than adequate for bass.  I know a lot of people use Sol's for pitching jigs and heavy plastics.  Just know, a normal, medium powered casting rod won't load up enough to cast really light stuff, even if the reel will.

[papajoe222]

You'll love that reel.  I have mine mounted on a 7'2" St.Croix med/mod that I finished making earlier this winter specifically for that reel and smaller/ lighter cranks and top-water baits.  If you really want to take advantage of the Sol's ability to cast lighter baits, you're going to need a rod that will load fairly easily and there aren't a lot of M/H rods with a moderate action out there.  Prior to this rod, it was mounted on a Browning rod that, although wasn't rated for action, was a med. power and what I considered a moderate action.

[Toeshots]

either rod would work great

before i sold my sol it was paired with a daiwa small mouth rod

Can I ask why you sold your Sol?

(pun intended)

[Toeshots]

The Sol is a fantastic reel. If it's in good shape, $150 is a good price. The Sol does a great job at casting the light stuff, the problem is generally the rod. I built a custom rod for my Sol. It is technically a spinning, drop shot blank. The blanks specs are 6'10" mag medium, x-fast, 1/8oz-5/8oz. I really like the rod but it isn't light enough to fully maximize the Sol's potential. It is awesome for Pointer 78's, smaller topwater baits and SK KVD 1.0's but it doesn't work well with small weightless plastics, small balsa crankbaits and other light, wind resistant baits. I think if the rod had a mod fast action, the tip would load better with the really light stuff.

My point for telling you all that is to let you know that if you plan to throw really light stuff, you need to get a really light rod. The Sol is a great reel and works great with regular sized baits. It holds plenty of line and with a Carbontex upgrade, the drag is more than adequate for bass. I know a lot of people use Sol's for pitching jigs and heavy plastics. Just know, a normal, medium powered casting rod won't load up enough to cast really light stuff, even if the reel will.

Yea I don't know that I'll be throwing stuff that is really, really light, but those size 5 Rapalas that I sometimes like to throw are 3/16 oz which would probably be about the lightest I'd be throwing, so for measurement's sake let's say the rod needs to be able to load up a bit with those size 5's.

What does your standard 4-5" Senko weigh? If I threw one weightless, would it be less than 3/16 oz? I'm thinking no, but really don't know.

[Toeshots]

You'll love that reel. I have mine mounted on a 7'2" St.Croix med/mod that I finished making earlier this winter specifically for that reel and smaller/ lighter cranks and top-water baits. If you really want to take advantage of the Sol's ability to cast lighter baits, you're going to need a rod that will load fairly easily and there aren't a lot of M/H rods with a moderate action out there. Prior to this rod, it was mounted on a Browning rod that, although wasn't rated for action, was a med. power and what I considered a moderate action.

What kind of topwater baits are you throwing? It seems as though the Moderate action may make it more difficult to work poppers and spooks, although I could be wrong. The MH/M I have if my first and only Moderate action rod and I've had it for less than a month so my experience is limited.

[J Francho]

I would NOT try to throw lighter baits on a Saint Croix MH rod.  Medium to medium-light would show you that reel's true potential.  There's a LTBC70MF and a LTB610MLXF in the LT line that would batch that reel well.  In the Avid series, look at AVC69MLXF and AVC70MF.

[Toeshots]

Thank you for the rod suggestions. I'm looking forward to trying out the reel on the Avid M/F to see how it performs.

To me the Premier series almost seems to be the opposite of the Avid in terms of true power rating. I initially went in to BPS to buy the M/M Premier but it was very whippy throughout the rod length which is why I went MH.

[J Francho]

Their MM is whippy, and rightly so.  There is quite a bit of power in that taper, but it's much closer to the butt.  The MF, and MXF tapers are true to their descriptions, but they both flex as much as any of the M power rods, under casting and fish fighting conditions.  The MH tapers take a bit of lure weight to load up.  With light baits on those rods, it's more like "throwing" the bait with your arms than it is "sling shotting" them with a loaded rod.  That's the best I can describe it.

[Rangerjoe]

I have two Sols, one for small crank baits, size 5 Shad Raps, on a ML crankbait rod and the other on a Loomis 893 for pitching Senkos.

[skeletor6]

Great deal. I have one, definitely excels at casting the light stuff. I would without a doubt put it on your 7' M/F Avid. This reel was made for casting light baits and a mediium powered rod usually accomplishes said duty. Save the MH powered rods for a different reel.

[Toeshots]

Looking forward to hopefully trying it out on Sunday if the waters don't freeze up again before then.

[Jrob78]

Yea I don't know that I'll be throwing stuff that is really, really light, but those size 5 Rapalas that I sometimes like to throw are 3/16 oz which would probably be about the lightest I'd be throwing, so for measurement's sake let's say the rod needs to be able to load up a bit with those size 5's.

What does your standard 4-5" Senko weigh? If I threw one weightless, would it be less than 3/16 oz? I'm thinking no, but really don't know.

 

I'm not 100% sure what a Senko weighs but it's considerably more than 3/16 oz.  The other thing you have to keep in mind is that a Senko is very aerodynamic, a Shad Rap is anything but.  As long as you don't go too small or too light, you will be good to go.  After you play with the reel on the rods you have, you'll have a good idea about whether you need a new rod or not.

[Toeshots]

Anybody know if a gear swap can be done on the Sol? It would be pretty cool to have an IPT number in the upper 20's on this thing.

[Toeshots]

Well it looks like this would do it:

http://tackletrap.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2940

I'm guessing this would bring it up to the 26 IPT of the PX Type-R?

[J Francho]

It should.

[new2BC4bass]

Thanks for the link to the gear set.  I get the impression from the advertisement that it is for right hand only.  I have one (Sol) of each hand.  Increasing LPI might be something to think about.  I have several reels in the 5.8 range.  Increasing speed on a couple of them could be a good thing.  I've never taken a reel apart, but hope to do so on a couple before it warms up enough to hit the water.

 

Let us know how the rods react to lighter baits once you get the Sol.  I am going to try using my left hand Sol for lighter baits.  I think I have a rod suitable for that application.  However, I need several more rods to even out my rod/reel count.  I've reached the rod count where tech spec rods are a real possibility rather than trying to always purchase rods that do reasonably well at many techniques.  I have enough of that type.  That is one reason I like reading threads on which rod to use for......fill in the blank.....techniques.

[Toeshots]

You're in luck - they are available in left-hand retrieve as well:

http://tackletrap.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3321

I was hoping to try it out this weekend after the 60-degree weather and rain we had on Tuesday, however it's been about -20 with the windchill the past few days which froze up the waters again.

That being said, I will say that it balances incredibly well with 7' M/F Avid. At first, I was pretty surprised by this as I've tried other, heavier reels with this rod and it felt a little tip heavy. Thinking more about it, it has to be due to the fact that the Sol is a small reel that sits closer to the butt of the rod which changes the balancing point and pushes it more weight towards the butt.

Even though I couldn't actually fish with it, I was able to give the reel a test run in my basement, but only tried the M/F Avid because it balanced so well. I tied on a 1/4 oz jig without a trailer in order to keep the weight down. All I can say is this setup is absolutely awesome. I already talked about the balance, but I practiced some pitching and the jig seemed to slingshot out towards the target without any effort. Yes, the rod is a factor, but the reel spins so freely that it just keeps going. I've tried the same thing with 2 BPS baitcasters with the same rod and there is just no comparison. The Sol is sweet, especially with the M/F Avid and I can't wait to get it out on the water. As a bonus, the reel came spooled with 50LB Power Pro although I will probably transfer it over to a Lews TP once I buy one.

Very happy so far!

[Raul]

None of those -----> GLoomis MBR782IMX

[Silas]

G Loomis CR 721 IMX  6'0 Light, fast action, 6-12lb line, 3/16-12oz baits.  Loads well with light baits!

 

Or

 

Quantum Smoke 6'6" Medium, for a tad heavier baits.

 

I don't think any Medium/Heavy rods will  load up....unless you are consistently casting 1/4oz to 3/8oz baits.

 

Pixies work well on those 2 also. 

[Jrob78]

I'm not a Dobyn's guy but the DX 701C is huge among the BFS crowd.

[Quillback]

I have a couple of Sols mounted on Dobyns DX702's.  I primarily use them for light t-rigs, c-rigs and Senkos.  I would not throw a #5 Shad Rap on those rods.  701 might work, but hard to say without trying.  I make things easy on myself and throw those #5 shad raps on a spinning outfit.