crank spinning rod

[aaronczl]

Been lurking you guys forever but just now decided to sign up!

My current crankbait setup is a Abu Garcia Cardinal reel that I love (and its been beat!) and a 6'6 med/fast rod that got the top 6" snapped off.  Been fishing it like that for a while and im pretty tired of it now.  Ive been shopping for a while and I am in Texas for some business.  Ive held some rods here that ive really liked.  Ive tried to keep the price point under $80.  Im also wondering if I NEED a moderate action or fast with mono would work ok.  I crank mostly shad raps, model a type plugs ( and a size bigger too, name?) 3" jerks, lipless and squarebills.  Most of them don't go past 8ft.  anything deeper than that and I usually use soft plastic (dedicated rod for that).  Heres what ive found:

Berkley E-motion 6'9" med/mod. - $80

*** Blackout 7' med/fast - $80

H20 academy brank (the realtree camo rod)- 7' Med/fast - $60

Diawa Laguna 6'6" med/fast - $60

Abu Garcia Vendetta6'6" med/fast - $50 (marked down at walmart)

Also found a Daiwa Jupiter that's marked as a med/heavy but looks just as big as the others I listed.  its also $50

 

Have any of you guys fished any of these rods?  how was the sensitivity, action, and casting? I want to be able to cast my small/medium sized cranks well and will obtain a larger setup later if I start fishing bigger cranks.  Thanks a lot fellas!

[BrackishBassin]

I haven't fished any of those, but I have thrown my crankbaits (especially the lighter ones) with a 7' med/light Ugly Stik Elite. I love the rod and it fishes the crankbaits as well as jerk baits really well. They're right around $50, and I'm a big fan of the single piece stainless steel guides. 

[aaronczl]

27 minutes ago, BrackishBassin said:

I haven't fished any of those, but I have thrown my crankbaits (especially the lighter ones) with a 7' med/light Ugly Stik Elite. I love the rod and it fishes the crankbaits as well as jerk baits really well. They're right around $50, and I'm a big fan of the single piece stainless steel guides. 

Ive got 2 ugly sticks.  one for catfish and one for panfish.  Both do well.  I haven't held an elite tho.  ill check them out

[burrows]

I have a blackout 7 medium spinning rod and it does the job great it's very light and sensitive I highly recommend for that price point.

[aaronczl]

3 minutes ago, Cheesefrank said:

I have a blackout 7 medium spinning rod and it does the job great it's very light and sensitive I highly recommend for that price point.

both the blackout and the Berkley emotion felt like butter when I held them.  do you fish any treble hooks with it?  im worried about blowing mouths open.

[burrows]

i don't really use a spinning rod much for treble hook baits, I have thrown around a shad rap on it however and it has a good bend in the tip the rod is certainly not a stiff rod I don't think you'll have a problem throwing squarebills and jerkbaits at all. 

[timsford]

Falcon makes a spinning cranking rod in the bucoo series that's great for small balsa baits and finesse cranks. I found one at my local Walmart for 56 bucks, so check yours just in case. There aren't a lot of spinning crank rods out there. Other options would be a fiberglass rod like an ugly stick, or a rod like the lightning rod shock designed for braid that has a softer tip that works well for cranks. 

[MIbassyaker]

Until recently, I was a spinning-only guy. I moved most of my cranking duties over to baitcasters but before then, I used a medium pflueger trion spinning combo ($60 for the combo), which was.... not bad, honestly, for anything up to about 1/2oz that's not a deep-diver. I still use it for balsa crankbaits like rapala minnows, as well as the smaller size x-raps, bombers, bandits, big Os etc.

[timsford]

I just caught the part where you asked the question about fast action and mono being ok. For years I used only one combo, a daiwa tournament ss1300 spinning reel and a 6'6" med power fast action rod with mono. It definitely wasn't ideal but I caught fish and threw every bait Imaginable and did ok actually. I still use a fast action rod and mono sometimes with square bills and shallow cranks under 8-10ft or so if I'm pond fishing and traveling light. I might lose a few fish, but I do with the mod/fast action I normally use with cranks as well. And I use extra fast actions and mono with hard jerkbaits because I feel like I have more control over the bait and I can make it more erratic than with softer rods. I don't lose many fish on jerkbaits with the ex fast action either. But I use mono line for a little give and I set my drag right. 

Honestly maybe I'm weird, but I don't really even like a true moderate action like most cranking sticks unless I'm fishing big deep cranks. I'm always grinding the crank into wood or rocks though or ripping grass and I just don't like a soft rod for that.

Also when talking rods a lot of it depends on what brand and also series of rod you are looking at. There are no standards and some mediums feel like other medium lights and some feel like medium heavy and some actually feel like a medium power. One manufacturer's mod fast may be another's fast. The best thing to do is go to a store and put your hands on one before buying to see how it feels. 

Also it seems like you are looking at a rod in the 80 dollar range or so. I'd definitely grab one of the Fenwick aetos medium power rods off ffotackle.com before they are gone. You won't find a rod anywhere close to that nicely built or sensitive with great guides and a lifetime warranty for around 80. If you can't swing the extra 9 bucks or so the tatula xt on fleabay is pretty nice, but nowhere near as nice as the Fenwick imho

 

[smalljaw67]

I really don't thing a moderate action in a spinning rod is necessary as they are forgiving enough. If you are only using it for cranks I'd look at the E-motion medium/mod, the was a purpose built stick for cranks and you don't use deep divers so it is perfect for your needs.

[Bluebasser86]

I use a 6' 8" M H2O Ethos for my small squarebills, shad raps, and small jerkbaits. It works very well and has handled some very nice sized fish no problems. 

[Mark888]

Have you looked at Fenwick's line up? They have some decent rods for the price. Im rocking a Fenwick eagle 7ft fast for drop shots - great rod for the price. I would recommend a mod or mod fast action rod for sure, my hook up ratio has improved a lot ever since i started throwing a mod action rod. You would want flouro - its practically invisible and it is super sensitive, it also keeps your cranks down since it sinks, good luck! 

 

If you really done want floor or want more stretch, try copolymer. I use Yo zuni hybrid on my spinnerbait/chatterbait rod and i love it!

[Largemouth21]

Quote

On October 17, 2016 at 8:02 PM, BrackishBassin said:

I haven't fished any of those, but I have thrown my crankbaits (especially the lighter ones) with a 7' med/light Ugly Stik Elite. I love the rod and it fishes the crankbaits as well as jerk baits really well. They're right around $50, and I'm a big fan of the single piece stainless steel guides. 

Is the ugly stik elite 7 ft medium light whippy and noodle like or would it work ok for largemouth with mostly finesse and super light rapalas

 

[BrackishBassin]

1 hour ago, Largemouth21 said:

 

It's pretty whippy, but I like that. Lets me cast weightless plastics without an issue. Caught my PB on it as well. The rod had no problems handling a 4.5 lb bass. 

[Largemouth21]

13 minutes ago, BrackishBassin said:

It's pretty whippy, but I like that. Lets me cast weightless plastics without an issue. Caught my PB on it as well. The rod had no problems handling a 4.5 lb bass. 

Thanks, would you recommend this rod or not

[fishnkamp]

My wife can handle a flyrod beautifully. She handles any spinning rod fine, but hates baitcasters. So I have had to seek spinning rods that would handle some unusual situations that most of us would use a baitcaster to solve, I even had to find the perfect spinning rood to handle frog fishing. That turned out to be a special rod from Irod.

Her favorite solution to fish any treble hooked bait is the Berkley Lightning Shock rod, She throws a bunch of Rattletraps, Red Eye Shads, Booya's, and all of her shallow to mid depth crankbaits. The rod has held up to some good bass and a slew of stripers as ell as some big blue cats. She uses the 6'6" medium but you could use the 7 foot medium rod. I use two of these 7 foot casting rods as well. I know the rod sells for around $50, but can be found online for about $25.  Match this with a 6935 Pflueger President for around $60  

[iceintheveins]

For an affordable option, the Berkley Lightning Shock series in the 7' M is very good for small crankbaits and topwaters. A better option, but more expensive, is the Abu Garcia Ike finesse series spinning rod, in the 6'10" medium light.

For my small jerkbaits, I prefer a 7', M spinning rod with a fast action. I use a medium, fast action casting setup for jerkbaits 3/8 of an ounce and over.

[BrackishBassin]

20 hours ago, Largemouth21 said:

Thanks, would you recommend this rod or not

Yep. Great rod for what I need it to do. Even going to try some real little crankbaits on it for crappie. 

[Largemouth21]

4 hours ago, BrackishBassin said:

Yep. Great rod for what I need it to do. Even going to try some real little crankbaits on it for crappie. 

Sorry to keep bugging you  is this rod hard to set the hook with or is it somewhat fast action

[BrackishBassin]

9 hours ago, Largemouth21 said:

Sorry to keep bugging you  is this rod hard to set the hook with or is it somewhat fast action

Not a problem. I haven't had issues with hook sets, especially with the crankbaits. That being said, if you were going to use it exclusively with weightless plastics (bigger wire hooks) then I would suggest going for the med version instead of med light. 

[Largemouth21]

On November 9, 2016 at 5:56 AM, BrackishBassin said:

Not a problem. I haven't had issues with hook sets, especially with the crankbaits. That being said, if you were going to use it exclusively with weightless plastics (bigger wire hooks) then I would suggest going for the med version instead of med light. 

I was at my local mc sports and I checked out the 7'0" elite in medium. Very light and not super thick like my gx2 which is a telephone pole in comparison ? Am not going to get the rod from mc because the rod is crooked, idk why thanks for the help I will be going with the medium action...