Medium vs medium heavy

[Kisch003]

What rod to use in different situations medium or medium heavy 

[Justin62882]

Your gonna get a few answers and probably a more detailed one depending on location of the country and types of places you fish on the lake. I fish medium action 3/8 ounce and under and anything over that is medium heavy to heavy. If I'm fishing frogs or in thick grass and stuff like that medium heavy. This Is just the way I fish.  Someone else will chime in on this with more detailed explanations but this has always worked fine for my type of fishing  and lakes. 

[J Francho]

It's mainly weight of the bait.  If cover is too heavy for a medium to cut it, then you start looking at special tapers that toss a lighter bait with ease.  Typically, that means a tippy, extra fast taper.

[Mike L]

Depends on what and where. 

Heavy cover, frogs and C Rigs I'll usually use heavy line on a heavy rod and go down from there. 

 

 

 

Mike

[lmbfisherman]

9 minutes ago, J Francho said:

It's mainly weight of the bait.  If cover is too heavy for a medium to cut it, then you start looking at special tapers that toss a lighter bait with ease.  Typically, that means a tippy, extra fast taper.

What he said.

 

1 minute ago, Mike L said:

Depends on what and where. 

Heavy cover, frogs and C Rigs I'll usually use heavy line on a heavy rod and go down from there. 

 

 

 

Mike

And add this. 

[Deleted account]

A rod needs to do 5 basic things (not counting holding your reel in place and impressing your angling buds) effectively, or at least adequately. Depending on what one is doing some of these things are more important than the others and vise versa. Take note that some of these things are also dependent on how the rod performs in combination with the characteristics of the line, and hook(s) used, in addition to angler mechanics, predominant fishing distance and cover fished. In chronological order:

 

1. cast the lure.

2. work the lure

3. detect a bite

4. set the hook

5. fight the fish.

 

So I guess what I'm saying is there is no one answer. For me I use the softest. slowest action that works for a particular situation, and work up from there, but that's just preference and what works for me. Oh, and number 5 is N/A for LMBs obviously...

 

 

[NHBull]

Hard to answer because a M Jig/worm is going to be different than a multipurpose M.

 

As a rule, I think MH covers more of the weight ranges and there is room for error.

My M are for light plastics and 1/4 ounce jigs

[Kisch003]

Thanks guys 

 

[Jackhammer_05]

Medium are great open hook bait rods and if u use a medium moderate action than they work good for crankbaits 

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

It also varies by rod brand as there is no standard. Labels and specs are all subjective. 

[S Hovanec]

51 minutes ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

It also varies by rod brand as there is no standard. Labels and specs are all subjective. 

 

Beat me to it.  One company's MH is another company's H.

[Fish the Mitt]

1 hour ago, Delaware Valley Tackle said:

It also varies by rod brand as there is no standard. Labels and specs are all subjective. 

Exactly right. As @S Hovanec was getting at. A MH rating for one blank (company) could be close or equivalent to a M from another. It's completely relative to the company (blank) you're looking at. 

If you have a brand you generally stick with, use that as a reference amongst those brands. But don't assume that a Med/Hev A Rod will be equivalent to a Med/Hev B Rod. It really is trial and error and getting the rods in your hand.

[S Hovanec]

6 minutes ago, SemperBass said:

Exactly right. As @S Hovanec was getting at. A MH rating for one blank (company) could be close or equivalent to a M from another. It's completely relative to the company (blank) you're looking at. 

If you have a brand you generally stick with, use that as a reference amongst those brands. But don't assume that a Med/Hev A Rod will be equivalent to a Med/Hev B Rod. It really is trial and error and getting the rods in your hand.

 

I use St. Croix as my baseline.  From their M and up, they seem to fish one power heavier than labeled and there is a gap between their ML and M in the freshwater line that is filled nicely with their inshore ML.

[MickD]

I believe the best two specs of the traditionally offered specs on rods, to use to select a rod,  are the lure weight coupled with the action description.  Because, if the rod doesn't load properly  it won't cast properly, and the lure recommendations are pretty good.  The action descriptions, Mod, Mod-fast, Fast, XFast are also usually pretty true.

 

I just received a blank labled Med-Light power, from the same manufacturer that offers another blank labled Med-Heavy.  I've tested both on my CCS rig and the power measurements are almost identical and they both should be called Med-Heavy.  Both are seven foot blanks, one RX7 and one RX8.  Actions are similar, not identical.  Both are labled Fast, but one probably should be labeled XFast.

 

It is not hard to measure CCS, and you can do it with equipment that doesn't take up a lot of room, and the numbers it yields offer OBJECTIVE measurements of blank and rod power and action.

[Boomstick]

On 2/14/2018 at 10:50 AM, Mike L said:

Depends on what and where. 

Heavy cover, frogs and C Rigs I'll usually use heavy line on a heavy rod and go down from there. 

 

Mike

Definitely. I would imagine there might be times you throw your T-Rigs on a heavy rod simply due to all the cover you guys have in Florida, where up here we can use a Medium power rod most of the time.

 

I would also say it depends on the rod. For example a medium rod that runs light (usually rated for 8-14lb line) might be able to handle some  weightless soft plastics in open water on non-finesse hooks, but a medium rod that is a little heavier (usually rated for 10-17lb line) is going to do it a whole lot better and can handle light cover too.

[spoonplugger1]

Have you read all "The One" rod articles over at Tackletour? Might give you some ideas on which way to go, there must be near 20 articles.

[N Florida Mike]

Good question.  For my situation, I prefer M , with a fast tip . I  fish primarily medium sized to small plastic baits with no weight, or as little as possible anyway. I tend to hook and land more fish with M. I have a MH with a fast tip that I have tried to use with the same baits , and I have a poor hookup % with it.

For big plastics, or frogs I like MH . I get a good hookup and landing ratio with these.

As stated before, rods are different even though they are rated the same. I have 2 MH rods.With  One of them I have a great hookup ratio. The other one I cant keep a fish hooked most of the time. It’s very strange to me.

 

[haggard]

I use a M/F as a more of a general purpose rod, usually with 1/4 oz bullets plus a soft plastic.

 

MH/F for slightly more targeted applications, which usually amounts to deep or heavy. Such as

- fishing deep (to 40 ft) using 3/8 oz bullets plus soft plastic

- fishing deep (to 40 ft) using bottom contact jig

- fishing in slop or cover, such as pads with frogs, where you might need the extra power of MH