Expride 7'7" Heavy Versatility?

[stratos4me]

From what I gather, the Expride 7'7" Heavy is kind of an unusual rod. I'm interested to know from those who own the rod what you use it for. Moderate flippin? Frogs? Spooks? Jigs? Swimbaits? What do you use it for?

[softwateronly]

I use it for Arigs, deep cranking, 6” swim baits on a jig head, hair jigs, flutter spoons, swim jigs, small glides, and pitching. The mod/fast action is great but it comes with slightly less sensitivity than a 7’6MH, so I don’t love dragging jigs on it. All my exprides are the A series. 
 

scott

[stratos4me]

When you're pitching and set the hook in cover do you feel like the tip is too soft?  Is the tip too light for weedless swimbaits on beast hooks? Thanks.

[softwateronly]

I prefer to fish 6-7” beasthook baits on an XH because the 7’7H was sometimes not getting good hook penetration. The first third is soft, you really need to reel sweep set in most circumstances. I don’t pitch flip often but when I did I had no trouble getting good hook sets in the 10-15’ range. 
 

scott

[ShyBass]

I don't personally own one, but my buddy uses his for smaller swimbaits. S waver 168s, gantarel jr., etc. It seemed to have a soft tip from what I can remember.

[jimanchower]

@softwateronly and others, I've got one of these on the way. How heavy of a bait can it throw, assuming we're talking about lob casting? I know the TB guys like it for A-rigs and if I'm doing my math right we're talking about 2.75oz and up. I'm also looking at trying the 5" Bacca Burrito and maybe a 6" Huddleston as a way of dipping my toe into soft swimbait fishing. Can it handle 2-3oz swimbaits?

[softwateronly]

On 8/26/2023 at 2:01 PM, jimanchower said:

@softwateronly and others, I've got one of these on the way. How heavy of a bait can it throw, assuming we're talking about lob casting? I know the TB guys like it for A-rigs and if I'm doing my math right we're talking about 2.75oz and up. I'm also looking at trying the 5" Bacca Burrito and maybe a 6" Huddleston as a way of dipping my toe into soft swimbait fishing. Can it handle 2-3oz swimbaits?

 

I have the A model, it's rated to 2oz, but I've been comfortable up to 2.5oz.  The 5" burrito is perfect, a-rigs, 6" soft swimmers on open lead heads, gantarel jr, s-waver 168, flutter/jigging spoons, scrounger heads, heavy swimjigs, heavy chatterbaits, deep cranks, carolina rigs, preacher jigs, lightweight pitching/flipping, and football jigs are the types of baits I keep tied on.  I fish braid to leader most of the time and find that the 7'7H's mod/fast action does most everything well.  I usually prefer a faster rod for 6" soft swimmers on beast hooks and jigs in cover, otherwise it can really handle a wide range of abuse.  

 

scott

[Bandersnatch]

Anybody frogging on the 7’7h ? I recently found out it throws the spro cuss shad decent enough  

[softwateronly]

6 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

Anybody frogging on the 7’7h ? I recently found out it throws the spro cuss shad decent enough  

It's too soft for me to want to frog with.  The way I know how to fish frogs needs a rod to get to the backbone quicker.

 

scott