What to do with a 6’ medium casting rod?

[optimator]

My arsenal is pretty well set. I’ve got a lonely 6’ M St Croix Premier sitting in my non used corner. A buddy at work has just started bass fishing and is looking for his first baitcaster setup. Before I make him a deal on it is there something it might excel at that I’m not thinking about?

[Jar11591]

Topwater stick. The short length will make it easy to work topwaters with a downward motion of the rod without slapping the water. 

[FrnkNsteen]

It wasn't all that long ago a 6' rod was pretty common.

 

It could be used for about anything, but the first thin that comes to mind is a topwater popper walking baut, or jerkbait rod

[optimator]

1 minute ago, Jar11591 said:

Topwater stick. The short length will make it easy to work topwaters with a downward motion of the rod without slapping the water. 

I’ve already got a dedicated topwater rod. 

[Fishingmickey]

Probably be good for throwing small weighted swim baits, finesse worm/jig, underspins, weightless plastic. Small crankbaits.

FM

[optimator]

Just now, Fishingmickey said:

Probably be good for throwing small weighted swim baits, finesse worm/jig, underspins, weightless plastic. Small crankbaits.

FM

Yeah, I've got all of these bases covered. I'm just going to pass this one on. 

[Fishingmickey]

Sounds like the right thing to do. Someone else can figure out what to do with it.

 

[bulldog1935]

kayak fish

 

these are all new Japanese rods, 6' and under - offset for round reels

[T-Billy]

Sounds like a good rod for skipping flukes and senkos.

[FishTank]

Kayak and stream fishing.

[Motoboss]

Beat me to it! I was going suggest a great stream/creek outfit.

[redmeansdistortion]

That would be a great river rod.  Any smallies in your neck of the woods?

[optimator]

33 minutes ago, redmeansdistortion said:

That would be a great river rod.  Any smallies in your neck of the woods?

The Umpqua, an hour or so north is loaded with them. But we fish it out of a drift boat. I usually use my 610 M Tatula and a 7ML Avid X up there.  

[DogBone_384]

Mine sits in the corner of my garage. It was my first casting rod, purchased 25+ years ago.

[Obi_Wan]

8 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

kayak fish

 

these are all new Japanese rods, 6' and under - offset for round reels

Tell me more about these rods.  I have a round Abu Garcia that is aching to be used.  Bought it in Alaska and caught lots of salmon with it.  Need to put it to use soon and I really like that yellow rod.

 

[bulldog1935]

@Obi_Wan - I'll tell you everything.  ?

The Smith Super Strike handles copy the old Fenwick Champion handles from the '70s, but are made in magnesium. They offer short, long, and pistol-grip cork.  

They sell rod blades separately, or with a pistol-grip cork handle.  

Asian Portal does the best job of stocking Smith Super Strike.  (this is the Super Strike short handle).  Found my first on Amazon.jp for $140 - my second on Yahoo was even less, $90 (plus brokerage).  

 Bright River (Brightliver) handles are aluminum, and a bit more skeleton.  They offer a range of handles and reel seat clamps - this spring-loaded rotating socket is called an Eyespot (4" grip is Bright River Super Short)

All of these handles are made to fit the reel feet on Isuzu Ind. (not the car maker) bench-built reels.  They fit Ambassadeur feet more securely with a reel seat shim, which both Smith and Brightliver sell (or you can work out your own shim).  

Modern Japanese offset handles use a 12-mm butt-ferrule diameter, while the old Champion handles used 3/8" (9 mm).  They offer collets for the handle vises that will let you use old Fenwick blades.  They also sell the 12-mm-OD ferrules in a range of ID sizes if you want to build your own rod blade from blank.  

A tip on the rod blade ferrule - you want to wax it (paraffin) - otherwise, the plastic collet may crack when you try to switch to a different rod blade, and they are tricky to find, even on Yahoo.  

There are other Japan brands making handles and blades (they all swap), including Frog Products, APHL, Robelson, and a few others.  Can't find any now, but Robelson makes carbon handles.  It's all made in limited batches, sells out in Japan, and you have to keep up with Tokyo tackle shops to snag them.  If you can't find the Super Strike rod you want at Asian Portal, you'll probably need to use a Japan broker (noppin.com, Rinkya, ZenMarket) to buy from a tackle shop or their listing on Yahoo (Masamichi at noppin and I go back 20 years).

What you don't want to do is buy on ebay - scalper prices there double the retail, especially with the good exchange rate we've had for over a year.  

I'll admit it took some patience and experienced Japan shopping to find what I wanted.  

Here are the 3 river kayak rods I showed above one more time - all 3 combos skip with aplomb.  

Top is custom Ambassadeur 4600 Express on Smith 6' graphite MH SS60GMH (Reservoir Magnum), which is my frogger, rated 1/2 to 1 oz

Custom 4500C on Bright River 5' glass MM Concorde, rated 1/4 to 3/4 oz.  (this reel gets an alloy Haneda Craft handle when I clean out my noppin cache).  

Isuzu-built Smith Plugger baitcaster on Smith 5-1/2' glass ML FO56 (Top Water Light), rated 5 to 18 g, and stated to be optimized for 1/2 oz, but it fishes down to 4 g for me, and caught that bass I show above, and here again.  The progressive-taper rod had plenty of backbone to turn the fish when it wanted to go under my kayak.  

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Jigging rod

[JediAmoeba]

A good small top water rod - like small yellow magics. 

[Derek1]

16 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

@Obi_Wan - I'll tell you everything.  ?

The Smith Super Strike handles copy the old Fenwick Champion handles from the '70s, but are made in magnesium. They offer short, long, and pistol-grip cork.  

They sell rod blades separately, or with a pistol-grip cork handle.  

Asian Portal does the best job of stocking Smith Super Strike.  (this is the Super Strike short handle).  Found my first on Amazon.jp for $140 - my second on Yahoo was even less, $90 (plus brokerage).  

 Bright River (Brightliver) handles are aluminum, and a bit more skeleton.  They offer a range of handles and reel seat clamps - this spring-loaded rotating socket is called an Eyespot (4" grip is Bright River Super Short)

All of these handles are made to fit the reel feet on Isuzu Ind. (not the car maker) bench-built reels.  They fit Ambassadeur feet more securely with a reel seat shim, which both Smith and Brightliver sell (or you can work out your own shim).  

Modern Japanese offset handles use a 12-mm butt-ferrule diameter, while the old Champion handles used 3/8" (9 mm).  They offer collets for the handle vises that will let you use old Fenwick blades.  They also sell the 12-mm-OD ferrules in a range of ID sizes if you want to build your own rod blade from blank.  

A tip on the rod blade ferrule - you want to wax it (paraffin) - otherwise, the plastic collet may crack when you try to switch to a different rod blade, and they are tricky to find, even on Yahoo.  

There are other Japan brands making handles and blades (they all swap), including Frog Products, APHL, Robelson, and a few others.  Can't find any now, but Robelson makes carbon handles.  It's all made in limited batches, sells out in Japan, and you have to keep up with Tokyo tackle shops to snag them.  If you can't find the Super Strike rod you want at Asian Portal, you'll probably need to use a Japan broker (noppin.com, Rinkya, ZenMarket) to buy from a tackle shop or their listing on Yahoo (Masamichi at noppin and I go back 20 years).

What you don't want to do is buy on ebay - scalper prices there double the retail, especially with the good exchange rate we've had for over a year.  

I'll admit it took some patience and experienced Japan shopping to find what I wanted.  

Here are the 3 river kayak rods I showed above one more time - all 3 combos skip with aplomb.  

Top is custom Ambassadeur 4600 Express on Smith 6' graphite MH SS60GMH (Reservoir Magnum), which is my frogger, rated 1/2 to 1 oz

Custom 4500C on Bright River 5' glass MM Concorde, rated 1/4 to 3/4 oz.  (this reel gets an alloy Haneda Craft handle when I clean out my noppin cache).  

Isuzu-built Smith Plugger baitcaster on Smith 5-1/2' glass ML FO56 (Top Water Light), rated 5 to 18 g, and stated to be optimized for 1/2 oz, but it fishes down to 4 g for me, and caught that bass I show above, and here again.  The progressive-taper rod had plenty of backbone to turn the fish when it wanted to go under my kayak.  

Great post and really cool stuff you have