Rod

[rajuncajun]

New to the board so I need to say HI to everyone!! Can you all recommend a 7' rod and reel set up in the medium price range. I do not want a two piece rod. Thanks for any help!!!

[CrappiePappy]

New to the board so I need to say HI to everyone!! Can you all recommend a 7' rod and reel set up in the medium price range. I do not want a two piece rod. Thanks for any help!!!

Any particular reason why you don't want a two piece ?? All but one of my 7ft rods are two piece, and I have had zero problems with them.
I don't know what "medium price range" means ... can you give us a dollar amount range ?? And for what specific purpose would you be using this 7ft rod .... jigging, casting, trolling, tightline ??

........... luck2ya ... cp

[DENNIS BOWERS]

Welcome From tn. cajun!! Try the wally Marshall Mighty Lite 7 ft. /w pro reel. Wont set ya back a Fortune and is a good outfit.

[Greenwing]

St.Croix Premier makes several rods that are 1 pc they are great rods if that is what you mean by medium price range.

[rajuncajun]

CP, I just perfer A one piece over a two piece. Thats all that I have had over the years. Right now I have a allstar UL with a pflueger supreme spinning reel that I use for bream. Its only a 5' rod and Im wanting to go longer. I have other rods like g-loomis-st. croix and kistler that I use to bass fish with but need something inbetween to use for crappie. I want to keep the price around 200.00. What action do you all recommend?

[crappiekid24]

UL and L is what I use.

[rednecksooner]

200 bucks dang thats a nice set up!!! and u said medium range man thats way high range for me. and for quality crappie stuff. u can get a good 7' rod thats light enough to detect bites and still have enough back bone to get a big crappie in for under 30 dollars. bass pro, academy, even walmart has some good rods. and u dont need a fancy real will all kinds of stuff just a small 2 or 3 bearing spinnig reel will bring in any crappie and it wont set u back more than 40 dollars. heck if u look hard enough u could find a combo for less than 40.

[Minnerman]

Wow what a Crappie Rod budget. I was thinking when you said keep the cost down maybe suggesting what I have but you would probably laugh at my rigs. I have 7' Pinnacle ML casting rods with Zebco Platinum 33's on em. I really like em fer casting jigs with a weighted cork and slow pulling em. Academy Sports has the rods I use fer bout $29 and the reels fer bout $25

[GRIZZ]

CP, I just perfer A one piece over a two piece. Thats all that I have had over the years. Right now I have a allstar UL with a pflueger supreme spinning reel that I use for bream. Its only a 5' rod and Im wanting to go longer. I have other rods like g-loomis-st. croix and kistler that I use to bass fish with but need something inbetween to use for crappie. I want to keep the price around 200.00. What action do you all recommend?

Shimano stradic or symetre, quantum energy pti, BPS pro qualifier spinning reel.

Top notch crappie rods. Heaton super sensitives, Bass Pro Shops Wally Marshall Pro Series Rods, or Buck's ultimates. I'm not aware of any crappie specific rods that are one piece 7 footers, but G loomis, St Croix, AiRRUS, Kistler, Rogue, Bass Pro Shops has Johnny Morris Elite Series Spinning Rods or Pro Qualifier XPS Spinning Rods, all have excellent 7 ft 1 piece rods. The Morris's and rogues come with recoil guides. BPS has excellent combo prices with the 2 reels I suggested.

Read this quote =

[QUOTE=GRIZZ]
The guys at InFisherman have been promoting Pflueger gear in their videos for a while and have seen them break rods on camera in situations that I know my St.Croixs would never break, and I've never really took a liking to Pflueger reels either. I'm not positive but I've always guessed that up until this year that BPS's branded reels were MFG'd by Pflueger, and they have never really tickled my fancy either until this year and those are MFG'd by USREEL. Those reels really interest me.

I believe there is a best bang for your buck bell curve in rods and reels where the top of the bell curve is the best combination of affordable price and top notch warranties, performance, sensitivity, and durability, and the cheaper gear falls off to the left and the elite gear falls off to the right. Since I only use spinning gear I'm only including that in this bell curve with the understanding that bait casters tend to cost a little more for the same quality levels. I like to buy gear at the top of the bell curve. Not elite expensive like the $800 rigs you were describing earlier.

I consider a top of the bell curve spinning combo to cost in the $120-$200 range. For that you get excellent attributes thats are very very close to the elite attributes and far better than the gear on the left of the bell curve, and 5 yr to lifetime warranties. For example - a Shimano Stradic or Symetre or Quantum Energy reel combined with a StCroix Premier rod. There are lots of other rods and reels that fall into this category, but the ones I mentioned are what I use, though there are others I know I'd be happy with. The gear that falls to the left of the bell curve is typically department store quality gear in the combo price ranges of $40-$100 range that typically have 90 day or 1 yr warranties. The elite gear costs $500-800 for a combo.

The reason I have gone into so much detail here is because I run into so many anglers that have only ever bought lower end gear and wouldn't think of spending the $120-$200 that I described above for the higher level gear because they don't think it makes a difference. It DOES make a difference. Its not going to turn someone from a 90% fisherman into a 10% fisherman but its a big step toward it, and once I convince people to start using better gear they never go back, but man o man its tough to convince them to do it. It usually take a lot of side by side fishing where they actually see that I'm feeling hits and structure they can't and therefore landing more and better fish.

Now comes the fuzzy part. Something I've noticed ever since I've participated in this site is that top of the line crappie rods - Heatons/Bucks Ultimate level rods - fall into the top of the lower price ranges, but definitely have top of the bell curve quality. This is also the case with some of the Cabela's/BPS/Gander Mnt branded IM6,7 and 8 rods. You can get a top of the bell curve quality rod at the top of the lower price ranges. These are really nice rods but they typically come with 1 yr warranties and slightly lower quality components, but excellent tough and sensitive blanks. The fuzziness doesn't really include the reels. I don't know of any sub $60 reels I'd want to use long term, and that fit into the top of the bell curve quality and features categories. So what I'm saying in this fuzzy category, if you do your homework, you can get a top of the bell curve combo for around $100. Not really that much more than the low quality stuff.

[DENNIS BOWERS]

CP, I just perfer A one piece over a two piece. Thats all that I have had over the years. Right now I have a allstar UL with a pflueger supreme spinning reel that I use for bream. Its only a 5' rod and Im wanting to go longer. I have other rods like g-loomis-st. croix and kistler that I use to bass fish with but need something inbetween to use for crappie. I want to keep the price around 200.00. What action do you all recommend?

The W.M. Rod I mentioned is one peice-you want to go with l/ul for Crappie!You can also get Signature or Pro W.M. rods. Hook up a Shimano Reel to one and you have a outfit that is sensitive,Light,That you can use all day! I own 5 of these rods-love them. You"ll stay way under your bugget too!The W.M. reel is good for the money,but the Shimanos are better!