1. My quest to find a casting rod for the river that's 6'2" or less and throw an 1/8th oz jig has reached critical mass. Since I do mostly river fishing in cold weather, I want to be able to throw smallish hair jigs or crawfish with a baitcasting rod. The only reason I use a spinning rod is because right now I have no other choice, except like Al once said you use a baitcaster and re-teach your thumb to release earlier than normal. You need the shorter rod on the river to get under the low hanging branches and since I like to use a side arm cast, I feel a 7 ft rod is just too inaccurate. Besides most lures work better with a shorter more accurate cast at the "zone of ideal effectiveness" at a certain distance from the boat. I went to Cabelas the other day in my search and went up to the counter...."Can I help you find something Sir? Maybe I said, but it might be a tall order. "what is it that you need?" I told him I wanted a casting rod 6"2 or less to throw and 1/8th oz jig. "Thats no problem". Off we walked to the St. Croix section, as he started looking thru all the rods he soon realized the lowest rated rod was 1/4 oz at minimum. "HMMM", he said, "I guess I thought you said 1/4 oz". For the next hour we looked at every rod in the store and on the Cabelas web site....Nothing. Finally we both agreed the the best way was to make a custom rod from a blank, One with a fast or extra fast tip, medium or medium light. The only ones close are drop shot rods that are usually 6'10 to 7" long. I think Im going to have another project to work on now. Ha, like I really need another project.
2. I've come to the conclusion that crank bait rods are becoming more and more a useless product designed by rod manufacturers to sell you another rod. I realize the intent is to have a limber enough rod to keep you from pulling small trebles out of a fish's mouth. That's right if you are using extra small trebles. With the invention of EWG trebles, which penetrate so deep I think the days of a cranbait rod are numbered. Even though they load up and cast a mile, CB rods have little or no feeling at all and I think a big fish can swim up and in one motion grab your crank bait and spit it out without you even knowing what happened. I've lost more fish by not getting enough strength in the initial take than pulling a hook out of the fish's mouth. Now if you are lake fishing and are throwing deep diving crankbaits all day where you have to cast the lure a country mile I can see the usefullness of a limber CB rod.