Crankbait Rods Under $100

[freelancer 11]

I was at Bass Pro yesterday and found the RC rods, and like JEB mentioned they are heavy and round like a pool que.They just didn't seem like a quality rod to me, glad I didn't order one. Thanks for the report.

[Billfo]

yeah, I agree it is huge... I dont fish high end rods & usually stay in the near $100 range. Im glad I still have my BPS Crankin Stick -for the money it is a great rod. Now what to do with this yellow "furring strip"......

Fished the rod today on Beaver Lake. I got the "Wright & McGill Clunn Reaction Rod 7'8" Med Deep Crank" rod. I was surprised at how wide it is in the reel seat and foregrip area. Reminds me of a pool cue! And it is really heavy. I should mention that all of my other rods are fairly high end. Dobyn's Extreme's, Loomis GLX and NRX. So maybe I'm a little jaundiced on the weight and shaft thickness issues. But I held my thoughts until I could fish it.

I mounted a Revo Premier on the rod. Nice, light reel to try and make up for some of that weight. But to no avail. Thing just weighs a ton. Put a Bomber 6 series fat free shad on it, which I've been fishing a lot lately. I did like how it cast the lure and the action of the rod was nice. I fished it almost exclusively for the first hour or so, and caught a couple of small fish on it. Then I picked up my Dobyn's DX784 (same length rod) with a 3/4oz football jig and it was SO much lighter and easier to handle. Again, not knocking the action of the rod, but it will flat wear you out casting big lures.

I knew it would be mushier feeling than my graphite rods. That's kind of the point of glass to have less feel, but more give to help set the hooks in fish on cranks rather than tearing it out of their mouths. And that was certainly true. I had NO issues on my graphite rods telling I was ticking trees, rocks, etc. With the Clunn rod, you could kind of tell you were hitting something, but it was far more vague. Not a huge deal with cranks, I guess, but worth noting.

I will not be keeping this rod. I just can't fish something this heavy. I'm a fairly big guy in good shape, and I work out often. I ride dirt bike competitively. So I'm not a wimp. I'd always told myself on casting rods that price and weight were not important. But I was wrong. I want a rod that handles like this Clunn rod does, just with half the weight. I "get it" more now.

[hoglaw]

Ugh, all of those rods (like the Skeet Reese ones) look horrible. 11 guides plus tip on a 6'6" rod? 14 micro guides plus tip on the skeet reese ones? What little weight they manage to save with microguides is made up for in spades in thread and epoxy when they double the amount of guides necessary.

[jeb]

Ended up blowing the $100 budget out of the water. Picked up another Loomis stick at Hook, Line and Sinker in Rogers for bigger crankbaits. It is the CBR906. Very happy with it so far. Light, pretty sensitive and good flex.