Light Lure Baitcast Setups

[Flysmallie]

Thanks a lot Drew. Now I will have to go see what they have in the store and that will mean that I will walk out with less money than I went in with. And then Freddy's is right next door and I have been trying to eat better. This is going to cause some serious unintended consequences.

[Old plug]

There is a newer beater rod on the market if you can find one call ugly stik lite pro. Hard to find they are made a bit different than the regular ugly stik. I have a 7 ft casting rod that i use for pitching and flipping has 10 guides and a tiptop, Cork grip, and paid $39 bucks for it. Have no idea of the range of rods made in that model. I cannot find them anywhere. The one i have I got at pro bass and it was the last one on the rack. Ugly stiks are as tuff as anything made out there.

[Mitch f]

One of the things that Drews rod has that the Cherrywoods don't is ceramic guides. I think they are a double edged sword on a cheaper rod. Yes, they are smoother at first but they (the ceramic inserts) fall out quickly on cheap rods and expose the sharper metal ring which will cut your line. Now you have to sink another few dollars into a cheap rod.

[MOsmallies]

There is a newer beater rod on the market if you can find one call ugly stik lite pro. Hard to find they are made a bit different than the regular ugly stik. I have a 7 ft casting rod that i use for pitching and flipping has 10 guides and a tiptop, Cork grip, and paid $39 bucks for it. Have no idea of the range of rods made in that model. I cannot find them anywhere. The one i have I got at pro bass and it was the last one on the rack. Ugly stiks are as tuff as anything made out there.

I bought the exact same rod a few years ago for catfishing and it was the heaviest (especially tip heavy) rod I have ever used. I couldn't imagine using it for bass fishing, but it made a great cat rod.

[Old plug]

The LITEPRO not the LITE they are different. They are thinner and made different. And they are Light. They do not have ceramic guides. They only started started making them the past year or so and they are real hard to find. I do not know if they changed the name discontinued or what. They do not have the the clear tip either. I seen this one at pro bass and that was the last one. I seen another at wall mart was a 6 ft rod sometime later. I have been to the ugly stik home page and cannot find even listed there.

Mosmallies that is what you bought is a catfish rod. Never seen a 7 ft ugly stic casting rod that was not.

MItch---- i have seen that with ceramic guides.I have a rod i am going to re wrap this year and i am thinking about these chrome guides they have now suppose to be very hard. I beak mostof my guides by forgetting sbout my docks roof and slamming them into it when i set a hook while fishing off the dock.

[drew03cmc]

I haven't seen an issue with the guides on the rod yet, but for $20, if they crap out, I can buy a set of nice guides and replace them while being money ahead for a nice creek stick that didn't break the bank.

[Gavin]

I've been looking for a blank....but a 1/8oz will toss fine on an old IM6 medium heavy...guess it is slow enough to load up and cast, but you better be sight fishing or line watching when you are out of contact.

[TroutRinger]

Thought I’d revive this old thread as I have started dabbling in this. I’ve found several decent, affordable rod options, but curious if you all have any reasonably priced real recommendations? @Al Agnew the BPS reals you mentioned don’t appear to be made anymore and I didn’t see an obvious replacement. Tatula SV is a popular choice on forums but at $180, that’s more than I want spend on a reel that will spend most of its life in a canoe or kayak. 

[Dutch]

I use a Shimano Curado 70 for Ned fishing 6’10” ml rod and 6# fluorocarbon line.

[Al Agnew]

4 hours ago, TroutRinger said:

Thought I’d revive this old thread as I have stated dabbling in this. I’ve found several decent, affordable rod options, but curious if you all have any reasonably priced real recommendations? @Al Agnew the BPS reals you mentioned don’t appear to be made anymore and I didn’t see an obvious replacement. Tatula SV is a popular choice on forums but at $180, that’s more than I want spend on a reel that will spend most of its life in a canoe or kayak. 

Yup, the BPS reels I mentioned back then were changed very soon afterward, the new models were pretty much junk.  
I hesitate to say this, and would certainly understand if people don't want to buy Chinese products, but the cheapest reels I've found that will do the job pretty well once you get them dialed in are the KastKing models you can get on Ebay for around $60.  They don't have good quality control, and you're more likely to get a lemon than if you bought a brand name reel, but if you get a good one it will handle light lures quite well.  

The Lews Mach I, the white reel you can often find for around $100 or a bit more, is pretty decent at handling light lures.  Other than that, just about any of the lightweight reels you can get from Diawa, Shimano, Lews, Garcia, for $120-180 will handle light lures with the correct rod.