Lew's Custom Speed Stick HM 60 Crank Rod

[Ham]

I've been wanting a better cranking rod for a long time. I finally broke down and bought one of the Lew's Wart Rods. 

Ive only made one trip with it, but I really like it. That sucker is light weight. I paired mine with a Lew's Tournament MB in 5.6 : 1. Cast well. Very sensitive. I wish I could tell you how it handles a fish, but no experience with that to this point. 

One of the guys at SFO warned me that it was a bit on the light side for fishing a Spro RK Crawler. I have not tried that yet, but I imagine I'm going to be uncomfortable really bearing down on a hard throw with a Crawler tied on.

I will be heading out again tomorrow hoping to find some Wart fish. I will comment again after I've had more experience with the rod. 

[slothman]

I'm thinking I need a dedicated cracking rod as well. I'm looking for something to crank dd22s and xd3, xd5, xd6. I haven't decided what rod to get though. 

[fishinwrench]

24 minutes ago, slothman said:

I'm thinking I need a dedicated cracking rod as well. I'm looking for something to crank dd22s and xd3, xd5, xd6. I haven't decided what rod to get though. 

Swing by and check out this 7'6" Dion Hibdon signature deep cranking rod I have.   If you like it I'll make you a sweet deal on it.  I'll let you take it out for a couple days to see if it suits you.

The thing will sling a Whopper Plopper a country mile.  

[slothman]

42 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Swing by and check out this 7'6" Dion Hibdon signature deep cranking rod I have.   If you like it I'll make you a sweet deal on it.  I'll let you take it out for a couple days to see if it suits you.

The thing will sling a Whopper Plopper a country mile.  

I may have to check that out. 

Also, everybody keeps telling me that the whopper plopper is the deal. I have yet to carptch a fish on one. I finally decided recently that I was going to commit to throwing one all day until I got bit. I hit a dock on about the fourth cast and broke the tail off. I can't seem to bring myself to buy another one when I have so little confidence in it. We'll see if another one finds its way into my box. 

[fishinwrench]

I'm not a huge fan of the WP really.   There is a specific niche that it fills for me but it isn't often that I fish that way.  I bought 3 initially and currently have only one left.   

What I like to do with it is to get in close to a bank (a bank without docks) and sling it parallel to the bank as far as I can cast it, then just keep it plopping along.   A fish will eventually get behind it and start following it until another fish shows interest, then he gets jealous and crushes it.    A buzzbait would do the same job if you could cast one as far as you can a WP.  

[Ham]

5 hours ago, slothman said:

I hit a dock on about the fourth cast and broke the tail off. I can't seem to bring myself to buy another one when I have so little confidence in it. We'll see if another one finds its way into my box. 

Man, that's bad luck. I fear the Golden age of the WP may be coming to a close, but it's always going to tigger some bites

 

6 hours ago, slothman said:

I'm thinking I need a dedicated cracking rod as well. I'm looking for something to crank dd22s and xd3, xd5, xd6. I haven't decided what rod to get though. 

This rod is NOT the tool for that job. Look elsewhere.

[slothman]

2 hours ago, Ham said:

 

This rod is NOT the tool for that job. Look elsewhere.

I have the Lew's Custom Speed Stick Jerkbait rod. I have used it for small crankbaits. That is what made me decide that I need a dedicated rod for my larger crankbaits. I'm just starting to expand my equipment from the standard 6'6"-7' medium heavy for everything, generic set-ups to more specialized and technique specific with some things. A new medium/large crankbait rod and a jig skipping rod are two things that I think could really help me with how I currently fish.