Crankbait rod

[Bill Babler]

 

Might be a bit above the price point your looking for but I have 3 new on the rack Falcon Cara's made in the USA Mike McClelland Crank bait rods. Mike made these especially for the Rock Crawler, wiggle wart and square bill. They work great with a Dixie Jet or jigging spoon and the will throw a Redfin a country mile, even as lite as it is. Extremely sensitive fast tip, soft thru the middle and stout butt section. 

The quaint essential crank bait rod designed by Mike. 

I can sell picked up here for $229.00. Buy 2 and shipping is included. 

[mixermarkb]

13 hours ago, Champ188 said:

Crank baits vary widely in weight and resistance when retrieved, so ... in keeping with your $150 budget, I'm not going to suggest two rods. Instead, I'm going to presume that you'll be tossing something in the middle weight range, like a Wiggle Wart or Strike King XD3. 

My favorite midsize cranking rod by far is the Denali Kovert series 7-2 MH Crankbait model. It has a moderate tip action (a bit limber) for making long casts and helping absorb the pressure of a bite so you don't pull the bait away from a fish, but it also has enough backbone to handle a large fish. I pair mine with a Lew's BB1 reel (6.4:1), which is not a $400 team reel but neither is it a bargain bin model. It's very important that your crank bait reel is capable of casting a long way, as the farther you can throw it, the longer it will stay in the "strike zone" during the retrieve. I love the old P-Line CXX mono in 10-lb test for cranking. It's plenty tough while also being small enough in diameter to allow for those all-important long casts. 

Denali Rods - Kovert Winn - Bass

 

I’m gonna give this rod a plus one, even though I haven’t used it myself, for a few reasons. First off, Champ is the resident bank beater here, and I trust his opinions on all things less than 15’ deep. Second, as mentioned above, I’m a two cranking rod kind of guy, with the deep rod being a St. Croix 7’10” mag cranker, and the shallow rod being the Falcon Cara Reaction 7’ medium cranker. Third reason, although the Falcon rod is an amazing cranking rod for most White River lake crankbait techniques, I’m a little bit salty at Falcon for moving production overseas, and just won’t be recommending them anymore. (Not that anyone cares one bit what I recommend or don’t)

[rps]

14 hours ago, Champ188 said:

Crank baits vary widely in weight and resistance when retrieved, so ... in keeping with your $150 budget, I'm not going to suggest two rods. Instead, I'm going to presume that you'll be tossing something in the middle weight range, like a Wiggle Wart or Strike King XD3. 

My favorite midsize cranking rod by far is the Denali Kovert series 7-2 MH Crankbait model. It has a moderate tip action (a bit limber) for making long casts and helping absorb the pressure of a bite so you don't pull the bait away from a fish, but it also has enough backbone to handle a large fish. I pair mine with a Lew's BB1 reel (6.4:1), which is not a $400 team reel but neither is it a bargain bin model. It's very important that your crank bait reel is capable of casting a long way, as the farther you can throw it, the longer it will stay in the "strike zone" during the retrieve. I love the old P-Line CXX mono in 10-lb test for cranking. It's plenty tough while also being small enough in diameter to allow for those all-important long casts. 

Denali Rods - Kovert Winn - Bass

 

The man knows of what he speaks.

[Bill Babler]

I'm a US kind of guy too, but show me a single spinning reel that even comes close to a Shimano Stella or a casting reel that is even in the same zip code with a Diawa Steez.  Not to even mention a Megabass jerk bait. 

Better quality, better performance, better craftsmanship.  Very sad but true. 

[Fishrman]

Have to agree with Champ, I just purchased a Kovert cranking rod.  Very good rod, used it last weekend at Bull, handles great.

[Sprint21fter]

23 hours ago, Fishrman said:

Have to agree with Champ, I just purchased a Kovert cranking rod.  Very good rod, used it last weekend at Bull, handles great.

So that's your secret weapon now!!  That shimano rod you brought me is superb for cranking also.  Been doing some work that last few weeks.

[Smithvillesteve]

A sincere thank you to RPS, Dutch, Fowlthing, Zulu, FishnDoug, Champ188, Bill Babler and MixermarkB for responding to my question. I will try and do some research on the rods you boys mentioned and i am sure they are all fine rods. Once again thanks for your input. 

[Smalliebigs]

I know a bunch of you will laugh at this suggestion but, my Duckett White Ice cranking rods are simply badass for cranking.

[Bill Babler]

2 minutes ago, Smalliebigs said:

I know a bunch of you will laugh at this suggestion but, my Duckett White Ice cranking rods are simply badass for cranking.

I know they have been way improved. Those things used to break faster than a teenagers heart.  

I believe Champ had a deal with them at one time, but I think he had some problems. Please correct me if I'm wrong.   

I know Denjak busted more than one.  Beck also had a 1/2 dozen of them one of the tackle reps gave him and I saw him snap one on about a 10 inch jaw. 

Bill Beck was a pressure hook setter. Never saw him jerk or snap set a bait in the 20 plus years I knew and fished with him. 

The most pressure he ever put on a rod was long lining a heavy jig in deep water or fishing a blade.  He flipped docks on the Rock with 8 pound Maxi and 10 pound Invizx. Never saw him break one off or lose one. 

I told Champ about this 15 years ago and he thought we were nuts fishing that spiderweb around docks. 

I can't say the same for myself. I can remember getting a time out for snapping a couple off one day. 😆😆😆

I get off track easy. 

That was a long time ago. Ducketts were not as bad as the old carrot stick, but just a bit worse than a Loomis. 

I know that's all been corrected, but it left a pretty bad taste. 

Hey, you know me. Anything good enough for Wheeler is plenty good enough. 

[Fish24/7]

I've got 2 , 6'8" mh Fenwick Lunker Stix casting . The newest model. Theyve been available for a few years 

I use them for all my cranking from small stuff like warts and little Norman's all the way up to a series 6xd. All my square bills. Lipless cranks from 1/4 oz up to 3/4.  

Also using them for all topwater baits from 2 3/4" popping style all the way up to a super spook. 

Also using them with braid for buzzbaits . Not exactly what I want in a rod for chatterbaits or blades. Mostly  baits with treble hooks 

I no longer need a handful or more of rods to get the jobs done. That model covers everything I mentioned.

At $80 I could afford 2 and have enough money left to buy new reels and line for them