Ten Rods For Ten Bass Jobs

 

By Andrew Ragas

Fishing as we know it is a technical sport. It doesn’t have to be that way, but it is for anglers who are most passionately dedicated. Serious anglers will keep as many rods as they can fit into the boat, while casual anglers would rather keep a more modest number of general all-purpose outfits. In today’s modern era of bass fishing, rod lineups and the specifications of each model allows anglers to specialize in specific techniques that can be fished and executed with comfort, precision, further efficiency, and better balance.

Fishing parallels golf. Golfers have several sets of clubs, while anglers have several sets of rods. Each is designed for a specific application and job in mind, exactly like a golf club.

There’s an endless list of possible configurations when it comes to length, action, power, taper, handle, reel seat, guide system, cosmetics and modulus in a rod. Due to configuration and creativity, the advent of technically specific models became a necessity. But if you favor the general all-purpose approach like I may gravitate towards due to my bass guiding requirements and client needs, you can simplify your fishing and time spent configuring and rigging your set-ups by a considerable amount.

A rod serves many functions. It’ll cast your bait, help you hook fish, transmit detection to your hands and sensory organs, play the fish without exhausting it, and when treated as a tool it’ll function as so much more.

Today, St. Croix Rods, of Park Falls, WI, manufactures its bass rods with emerging composite materials utilizing the latest manufacturing processes and bass fishing trends before most anyone else ever dare attempts. They’ve also created many of the industry’s biggest performance breakthroughs, new innovations, designs, and technique-specific new model introductions. St. Croix also operates the most advanced research and development team in the industry, and prides on its collaborations with highly skilled fishing professionals who not only are experts in their field, but who are able to share their own testimony with honesty and integrity, and produce results to back it all up with.

Personally, it’s humbling to be on the receiving end of so many inquiries from prospective rod buyers seeking input about specific fishing rod selection and buyer advice. On a near-weekly basis through both my social media pages and here at Northwoods Bass, I’m frequently greeted with reader or customer questions relating to choosing the best rod for a bass fishing specific technique or strategy.

 

What is the best rod for this specific technique?

With so many well-designed basscentric rods offered by St. Croix, it’s simply a matter of identifying your personal needs, budget, preferences, rod feel, and the consideration of testimony, credible input, and the recommendations that follow.

Manufacturing the ‘Best Rods on Earth” is a huge responsibility. Consequently, knowing which St. Croix rod needed for the job can be overwhelming and intimidating. Choosing and purchasing a new rod is likewise a complex decision.

If seeking reference and aid in matching the best rod available for each strategy from grip to tip, look no further than this guide. Each of the 10 bass jobs showcased are what I consider to be my fishing strengths and common practices on most daily guide trips, illustrated by the 10 corresponding general all-purpose and technique-specific rods to complete the job.

 

The Job: Tubes

The Rod: Legend-X spinning; 7ft MHF (XLS70MHF)

DESCRIPTION – Fish with a legend in your hands. Cracking the tube and feeling bottom terrain requires an advanced rod that features proprietary technologies. The Legend-X with its impeccable craftsmanship is my nomination for tube techniques. I favor the Legend-X spinning 7ft medium heavy fast action model for daily usage and trophy hunting. With this length and action, I have the sensitivity to detect bites jigging, the power and to deliver a quality hook-set, and overpower big smallmouth. It also handles and loads well when casting too. The XLS70MHF is a stellar all purpose rod, with a much faster taper and flex than the lower tier models of same length & action. It is a must-have for its sensitivity, possessing the technologies, finish, and cosmetics that’ll back up its retail price. Its Fuji torzite tangle-free guides are a plus, completely eliminating knots and line twist that is common with braided lines. Despite its heavier MHF rating, it’s an exceptionally lightweight rod balancing perfectly with a size 30 Quantum Smoke S3 spinning reel spooled with 20 lb. Cortland Masterbraid.

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The Job: Football Jig and Casting Jig

The Rod: Legend Tournament Dock Sniper casting; 7ft HF (LBC70HF)

HONORABLE MENTION: Mojo Bass Dock Sniper casting; 7ft HF (MJC70HF)

DESCRIPTION – Do you shoot bass with a Legend Tournament dock sniper? I do. It handles everything from plastics, to swim jigs, and football jigs. My favorite application actually turns out to be something it doesn’t get much acknowledgment for – fall football jigs. When crawling a football jig through deep water (15-30ft), you’ll want a powerful, sensitive 7 footer with a stiffer backbone and taper. This will aid in bite detection and the requirement of strong hook set to heavy fish. Fish with too wimpy and soft of a rod, you miss those bites. Also, you can’t bring up those bigger pre-wintering fish located down below. The Legend Tournament Dock Sniper meets all personal requirements.

For its intended purposes, dock sniper rods are meant for bass extraction and accurate casting/pitching around near shore cover and tight angles, excelling in the casting jig and swim jig game. However, they have a great tip sensitivity and medium flex that’ll detect bites of all types, and lock you into fish.

Like I’ve discovered you’ll find many other alternative applications and personal uses with it, beyond its design & marketed intentions. My rod is complemented by a lightweight Quantum Tour S3 spooled with 20 lb. Cortland Masterbraid. Its high-speed 7:3.1 gear ratio quickly picks up slack, delivering immediacy to the hook set.

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The Job: Swim Jig

The Rod: Legend Tournament Dock Sniper casting; 7ft HF (LBC70HF)

HONORABLE MENTION: Mojo Bass Jig & Baits casting: 7ft 1in MHF (MJC71MHF)

DESCRIPTION – If fishing the shallows for largemouth, you will find steady action around docks and flooded tamarack bushes. My rods of choice for this target shooting are Mojo Bass Dock Sniper, and the Legend Tournament Dock Sniper. At 7 foot lengths and heavy power, these rods can handle pitching, flipping, skipping, and long distance casting duties. I work these two models in tandem with casting jigs and swim jigs. In my hands, the main difference between the two is flex and sensitivity. The Mojo Bass Dock Sniper with its IPC blank has more flex and loading capacity, while the Legend Tournament Dock Sniper and its SCIV blank provides more sensitivity which is excellent for feeling pickups and bites around docks and wood. Both rods are tailor-made for pitching, flipping, and jigging, but are just as good for casting jigs too.

For honorable mention, the Mojo Bass Jig & Baits 71MHF is a workman’s do-it-all, diverse multipurpose all duty bass rod. It’s been the most used rod in my boat, handling swim jigs just as well.

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The Job: Finesse and Plastics

The Rod: Legend Elite spinning; 7ft MHF (ES70MHF)

HONORABLE MENTION: Mojo Bass Plastics spinning; 7ft 1in M (MJS7MF)

DESCRIPTION – The Legend Elite might be the best and only rod for smallmouth fishing one ever needs. Whether jigging through deep structure with hula grubs, ned rigs, small paddletails, and blade baits, or if in need of live bait rigging or other finesse application, this rod is a must-have for the serious smallmouth aficionado. It’s my rod for life. For majority of my plastics and jigging, I favor 7ft medium heavy fast action rods. With this length and action, I have the sensitivity to detect bites jigging, and the power and length to overpower big smallmouth. The ES70MHF is a good all purpose rod, with a much faster taper and flex than the lower tier models of same length & action. The finish and sensitivity is luxurious. Concerning the price point, consider it a very high end rod you will fish and keep for a lifetime. The Legend Elite stands for longevity.

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The Job: Paddletail & Swimbait

The Rod: Mojo Bass Swim Frog casting; 7ft 5in MHXF (MJC75MHXF)

HONORABLE MENTION: Mojo Bass Power Shake spinning; 7ft 3in MHF (MJS73MHF)

DESCRIPTION – Paddletails and swimbaits are simple and effective fish-finders. I employ them with both spinning and casting rod methods. On many guide trips, we let the guy up front launch downsized paddletails with a Mojo Bass Power Shake spinning rod (MJS73MHF) with a high capacity reel and he’ll be kept busy, then likely out-fishing us. It’s so good, I always want the angler fishing up front bomb casting with this rod.

For most other swimbait casting applications, the Mojo Bass Swim Frog casting rod is designed to long cast. With its fast flex, it provides shock absorption to pin fish that strike from long distances.

The Power Shake is the best rod in its class for anglers who can only handle a spinning set-up for the strategy. I would personally prefer the development of a 7 ft. 5 in. spinning rod from the same Swim Frog blank to add another dimension to this favorite approach in paddletail fishing.

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The Job: Jerkbaits (suspending, X-Raps, and soft plastics)

The Rod: Avid-X spinning:; 7ft MHF (AXS70MHF)

HONORABLE MENTION: Avid-X casting; 6ft 8” MXF (AXC68MXF)

DESCRIPTION – St. Croix’s Avid-X offers two studs that are suitable for my style of jerkbait fishing: The 7 ft MHF spinning, and 6ft 8in MXF casting. Both rods have proven to be light and powerful jerkbait rods, excellent for handling and manipulating soft jerkbaits, X-Raps, and a variety of other suspending hard baits. The AXC68MXF makes it easy to impart erratic action to most jerkbaits without sacrificing any feel or the ability to get in a solid hookset with the aid of its flex-loading SCIII carbon blank and IPC technology. If you are in the market for a quality rod to fish smaller jerkbaits the medium extra fast 6ft 8in caster with its micro-guide system perfect for running with fluorocarbon and monofilament main lines is just about as good as they come, lightweight, sensitive, and comfortable to the touch.

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The Job: Crankbaits

The Rod: Mojo Bass Carbon casting; 7ft 1in MHM (MJC71MHM)

DESCRIPTION – I was fortunate to fish with the Mojo Bass Carbon Cranker before its summer 2020 launch. During my 2020 guiding season in June and July, I fished with a prototype 7ft 1in medium heavy moderate. Tinkering from the back end of the boat, customers fishing ahead of me up front were unable to decipher the unmarked rod I was launching cranks with. However, they saw the moderate action on display, as well as its sensitivity to detect bites, huge load, and the flex of the powerful hook-sets as I drilled big smallmouth with it.

The test subjects cooperated. The feel of power transmission from rod handle to tip was excellent, as was its wide load. Crankbaits diving and grinding along bottom were felt, bites were detected, hooks were set, and with my 12 lb. fluorocarbon line nothing ever came unpinned. Later that summer, St. Croix released 2 models to choose from, both featuring the same moderate action. For anglers seeking an alternative to SCIII and S-Glass rods, this is the one to choose. Its carbon blank provides great sensitivity and feel that is unmatched by other crankbait-specific rods.

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The Job: Topwater

The Rod: Mojo Bass Jig & Baits casting; 7ft 1in MHF (MJC71MHF)

DESCRIPTION – When choosing a proper topwater rod, take into consideration of the rod’s weight and feel, followed by bait manipulation abilities. Topwaters require lots of manipulation and cadence. If the rod meets the criteria, then it’s suitable for a variety of topwater techniques and retrieves. One rod that performs for me in my surface fishing methodologies is the all-purpose Mojo Bass Jig & Baits casting rod. Its 7ft 1in MHF length and action might be excessive, but it’ll easily handle poppers, walk the dogs, and prop style baits up to 1 oz. weights. While the downsized and shorter 6ft 8in MJC68MXF is marketed for topwater, you should consider a beefier stick with additional backbone to aid you in presenting and manipulating poppers or walkers if trophy smallmouth are the target species.

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The Job: Lipless Crankbait / Chatterbait

The Rod: Mojo Bass Glass Rip-N-Chatter casting; 7ft 2in HM (MGC72HM)

DESCRIPTION – It’s no secret that glass rods are popular options for fishing crankbaits and other reaction baits. Most glass rods are commonly relatively heavy, cast with difficulty and without accuracy, and lack sensitivity when compared to graphite. The Mojo Bass Glass Rods have eliminated these characteristics by employing poly-curve IPC mandrel technology and design. This means their super premium, 100% linear S-glass blanks have gradual, consistent tapers and uniform wall thickness from butt to tip, resulting in incredibly smooth, strong, light and sensitive, moderate action glass rods with a thick backbone and butt section. The 7ft 2in heavy power, moderate action Mojo Bass Glass Rip-N-Chatter (MGC72HM) casting rod is multi-purpose engineered for ripping lipless crankbaits and slicing chatterbaits through shallow cover, and even works wonderfully launching deep diving crankbaits. The Mojo Bass Glass Rip-N-Chatter is a must-have for your spring season fishing applications, and whenever generating reactionary strikes is necessary.

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The Job: The Do-It-All Rod

The Rod: Legend Tournament Power Swim spinning; 7ft 1in MHXF (LBS71MHXF)

HONORABLE MENTION: Mojo Bass Power Spin spinning; 7ft 1in MHXF (MJS71MHXF)

DESCRIPTION – Everyone needs a MacGyver rod. The Swiss Army Knife of a rod. A rod that does it all for everything. The Legend Tournament Power Swim lets you get away with anything that can be handled by spinning set-up. The power swim is my do-it-all smallmouth rod for crawling bottom oriented baits, as well as worming for largemouth bass. I love launching and dragging hula grubs, swinging head jigs, and downsized football jigs and plastics that are meant to be fished with spinning rod. The Legend Tournament’s high-modulus SCIV graphite with ART technology aids in sensitivity and bite detection for bottom bouncing strategies. Also worthy of recommendation is the Mojo Bass Power Spin, which features the same length and action. Slightly more tip-heavy, and with less sensitivity due to SCIII carbon, the more budget-friendly Power Spin was my 2020 customer rod, and boat’s do-it-all rod.

 

Obviously, my preferences and needs as a technical angler could greatly differ from yours. The beauty about St. Croix’s rod lineups and offerings is they’ve got a rod hand crafted for every type of angler, a rod for every fishing situation, and a rod type available for all budgetary limitations or needs.

As my inboxes keep getting flooded with rod questions, hopefully this introductory advice helps influence your rod buys for these ten bass jobs.

 

 

Andrew Ragas splits time between the Chicago area and Wisconsin’s Northwoods. Based in Minocqua, WI, he specializes in trophy bass fishing and offers guided trips from May thru October. While big bass is the passion, he dabbles in multi-species as well. He may be visited online at www.northwoodsbass.com