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The search for 1

I would guess many of you know tackle tour started this thing, but I thought it would be cool to narrow it down very specifically. If you had to have a single rod to fish with in the state of WA for bass what would it be? I mean exact make and model!

Right now I would say I would go with my 7' Kistler LTX Medium Heavy Fast action rated for up to 3/4oz lures. This rod has performed very well for me throwing Football heads, TW swimmers, pitching my jigs, Texas rigging Beavers or Senkos, and burning a 1/2 oz spinnerbait or buzzbait.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Parnicky on December 20, 2010 at 10:59pm

This isn't the most sensitive or the lightest rod that I own but as far as the closest thing I have to an all purpose rod, I would say a 7' medium action St. Croix Premier casting rod. It's rated for 1/4-3/4 oz. lures and I can do just about anything I want to with this rod. I have used it successfully for throwing 1/2 to 1 oz. football jigs, spinnerbaits, topwater, senkos, pitching jigs, pitching plastic baits, small to medium cranks, flukes, carolina rigs, jerkbaits, hollow belly swimbaits, boottail swimbaits on 1/2 to 1 oz. jigheads, dropshotting, texas rigged plastics, and probably a few things I can't think of off of the top of my head. If I have access to all of my rods, I would pretty much just use this as a spinnerbait/hollowbelly rod but if I had to take one and be ready for anything, this would be it. I think it is probably hard to beat a 7' middle of the road rod with a moderate/fast action for multiple applications. With that being said though, it is pretty hard to think about bass fishing with just one rod. Something is just wrong with that picture! :) It's much easier to fish when you have the right tool for the job.

Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on December 21, 2010 at 3:30am

I think I have to go with a spinning rod on this one, how about a GLX BSR852. Not all rods can do everything but I can fish football heads maxed out at 1/2oz. with this rod, I can drop shot, I can shakey head, I can skip, I can split shot, I can light carolina rig, I can use with senkos, I can neko rig, I can use braid up to 30# and I can use Flouro. down to 6#, I can throw topwater poppers, pointer 78's, and smaller crankbaits, spinnerbaits or even buzzbaits, even though I don't I would rather use a baitcaster but I could. This rod is the best all around rod for the Northwest Period. I see some guys chooseing baitcasters, It sucks for them most baitcaster to cast accurately and especially to skip docks you have to be using something over 1/4 of an oz. I will take my spinning rod, If I could only have one.

Permalink Reply by Randall J DeFreese on December 21, 2010 at 5:27am

Although I carry about 10 different rods on the boat the one I use the most is a 7' lamiglass 703. My style is usually "throw light" and work it slow. I believe this rod will be upgraded this spring to a Dobyn's though. Funny how many fishermen prefer their baitcasters to spinning gear. I guess I default to the spinning......But their again I probably fish more for smallies than largies.

Permalink Reply by D.J. LaRoche on December 21, 2010 at 6:39am

Although I would imagine a spinning rod of some sort would cover more lure options, I am going to have to go with the same rod as P.J. suggested. The Kistler MH LTX is a sweet rod. I can be used for football heads, spinnerbaits, and pitchin jigs and creature baits. One of these days, I might actually get my new one built using the Lamiglas blank, but until then, this is my favorite.

Permalink Reply by Joel Alinen on December 21, 2010 at 8:28am

My "One" changes every year. Three years ago it would have been the Daiwa Light and Tough 701-5RB, great all purpose rod. Last year it was my custom Lami XMG 704, again another great all purpose rod especially for football heads! I recently purchased the Gloomis GLX 893 and from what I hear that rod is going to be a solid stick for me this year. I'm also looking at the Dobyns 743 Extreme, that looks like a great rod!

Permalink Reply by P.J. Koshi on December 21, 2010 at 8:29am

Ron you make a great point. There is so much you cannot do with a baitcasting rod. I started out fishing 100% spinning rods now its half and half. I think that must have to do with fishing style and the experience you have being successful on more of the NW lakes. The only other rod I was considering was my BSR 803 GLX I just bought it last fall from Jordan so it hasn't really proven itself in a wider range yet, but I love that rod it seems like it will do it all!!!

WCCT, I love that LTX so much I just got another one it's the 6'9" Med Hvy with recoil guides and its one generation newer than the one I have. It's got the orange shimmer blank so it has the new reel seat too!

Permalink Reply by Tim Vreeburg on December 21, 2010 at 3:26pm

I just purchased a Dobyns 703 SF spinning rod at the 3-Rivers seminar a few weeks back looking to add to my collection to toss senkos and lizards under docks, light carolina, light jerk baits and top water, shakey and flick shake baits as well as tubes. I am anxious for Spring to give this rod a go, it looks and feels like it may do the trick.

Ronald Hobbs, Jr. said:

I think I have to go with a spinning rod on this one, how about a GLX BSR852. Not all rods can do everything but I can fish football heads maxed out at 1/2oz. with this rod, I can drop shot, I can shakey head, I can skip, I can split shot, I can light carolina rig, I can use with senkos, I can neko rig, I can use braid up to 30# and I can use Flouro. down to 6#, I can throw topwater poppers, pointer 78's, and smaller crankbaits, spinnerbaits or even buzzbaits, even though I don't I would rather use a baitcaster but I could. This rod is the best all around rod for the Northwest Period. I see some guys chooseing baitcasters, It sucks for them most baitcaster to cast accurately and especially to skip docks you have to be using something over 1/4 of an oz. I will take my spinning rod, If I could only have one.

Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on December 21, 2010 at 6:01pm

Joel the BCR 893 definetely would have been my second choice, and it would be my first choice if I was fishing all largemouth, but it seems that I am fishing for smallies more often in the NW and it seems that the majority of the time their is a spinning rod in my hand.

Joel Alinen said:

My "One" changes every year. Three years ago it would have been the Daiwa Light and Tough 701-5RB, great all purpose rod. Last year it was my custom Lami XMG 704, again another great all purpose rod especially for football heads! I recently purchased the Gloomis GLX 893 and from what I hear that rod is going to be a solid stick for me this year. I'm also looking at the Dobyns 743 Extreme, that looks like a great rod!

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on December 21, 2010 at 8:26pm

If I could only have one rod it would have to be an electrofishing rod. Works like a charm.

Actually the premise of the question is useless. The only way I see this discussion having meaningful information would be to find out which model rod is the most versatile (used for the most techniques). This would not be the same rod choice for me as the "best" rod if I only had one. For example, if I had only one rod to fish with it would likely be a spinning rod in 4 power, and without a doubt it would be a Lamiglas XS 664. I can fish this with light line for finesse applications, or use it with 30lb test braid for heavy cover. It is short so I can cast under docks and tree branches; and it can still handle long casts. However, I rarely use this rod now because I am not limited to one rod and there are better models for every technique.

The two most versatile rods that I use (and the two rods I use the most for many applications) are the Lamiglas XS663 spinning rod and the Lamiglas XC724 Senko Special bait caster. I often recommend these two models for anglers in Washington that want rods with multiple uses.

Permalink Reply by Jordan Doucet on December 21, 2010 at 8:53pm

G-Loomis BCR893GLX baitcaster with an Abu Garcia Revo Premier reel. The BSR852GLX as a close second like Ron said though. My reasoning is that I would rather have something a little too heavy than have a rod that's too light. I throw alot of different style baits on this rod which is probably why i have three of them! 5-6" Senkos, texas rigged tubes/brush hogs/8" grubs, lighter jigs 1/4-3/8oz, hollow body swimbaits, KGM TW Swimmers, 1/2-1oz football heads, mid to heavy carolina rigs, and even spinnerbaits and buzzbaits at times.

Worst case scenario if I had to dropshot with this rod I could probably throw some 8lb flouro on it with a 3/8oz weight and get by, although I would really need to baby it. You can actually skip a 6" senko pretty well with this rod too with some practice. On the other end of the spectrum, I could probably put some 30lb braid on this rod and throw a frog with it too since it does have some decent power, not ideal but it would be better then the spinning rod.

Permalink Reply by P.J. Koshi on December 21, 2010 at 8:53pm

Marc is probably right... There is not really going to be much valuable information coming out of this thread, just was curious what kind of rod you guys find in your hands the most? No matter how many rods I buy I seemed to have some form of a Med Hvy baitcaster in my hand on a regular basis. To be honest I didn't want to get answers revealing what you guys think is the most versatile rod. I wanted to be able to judge what style of fishing is most popular in WA and what you guys enjoy doing the most with consistent success. For me it's probably clear by my rod choice I like to fish for Largemouth with plastics, jigs, and blades! I enjoy fishing light line for Smallies on a light rod for the fight, but I spend as much time as possible in eastern WA chasing the green where nobody can find me! Thats my style :)

Permalink Reply by rzone on December 21, 2010 at 9:43pm