Quote Originally Posted by bigwormy View Post
I will add, for me anyways, when I'm fishing shallow cranks on flats, the flimsiest rod I have is the best for keeping fish hooked. I bought it about 6 years ago for 20 bucks for my wife. I've watched her reel countless fish almost to the tip of this pole and they stay hooked ove and over. So I started using it on my two favorite flats on the Ohio river and it's made a huge difference in keeping them hooked. Obviously, it's only for open water, but if that's what I'm fishing, that's the rod I use.
Yes that is true and the flimsy rod should give you more casting distance as well. Personally, I prefer a 7'M rod and I use the heaviest mono I can get away with so I can set those hooks as deep as possible. The stiffer/longer rod helps me keep them out of cover and land them quickly and the mono gives me a little line stretch so I can keep constant pressure on the fish. I do not give them a chance to jump or head shake the hooks out if at all possible. Either way you choose to fish cranks you're still gonna lose fish. But, day in and day out over the course of a full year, you'll also have more bites with cranks than anything else. Excluding live bait of course.