Rod for popping, rod for Stickbait

[Sacco Gerard]

[Trevor Skinner]

Sacco,

I wouldn't want your death on my conscience.

For the last few years I've fished with rods that are all rounders that handle both stick baits and poppers and that's worked fine but there is always a compromise. Large poppers are always problematic for the 'all rounder' class of rod. They handle smaller and medium poppers fine but when you want to bring the big boys out nothing beats a rod that's designed for it.

My two 'all rounders' are:

1. Carpenter Monster Hunter 80H
2. Carpenter Endless Passion 85/36

I've been looking to add a rod for big poppers like the Hammerhead G cup and I think I may have recently found what I'm after.

My 'all rounders' are mainly used for stickbaits in any case, although the MH 80H handles medium poppers fine and even, for short spells, the big boys. However, it's just not optimal.

The choices are personal. I'm sure others will have a totally different approach depending on where they fish and the fish they target.


Regards,


Trev

[Dan Hanon]

Sacco,

I'm brand new to GT fishing, but I love it!  I have a Ripple Fisher GT 79R which is considered an "all-rounder" and very forgiving when fighting fish.  I consider it more of a medium size popper rod, and it works 150gm Cubera poppers well.

I just bought a Ripple Fisher Ultimo 79H for medium to big stickbaits.

Eventually I'll buy another rod for large poppers, but I'm waiting for some new models.

[Sacco Gerard]

Trev and Dan thanks for your answer 
Personally from my rods, I have 2 favorites, TRSH and CORAL VIPER with whom I fish much more with popper than stickbait and given my young shoulders(72.5  ) my poppers do not exceed 160g without the treble with the TRSH and a little  lighter with the C.V.

[Brandon Khoo]

For surface stickbaits like gamma, I definitely use a stickbait rod. For sub-suface stickbait like Bigfoot, I use any rod.
For popper, I will use either specialised popper rod or these days, more likely to go with multi-purpose rod as they are more forgiving. You can always find a way to pop a popper, even with a rod that is saturating excessively by simple extending the length of the pull.

[Sacco Gerard]

Thanks Brandon and  for surface Stickbaits  what kind of rod for example Carpenter XX ? Ripple XX ? or others ?
Gerard

[Simon Bomholt]

Hi Sacco
I use carpenter MH 80 for popping and Carpenter TBL 80/40 for stickbait. Both rods are great rods and are pretty forgiving.
The tbl handles poppers well, up to 160-170 g + hooks ect and tbl sticks up to 200 g. The TBL is pretty soft in the tip, and only for sticks, but brilliant for them

[Brandon Khoo]

I think Simon meant that the MH80 handles poppers well.

For stickbaits, I use TBL80/43 usually as I tend to use 160g and upward sized gammas on PE10. I love the 80/43 as it is very strong in the butt and has huge reserves of lifting power. For PE8, I use TBL711/35.

Ripple's range of stickbait rods, the Ultimos are also excellent rods although the heaviest model, the 79H os more akin in power to the TBL80/40.

For popper rod, I tend to use Monster Hunter range these days although I have been using a prototype for my past few trips I have fallen in love with

[Simon Bomholt]

yes brandon.. mistype