goldrod wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 9:14 pm
bwjay wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 9:08 pm
If you thought it was too soft, I doubt the 7'2H Expride would be stiff enough for you. Just get the 7'3XH... it comes highly recommended for frogging from the homies at TBassin.
I got mine over BF and yes, it is a fairly stiff rod, but it is impressively balanced with a Bantam. It is my longest rod AND my most well-balanced which is crazy to me. I am looking forward to frogging and flipping with it this summer.Nothing against TB, but as we say in my world "consider the source".
Sometimes they skew the lines on products especially when they are sponsored by them. Sometimes not all
but a couple of guys on here have had to reiterate to me the same thing on a few things I've nearly pulled the trigger on.
That being said, the expride jerk bait rod isn't as good as they make it out to be.
They are definitely heavy on Shimano and Loomis products, no doubt about that. I take their words with a grain of salt, but often they are backed up by a lot of other people online. That being said, I've only read a few negative reviews of the 6'10M Expride as a jerkbait rod, and here on TT, it's always you! I even sent you a PM about it where you didn't actually highlight any real fault of it, just said you ended up with something you liked more.
As for the Expride 73XH, I may find that it is too stiff and that maybe TB is a little off the mark with this one, but we have some real slop here in MN and I don't like home run hooksets (bank fishing = hit stuff, kayak fishing while standing = possibly fall out of the yak lol), so a stiff rod seems like it would be ideal for me. Plus, it is seriously well balanced. I considered a Dobyns DX746C but people don't have many good things to say other than Dobyns rods are generally well balanced, and it was significantly more expensive than the Expride as well. Balance and lightness was a big factor in my purchasing decision and it was basically down to these 2 rods. I'm hoping to find that TB was right on the money with this one.
Long story short, I do agree, consider the source. You got two big time Shimano lovers saying a Shimano rod is awesome... of course they'd say that. BUT, there are others who back up their opinions based on their own experience for a lot of the advice they give, so they seem like a decent but obviously biased source.
Since I failed to explain I will now.
I was not a jerk bait guy and like many techniques I've learned over the years I happened to watch the 2013 Bassmaster Classic at Grand lake. That day I learned that a jerk bait ruled the cold water and after watching it over and over again it became clear to me that I needed to learn this technique if I was ever going to be competitive. Back then I had aspirations of fishing a pro circuit but every time I thought I would get up the nerve I would get deployed. Needless to say I lost my desire to fish competitively but not fish. Anyway I learned that there were two distinct jerk bait techniques, one was cold water jerkbaits that you really aren't jerking but in my opinion its more of a twitch or slight rip and pause. The other was warm weather similar to a plastic fluke and so I had to gear up accordingly. I found that the jackall squad minnow was one such twitch bait and that I needed to go down in line size. That information helped me drastically and I began to get bit, so I purchased my first every vision 110. I wanted a MB rod to go along with it but after talking with Gary at TT.com he told me to go down to even lighter line size with the V-110.
I had tried various rods but some were hit or miss yet nothing was perfect and so I asked for a custom rod and while deployed I had on made. Its 7'0" and you probably heard the specifics on this rod but one thing I made clear was I would be throwing every type of jb imaginable to include the Dou Realis 110 and 120, and the Eeratic as well as the Rapala HJ10.
NOW to the present
I was very happy with the custom rod but as time would go by I ran into a video about a rod. This rod was the Expride 6'10" med and how it was just the rod. After much time with the rod I did not like the rod, TO me the rod was too stiff. Before then I had used other rods besides my custom rod. Allow me to pause one minute and talk about custom. There was a time when I didnt know what I like or what my preference was for any given technique. Than I was asked and and spent countless hours on the water with one bait, Lucky Craft Pointer 100. It became extremely clear to me that I prefer to fish that lure on a glass rod and at the time ( the rod was a Quarrow Green Country rod ML1 7'0" med up to 1 1/4). I absolutely loved that rod and gave it to my son to learn how to cb fish with.
In selecting a custom rod I had to KNOW what it was I liked in a rod and how I preferred to use the rod. In the months of corresponding with the rod maker I learned as much about my style of fishing as I did about rods themselves.
JB can be trick because some like the V110 have hooks that can be easily bent out by the fish and the lure doesn't take much rod to impart movement unlike the LC Pointer 100. So in the present day I got this Expride rod and for me the pros were:
Light
Short
Paired Extremely well with my Daiwa SV Light LTD
Plenty of Backbone
The Cons IMHO are:
Too fast of an action or too much backbone ( can be over come with lessening the drag of the reel )
Its more of a Jerk than twitch rod IMHO
These are my observation with the rod and you might ask why by another rod for a technique when you have a custom rod to cover it and My answer would be because I wanted to find out what the rod was like. To give an example I have a custom flipping stick and I never fail to catch a fish with it. Just today I got a pan fish but I also have a Valkyrie flippin stick, GLX 895 I think, Dobyns 805, Zombie 7'10", cork Crucial 7'6", two X7 7'1" and of them all I perfer the custom and second to that the Zombie rod..
So I am not saying that I have all the answers but I can say from experience what I have found to work for me. I take no pleasure in buying a rod just to sell it. I just sold a few rods and it was $40 just to ship with insurance and three day arrival. So I loose money shipping rods because of shipping. I dont agree with every joe that says this particular rod is a good rod but depending on technique I may pay a little more attention to a technique specific rod than most. Another example is Most people like the Daiwa Steez A or TWS and thats cool, I've never used one and honestly never used any TWS reel. But I did buy an Antares A and that was partially because I had a guest TT'er with me who allowed me to fiddle with the reel a bit. I knew after some time I needed to add one to my reel collection. While I find that the reel is highly refined it is a fatty and has some heft to it but it doesnt really bother me. So while the review or "internet influencers" my promote the reel or not I can say from my personal experience that its a great reel for me.
I know i've touched on alot of things but namely the Expride 6'10"
Some people may love it and some may not, I was on the fence of selling it when I got the SV Light Ltd and I can say that I've found other things that I can do with the set up as the reel compliments the rod most assuredly.
Bwjay, I hope I've been more specific in what I like and dont like about the rod.
In closing I will say I feel the same about the Conquest, and some megabass rods. I used to be on those trains but as of late I have learned that what's good for the masses doesnt make it good just makes it popular.
