Should a swimbait rod be my next purchase?

[spiderguy4978]

With the up coming 4th of July sales I'm hoping to get another casting rod. Current rods are a 13 fishing 7'3"medium Black Omen and a Phenix original Recon 764 . I'm stuck to the shore so I like to try to make the rods I am carrying be able to handle multiple techniques. I feel my current two rods handle the spinner/buzz baits, lipless cranks, small jigs, and limited soft plastics I use pretty well. Over the past year/year and half I've started throwing things along the lines of Keitech swing impacts and Gitzits with pretty good luck. So that got me thinking about maybe trying swimbaits out, but before I go down that rabbit hole I figured I should ask the fine folks here at TT what they would suggest. I guess what I'm trying to ask is do I take the plunge and try out swimbaits or would I be better off getting a different action/style of rod for other techniques? The lake I fish and the shorelines I have access to are all pretty shallow,under 10 foot deep, and covered in pockets of weeds. Most of it is soft bottom, but some is rocky. There isn't any real structure just differences in bottom contour/composition and weed edges. The main diet is gizzard shad and misc sunfish. Some of the gizzard shad get huge, I've accidentally snagged 12"+ shad on lipless cranks. The rods I am currently looking at are the Phenix M1 8' heavy or maybe the Dobyns Champion SB795.

Thank you for any input.

Edited to make more sense.Which it probably makes less now...

[beezy]

With the up coming 4th of July sales I'm hoping to get another casting rod. Current rods are a 13 fishing 7'3"medium Black Omen and a Phenix original Recon 764 . I'm stuck to the shore so I like to try to make the rods I am carrying be able to handle multiple techniques. I feel my current two rods handle the spinner/buzz baits, lipless cranks, small jigs, and limited soft plastics I use pretty well. Over the past year/year and half I've started throwing things along the lines of Keitech swing impacts and Gitzits with pretty good luck. So that got me thinking about maybe trying swimbaits out, but before I go down that rabbit hole I figured I should ask the fine folks here at TT what they would suggest. I guess what I'm trying to ask is do I take the plunge and try out swimbaits or would I be better off getting a different action/style of rod for other techniques? The lake I fish and the shorelines I have access to are all pretty shallow,under 10 foot deep, and covered in pockets of weeds. Most of it is soft bottom, but some is rocky. There isn't any real structure just differences in bottom contour/composition and weed edges. The main diet is gizzard shad and misc sunfish. Some of the gizzard shad get huge, I've accidentally snagged 12"+ shad on lipless cranks. The rods I am currently looking at are the Phenix M1 8' heavy or maybe the Dobyns Champion SB795.

Thank you for any input.

Edited to make more sense.Which it probably makes less now...

How big of a bait are you planning to throw? If you're looking to throw hollow belly swimbaits like the Basstrix paddletails and such, then the two rods you currently use can more than handle the job. Being a shore fisherman myself, it's pretty difficult to decide what rods to bring while still being able to cover a wide variety of baits and techniques. Before you buy a swimbait rod, I would just use that Recon 764 rod to throw baits up to 2oz. Here's what swimbaits I would recommend for you due to experience throwing them on non-swimbait rods:
- Huddleston 6" swimbait (your choice which bait you want but the hudd 68 is an excellent swimbait that throws a lot of water due to it having the 8" tail)
- Savage gear 3D line thru swimbait and the smaller 3D trout
- River2Sea s-waver 168 (an excellent swimbait for new guys getting into swimbaits)
- spro bbz 6" swimbait

These are just some suggestions for you to get started on swimbaits. There are so many swimbaits out there that it makes it hard to decide what to buy. The options I give you allow you to cover the entire water column very effectively. All of them can be thrown on your Phenix Recon 764. I hope this helps.

[spiderguy4978]

Thank you for the bait selection, but I honestly don't think the 764 will handle baits over an ounce. I currently have a Matt Lures bluegill and it feels like it's over loading the rod.I don't throw it for that reason and it swims on it's side not matter the retrieve speed.

[beezy]

Thank you for the bait selection, but I honestly don't think the 764 will handle baits over an ounce. I currently have a Matt Lures bluegill and it feels like it's over loading the rod.I don't throw it for that reason and it swims on it's side not matter the retrieve speed.

I don't currently own a Phenix Recon so I can't speak for its action. The closest rod I have in rating to your 764 is the older generation shimano cumara 7'11 medium-heavy extra fast action crankbait rod that was rated for 3/8oz to 1oz. I have thrown all of the baits I mentioned to you with the exception of the savage gear 3D trout and the cumara handled them fine. It does feel overpowered sometimes where you feel the tip is overloading, but my rod is still going strong. With that being said, I know the Recon series has more of a moderate action (even though it is rated as fast) which suggests that it will feel overpowered.

If you really want to get into swimbait fishing and don't want another setup then look into baits that weigh less than 1oz. There are a ton of soft plastic swimbaits (Osprey and Rago come to mind) that fit the bill. I know you're limited to shore fishing so that's why I'm suggesting baits to help you limit the number of rods you carry. However, you can always carry a dedicated swimbait rod to handle a wide variety of swimbaits which would be my recommendation. When I shore fish, and if I want to throw swimbaits, I usually carry three rods:
- finesse baitcast rod with daiwa pixzilla to handle dropshots and all lightweight duties
- medium/medium heavy rod to handle topwaters, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, etc. (I usually bring my GLoomis GLX 843MBR)
- one of two swimbait rods (Dobyns 795 if I want to throw the lighter weight stuff like the baits I mentioned earlier OR a Dobyns 807 mag swimbait rod to throw the big baits like my Deps Slideswimmer, 10" triple trouts, etc)

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any further questions.

[spiderguy4978]

Thank you for your help, I think I might try to pick up a dedicated swimbait rod depending on the 4th sales. At the very least I'll be picking up a couple of the baits you mentioned to attempt on my Recon. Here's hoping some place has a crazy 4th of July sale. If no place does I'll wait and see what Icast has in store and who knows I might end up heading in a completely different direct till next year.

[slideaction]

As mentioned, it really depends on weight of baits. However in this case the lightest you want to cast on a swimbait rod. My ccurrent setups are dobyns 766 with zillion (have not tried reel but have used a curado 201e with abec7 bocas) this is my 2.5 oz and under rod (the sweet spot is from 1oz-2oz but can cast a 2.5 deps 175sk quite well). Next is a dobyns 908 with Calcutta401 te, this have been my ffavorite and workhorse so far, i can cast everything from a 5in bullshad to a deps 250. Itll bomb a 6in bullshad and punkers and this is on 25lb cxx. I do have a set of abec 7 stainless steels that i bought from dadsoletackle, but thats all you need. Move to ceramics and it may be cast off galore. My last setup is a dobyns 807 and curado 301e, i have just got the rod and from how the 908 handles im pretty sure it'd be similar. I DO WANT TO ADD, i am not a pro staffer for dobyns however i started to use their rods because of their warranty but kept with them because of how i like the rod performs and their customer service is top notch.

I also am a shore fisherman so i feel you on needing to make those further cast sometimes esp when the fish are boiling up top. Something ive kept in mind with that is the longer the rod the further you cast.

Hope that helps