OT: Freshwater Fishing

[S13<3]

I know there has to be other people on here that bass fish and do general freshwater fishing, and am wondering what setups you guys fish with, specifically rods, mine broke a couple weeks ago and am looking for a new rod.
Had an ugly stik lite in 6'6" Medium 2pcs. That lasted 2yrs then the cork started falling apart and 2 guides fell out.
Swapped that for a Berkley lighting rod 7' Medium 1pcs, cause i wanted to try graphite. lasted about 2months. last time i went fishing the rod broke on the second cast right after the second guide(closest to the tip) and im super uber carefull with my gear so no idea why it broke
Im pretty happy with the graphite compared to the fiberglass ugly stick, durability is obviously an issue, but sensitivity is far far better.
Been fishing with a Plueger President spinning reel, got that together with the ugly stik, its been nothing but great to me.

so now im looking for another graphite rod, price range $120 or less. i keep landing on the bass pro xps extreme 7' 1pc MH Fast action.
What do you guys fish with?

 

[jimbo78]

My main freshwater rod is a south bend intruder. It was a pretty cheap rod bit I've had it for almost 10 years and it's still going strong. I also have a bass pro rod that I've had for at least that long that I've used for both fresh and salt. Its been through tons of abuse over the years hard core abuse and is still holding up well. The coating on the blank is starting to wear of but considering what it's been through I think it has been great.

 

[mpfeiffer1]

Down here in S. Florida you need to cast long with soft-plastics (flukes, slugos, lizards, etc) to be successful. Longer medium/heavy graphite poles work best with good reels. Do not go cheap on either as they should last forever. I know this sounds crazy but go to your local pawn-shop. What people are doing down here is buying the most expensive rods on their credit-cards and then they pawn them for cash. I have gotten several new rods for dirt-cheap. I know crazy... GL...