Kevin Van Dam Forums

I just sold my mojo bass rod tonight and tomorrow I am ordering a loomis GL2 crankbait
http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/G_Loomis_GL2_Casting_Crankbait_Rods/descpage-L2CR.html

My question is, I fish 6foot to shallower for the majority. Although I do fish and will be fishing 17+ foot of water when I go to Erie, Cayuga, Onieda and Ontario and I dont want to pick up a rod that wont be good for this deep or be fatigued while fishing a 7’ M rod…do you gys think i’ll be ok with the 7’ MH rod for fishing shallow cranks as well? my mojo was a 7’ MH but I dont know how this loomis is built, never used or seen the crankbait series.

If you don’t normally fish around wood, I would get the 7’M. The M will do fine. The little deep cranking I have done was with a quantum tour 7’ M and I never had a problem. I was throwing DT-16’s and 14’s for walleye and smallies up north. Couldnt tell you anything about a loomis though, so my post is pretty much useless.

It looks like Loomis has rated their 7MH for deeper cranks. Typically this is the rod you see being recommended for squarebills. There isnt really one rod to cover all crank types IMO. I know you’re a co-angler and have limited space availabe. I would hold off ordering until you find out a little bit more about this rod. I deep crank a lot and Ill never throw a deep diver on a 7 footer again. Its just too much bait for a shorter rod. Im sure a few guys will come on here and say they do just fine with theirs. But I bet they arent fishing it all day long and at the accelerated pace that you have in a tourney. Personally, if I fished Loomis, I would see what else they offer in a 7’2-7’6 length…...............but like I said, its going to be hard to find one rod to handle shallow, cover, and depth.

Its frustrating. I fished the mojo crank rod all day at a tourney in cayuga and fished 20 foot of water. I thought by arm was going to fall off. I need to get a rod fairly soon though. I was eyeing up the KVD tour crankin rod for the deep divers, but as you’re aware of being a co angler is a curse for this type of stuff. Who knows. I dont fish deep often, but I know when I do i’m going to hate it because of my set up. I will agree 7 foot is too small for deep divers. looks like I’m SOL with that. I’ll meet in the middle and most likely go with the 7MH and give it a whirl. as for what BBK mentioned I fish around a good amount of cover so I feel like i’m gonna need the MH.

Just pulled the trigger. I ordered the 7’ M..I didnt get the MH, Iread more of what loomis is classifing these rods one what they do. I’ll find out soon enough I guess…

I’m sure you could return it for the MH if you need to, but I really do not think you will have much problems with the 7’M. The specs make it look like its pretty stout compared to others.

well bad news, I ordered 2 GL2, a spinnerbait and a crankbait. the crankbait rod is on back order, just found this out. I wont be getting the GL2 for cranks so i’m back searching again, I looked at the KVD tours, the duckettt micro magic crank bait rod, and the TFO Gary Loomis crankbait rod. Anyone have experience with the ducketts? I have read lots of things about teh KVD tours for crankin, are they really that good? I was at walmart last night and felt the giant KVD tour crankbait rods that are like 7’ 10 and are kinda on the heavier side, but I assume the 7’ medium wouldnt be as bad…I need something super light and something that can handle better than my old mojo bass.

I’ll be trying my veritas winch today I can let ya know if I like it. Seems like a good rod and you do not have to have glass for your deep cranks, I do use a crankin stick for 1.5s and other shallow and/or square bills but have heard good things about the vertitas MH WINCH for mid/deep cranks and liked it in my hands with a revo sx.

I fish the 7’4 and 7’10 KVD rods. Have absolutely no issues with them and I tend to be a little selective when it comes to my crankbait rods. I just ordered 3 Kistler Helium composite rods just to try something a little different. Ill post up my thoughts on them after I use them on Ky Lake in a couple weeks.

AllStar - 29 March 2012 01:33 AM

well bad news, I ordered 2 GL2, a spinnerbait and a crankbait. the crankbait rod is on back order, just found this out. I wont be getting the GL2 for cranks so i’m back searching again, I looked at the KVD tours, the duckettt micro magic crank bait rod, and the TFO Gary Loomis crankbait rod. Anyone have experience with the ducketts? I have read lots of things about teh KVD tours for crankin, are they really that good? I was at walmart last night and felt the giant KVD tour crankbait rods that are like 7’ 10 and are kinda on the heavier side, but I assume the 7’ medium wouldnt be as bad…I need something super light and something that can handle better than my old mojo bass.

I love my 7’10’’ MH KVD but it’s definitely not as “premium” as many would have you believe.  It’s just a big ‘ol honkin glass stick.  They are poorly balanced and, at least at my walmart, are still the old model with the crappy guides at near full retail. 

As far as I am concerned the argument for the KVD cranking rods is a glass rod argument and not so much anything particular to the rod itself as a Quantum or KVD product.  Make sense?  They are just a traditional glass cranking rod with the only thing I have noticed being “Special” about them is the boat loads of power in the 7’10’’ MH.  You can get away with MH and xtra fast action when the rod blank is glass.  Powerful, affordable, glass and clumsy is how I would describe them.

Just to throw in my two cents worth, I was looking for some cranking rods a while back and didn’t have a lot to spend on them at the time.  So I picked up two Bass Pro Crankin Stick Trigger Rods in the 7’ 10” and paired them up with the Revo Winch.  They work awesome!  That rod with fling the heck out of a 6XD and it handles really good with a decent fish on it.  Just something you might want to look at.

If I was to spend big bucks on a cranking rod just for shallow cranks, I’d get a Phenix X-10.  I hear they are amazing.  I was going to build a high-end cranking rod out of the X-10 blank, but blank alone is $100. 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Phenix_X-Series_Composite_Crankbait_Casting_Rods/descpage-PCBC.html