Rod and Reel Gift?

by Debra
(Alabama)

My husband loves bass fishing and we live on a lake. I want to buy him a nice reel and rod for his birthday and I am getting more and more confused looking online. It has to be something nice. Could you help?

There are a lot of things to take into consideration. To make a good choice you would need more information. Right now all we have is that he likes Bass Fishing and thats a bit of critical information. So just having that I’ll throw out a couple of ideas. My first being a gift card to Bass Pro Shops for at least $200. That will get him something nice.
But if you truly want to pick something out for him here are my thoughts.

We’ll start with the rod size. A good size for bass fishing in general without knowing what kind of lures he likes to use, would be approximately 7 foot long, give or take but no less than 6 ½ foot. This size will cover many applications.

As for power and action,, again in regards to something that will cover most applications, I would go with a Medium/Heavy with Fast action. This should take care of most types of fishing whether he likes to use crankbaits, Carolina or Texas rigged soft plastics and even jigs.

That really is as basic as it gets with the rod.

Now on to the reels which is really decision time. There are a few “types” of reels and they can be dramatically different. But for the purposes of keeping it simple we’ll just narrow it down to your basic spinning reel and baitcaster.

Most people that occasionally fish use spinning reels. Most people that take fishing seriously, especially bass fishing, use baitcast reels. You really need to find out what kind he uses.

*Read more about the different bass fishing reels.

For a spinning reel setup here are a couple of nice ones I’m sure he would love in various price ranges.


Pflueger President Spinning Reel Bass Pro Shops Graphite Series Rod Spinning Combo

Bass Pro Shops Extreme Rod and Reel Spinning Combo

Shimano Stradic FJ Bass Pro Shops Bionic Blade Micro Spinning Reel and Rod Combo

For a baitcast setup you may want to decide on one of these.


Abu Garcia Revo S Baitcast Reel Bass Pro Shops Bionic Blade XPS Trigger Rod Combo

Shimano Curado I Series Reel Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris CarbonLite Micro Rod Baitcast Combo

Bass Pro Shops Bionic Plus Reel Bionic Blade Rod Baitcast Combo