hey guys this is gene jensen and this video is for you beginners and i'm going to talk about how to choose the right fishing rod [Applause] now first of all i want to be sure i thank uh sportsman's warehouse for allowing me to come into their store and pretty much take over for a few hours um i've slipped into the back of the stores a little bit quieter the radio's not going and i just want to sit down and talk to you guys about choosing a beginning fishing rod now in the previous video we talked about spinning reels and i really really really suggest learning how to fish a spinning reel over one of those push buttons so with that let's talk about picking a rod that will go with the tackle that we chose and with the spinning reel that we chose now there's tons and tons of different choices i mean look down this aisle i mean these are just what's in the back of the store but rods can be pretty confusing as well and there's different lengths and there's different powers and they're different actions and things like that but what i would suggest to start with is get yourself like i said a two like i said on the last video a 2000 or a 3000 size spinning reel and match it up with a medium heavy rod this right here is a seven foot medium heavy spinning rod you know it's a spinning rod because it's got these big big um guides on our big rod eyes and the reel goes down below the below the rod a bait caster and a push button that goes above the rod but it's got this big first eye right here it's a spinning rod that's what you're going to choose that's what you're going to pick up but make it a medium heavy mainly because you've got that that texas rig and you've got that little jig head and things like that to fish with you can go with a medium but they tend to be a little bit too flimsy and uh when you set the hook it's hard to get that hook uh into the fish's mouth and be able to get them in in the boat and you can throw those small spinner baits on a medium heavy spinning rod medium heavy back bait casters tend to be a little bit stiffer than this but we're not talking about bait casters we're talking about a spinning rod all right so the first thing you do when you pick it up is you want to see how stiff it is and what what i do is i take it and i put the rod tip down on the ground just like this and i push down and i want to have a nice bend i want to have a nice bend but i want it to be quite a bit of resistance i want i want to be able to uh to push down to about right there and then it gets so much resistance that you feel like you're going to break the rod you're not going to but that's what you feel like and uh and that's kind of what i'm looking for for this setup now you can build upon this as you get more and more confidence in those type of baits the next rod that i would pick would be a medium action spinning rod and then go into trying a baitcaster that's a whole different world a lot of people say oh baitcaster stinks you get birdness and stuff like that i've got great videos on how to cast baitcasters i've got great videos on how to cast spinning rods but uh that's where how i would start all right so when you when you're looking at a fishing rod you see these numbers right there let's see if i can get it focused on the rod and not my face there we go now a lot of those numbers that's like a model number and then you got action which is a medium heavy and and it tells you what pound test to use or what pound line to use and things like that stay within those parameters 10 to 17 is what this one says stay within those parameters uh the the lure weight um you can go up to a half ounce with this rod with no problem maybe a little bit heavier and you'd be just fine but uh but don't don't worry so much about that it's not one it's not a break a make and break deal it's uh it just kind of gives you an idea of what the rod is rated for i wouldn't put big heavy monofilament on but i would you know try to stay between 10 and 17. and really what i suggest for fishing line for a medium heavy is something around 12 pound test monofilament like well let me go get some real quick like some trilene xl this i like this because you can find it in any store it's uh it's simple it's not expensive um you know you can get into that fluorocarbon and into that braid and things like that but do that later on do that further down the road as you get more and more experienced trial and excel is a good one to start with i have a lot of confidence in the green color you can use the clear as well but uh that's the kind of line that i would pick to put on my spinning reel i got a really good video on how to put line on a spinning reel i'll link to that right up here but that's how i would start so start out with a medium heavy spinning rod a size 3000 spinning reel put line on it go fishing and have a ball if you like this video be sure to subscribe check out the rest of my beginner videos if that's what you're interested in or i've got four or five hundred other videos that you guys can go watch like i always say be sure to introduce somebody to fishing introduce them to my channel let me help you teach them how to fish more importantly get out on the water go and get some fish and have a great day we'll see you