Spinning rods are extremely versatile in their uses. And medium-heavy spinning rods are a great choice in many situations.Â
If you have a rod like this, you might be wondering what medium-heavy spinning rod uses are available to you?Â
This article looks at many different uses of a medium-heavy spinning rod, so you can pick which might be best for you.
Medium-heavy rods can be used in fresh and saltwater. They are great for lure fishing with crankbaits, spinners, spoons, and topwater lures. And for fishing a variety of rigs, like the paternoster, hi-lo rig, fishfinder, carolina rigs. Fish from small pompano up to large bass can be caught on medium-heavy rods.
Medium-heavy rods sit in that sweet spot between fishing in small lakes and ponds or heading out to sea so far you can no longer view the shoreline from the boat.
Struggling to compare medium vs medium-heavy rods? Click here for more info.
If you need help choosing a rod for a beginner or yourself, this guide may be helpful to you.
What Types of Fishing Can a Medium-Heavy Rod Be Used For?
The good thing about a medium-heavy casting rod is its versatility in terms of what you can go after.Â
There are several types of fishing that are a perfect fit for a medium-heavy rod.
- Bank Fishing
- Surf Fishing
- Pier Fishing
- Heavier Fish (freshwater lakes and streams)
- Shallow salt/brackish water fishing
The medium-heavy rod is about as versatile as they get and is just at home fishing in shallow, brackish water for Red Fish, salmon along a freshwater stream, or powering catfish out and away from piers.
Need to go heavier? Find out what you can use a heavy rod for here (click!)
They’re also great in the surf, where pompano are likely to strike.Â
While pompano isn’t huge, they turn their flat bodies in the surf as they fight, using surface area versus water resistance so it feels like you have a monster on the other end.
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Fish Sizes That a Medium-Heavy Rod Can Handle
A medium-heavy can handle a 30lb fish, depending on the fight in the fish and how well you know your stuff.Â
Some, who are looking for a sportier catch, will use 12lb fluorocarbon and go looking for that record Red Fish.
Medium-Heavy rods are more than capable of handling the heavyweight of steel leads on top of hooking a 10lb Sheepshead.
What Size Tackle Can the Medium-Heavy Rod Handle?
Lures for a medium-heavy spinning rod
Anything over 1/4oz and up to 1oz (in terms of lures) is well within a medium-heavy rod’s range.Â
The power of the rod is enough so that you can get pretty creative from there, including steel leads, however, these rods work better with smaller weight, as in under 1/4oz.
As far as just the lures are concerned, the medium-heavy rod allows for a wide range of fishing, with crankbaits, spoon lures, spinnerbaits, topwater lures, and jigs.
A medium-heavy power rating with a fast action is a good option because the faster action provides greater sensitivity and control when fishing with lures.Â
And the medium-heavy power rating provides the strength to battle larger, faster-swimming fish that battle hard.
Rigs for a medium-heavy spinning rod
If you are using a medium-heavy rod for bait fishing with rigs then the options are numerous. Here are some of the popular rigs I use on a medium-heavy rod.Â
- Paternoster rig
- Fishfinder rig
- Running sinker rig
- Hi-lo rig
- Carolina rig
There are even more options than this but these are the go-to options for many professional and semi-professional anglers out there.Â
Reels for a medium-heavy spinning rod
When choosing a reel for a medium-heavy rod, you’ll want to go for something in the range of a 3000-6000, matched with a 6-8ft rod.Â
What fishing reel you choose for a medium-heavy rod depends on the weight but also the length of your fishing rod.Â
With a medium-heavy rod, if you choose a fast action for lure fishing, then a little extra length provides more leverage and responsiveness to move the lure around, and importantly and a fast action for helping to set hooks more firmly.Â
The longer the rod, the more line you can pull with the arc movement of the rod tip.Â
This is also handy when bait fishing because you can use the length of the rod to move the line and hook quickly to set the hook.Â
Rod Power Versus the Weight of the Lure
If you choose to go with a medium-heavy rod, it means that you will be able to cast heavier lures with it, typically in the 1/4oz to 1oz range.Â
To find out the precise lure weight that your rod can handle, you will usually find it written somewhere on the rod itself.
You can also use heavier weights on them, depending on your setup, however, as we mentioned above, lighter weights just work better on medium-heavy rods, especially if you are using a heavier lure.
Anywhere between 12 and 20lb line strength is also in the ballpark for what you want on your setup.Â
You put all of this together, and the rod power is more than a match for what you have in your tackle box.Â
Casting with a Medium-Heavy Rod
Medium-heavier rods have a higher level of resistance on the backward motion than other, smaller and lighter rods do.Â
Casting power is directly affected by the type of rod you are using. And, to be honest, you may not necessarily care all that much for casting distance and power.
If that’s the case, then a medium-heavy rod still retains a lot of uses, especially in scenarios like surf fishing, where you want the pull and push of the surf and the undercurrent to affect the rod less.
When it comes to surf fishing, casting power is enormously beneficial, as certain schools travel back and forth, well out from the shoreline but inside the sand bar.Â
Along the Gulf of Mexico, especially in Florida, Pompano is one of the best fish to go after along the shoreline.
If you need help with finding a beginner fishing rod, this guide may be super handy to you.
Medium-Heavy Spinning Rod Uses. Summary.
The medium-heavy spinning rod has a lot more uses than you would think for its size and encumbrance and you will find that it is far more useful in saltwater fishing applications than it is in freshwater, though there are uses for it there as well.
Why not also check out our article looking at the differences between medium and medium-heavy rods?
