For a good "all around" rod I would go with either a Bass Pro Micro Lite Graphite rod 6' Light Fast action or the St Croix Panfish Series 6' UL fast action. Both are 1 piece construction and are Taylor made for jigging and other "feel" presentations. The BPS rod is a great rod for the money ($50 or less when they are on sale). The St croix rod is built with better components and really seems to have been built by panfisherman for panfisherman.

I tend to fish a longer rod than most on this board. I use to fish a 4'6" Ugly Stik Lite and really liked it, but found that when I was missing more and more fish. I was still getting bites but was missing them on the hookset. If I was making longer casts, especially casts helped by a tailwind, I found myself missing more fish. So, I went back to basics and figured a longer rod was going to get me greater leverage for hooksets. Especially on bites further away. That's indeed what happened. What I found out is with a little practice, the 6' rod can do everything the shorter rods can do and more. Even on creek banks with the thickest brush the 6' rod is plenty compact enough to get the job done. What the 6' rod does that the shorter rods don't do is offer more techniques (pitching more than a 4' radius comes to mind) and also offers more angles to fish and better control for your presentation. It's not AS critical when fishing with bait, but even with bait, I'll take every advantage I can get when fishing for these tricky guys. Another factor for my favoring the longer rods is I'm often fishing clearer waters so longer casts and pitches are a must. Hope this helps.

Howdy y'all, I would like to get more serious about sunfish fishing and would like to hear your opinions on the subject. I'm not afraid to spend some money on good gear so price isn't too much of a factor within reason. I mostly jig or drop shot for sunfish if that makes a difference. Thanks y'all, Cole.