Can anyone suggest a good top water rod length and action?

Thank you in advance...

Bobby

I spend to much on rods but for top water I use an old 6'6" Castaway. It allows me to twitch a lure without a longer butt banging my arm and wearing me out. It's a medium with what I would call fast tip. It gives enough ground that I don't rip small hooks out. For my money as short as you feel good with and med fast..

6',6" Med. should serve well for both TW and Med cranks.

Depends on the type of top water. From a frog (7’4” XH medium tip) to a yellow magic (7’ medium moderate tip). Cover you’re fishing makes a difference as well. You can toss a frog on a 7’ heavy fast rod if it ain’t thick’s lily pads. You’ll need a faster tip and a medium heavy on a popper near nasty cover to control a fish better.

This is harder to spec a rod for than just about any other presentation.

You really need four or five rods to cover all the top water situations.

I agree with Steve on this one.. my frog rod is my frog rod 7’ MH but it leans more to heavy. Fishing Rayburn and trying to hoist them out of cover. Spook rod I like a Med. With a moderate action. I can throw it a mile and the softer rod help keep the fish hooked. I use a 7’ spinner bait rod to throw a pop r. Seams to work great for me. I’ll drop down to a 6’6” if I’m in the trees trying to throw up in there. I can really skip a frog a lot better with the shorter rod but I use a heavy action on 50lb braid to help in not loosing fish. Most of these rods are rods I use for other things at different times but top water is not a one top does it all thing.

Rarely agree with needed a bunch of rods especially for just one application(“top water”) but in this case it really is a wide open question. What type of top water? For me a Dobyns 734 works great for most all topwaters. Buzzbaits, spooks..... but for I frog I use a 736 and for a light Yellow Majic type popper I use a 733 and for a...........

Thank you all...

^^^^^
Different strokes for different folks, I use everything from a 6'6" to a 7'4" and all sizes in between.

7’ Ikos Buzz 7 from ALX

As some have pointed out you need to be a little more specific when asking for a recommendation. If it is a small popper like a YM or other treble hooked bait a M or MH with a fast tip will be fine. You probably already have this rod in your arsenal. Unless you are a hardcore tournament angler, you can use the same rod for small squarebills, lipless rattlers, and even spinnerbaits.

It doesn't have to be complicated. The rod companies have done a good job of "convincing" us that we need a very specific rod for every bait we throw. I am very fond of G. Loomis rods. They make 45 models for bass fishing alone, many are technique specific rods. There is a dropshot rod, a Tx rig rod, a weightless worm rod, a Senko rod, a C-rig rod, etc. Seriously?!!

If you're talking about throwing a frog on 65# braid into the heavy stuff then you'll need a bigger stick.

There's that word, "Need" again.

Shhhhh!🤫 Don’t let HER know I don’t actually NEED all this tackle!

I use rods that are 6ft 8in to 7ft in length in a Medium or Medium/Heavy action for hard baits depending on the weight of the bait. Some are light like a Yellow magic and some are heavy like large wake baits so you need to choose your rod based on what you are throwing. For heavier swim baits that I fish top water I use a 7ft 4in heavy action rod.

I use a Dobyns Champion 705 for throwing top water frogs. I can walk the dog with the frog better with a 7ft rod than I can with a longer one. I use 65# braid on it. For top water frogs that have kicker legs I use a Dobyns Fury 735 which is longer because I am buzzing the frog and not walking it. I have both rods set up with a Lews 8-1 gear ratio reel.

For Buzz Baits I use a Dobyns 734 and 15# test line, and an 8-1 gear ratio reel.