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What is a good fishing rod for fishing just about most fresh water fish?

I live in NJ an love too fish. I just bought a shimano ultra light fishing pole an next week i will buy a reel too complement the pole. I am curious to know if a made the right chose in poles. And y do they call it a spinning rod? P.S. I bought it because i perfer a light pole over a Rhyno medium pole i used too use.

Public Comments

1. To answer your first question, a Shakespeare Ugly Stik rod will handle anything you can possibly throw at it. Available in many different weights/lengths, it is one of the strongest, least expensive rods on the market. It is called a spinning rod because it goes with a spinning, or open-faced reel. The spool and bail spin, taking up line.
2. Ultra light is ok for smaller fish, allows you to feel more and it bends easily so that you can't put a lot of pressure on fish. All around, and budget in mind, I would get an Ugly Stick spinning rod and a good reel. A 6 foot, medium action rod and reel spooled with 8 to 10 lb test monofilliment. That would be a good start-up outfit for most freshwater fishing. It's called a spinning rod because it matches up with a spinning reel, reel hangs under the rod as you use it and spins as it pulls in the line.
3. That ultra-light's a fine rod if you're just catching bluegills and crappie, but for anything over a pound or two you'll need something different. I would have recommended a 6' Medium/Light rod with a decent spinning reel for all-around fishing, not too stiff for bluegills but not too light for bass. They call it a spinning rod because it pairs up with a spinning reel. And a spinning reel lays line evenly on the spool by "spinning" hence the tern "spinning reel".
4. 7ft Medium Spinning like this one right here: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_10205073_100003000_100000000_100003000_100-3-0 Dont worry about having made the wrong choice because you can always use a range of different rods to approach different situations (...I have about 30 different setups for different conditions and species)
5. baitcasters but they are hard to get used to. spinning reels and closed reel rods all work good for freshwater fishing