Well my favorite panfish rods are prob not gonna be available any more since they were made by gander mt. But they are 8 ft ml action. They work great for just about everything. I can cast pretty much any bait a mile. Light enough to fish all day but tough enough to land the big ass carp or cats I always seem to hook into crappie fishing. I've caught lots of eyes and bass on them too. Only time I use a different rod is for dead lining minnows or sometimes I'll get the 10 ft rods out for fishing right in the brush. The closest rods I've found to them are made by bass pro. They have a whole line of crappie rods in all kinds of different lengths and actions. I bought the wife one last year. Hers is a little flimsy for my tastes but I found some others that were decent. Think they ranged from 30 to 60 bucks. And you can get a replacement plan on them for a few bucks. They'll replace it for I think 2 years no matter what you manage to do to them. Hint... even if you buy 2 rods only buy one replacement plan. It's good for either one. Good luck.
well bobber you sound like me , I managed to lose or break 6 rods last year, with other stuff . one yanked from the pier at lorain fishing the wall, another trolling rod with dipsey from the boat when runnin across the lake , couple broken from being high sided while anchored , in the boat, rod tips..they call me broken rod on another site for a reason I guess... but back to your query, I gave in too the ugly sticks for rods other than the trolling rods , and the ones I broke are now short perch rods now..ugly stick buddy hahahah