On 2011-03-06 16:13:22 -0500, Joel Washburn said:

Hello,

I'm new. I've been fishing for a 6 months now. I live in Mississippi
where I am able to fish year round. I have a 12' aluminum boat and I
fish for crappie/bluegill with a 5wt TFO pro rod. I'm loving it!

I'm interested in fishing for large mouth mouth bass in the local
lakes. With that in mind, I've been surfing for information on 7 or 8
wt rods in the $150 - $200 range. I love the TFO, and could always go
that route, but was hoping to try something new. The rods I'm looking
at are listed below, if you have any experience, please let me know
your impressions. Or, if you have another recommendation, please let
me know.

Echo Ion
Orvis Clearwater
Cabela's LSi
St Croix Imperial

Any advise is welcome and appreciated

- Joel

Any of those you have listed should do the job quite well. I would buy
the one with the best warranty, but it should also have the fastest
action. Fishing for bass means you will probably be chucking some
big/heavy flies and in my experience, a fast (as apposed to a slow or
noodle rod) rod is a better choice.

Dave