I have a request to build a rod capable of throwing large musky bucktail spinners all day with as little wear and tear on the caster as possible. (I plan to include a bottle of aspirin and an arm sling with the finished rod.) Any suggestions as to a blank and/or design ? Is spiral guide wrap a viable or recommended option for this application ?

Thanks in advance for sharing, and tight lines to all,

Don Eurillo
deurillo2@stny.rr.com

Can't think of a better way to help you fight a Musky than by employing the Bumper Wrap configuration. I'm convinced it makes any conventional rod more stable. Reports posted on the Forum indicate no loss in casting performance compared to the standard guide on top set-up.

It's easy to bucktail all day. Throwing 5 ounce jerkbaits all day is tough!

St. Croix's 3M76MHF is probably one of the best bucktail blanks I've gotten to throw. This is a great rod and can handle a wide variety of baits but truely excels with bucktails. My best friend is a Muskie guide and manufactures bucktails so we are always looking for the ideal bucktail rod. So far, the 3M76MHF is it. I spiral ALL my casting rods. And I would say its even MORE effective when you do it on rods for bigger fish.



Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

St. Croix SCII bucktail blank. You can pretty much pick the length you want or add on a butt extension to get the desired length you want.
My cusomters like the rod length to be such that when they are doing a figure 8 with the bucktail while standing up in the boat, the don't have to bend over at the waist each time. You might want to consider this when picking a length. Really saves on the sore back at the end of the day.

A big YES on the spiral wrap. Every, and I mean every person that I have built a spiral wrap musky rod for, .loves the spiral wrap. The hard part of the spiral wrap is convincing the angler that they will like it before the rod is built. Once they fish it, they will love it.

Have fun,

Buzz

A list Rich Garbowski sent me also lists the Rainshadow IMU 876, St Croix 2M72MHF, 76 MHF, and 80 MHF for bucktails.