I am just a hobby builder. I have built a few rods mostly for my brothers, relatives and a few friends. A neighbor has seen one of the rods I built for a friend and has asked me to build a nice crappie rod to be used as a special gift to a person retiring.
I know there may be a million different opinions but I am willing to consider them all. What is a good blank to use for a crappie rod? What length, action, brand, model etc. have you found to work well?
The rods I have built in the past have been walleye rods made from Gloomis IMX and Ct Croix SCV blanks so my experience with a good crappie rig is non-existent.

I'm no crappie rod expert but I have a lot of guys come to me and ask to have fly rods converted so they can use spinning reels on them. They are serious crappie fishermen and seem to prefer the action and feel of fly rods, but want to use them with light spin reels and small jigs. So maybe a 8 to 9 foot fly rod blank rated for about a 6 weight line. That seems to be what shows up on my request list pretty often.

I have built some great crappie rods on SCII 4wt fly blanks. They are 7'-6", perfect for boaters. I have one for myself. The action and power is great for casting and landing your average size crappie. I build them using the New Concept Guide System. They'll cast a 1/32oz jig a long distance. The cost of these blanks are very reasonable. I do not know what you look for in a crappie rod, but, this is a good option.

Bill Doherty

I'm really wanting to try this fly rod thing myself. But if you're not up to it, try Loomis' S841. Or the 842 which is Doug Stange's goto Panfish rod. Also, the 00 rated blanks in the Spin Jig series will make good Crappie rods. I have a 7500 that I really love.

Ed,
Also, the light line rated Rainshadow steelhead blanks are a good choice for a custom crappie rod. In 9' the IST1081F would be a good choice. For the shorter rod, I would suggest SCII or SCIII St. Croix, something like 2S66LF2. In the longer lengths are the SCIII series in med. light (4 to 10 lb.) 7', 7'6". Any of these are a good start in considering some blanks ideal for crappie. The fly blanks mentioned above in the SCIV are ideal, and for the budget minded you wouldn't be disappointed with the SCII series either.

Rich
Richard's Rod & Reel.

An UL rod works well in fact I built a nice UL for my mom and it is great. It is an second of a St. Croix. I am now builting one for my sell. It is just a thought. that worked for me. Lance

I'm looking to build a crappie rod on a MHX S781 or MHX S782.
Anyone have any other suggestion or comments?

Might be better to start a new post instead of bringing up a 20 year old one for the best info.

Spencer Phipps Wrote:
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> Might be better to start a new post instead of
> bringing up a 20 year old one for the best info.

Uh...nah. Where's the logic in that?

The Phenix Elixir in the following configuration seems about right.

B-FX-S 801-1X 8? 1-6 lb 1/32-1/4 oz Telescopic Moderate Fast 4 0.441 1.23 oz

Kendall Cikanek Wrote:
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> The Phenix Elixir in the following configuration
> seems about right.
>
> B-FX-S 801-1X 8? 1-6 lb 1/32-1/4
> oz Telescopic Moderate Fast 4 0.441 1.23 oz


Thanks for that Kendall. I probably should have given some more specifics.
I'm looking to build something in the 6' 6" range (spinning) that can cast and shoot.
The longer rods are more down the road for now.
I would love to get some input on: Blanks, guides and handle assemblies (length and type).
This is really more of a technical exercise than a "what a good rod" post.

I built a rod for gills and crappies on the NFC P700 X-Ray blank it's a tad longer than you want but makes a dynamite rod. I think you could trim 6" off the butt if you wanted.

Might look at one of the 6'10" drop shot blanks. I use my drop shot rod built on an NFC DS6107 IM blank when I fish for perch in the fall. I catch more crappie while fishing for perch than I do perch. lol It's does a really nice job. Not sure how well it would shoot a bait, but it will cast a Bobby Garland Baby Shad on a 1/16 oz jig head quite nicely. I use a cheap 2500 Shimano Sienna reel with 4# Suffix Elite.

Thanks for that David...

Has anyone ever installed (what I would call) "the long" forgrip.
I've seen some rods that have what looks like about a six to eight inch foregrip.
What is striking (pun) about it is that the bottom part is cut away, much like an exposed reel seat.
Obviously...this foregrip is doubling as a handle....just thought is looked unique.

Not built a rod like this yet but will eventually. Below link is a factory rod with the reel seat and fore grip like you are talking about I believe. I have this rod and it works pretty well for live scoping crappies in cool/cold water. You just search with electronics and drop bait right down to them while watching them pretty much the whole time on livescope.

My son has actually taken this rod and put a bait cast reel on it because he feels he has better control dropping bait down with bait caster. When I get around to building one will set it up with more of a rear grip so it can be used more comfortably with bait cast reel.

[acccrappiestix.com]

Thanks for that link Keven...that is really close to what I was talking about...
Here is the rod I saw [www.basspro.com]

I had an old Shimano Compre spinning rod that had a cut out for finger to blank contact in the fore grip, but the fore grip was only about 2 1/2" long. It looked cool, but I must hold a spinning rod differently than the person that decided where the cut out should be, because it wasn't much good to me at all.

David Baylor Wrote:
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> I had an old Shimano Compre spinning rod that had
> a cut out for finger to blank contact in the fore
> grip, but the fore grip was only about 2 1/2"
> long. It looked cool, but I must hold a spinning
> rod differently than the person that decided where
> the cut out should be, because it wasn't much good
> to me at all.

Yeah...I've seen that too...some techniques have the rod being held a little more forward on the foregrip.

Crappie rods constitute a very strange mix of widely varying blank types and the way they are built. They range in length from 16’ jig poles to 4’ UL rods. They are used with spinning, casting, fly and various other types of reels, or no reel at all. People think there are a lot of different types bass technique rods, but I think crappie rods might have them beat, as far as diversity is concerned. I build a lot of crappie rods and it seems that everyone has their favorite way of fishing for them. So it is extremely difficult to recommend a crappie rod blank unless you know how the person likes to fish for them. I have built on both the MHX S781 and MHX S782; both make into very nice crappie spinning, hard to tell them apart. Both will throw very light lures a long distance. As expected the S782 is more powerful than the S781, but not by much.
Norm

I’ve gone in and out of crappie fishing as I’ve moved around the country. I’ve been friends with a preeminent crappie jig builder over the last several years, though. He preaches cutting weight everywhere possible and extreme sensitivity for rods. He won’t even try a rod he deems as being too heavy for its size. I handed him my third ever build from about thirty years ago and he pronounced it as too heavy. It was on a St. Croix ultralight blank. I handed him a contemporary build also on a St. Croix blank with Torzite guides and CFX grips. I wasn’t sure If he was going to let me have it back. Neither rod was labeled and I didn’t provide descriptions. Long, short, or in between, keep them light and sensitive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2023 12:11AM by Kendall Cikanek.