I do a little bit of Muskie fishing and have built myself a couple rods. They perform great and no problems, most of the lures range up to 3oz.

However, a couple of the newer muskie lures are 5oz in weight!! Now casting these on my current rods can be done, it's not a good feeling and extra care has to be taken with each cast. The rods are just too light.

Is there a muskie blank out there that would be suited to casting the 3-5oz heavier lures that you would recomend?

DR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2007 01:46PM by Duane Richards (DR).

I live in Wisconsin, and have done a lot of musky fishing with big baits. I thinks the St. Croix PM63XHF would be a great choice for what you are looking at. When you get in to these big baits, I think you will find a little shorter rod (this one is 6'3") is less tiring. These baits have so much weight that you don't need a 7' rod.

Good Luck,
Marc

Hi Duane
What length are you looking for?
Mark Crouse
www.munichrodmansrodshop.com

Marc, thanks for the tip!! My ski rods are 7' and 7'6" ....never thought of the shorter blank being a plus.

Mark, thats a good question! I was thinking 7'6" until I read Marc's post above, and his post makes sense concidering the weight being thrown. I may opt for 6'6" or there abouts?

DR

Well...I dislike short rods...period. You can't effectively figure 8 with a 6' rod unless you enjoy running the length of your boat, which usually spooks the fish. Rod length isn't just for casting.

You didn't say what you'd be tossing...

St. Croix really knows what they're doing when it comes to Muskie. Probably has something to do with being right in the heart of Muskie country. The Avid 76HF and 80HF are good big bait rods. The Legend Tournament 76XHF and 86XHF are dynamite choices for the big stuff. Besides doing the figure 8 they give you a lot of line movement when tossing big Bull Dawgs etc. And for big jerk baits. Looooong sweeps are often times great triggers.

The 946C from Loomis is another good big bait rod. The 826 as well.




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

Matt,

I'm looking for something to throw one of these on: [www.muskyshop.com]

This rod will be dedicated to throwing baits of this size. I already have the other presentations covered.

Whatcha think?

DR

If you already have 7'6" musky rods, I would really suggest you try a 6'3" or 6'6" for big baits. Throwing these things are work, period. I have an old Heddon Musky Special, 5' solid glass rod I still use some, and have caught quite a few fish on. I think we have become a little too in to the "longer is always better" mentality. Don't be afraid to go outside the the norm, and 6'6" rod is far from being short. Bucktails, crankbaits, general musky stuff, 7' or 7'6" is great, but if you want to throw that big bait for more than 1/2 hour, I think you will like the mid-length stick.

Good Luck,
Marc

DR

I'd probably spring for the 76XHF in LT. I like a stiffer rod for big glide baits.

This is also one of the very few presentations where I like a longer than the norm handle. Get that rod butt tucked up under your armpit, grasp the fore grip, and you can really rip baits when you have to.




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

I used to use a shorter rod for jerkbaits and topwaters similar to the wabull(i.e.Jackpot). However, I did notice that with the shorter rod I was not getting the best hooksets and the leverage for fighting the fish was lacking. The shortest I fish with now is a 6'9". I just got in a legend tournament 86xhf, sweet rod, can't wait to build it and put it through it's paces. Will be tossing big plastics with it.

5oz isn't that heavy ! A typical Muskie arsenal entails a rod that handles around 3/4-3oz and one that handles 2-6oz, or 3-8oz. in whatever length float's your boat. St. Croix has a number of good blanks that fills this range say a 2M70MHF (for 3/4-3oz) and a 2M76HF for heavier baits (2-6oz) in their SCII range or 4M80MHF (3./4-3oz) and 4M76XHF(3-8oz) in their SCIV range. Of course if you really want to throw heavy baits try the new 2M69XXXHF which will handle 8-20oz baits. Lot's of folk's in my area use St. Croix Muskie rods (and more recently Shimano) so I decided to try a couple of different blanks and really like the Lamiglas LGM84-1XH for tossing baits in the 2-8oz range, some of their other blanks look good too.

From a leverage standpoint, you are going to be much less tired throwing that big jerkbait with a 6'3, 6'6" rod than a 7'6" or 8' rod all day long. Quite simply, you aren't fighting as much of a moment arm to move the bait from behind you to in front of you - and the bait is so darn heavy, it will cast a mile even with a moderate length rod. I'm also a fan of longer rods, but I think musky jerkbait rods are one special area where a shorter rod is a benefit. As far as the figure 8ing is concerned - that tactic was invented by northern Wisconsin guides fishing with 5'6" Heddon Musky Specials - if a ski is going to hit a figure 8'ed bait, it doesn't matter if the bait is 1' or 3' below the surface. Just my 0.02 from the heart of Musky Country :-) BTW - Rollie and Helens is a fun shop, if you ever get up to Minocqua/Woodruff, stop in there for SURE. I live about 5 minutes away from them - very dangerous!!! :-)

Rich,

I drool on that catalog regularly! If I lived 5 min away, I'd need to win the lottery LOL

Thanks!

DR