I just finished my spinning rod for casting light lures for salmon, and now am ready to start my casting rod for king salmon. The issue is that I need to cast 1/4 oz lures a long ways for fish that may exceed 20 pounds, so while I need to cast light lures a long ways, I still need to control some very aggressive, big, powerfull fish.

Do any of you have any opinions on what blank to start with. Please give me your reasons in addition to your recommendation

thanks, Mick

If your happy with your spinning rod, just use the same blank for the casting rod and get a good long casting reel to go with it.

I haven't even used the new spinning rod on the water yet. It does cast very well. It's a 9 foot rod, am thinking of the 8' 6" version of the rod-would give a "matched set." But I wanted to get the opinions of the members of the forum, also, as I don't want to miss any good ideas. thanks for your comment.

Hi Michael,

Hard to say what would be best for you without knowing more about how and where you are fishing. I assume it's river fishing and if it's 1/4 oz. lures then you would possibly be using spoons or spinners. If so you need to have a lighter tip to be able to cast the light weight and allow the lure to to have some action (or spin) Anything heavier then a 5 pwr steelhead blank might inhibit those requirements. I would probably look at a 1025 or maybe even a lighter pwr hot shot rod. Might be on the light side for large kings but with 1/4 lures you might find it hard to load the heavier blanks when casting.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

My favorite rods for kings in the rivers around here are the HS1023 and IST1025.

Most of my King fishing is from a boat in a lake-it gets windy and the fish like smaller lures, mostly crankbaits that don't cast as well as spoons (they grab the wind more). If you can keep the fish out of the anchor rope on the first run (best way is to just let them go and put the rod under the anchor rope to get on the fish's side of it) then you have room to let them run without having to snub them up like you might have to do in a stream. As I see it, the biggest issues are shock absorption on the initial hit and run and being able to cast the small cranks. Suggestions so far are very close to what I was considering, the XST1024 (for its weight advantage as well as its action, which I thought would work pretty well). Thanks for your comments.

Hi Michael,

In a lake you are good to go with lighter rods, I would go with the 1024, in fact I routinely use our Matrix 1024's in the salt for all types of salmon using down riggers and jigging. The lighter tip will load better for casting the small crankbaits.

Not what your doing but there's a lake by me that I fish J-plugs on heavier rods and smaller spoons with light line on our AMSH1141's. I have caught large fish in the double digits on 6/8# line, super fun. The Matrix blanks have lighter tips for casting and using light line but they have power in the butt section to land large fish.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company