Can anyone please give me some information on a St. Croix 686 MH2 blank?
Could not find anything on the St. Croix website.
It is being used as a downrigger rod for salmon trolling near San Francisco.
My buddy likes the action and he would like me to build him something similar.

My personal first choice would be a CalStar T608 mooching blank. It's a little light but the tip is nice and soft.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? Use on a downrigger, soft tip, 2 piece, plenty of backbone, 8 ft. to 10 ft., for salmon......
I prefer Batson or Cal Star myself.
Thanks,
Jon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2010 03:00PM by Jon Gold.

Look at the Batson "RDR", "BP", or "IST" series.
Here is a link;
[www.schneidersrods.com]

The RDR are targeted at trolling rods, and the BP are extra tough.
IST Steelhead series is extra nice due to the RX7 Graphite making them light in the hand and very responsive.

Best wishes,
Ron Schneider
Schneider's Rod Shop
Mountain Home, Arkansas
[www.schneidersrods.com]
mtnron40@yahoo.com
870-424-3381

I am kind of with the above post. For downrigger use, there is no need to spend the bucks for a St. Croix blank unless you get style points at the cleaning station. The Batson RDR's, Forecast SPG845, BP's, or any other glass blank will do fine for downrigger salmon action. What size fish and at what depths are being targeted? The new MHX downrigger blanks have been awesome for my customers late this fall on kings to 27lbs off downriggers. They are priced right for the application, and available in your length requirements. The 9' and 9'6" MHX blanks are also perfect on the cores and coppers making them a very versatile blank for trolling applications. For my customers on the Great Lakes, I would love to see a one piece 7' 12-20 # model from MHX, after all it is Christmas lol. Graphite rigger rods are very nice for the right customer. Charter boats and customers that are hard on rods will make short use of a graphite downrigger rod though. I have built myself higher end graphite rigger rods in the past and have always ended back up with glass rods. Hookups seem to be not as consistent with the sharper faster action of the graphite rods and they are much trickier to get the right load without tripping the release. I do love the fight characteristics of the graphite over the glass rods, but durability while being banged around a trolling scene is hard on them. Light weight isn't really normally a concern with rigger rods, normally you have a heavy levelwind linecounter type reel full of 20-30# mono, so a few ounces will be miniscule in the big picture. Just my .0001 cents.