For you guys that make rods or fish in the Southern Gulf area, I have a St. Croix 3S68MXF that I happened to purchase by accident. I thought I could use that opportunity to build a rod for myself. I fish primarily for redfish in the La marshes and also fish a few tournaments throughout the year. I have built quite a few rods including spinning and spiral wrap baitcasters, but I have no idea what I can use this blank for with the extra fast tip. My typical lures are R-Bend spinners, shallow running crankbaits, swimbaits, and tightlining paddletail plastics. I had hoped to make this one a spiral wrap, so my question is what application does this blank best serve. I thought you may chime in Alex. Thank you gentlemen.

I use that particular blank extensively ... it is great for high accuracy casting into mangroves and under docks with unweighted shrimp, unweighted whitebaits and small unweighted jerk baits. I built mine as a spinning rod, using Fuji SiC Titanium guides and paired with a Shimano Sustain 3000FE.

Kevin,
What you have is one of the best jerk bait rod blanks ever made. The blank was designed for walleye tournament fishermen that wanted a good blank for jerk baits, or so I was told by a Canadian. I fish saltwater at Galveston and use mine for throwing Cotton Cordell broken backs, MirroLure Catch 2000's, and soft baits like the Bass Assassins. It is also a great rod for throwing Corkies where you twitch the bait a little at a time. Don't let that XF tip fool you, that blank has a lot of power beginning about 6 inches from the tip. Build it and fish it in the shallow marshes with a shallow diving jerk bait. I don't think that you will be disappointed. I love mine.

Not much more I can add there... :)

I concur - you'll enjoy fishing it.

Oh... and it's looking good that I may come down and fish some this summer your way. Maybe fish some of the GCAA events. Turns out I can fly into NO cheaper than driving down.That opened up some possiblities!

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AD

Sounds great Alex, the reds are eating well and should be fat by April.

I have built several of these rods and they are one of the best rods for jig fishing with 3/8th and heavier jigs for Walleye up in the north country. The extremely fast tip, makes hook sets a snap - so to speak.

Roger

One of my favorite blanks! I use them for bass fishing, creature baits and lighter Jigs.

Steve Bro
(BroCo Custom Rods)

I often hear the term jigging for freshwater, does this just mean tightlining with a jighead. Sorry I only fish saltwater

So it looks like I will be building this rod as a spiral baitcaster for tightling soft plastics and swimbaits. The fun may be fishing it different ways and deciding which I like the best, we will see if I notice a difference in the XF tip

Kevin,
Yes and no.
In the world of walleye fishing the use of a lead head jig and live bait is close to the number one method of catching these fish.
Essentially, pitch the jig to the areas where the fish are likely holding. Then, "jig" or bounce the lead head jig back to the boat. Depending on the mood of the fish, you can cast, let sit, bounce it a couple of time, let sit. Or do a simle tight line slow drag back to the boat, or rip jig where the boat is moving along at a pretty good clip - using a heavier jig so that the jig is cast, falls to the bottom, then the jig is ripped or agressivly lifted from the bottom, and then the rod tip is quickly dropped back to let the lead head drop to the bottom. Often, this "rip jigging" is one of the most effective means of catching these fish. The fish typically take the jig as it is falling on a slack line. Then, when the jig is "ripped" or moved agressivly forward, the hook is set, because the fish has picked up the hook as the jig was falling toward the bottom on the slack line.

Another very common technique is "vertical jigging" much as is done for sea bass in the blue water environment. Basically using a heavier jig, either plain lead head (possibly colored) and tipped with live bait, plastic or hair, dropped to the bottom, and then simply jigged or bounced up and down off of the bottom of the lake or river. These fish tend to fish close to the bottom, so are often attracted to this presentation. Again, the fish often take the bait as it falls on a slack line, and then, when jigged or lifted, the fish are hooked.

During other periods of the year - ice fishing, or the may fly hatch, similar techniques are used to catch these fish which may be any where in the water from the bottom to the top as they follow the bait. In the case of the May fly hatch, Fly larve hatch in the mud at the bottom of the lake and then float to the surface, where they emerge and fly away to lay eggs, and begin their life cycle anew. As a result, as the larve are rising throgh the water from the mud to the surface, the fish will eat them on the way to the surface. In this case, the jig is moved to cover the entire water from the bottom to the top in an attempt to entice the fish to bite as they follow the hatching larve or food supply.

So, when I talk about the use of jigs, I am using these techniques. Often the bite of these fish is very light or even negative. As a result, for this style fishing a rod blank that can sense the bite of these fish - which can range from very aggressive or almost non existant needs to be light, and very sensitive. But the mouths of the fish tends to be hard, which requres the use of a rod with good backbone so that an effective hook set can be made.

Thanks for asking.
Roger