Thinking about building a rod for California delta sturgeon. Any suggestions?

Will you be casting long distances from the bank, or going after them from a boat?

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Hi Tom,
From a boat. I've never fished for them before, but my friend wants to fish for sturgeon while we throw plugs for schoolie stripers.

Thanks,
Ken

Any heavy action rod will work fine. But it is really nice to use a glass rod with a softer action and a fairly soft tip. Depending on how deep you fish and how much weight you use, have a blank to match the weight that you use.
Often when fishing for sturgeon, the line will be let out and the weight will lay on the bottom. It is nice to have a tip that is soft enough so that when the light biters come along and pick up the bait, you can easily see the tip move.
A 6-10 foot rod all work fine. If you are working heavier fish, then a shorter rod makes it easier to land the fish. You have more leverage with the shorter rod.

I have used 7-8 foot glass cat fish rods with great success on sturgeon.
I have some graphite rods that I built for sturgeon fishing, but I really prefer the softer tips of the glass rods that I have built for sturgeon fishing.


Take care
Roger



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2011 11:31AM by roger wilson.

Alright, so a heavy, soft tipped fiberglass blank...
I've only built fly rods and bass rods, and working on a barracuda rod as we type (but it's pretty similar to the bass rods)...what kind of set up for these heavier rods?

Thanks,
Ken

You don't need a all glass rod though I do have two Sabres that I built for Columbia River Sturgeon. You should look at some of the Seeker blanks in the Blue Lighting or Super Seeker or Hercules line. They make a few light tipped but powerful rods. They are composite glass/graphite blanks!

I fish the CA Delta for sturgeon and I like the 196- 7’ foot live bait blanks from Seeker and CalStar. A lot of people use the 270 7’ to 8’. I have used them and they are good but I like the sensitivity on the 196-7 and my favorite is the Super Seeker SS-CLBF 704 it is a 196-7 series.

Thanks,
What kind of guides? Under wraps? What kind of grips you guys use?
Ken

I used to live in the Brentwood Oakley Stockton area and fished the suisun bay and below all the way to Tracy and the blank that I like best is the Baton RainShadow SWS597 it's a 8ft blank. I moves to Oregon just 3 years ago and I have used nothing but this same setup and just took a 9 foot sturgeon out of the Columbia and believe me the Columbia river is much rougher then the Delta system is and I had no problem with the fish at all with the Baton setup. If you want more on this setup just go to the link below and you will find lots of talk about how good this setup preforms.

www.ifish.net

Glenn McMurrian

Would you guys use SiC or SiN guides?

Hi Ken,

Ive fished quite often in the Delta for sturgeon. Ive use Calstar 270-7 12-30lbs rod and Seeker Hercules GTS70L. They are both great blanks. But my favorite rod to go to is Seeker Hercules blank. They are very light and thin. Still has enough soft tip to detect those soft bite. My set up would be Hypalon Grip, Alps reel seat , and Fuji SIC casting guides. I like to triple wrap my guides but you can do double or single is fine also. Hope this gives you some ideas.

Trung

Hi Ken as I stated before the RainShadow SWS597 is a great blank and as for guides the SIC guides would work just fine for you as they are good for both braided line and standard mono and as for the grips I like cork over EVA or Hypalon except for the exception of the link below

"Sure Grip" EVA Fore-grips

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Forecast Dream Reamers set for $49.90 a must have it's my best buy and save a lot of time just attach it to your drill

[]

Glenn McMurrian

Thanks guys,
Would you spiral wrap?
I went with the seeker Hercules 70L, got an American tackle reelseat and slick butt, the eva grip Glenn recommended, and fuji SiC 8mm boat guides with matching tip.
My friend who fishes for sturgeon is using 65lb braid...but that seems overkill for me when the reel I'd use can only put 15lbs of drag, and the blank is only rated to 30lbs...what test line would you guys recommend for this blank for sturgeon?

Thanks again,
Ken

Finely A fishermen that thinks like me as I remember how all the bass fishermen would think that I was nuts for only using 17lb mono for 14lb and 24lb stripper and just 30lb mono for sturgeon when all the black bass guy’s used 80lb braid and I used mostly 20lb mono for flipping. The first time that I took some of these bass fishermen to the Richmond pier to fish for Sturgeon no one could be leave it when I was pulling up shark up 14lb up a 15ft pear all the while only loaded with 20lb mono and they looked dumb with there 80lb braid on. On the rig that you have I would think that 30lb braid is all but enough and if you ask most of the fishermen from the 60's and 70's 20lb and 30lb mono was the standard for big fish in the delta and it was not un-till braid came out in the 80's that you started seeing all the 60lb and 80lb braid on spools and that goes to show you how much these fishermen really know sometimes.

Glenn McMurrian

Glenn,
It is pretty funny, I used to fish a lot with a guy on lake berryessa for smallies and largemouth, there's not a lot of weeds or cover, mostly just very clear water and rocks, but he was using I think 50lb braid and 30lb flouro leaders...so I took out my "trout" rig, a 6' light spinning rod with 4lb test mono, and proceeded to thouroughly out fish him and have more fun catching bigger smallies (which were his favorite fish there) and when I caught a 9lb largemouth on that "trout" rod, he finally admitted I was on to something...

Fished there lots of time the last time the same thing happened as I was fishing with one know it all kid as most fishermen are and a pro bass fishermen and nobody was getting anything but I was leading the pack with only 3 fish and in the end of the boat. We where fishing in one of those inlets with lots of rocks on the bottom and as soon as I put on one of my other reals set up with 6lb test mono I started catching all the fish like 12 smallmouth in a 30 yard stretch and I made a be-leaver out of the Pro angler but the other kid was still thinking that it was all luck.

Glenn McMurrian

most all my big rods have a spiral wrap on them so yes go with the spiral wrap it's the best way to go.

Glenn McMurrian