Looking for a glass blank to use as trolling rods. These will be used on lake erie to troll for walleye. They will be used to pull inline planer boards with deep diving crankbaits(reef runner 800's) or worms with inline weights up to 3 oz. Line used will be 10lb mono with Daiwa 27lc reels. Im looing for something with a soft enough tip to not "surge" the inline boards when in waves but that still has the backbone to handle the boards. Ive heard good things about the SPG845 as a downrigger blank, but Im not sure if it has a light enough tip for what I need. Any feedback about what blank would work better would be a great help.

Thanks in Advance!

I use the 845's for rigger blanks, and like you said, they may be on the heavy side, although would work nice. I haven't built on the 844, so not sure how much it gives up in power. I have to believe that the 845 will be soft enough for your application. Your fish are big enough to justify a little more power. Plus, if you choose to run any short cores or coppers, you will be happy with the extra backbone. On Saginaw Bay, with our smaller average fish, I wouldn't hesitate to go with the 844.

Thanks for the input Tony. Have you built on a RDR70M? If so, how does it compare to the SPG845? Also, do you think 845's would have the backbone to pull a #1 dipsy in a pinch?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2012 06:24PM by Mitch Leppelmeier.

The SPG845 makes a great big catfish rod also.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

I have used the RDR's. Slightly faster action, slightly less power than the SPG845. I pull Slide Divers occasionally for walleye with my SPG845 rigger rods, they work fine. I would hesitate to use them for salmon pulling a diver, they are at about 75% of max pulling a mag diver, a big salmon might ring the bell on the strike. No worries with walleye though.