Which rods should a well outfitted musky angler have? What if they can only have 2 or 3 rods? blank suggestions appreciated.

I we should know what you have already.

8'6" heavy (x2) Compeitor
8' 6" medium (1x) Rainshadow
9' 10wt fly Rainshadow
is what I keep on the boat then a trolling rod or two if need be.

Eric

Personally, I never liked rods much over 7 feet long.
I did a lot of casting with Sledges and other Jerk-type baits and a rod over 7ft wanted to hit the water all the time.
My rods were all low end St.Croix's or Loomis blanks. There's no sense spending money on high-end Graphite for Musky.
You never get a subtle bite!...HAHAHA.

I am with Garry,
I prefer 7 ft 6 inch or 7 ft rods though longer rod do have benefits.
Mostly use SC II blanks though I have a MHX and Rainshadow that are nice also. However, there is something to be said for lighter rods as heaveier weight rods can wear you out if you are throwing big baits all day.
I also prefer full length grips instead of split grips.
What baits are you throwing?

You will have to ask the guy fishing, I live in the heart of Musky country here in MN and 8'-9' are the norm.

cowgirls,showgirls, bulldawgs, depth raiders, grandmas, shallow invaders, glide baits, top raiders, spooks - showgirls, grandmas, shallow invaders and top raiders make up about 50% of the casts...but if those aren't working than everything in the box is gonna get wet.

Top 3 Rods:

6'9" to 7'0" Heavy for Jerk Baits - I see lot's of guys going back to these after trying the long rods for jerks. Much better range of motion in different angles to work a bait.

7'6" or 8'0" Medium Heavy for most "normal" baits - bucktails, topwaters, cranks, etc.

8'0" X-Heavy for 4-12 oz. big baits - the right rod in this class will do big rubber up to Mag Dawgs, and lots of guys like it for big blades because it does not flex too much in the tip on the retrieve, especially on fig. 8's.


8'6" rods are popular, but I know LOTS of guys find rods over 8'0" to be diminshing returns, and 8'6" seem much more cubersome than 7'6" and 8'0" rods.

BTW - I build hundreds of musky rods a year, and this is what I see from customers - no just my own preference - although to do happen to like this set of rods for a go-to set.

Marc,

Would you mind sharing your blanks of choice and handle configurations for the builds you suggest?

Handles - I like the Pac Bay 15" large dia. rear grip, or their musky split grips, with matching cork composite butt cap. Not a lot of great fore grips around, but the Batson musky FG is good, you may want to turn your own FG too.

The Batson IMU musky blanks are nice - especially the 7'10" Med-Heavy. We actually have a lot blanks made to our specs, but we do not sell them.

Hope this helps!

thanks everyone. I'm a little surprised no one chimed in the the st croix blanks

Jay,

The trend in musky fishing is definitely moving towards longer rods. There are a bunch of younger guys right now that are jumping into musky fishing and I've found that the younger crowd prefers the longer rods- more so than the old school guys. Most of the musky rods that I build for guys are 8'6" or longer. I've started getting a bunch of requests for 9'6" and even 10' rods. As far as grips, guys love 1.25"- I would not go any smaller. Most guys prefer a rear grip length in the 17" range.

Here are my recommendations as far as what I've seen in my business.
Jerkbait rods: 7'6" is the typical length, I haven't had any requests for anything shorter but I know that some guys like rods closer to 7'.
Bucktail rod: 8'6" is the minimum length that most are comfortable with. Guys that put in long hours casting bucktails and figure 8'ing love the longer rods.
Crankbait rod: 8' and up. Again most guys seem to prefer 8'6" or longer because of the difficulty of doing figure 8's with a short rod.

I'm not going to recommend powers such as H or XH for these applications because there is just too much of a difference in ratings from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Hopefully this isn't in violation of forum rules but here goes:
One recommendation I will make is to check out Tackle Industries blanks. I had to beg James for a couple years before he made them available! They are very comparable to the high end stuff as far as quality and performance. They are the lightest blanks that I know of on the market and I build almost all of my personal musky rods on them. If you build musky rods, you need to check them out.

jeremy