Hello everyone,
I was asked about building a 8' musky rod. I have never done one, only walleye rods,and I don't live in an area with muskies. So I'll looking for all types of help. What type and size handle, reel seat, guides, hook keeper, thread etc. Any tip, tricks, do's and don'ts. How many guides? Thread size? I would appreciate any help.

Brandon,
The best thing that you can do, since you are not in an area with Muskies, just go to a good fishing catalog with an excellent selection of Musky rods and harvest some ideas. There are also several different On line forums.

Suffice to say that it is common for Musky fishermen to use 80 lb braid as a main line. The Muskies, when they hit do give the fisherman a nice tussel. But all that you need is the appropriate blank, a rear grip of about 15 inches, a fore grip of 6-7 inches for the thousands of two handed casts that are done every day. Also, due to the size of the rod and the type lures and line being used, normally the rear grip is a bit larger than the typical fresh water grip. It is common for a freshwater rear grip be .8 inches in diameter. However, it is pretty common for the rear grip of a musky rod to be 1 to 1.2 inches in diameter.

You can use any guides that you please. Certainly musky rods are primarily casting rods so choose guides accordingly.

You can also look at some of the rod recipes that are posted on some of the blank manufacturers for appropriate grips, reel seats and guide selection. But, musky rods are no exception to the prevailing thinking that normally only two or maybe three guide sizes be used. i.e. a larger stipper guide in front of the reel, maybe one that is in between the stripper guide and the runners and the same size runners to the tip. With musky rods, there is no reason to go to exceptionally small running guides as has been the case with many of the
tournament bass fishermen. Many musky rods use runners that are size 6 or even size 8. Normally not necessary to go any smaller.

With respect to thread size, size A thread works just fine.

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Some Batson musky blanks:
[www.rainshadowrodblanks.com]

Here are some Musky rod building recipes from Batson:
[www.batsonenterprises.com]

Note: all of the Batson rod building recipes are well tested and are proven to work very well for the application.

Best wishes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2020 07:41PM by roger wilson.

Batson has a nice 15" rear grip and full wells type fore grip, and I'd use either a size 17 or 18 trigger seat, depending on how big you have to go to accommodate the blank. Large hook keeper is nice, and I like Alps recessed ring guides. I usually run guide sizes 16 - 12 - 8's to the tip.

It's nearly as important to have an idea of the lures and fishing techniques that will be used when selecting a rod for musky fishing as it is for bass fishing. My musky lures range from one to eight ounces. If you have to do a build with less specific information, I'd suggest building a fast action rod whose sweet-spot is in the middle of that weight range. It'll work well for jerkbaits and other commonly used lures, be a bit heavy for bucktails and some plastics, and be a light for the heaviest - more rarely used lures. The fast action will work great for most lures, and still be useable for crankbaits. I find it less critical to have moderate actions for monster-sized crankbaits than smaller ones. The biggest stress on the rod will be the hook sets. These fish hold the lure tight in a bony mouth with firm teeth. To get the lure to move and embed takes full effort. I missed getting my first couple of strikes set as I was just not use to what it really takes. After the set, a musky doesn't stress rods as much as most saltwater and anadromous fish of similar size. Any name brand components of the appropriate size and line-weight rating should work.

I like my musky reel seats to accommodate both the regular and the light saltwater reel foots. This allows me to use them as an extra or backup rod for my Avet reels on saltwater excursions. The Fuji TPSSD and PSSLD do this and are the musky standards. I was taught by a musky veteran who insisted that palming a reel when musky fishing is a huge no-no (that need for a drive the hook into plywood set) Thus, I'm happy with the TPSSD over the PSSLD. However, the PSSLD only facilitates palming, it doesn't require it.

You need some more info here. What type of presentation is going to be used with this rod? I spend a few hundred hours a year chasing musky and another substantial amount building musky rods for myself and others. We throw everything from 1.5oz bucktails or buzzbaits to 16oz rubber baits. Obviously this is going to require different blanks in order to do this comfortably for extended periods of time.

Another question to ask is what is your price range? just for the blank, and then again for a complete build?

What reel is used on this rod? I can get away with a lower height stripper guides if I'm using a Curado300 vs a Tranx 500

All of the other replies are spot on and have given you some good info.

I've built a few dozen on Rodgeeks musky blanks and have nothing but good things to say about any of there products. Some of the other sponsors on the left offer a variety of musky blanks. Having more info is going to make your research way easier on you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2020 08:01AM by Anthony Holstein.