I have been asked to build a couple sturgeon rods for a fellow captain fishing the St. Clair River (Michigan). The captain is currently using a Sharkspeare TIger rod 7' 30 - 60lb rated. He's looking for a rod with a little more sensitivity in the tip. There are a lot suckers and small sturgeon around so they would like to see the bites a little better. Big sturgeon for our area in the mid 100 pound range. He would like to stay with a 7ft rod or so. I'm looking for recommendations on blanks. I'm looking at the Rainshadow RX6 E-Glass RCLB70M-CG or the RCLB70ML0CG.

Any other tips for building a rod like this would be greatly appreciated. I typically build Salmon, Stealhead, Walleye and Bass rods.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Matt Hehn

I know the Rainshadow BP line up has a couple of blanks used for Columbia River keeper sturgeon. Call and ask them.

You may want to look at the Rodgeeks XComp blanks, they like them of Black Fishing and large Cats, should work great as a Sturgeon rod as well probably the XC734 or XC735. [rodgeeks.com]

Matt,

We catch a lot of sturgeon on the Columbia river - we have a 40-60 in the SilverBack series that is loved by local guides. The blank is very light, with a sensitive tip. It has a massive amount of power in the backbone and butt.

[northforkcomposites.com]

Thanks,
Alex