I have a buddy that wants a 7’-6” to 8’-0” one-piece walleye jigging rod for using 1/4oz Storm 360GT Searchbait. I am having problems finding a blank to fulfill his request and was hoping some of the great people here could help me out.
Thank you for your suggestions.

Back in the day a St Croix 76MLXF in SCII, III, IV or V would have fit the bill perfectly. Couple of ideas now would be a MHX popping blank, a Batson Revelation Hot Shot blank or a Batson Immortal 76ML walleye blank.

I don't build salt water inshore rods, but a 1/4 oz jig and paddle tail seems to be a pretty standard presentation and popping blanks seem like a good place to look.

NFC has many 8 ft. SJ blanks in various powers. Strangely the line ratings don't vary, but the lure ratings do considerably, they make a Chinook salmon rod out of the SJ804.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2020 02:50AM by Spencer Phipps.

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Michael,
Out of curiosity, does your friend tell you why he wants a rod of this length?

I fish a lot of walleye and I do use jigs and swim baits of this size. But, for myself, I personally don't like to do this type fishing with any rod that is longer than 7 feet.

Having said that, the RainShadow 7'6" M-L popping rod in the blank of your choice builds up into a great general purpose -- (including the type jigs that he wishes) -- walleye rod.

In particular:

IMMP76ML Titanium Chrome 7'6" 1 6-12lb. 1/8-3/8oz. 0.450 4.5 MOD-F ML 1.5oz. Inshore/Sea Trout

I have built a lot of these particular rods for walleye fisher folks who use the rod for several different types of walleye fishing, including the swimbait that you mention from your friend's request.

Best wishes

I built a 8' rod on a Batson Crankbait blank that is discontinued now for fishing Walleyes on Lake Erie, it went out as an experiment and turned out to be the best rod for that trip. The extra length gave me a little longer cast and the ability for it to load made it a great choice, currently Batson has a Judge blank that looks similar and should work well for this job: JDGCB710M-CG Clear Gloss 7' 10" 1 10-17lb. 1/4-3/4oz. 0.569 5.0 MOD-F M 3.0oz. Small crankbaits and top waters, 1/4oz. spinnerbaits.

NFC 8'2" Hotshot blanks, perfect.

See you on the water, Doug
Captain Paddlefoot