Anyone ever do a vertical jig build targeting lake trout? If so what blank did you use?

To 4 oz. jig, XBB964-TC. Heavier jigs, REVC710H. All Rainshadow blanks.

I guess rod preference may depend on depth, size of fish, technique, etc. Here in Utah/Wyoming fishing for trophy lakers (30# +) at Flaming Gorge and Fish lake, the preference is for a short blank with fast action rated 12-20#. Anglers generally use jigs to 1 oz. The blanks that have been most popular are;

MHX CS724 6' 12-17# Fast/Heavy
NFC SJ607-1 (IM) 6' 12-20# Ex-Fast
Rod Geeks/St. Croix C460MHF 8-18# Med. Heavy Fast

I prefer a slightly heavier rod which I can also use for salt water- United Composites UC56H Dual Helix 8-25#, 1/4-1oz.

Feel free to PM me for additional details.

Dan

If running heavy jigs,as you plan to do; and vertical jigging that does not require casting, a 6 foot medium heavey is the perfect blank in your choice of manufacture.

My buddy swears by salmon rods for vertical jigging lake trout. I always use a loomis E6X salmon rod but jigging an 8ft rod all day gets tiresome.

David,
Since an 8 foot rod all day gets tiresome - then don't use an 8 foot rod all day to jig for salmon. Rather, use a 6 foot rod for jigging all day and the day will be much less tiresome. Really no point to use a long rod for heavy jigging.

The fish must be awfully shallow, like at ice out to use such a short rod, then if you wanted to shore cast at ice out for them or other species the short rod wouldn't be my choice either. My go to rod back in the day for them, including fly ins was a telescoping flipping stick with a light Aftco roller tip top installed, then we could jig, troll wire, or cast from shore with very little sacrifice. Lots of jigging rods were also built on the Lamiglas two piece 7 1/2 ft. G1000, 30 lb., live bait blanks as were their jig specific Puget Jigger rod. 150+ ft. depths on a 6 ft. rod are interesting when shallow bass anglers won't do it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2024 02:07PM by Spencer Phipps.

I’m jigging at 100 feet plus

I built 2 lake trout rods on the NFC SJ607-1 (IM) blanks and they are performing nicely.

Daniel was nice enough to share some of his lake trout rod ideas with me last year. They are 6' spiral wrapped rods and are used in 60 to 90 feet typically with 1 ounce jigs/tube jigs. The rods have a nice backbone for hook sets using braided line and a fluorocarbon leader.

NFC also makes a "sharpshooter"' blank they call it that would probably do very nicely for vertical laker jigging. SSH 637-1. Hopefully I can get to building a couple of those up in the near future, they look great for this application.