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Posts: 43
Location: Warrenville,IL | I am a huge fan of the Gander Guide Series rods. I use the IM-8's in medium light, medium, Med/Heavy spinning for my smallie fishing.
I looked for Gander Guide Series !M-8 muskie rod in the store the other day and found 6'9". (WAY too short for my liking)
Does anyone know if they have a 7', 7 2" or 7'6"?
Also..does anyone know who makes the rods? I know the Gander reels are all made by Pflueger. |
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | I picked up a 7' 6" Gander in LaCros WI this winter. As for the maker, no clue. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | The last I heard they were made by Fig Rig. Not sure if all models are, but I know the Tournament series is supposed to be.
You can get the IM-8 and IM-8 Tournament up to 8 feet in length. I have the Tournament series in the 8 foot model and like it quite a bit for an $80 rod. Rated for 1.5-4 ounce baits. It does a good job throwing anthing from Mepps Musky Marabous to Weagles. I'm pretty sure they have at least a 7' and 7'6" rod, and I think they had a 7'2" also, but I'm not sure about that.
curleytail |
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Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | Curleytail is correct on those other lengths. I have an 8 footer in the IM-8 and I like it as much or more so than my St. Croix Premiers. Very nice rod.
Aaron |
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Posts: 1270
| A couple things about rod ratings. The IM rating means absalutly nothing when it comes to quality of the rod. There is great IM8 material and crappy IM8 material as well as every other IM rating. As a rod engineer to explain IM rating to you sometime if you really want to hear some double speak! IM rating is really a number that the companies came up with to try to make there rods sound higher quality. If you notice the top end rods companies very rarelly state the IM rating because it really means nothing when it comes to quality or performance.
As for who makes the Gander rods I don't know but I would doubt that Fig Rig does. As far as I know Fig Rig doesn't actually make there rods, they are made for them by a different company which is a very common practice nowadays. I find it hard to believe that with Ganders purchasing power they would have someone else import rods with the Gander name on them for them. THey would go to the company and have them made themselfs and cut out the middle man. Now they probably don't want to refute that Fig Rig makes the rods because Fig Rig is a well known brand and Gander isn't going to say that there rods are made by some unknown Chinese rod plant when people believe that they are made by a well known maker. Years ago Gander rods were made by St. Croix, but that has been years and you still will not hear a Gander employee refute that they are made by St. Croix if a customer says that they are. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Reelman, no doubt that you can have two equally IM rated rods and one can be better than the other. I think Jaime was wondering more about the lengths of the rods and who makes them. One thing I do know, the IM-8 Gander rods are lighter and more responsive than the IM-7 rods, and I would have to guess they are that much better than the IM-6 rods.
I also know that they have two classes of IM-8 rods, I don;t remember what the one is called, but the one I have is the "Tournament" series. Both have an IM-8 rating but are two different types of rods. I have compared them, and the Tournament is a much better rod for what most of us would be using it for. Fairly nice tip bend for casting lighter lures, and does a great job of keeping a good bend while fighting a fish, but has a good solid back bone for power.
The other IM-8 rod has a much less stout overall appearance and feel. It's lighter in the tip, and definately much less stout as you approach the butt end of the blank. My uncle has one of these rods, and I would say it's a decent rod, but on the whippy side for most musky fishing.
I'm pretty sure the Im-7 series comes in a 7 and 7'6" length (maybe an in between 7'2" there too but I'm not sure). For the price, that's not a bad rod either, but it will be heavier and less responsive than the Tournament series IM-8. For only about $10 more than the IM-7, you can get the Tournament Series, which I think is really a great deal for how that rod performs.
As far as who makes them, nobody will probably ever have a solid answer. The guy working at Gander told me they were made by Fig Rig, but who knows.
When I decided to get my Tournament series rod they didn't have any in stock, and he told me that the people at Fig Rig wouldn't be sending any rods to Gander until they had their Fig orders filled. Hard to say, but that's what I was told.
Anyway, I had them order my rod in from another Gander Mountain store, so if you want a particular rod and they don't have it, ask them if they could order one in from another store.
curleytail |
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Posts: 271
Location: davis,IL | I have a 6'9" pro select and a 8' pro select IM8 Gander rods. Both are decent rods, no complaints. As for the manufacturer, I don't know, what I heard was that the same rod blank is used by both Gander and Fig Rig. I just purchased a Tica 8' MH and the weight difference is noticeable between the two brands of rods, with the Tica being about 3-4 oz. lighter. The 6'9" is a heavy (jerkbait rod) and the 8' is a mh (bucktail). |
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Posts: 513
| Hey Guys,
I actually spoke with someone at Gander Mtn. a couple of years back regarding their 'Guide Series' musky rods. I was told that they were 'made in the same factory that makes Shimano rods'. However, to clarify, I was also told that 'they were NOT made BY Shimano".
Regards,
Todd |
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Posts: 284
| I used to work for gander mountain and shortly after st croix stopped making there rods the outsourced the company that i believe makes diawa or pinnalce blanks for light spinning rods and a company called ABoss to make the muskie rods and heavy spinning blanks. I don't know if this is still the case. In either case I had broken one of my old st croix gander rods last year and they replaced it with the current gander rod (pro select)and I love it. It is much better than the old rod. Still it is nothing like my loomis's though. I did got a 6'9" becausee that was all I found as well but I believe that they said they could get the 7 and 7'6" in but that they would cost more because of the longer blank. |
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Posts: 128
| Just to clarify, my brother is a manager at Gander Mountain, and YES! the tournament series from last year and the year before were made on Fig Rig blanks. They are now discontinued now so who knows what the new ones will be. |
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Posts: 1270
| So what are Fig RIg blanks considering FR doesn't make there own blanks as far as I know? IMHO it seems like Gander doesn't really try to clarify these rumors but instead just let them perpetuate so it appears that there rods are built by a "name" rod maker. Shimano is one of the companies that ownes there own factory so again I doubt that they are made in the same factory. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | schrump - 3/6/2008 11:04 PM
Just to clarify, my brother is a manager at Gander Mountain, and YES! the tournament series from last year and the year before were made on Fig Rig blanks. They are now discontinued now so who knows what the new ones will be.
They discontinued the Tournament line? Darn! Do you know (or can you ask your brother) if they have another rod to replace the Tournament Series, or will the IM-8 Pro select be the highest grade musky rod they sell now? Thanks.
curleytail
Edited by curleytail 3/7/2008 5:11 PM
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