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Posts: 18
Location: White Bear lake, MN | What's a good rod for trolling headlocks?
I've used a Berkley catfishing rod for muskie trolling. The headlocks just double it over. Any rod recommendations? |
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Posts: 34
| An E-glass blank in a heavier action works the best as they have a 'measured give'. This means you have a soft tip to show the bait action or lack of action (weeded up) and to help the bait bounce off of rocks. When a fish hits, the blank gradually builds power into the backbone and not right thru the handle. This is a great 'shock absorber' when pulling big baits or speed trolling with superbraids. Best options are either a custom built one or save the money and get the heaviest model in the Custom X trolling rods. |
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Posts: 1272
Location: Walker, MN | Huey - 6/12/2015 12:22 PM
What's a good rod for trolling headlocks?
I've used a Berkley catfishing rod for muskie trolling. The headlocks just double it over. Any rod recommendations?
I'm curious about this too. Does anyone know of an inexpensive blank (maybe saltwater) that would work well for a custom big bait trolling rod? |
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Posts: 10
| Migizi makes a solid rod for trolling big and small baits. |
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Posts: 81
Location: Toronto, Ontario | St. Croix 8' premier glass trolling rod....works great for trolling anything. |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | I have a couple of old St Croix Premier PM-60H, 1-5 Oz., 6 footers. I use them for down rods
with a foot and a half in the water and pull Headlocks with no trouble. Good luck, Tom |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | I have a couple of old St Croix Premier PM-60H, 1-5 Oz., 6 footers. I use them for down rods with a foot and a half in the water and pull Headlocks with no trouble. Good luck, Tom |
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Posts: 34
| The Migizi is a lot softer on the tip. You want something a little more stout in the tip or the rod will be loaded more than it should be when you get into the 4-5.5mph range where HeadLocks are usually the craziest and best for mid-summer action. The 8' St. Croix Premier Glass is like all the other Trolling/Live Bait rods--they are made for live bait. Meaning they don't have enough of a midsection/way too much backbone. You need this for busting a rig out of a sucker but you will land less fish trolling because of it. The heavier action/stouter backbone will cause some lighter hooked fish to tear right off when trolling. Just not enough of a shock absorber when kicking up the speed and using superbraid. The E-glass blank was first made by St.Croix but they only made it into a saltwater rod and they have long since been discontinued. The Custom X is the closest thing I've seen to it in a production rod. These are also the rods that Duff from Supernatural Big Baits uses. |
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| Fenwick Elite Predator 8 1/2' trolling rod. Two piece and handles the headlocks very well. Heavy with MF action. |
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Posts: 27
| Brett,
What if you prefer to troll with heavy mono? |
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Posts: 114
| Without question, the best and I mean BEST bang for your buck if you want solid big bait trolling rods are Ugly Stick Tigers. The guides are indestructible and they are glass rods. I prefer the 7' Medium action for average to medium size lures (small tuffs, boss, wiley, etc. up to 8" tuff, perchbaits, etc), and then the 7' MH for the big stuff. The 7' MH can pull plows no problem. |
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Posts: 240
Location: Oconomowc, WI | MuskieJim - 6/17/2015 9:56 AM
Without question, the best and I mean BEST bang for your buck if you want solid big bait trolling rods are Ugly Stick Tigers. The guides are indestructible and they are glass rods. I prefer the 7' Medium action for average to medium size lures (small tuffs, boss, wiley, etc. up to 8" tuff, perchbaits, etc), and then the 7' MH for the big stuff. The 7' MH can pull plows no problem.
+1! |
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Location: Around | Been using Shimano TDR 8' heavy for headlocks. They are nice trolling rods and they are cheap. Think $30 |
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Posts: 1638
Location: Minnesota | I use custom built rods from Thorn bros. All My casting rod's are Thorn bros custom so why go cheap on trolling rods. |
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Posts: 121
Location: Forest Lake, MN & Bemidji, MN | I use the TDR heavy 8' as well. No issues pulling supernaturals even behind a tx44 planer board. Don't troll a ton but it is perfect for the amount I use it. |
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Posts: 111
| Does anyone know of an inexpensive rod option for shallow canadian shield trolling? You are continously banging rocks. Graphite rods makes your lure stick like velcro. Is there an inexpensive glass rod that gives the lure the "bounce off the rocks effect" like the high end custom glass rods?
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Posts: 84
| Berkeley GlowStiks ...8-9-10 ft.....slower action with lots of power and slow bend rate as you load it. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | muskyhunter47 - 6/17/2015 11:36 AM
I use custom built rods from Thorn bros. All My casting rod's are Thorn bros custom so why go cheap on trolling rods.
Because some of us are on a budget when it comes to fishing tackle...
I troll very little so take this for what it's worth - I have a few different Rods I troll with. A Shimano 8'H TDR and a Cabelas 9' Dipsey diver rod, and one of Tackle Industries Live bait/trolling rods are the only rods I use that are "designed" for trolling.
The TDR is the best of all of them for handling a wide range of baits, and has more of the action I think a trolling rod normally has. I'm not sure how hard a Headlock pulls, but it handles 11" Custom X's (big lips on them) behind a board at musky speeds. The Cabelas rod is ok but has a very slow action.
The Tackle Industries rod will pull big baits without flinching, but might be a tad heavy/fast/stiff for what some might like in a trolling situation.
So far my opinion is the TDR's are cheap and handle pretty big baits. They might not be a Thorne or Custom X rod, but unless one is a pretty serious troller I'm not sure the high dollar rods are needed. |
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Posts: 34
| The Heavy TDR is great, but anything over a 10" Jake at 3.5+mph will have it bending thru the handle making it pretty ineffective. You put a planer board on and/or bigger or harder pulling bait or kick up the speed over 5mph and you might as well be hand-lining as the rod is no longer a shock absorber for any hits or impact. Some of the Ugly Stiks work very nice.
For trolling with mono I would recommend rods more designed for Live Bait/Trolling as they are much stiffer and heavier in the backbone. Mono has over 20% stretch so there is plenty of shock absorbing going on there and you don't need the rod to do it for you. Mono work better in some of the standard releases on planer boards as well. I have always preferred superbraid as I want that no stretch, bone splitting power even when trolling as super slow speeds and the ability to see if my bait is working properly or if it has gathered weeds and superbraids telegraph this better than everything except maybe wire. Only rod I have mono on is my propwash rod as that is pointed back where the rod really isn't a factor and I need the shock absorbing stretch of mono. Especially on such a short leash! |
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Posts: 754
| Brett Erickson - 6/12/2015 8:23 PM
An E-glass blank in a heavier action works the best as they have a 'measured give'. This means you have a soft tip to show the bait action or lack of action (weeded up) and to help the bait bounce off of rocks. When a fish hits, the blank gradually builds power into the backbone and not right thru the handle. This is a great 'shock absorber' when pulling big baits or speed trolling with superbraids. Best options are either a custom built one or save the money and get the heaviest model in the Custom X trolling rods.
This should just be inserted any time someone asks about trolling rods...Great advice here.... |
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Posts: 157
Location: Lincoln, NE | I run the 8' H St. Croix Premier Glass rod and it's actually S Glass not E Glass. My sister just got a Custom X trolling rod this year. I also have a 7' Ugly Stik Tiger rod as one of my catfish rods but have used it as a backup musky trolling rod before. I'll try to touch on a few of the advantages/disadvantages of each. The St. Croix compared to the Custom X. The Custom X seems a little more beefy at first. Probably cause it's a lot thicker at the base of the blank. The St. Croix seems a little more stiff throughout though. If you hold them both, one in each arm the first thing you notice is how much lighter the Custom X feels. This is because the reel seat is more forward so the rod is better balanced. I hold my rod while trolling and the St. Croix seems like the handle is a little too short. The Custom X also has thicker foam vs the St. Croix cork. I like the thicker foregrip, it feels more comfortable, and I don't even have big hands. The tip of the Custom X feels a lot more wobbly than the St. Croix. I would say the St. Croix has a more even bend all throughout and the Custom X has a softer tip but more backbone, whereas the St. Croix's power comes on more through the middle and then into the backbone. When you hold each and have someone pull the line like a bite, and you set the hook, they feel VERY similar thoughout, it just comes on a little different. I don't have any problems with my St. Croix's tip feeling the action of baits, even smaller ones but I would imagine the Custom X might show it even a little better. I also love the extra lockdown ring on the reel seat. The Custom X would actually be a really badass catfish rod except I think for the price you can get some custom cat rods done up. All in all I love my St. Croix but I would probably recommend the Custom X, mainly because it's $165 vs $210 for the St. Croix, and has a few more little features like the balance, the foregrip, the lockdown ring, the heavy duty line guides.
That being said, the Ugly Stik Tiger feels exactly like the Custom X but in a 7' version. It bends the same, same reel seat location, foam thickness, etc. If you are on a budget, get one of them. Or they could work well as a down rod and use the Custom X as an out rod. Another advantage is being shorter then can tuck away in the boat and be out of the way when you're casting. I do like 8' rods though over 7' rods, especially for bigger baits.
From holding the rod while I troll I would say that Headlocks don't pull that hard. Not compared to a 12" Custom X anyway. Those things will wear you out, the only thing worse is my homemade size 13 blade hurricane. I do mainly always troll the headlock on the first (shallowest) pin though.
Hope this gives a little more insight into the details of each. |
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Posts: 121
Location: Forest Lake, MN & Bemidji, MN | Lots of good info here, as someone who does not troll much I never really thought of many of the different points being made.
Several points about the rod being a 'shock absorber' and rods being too soft for headlocks or other larger harder pulling baits etc. I guess I always thought of the drag on the reel as taking the vast majority of the 'shock' but it makes perfect sense that if the rod is not fully loaded when pulling the bait it takes the inital impact until the fish starts taking line vs. a fully loaded rod not really doing anything on the strike because it can't and the drag taking it all. Likely a much better chance of keeping a fish pinned with the appropriate rod combined with a good drag setting.
Cripes, the last thing I need is more than one trolling set-up! Thanks for good discussion guys. |
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Posts: 55
| I just custom built two trolling rods this past off season specifically for and that work well with headlocks and matlocks. I built them on the 9' Lamiglass blanks (model BT 108 3M) these blanks come in the classic lamiglass honey color (has an H at the end of the model number) or in a gloss black finish (has a B at the end of the model number). Depending on your preference you could cut a couple inches off the tip to make them a little stiffer. I left them at the 9' length as I feel the softer tip is good for the lure action. These blanks have a nice medium action which pulses nice with the lures erratic action. I used these originally out on the east coast trolling larger Bunker spoons for Striped Bass and they are the main blank used for that style of fishing.
let me know if you have any questions! |
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