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Posts: 16
| I am a multi-species fisherman and getting into Musky Fishing. I currently have two rods/reels - (Heavy Action) Musky Tamer with a Shimano - Corvalus Reel (CVL 400). I have a good assortment of lures and feel I need to upgrade my rod.
In addition to my bass rods, I also have a medium heavy - G Loomis with a Curado which is a multi use Northern/Walleye, but I fear it is not strong enough for Musky.
Should I get two addtional rods and reels, or should I get a more all purpose rod and reel of better quality. Where do you guys buy your rods and reels - on line or stores?
Any and all advice is welcome.
Thanks.
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Posts: 541
| I like personally having more rods ready to go then having to change stuff over. I will always have something ready to go just in case I need it quick. Me personally I would rather have 3 $200 setups than one $500 one but maybe that is just me. Alot of folks will have 3 $500 setups or more and not think much of it. |
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | I have several combos from $150 to near $700 my top 2 choices are my 9' H Predator with a Revo Toro 60 ( near $700) and my 9' XH Tackle Industries with my Okums Induron 400 ($200 invested) only 1 other gets regular use, 8' Thorne Bros C Series with a Shimano Corsair 400 ( $150 invested) Rest of my combos fall between these 2 but I have a couple rods that after using them I found was a waste of good money since I hate using them. |
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Posts: 485
Location: On my favorite lake! | If you plan on buy more rods and reels in the next few years get a good one and build. If not get a couple premiers and some Abu Garcia c4's and c3's |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Can't vote for my own  Just bought a Telescopic 9'3" Okuma today and plan on putting my TE400 on it. If not for all of the free coupons for Cabelas for the TE400 it would be a $500 setup I will have to try it out and report back. |
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | We'll keep a seat open for you James... |
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Location: Des Moines IA | Check out the Okuma EVX series of Musky Rods, affordable, telescopic handles, and a lifetime guarantee. Their Customer Service is amazing as well. I would suggest a 8'6 XH for a good all around rod. There are a ton of reels out there. I am basically a Abu Garcia guy myself, (mostly 7000s) but I am getting a little tired of having them rebuilt all the time. Looking at Penns, or maybe even breaking down and buying Shimano 400 TEs.
http://www.okumafishing.com/family/299655/EVx_Musky |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | I just bought an okuma rod, can't wait to test it out.
If I had 500-750 to spend on rods/reels I would probably try and get a couple or just one nice multi-purpose combo. There are some supposedly great all purpose rods out there, such as musky armor, that I would love to try. Lets say 150-200 for a good all purpose rod and that leaves you with enough to buy a GREAT reel that will last you a long time.
Personally, I like my St. Croix 8ft MH for anything smaller and I'm hoping my okuma 8'6" xh will be good for larger baits. I would pair both these rods with c3's/ pfluerger trions, both around 100 and have worked well for me.
my main combos:
8' st. croix with abu record- $350
8'6" okuma with gander mountain reel (same as pflueger trion 66)- $200
6'8" shimano compre with c3- $180.
just under $750 for all of them and I can cast any lure in my boat effectively.
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Posts: 582
| Calcutta 400b or st croix AC300 reels ($229), Okuma 8;6" telescopic rod $119 =. $350.
Buy two of them. Other rods you can look at are tackle industries, Musky innovations, and black river. All of these are under $150 and they are all very good musky rods.
My favorite setup is the AC300 on a Musky innovations 8' H rod. Great all purpose. Also have an okuma 8' heavy that works very well with the calcutta. big plastics i use the okuma 8'6" XXH.
Edited by jackson 3/30/2010 8:43 AM
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Posts: 692
Location: Pelican Rapids, MN | In the $500 range, I would go with the 8' HF St.Croix Premier with a Daiwa Saltist 40 Levelwind or a Silver Abu 7000 C3.. Closer to that $750 range, I would go St. Croix Slingblade or Throne Bros. XHF Predator with a Calcutta 400TE or a 400TE LJV if you can find one to fit in your price range. |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | is the st. croix 8' H a newer rod? |
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Posts: 107
Location: central illinois | I would get a TE 400 and a St, Croix 8ft. MHF 3/4-3oz. my personal favorite combo. In response to fishformusky1 question about the 8ft. heavy premier...I have the 8ft. 2-6oz. premier and I love it! It throws mag dawgs, 10 inch weagles, the krave. It handles cowgirls too, however it doesn't cast cowgirls very far(I have a TE on it too). In my opinion the 2-6oz. recommendation for this rod is rather low. |
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| I think this is great advice. "Buy two of them. Other rods you can look at are tackle industries, Musky innovations, and black river. All of these are under $150 and they are all very good musky rods" There are a lot of good rods for $100-150. I would recomend a longer rod, no shorter than 8' and seriously consider a 9'.
For reels, I think there are really only a few to consider. Calcutta 400TE, Diawa Luna/St Croix Avid, Revo Toro, Shimano Calcutta. You said that you already have a Calcutta. If that is a 300E, you have a great reel that can be used for other species as well.
I wouldn't worry about a "specialty" reel to handle double 10's, such as a Diawa Saltist, until you are sure you would throw them a lot.
My favorite combo is a 9' Musky Innovation Spring rod with a Curado 300, or my 9' Musky Innovation Sprint with a Revo Toro.
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | If you plan to troll definitely get a glass trolling rod. Id also have atleast an 8'6" heavy rod for big baits, if you wish to fish them. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | I'd have Jeremy (Bowhunter29) build me a custom - add the snakeskin appeal and educated rod builder into the equation and you may have a serious stick in your hands! |
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Posts: 294
Location: New Jersey | i personally would buy a very nice set up. I would go with a luna or calcutta (te if affordable) and get a croix legend series. Depending on how you want to fish, pick the croix that best suits your type of fishing. muskyhunting is casting all freaking day, make sure its a set up that you will love. my advice is buy a slingblade and a te and see what you think. I am almost positive you will like your decision.
Edited by muskyhunter34 4/2/2010 7:32 PM
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Posts: 910
Location: South-Central VA | There's nothing like fishing with a custom rod that's been built to your specifications: technique, lures, line, and physical stature. It can eliminate some fatigue and soreness that results from throwing huge lures all day. I say 'some' because when you're throwing giant lures on a giant rod, fatigue is going to happen. Custom rods can be built lighter, more durable, and with much better casting distance than factory rods. The best part is that they can be built to suit exactly what you want as far as length, grip material, thread wraps, marbling, tiger wraps, and snake skin. If you don't want bling- just a high quality, durable, high-performance fishing rod, that can be done as well. Definitely give a custom rod some consideration. |
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Posts: 214
Location: Beaver County, Pennsylvania | if you are going to go the calcutta route, why would you not get a TE?? |
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Posts: 270
Location: brooklyn park mn | i saw that you posted you have a tackle industries 9ft xh rod. i have a 8 6 predator xh and a steel 8 6 xh and they are border line for me on bigger double blades. in your opinion would the tackle industries 9 ft xh be heavy enough for throwing double 13's and double 15's taking into consideration figure 8's fast etc... or do you think i would need a xxh from him 9 ft?
any help would be apprecctiated since i am going to mn expo friday to buy one
thanks jim |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | Just out of curiosity, how does a custom rodbuilder make a rod lighter and more durable? |
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Posts: 910
Location: South-Central VA | Flambeauski, glad you asked. There are two main ways to modify a rod to make it lighter and more durable: guides and grips.
Most factory musky rods are built with large double-foot guides which add weight because they are larger and they use twice the thread and epoxy of single foot guides. By having a custom builder build a rod with single foot guides, you can have roughly half of the weight (maybe more) removed from the rod in front of the foregrip compared to using double-foots. This weight reduction coupled with the line taming benefits of smaller guides allow you to cast much farther. Single foot guides will have a lower profile which helps to keep them from getting hung up on things in the boat. When wrapped with Forhan locking wraps, single foot guides are just about impossible to pull out. A custom builder can also provide you with higher quality and more durable guides (lighter and made from better materials like titanium) than you can get on a factory rod.
As far as grips, the best way to save weight is to use a split grip. To go even farther, you can have a builder make you some foam core carbon fiber grips that weigh just a bit more than a handful of air. These grips are extremely durable- they will not gouge like foam or cork and they don't lose filler and turn black like cork.
My statements above are not meant to put factory rods down, I am just making comparisons. There is absolutely nothing wrong with fishing with factory rods- I have a bunch of them and there are some great ones out there (St. Croix and Tackle Industries for example).
jeremy
Edited by bowhunter29 4/8/2010 1:49 PM
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | Thanks Jeremy
When you're talking about titanium, do you mean frames or the entire guides like the REC's? Do you have any experience w/ REC's on muskie rods? |
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Posts: 2089
| 7fitty to blow??? 2 phone calls. Thornes for a TE and Frankie for the stick. Poof gone! |
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Posts: 910
Location: South-Central VA | Flambeauski - 4/8/2010 4:34 PM
Thanks Jeremy
When you're talking about titanium, do you mean frames or the entire guides like the REC's? Do you have any experience w/ REC's on muskie rods?
Flambeauski,
I'm talking about the frames. Fuji and Am Tack both make a solid titanium frame guide. The REC's are a nickel titanium alloy which gives them flexibility and 'memory'. I don't have any experience with REC's on musky rods, I'm not sure anyone is using them for musky applications. They are great on bass rods for their weight reduction. They tend to 'sing' a bit with braid, but not enough to bother most people. I do have a set of the Fuji titanium guides on a bass rod and I am sold on them. They are very light, have the super hard SiC inserts, and they've survived everything that I can throw at them (I even flipped a canoe on my rod and they held up well). I build rods with a focus on quality and performance and I build them to hold up to hard use.
I hope I was able to answer your questions.
jeremy |
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Posts: 208
| Custom Predator XH or H action with a Trinadad 14 or Calcutta TE 400.
When it's in your hands all day long you better love it! |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Two EVX rods with two Saltest 20 LW ,spooled with 100lb. Bronzback for around $650.-$700. Nuf said !
Jerome |
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