Musky Rods For Flatties?

[Spazzums08]

Guys ever use em? If so, which ones?

[50inchpig]

Alot of the musky rods are a little fast for good catfishing, try a glass rod like the BPS CatMaxx or the Berkely Big Game, both are dirt cheap and will give you the right action. Ugly Sticks also make the list, and Fleet Farm always has a ton of brightly colored cat rods on sale too.

I'm not a big catter but we do the Sturgeon thing and very much prefer the glass rods.

[hanso612]

All my cat rods do double or tripple duty. I like a 7 and a half foot medium heavy musky rod for trolling big baits for walleye, it is a good rod for using a three ounce bottom bouncer especially paired with a reel that has a flipping switch. With that you can one handedly walk a rig down a reef. I also like them for bobber fishing for pike with suckers.

I think most tradtional walleye fisherman are under gunned, not for the fish, but for the presentation. If more people would learn to use a baitcaster and try some bigger baits I think there catches of all species would go up and they would catch bigger fish to boot. Hans

[crazyice]

The first really big flathead I saw come to a boat last year came on a musky rod. The rod was really stiff and allowed rugbyguy to horse it in fairly quick.

[slipperybob]

All depends on how you use it. You can turn a cat around a lot easier with a musky rod than a standard glass cat rod. Hook set is probably reduced down to 1/4 of the range on a glass cat rod. On a straight tug of war, a glass cat rod will be preferential.

[katchaser]

I have a confilict when choosing flathead rods.

I often set baits far out and need a very stiff rod

to help insure a good hookset.

Once a fish is hooked I want a more flexible

rod for the fight. I am using the heavy Cat Maxx rods

because I got to hook them to land em.

I use relatively light line (36#) so I compensate with

correct drag settings.

[dps]

The rod I choose really depends on the location, and set up I am fishing at/with. Deeper water, and heavier current I like a heavier cat rod. A little tip action has absolutely no advantage when current drag is pretty much taking up the play in the rod. A stiffer rod will offer a little more resistence, and can perform much better in faster moving water. That same rod usually has way more lifting power to try to bring up fish from the depths.

Lighter rods with softer tips... they are fine for cutbait fishing, or ares without a ton of current and snags. They work ok on more fragile minnow species, but are less than ideal when using large bullheads.

When a rod is too stiff, for some reason I tend to miss quite a few runs, or set the hook, and I lose the fish soon after. They dont work for squat with circle hooks, and most of the time they are less than effective in hookup ratio on tight line fishing.

Some give to the rod is ideal, how much I think is strongly manipulated by the current levels, and depths.

The last factor is MONO line. A stiffer rod works better with mono, and greatly increases the hookup percentage on live bait fishing. My theory is the line stretch is giving the cushion for the hookset where braids will often just get ripped out of the mouth. A more forgiving rod is usually more ideal for braids in the same situation, fishing side by side to a mono rod.

I am not saying mono is better than braids, absolutely not. But the same combo is not going to perform the same with either type of line, some rods are better braid rods, other are better for mono. Both can be equally effective when the fisherman finds the right line which works best for the combo.

A musky rod for flathead fishing? Thats almost a trick question. Musky rod blanks are commonly made into catfishing rods, but usually the lighter rods made for throwing bucktails, etc(tip is forgiving).... at the same time, an extra heavy 40# - 80# St Croix pool cue might be great for muskies, but you might as well put some eye bolts in a broomstick for flatheads, it will perform the same.

[hanso612]

When using light mono a rod that bends before the mono stretches can save on line. Once you let mono stretch to the breaking point it recoils on itself. It losses most of its stretch making it highly likely that the next fish will break off. Most salmon rods are soft in part for this reason.(other reasons:salmon flesh rips easily,line pops out of clips easy in big waves, cheap to buy 12 rod spread)

On the other hand a stiff rod and no stretch braid makes it more likely that you will pull the hook out of the cats flesh especially on a hookset close to the edge of a cats flesh.-That being said cat skin is tougher than most other species and once a hook is in it usually stays. I have ripped too many northern lips with stiff combos.

I like the point made above- of using a stiff rod to take up slack quikly and get a good hookset. I'm usually nodding off or playing cards when the drag screams so watching for every little bite is as important to me. It's hard to miss when a big cat takes your bait and runs.

I also like a stiff rod and heavy line to pull fish from heavy cover, but to be honest most of my big cats have come from scour holes and deeper water and not from under snaggs and log jams.

This is probably more a function of "that's where I chose to set up with a big boat rather than thats where there is better fishing as well as fish in heavy cover tend to be dormant", but it works for me. Most of my fish have been caught on 17 pound Trilene XT, so it's probably good I'm not trying to pull them out of wood to often.

I use very large decoy suckers, moon eyes, redhorse and squid. plus two or three ounce pyramid sinkers. I like to get a good spread with the baits and get them away from the boat-too lite of a rod makes it very difficult to hurl these heavy baits very far. Stiff long musky rods can throw it a country mile. Hans

[SteveD]

 Originally Posted By: Spazzums08

Guys ever use em? If so, which ones?

I use musky rods for flatheads. I like graphite - it's light and has the strength to handle a big fish in close quarters. I don't use expensive musky rods though - after I busted my favorite St Croix musky rod on a snag.

I have 4 flatheads rods.

- Two are Shakespeare Catera rods, IM-8 graphite, CAM6063 1H, 6'3" long, Heavy Action, rated for 20 - 50 lb test line, these rods are paired with Abu Garcia 6500 C-4 reels with 65# test PowerPro HiVis line.

- One Shakespeare Agility rod, IM-8 graphite, ACAM 6069 1H, 6'9" long, Heavy Action rated for 20 - 50 lb test. I have this rod paired with a Abu Garcia 6600 C-4 reel with 50# test PowerPro HiVis line, I use this rig for flipping baits into heavy cover.

- One Shakespeare Ugly Stick Tiger Rod, BWC/AO, 7' long, Medium Heavy Action rated for 30# - 60# test line. This rod is paired with a Shakespeare Catera 4300 reel with 65# test PowerPro HiVis line. This is my heavy cover setup designed for use is heavy timber and log jams. It is big and cumbersome to use.

Unfortunately, all the rods are dark rods. I wrap relective tape on the ends of all the rods to help see them better in the dark. You can fish two rods on the St Croix so I like to hold one rod when I get set up on a good flathead spot. That is one of the reasons I prefer the graphite rods - they are light and easy to handle and you can feel everything going on with the bait. That low stretch PowerPro telegraphs everything up that rod to you when you are holding it.

Man, am I ready for some flathead fishing. Come on, Spring!!

[cjac]

Here's the cop-out reply....it depends!

The more you get to situation specific instances the more it gets confusing. Even katchaser said so, he likes the hookset from a stiff rod but the flex for fighting a fish. He's caught a "just a few" so I like his thinking!

In general, the answer is "no". The more you go the higher end rods for any species, the more specific they are. Case in point, y'all have different rods for channels and for flatties. My muskie rods are more "sit" specific, and with the exception of a couple trolling (softer) glass rods, I wouldn't use 'em for cats. That's why I picked up a couple cattin' rods last year.

Plus, cat rods are relatively inexpensive in comparison to some muskie rods. It's worth it to "do it right the first time".

Hope that helps........

[hanso612]

A graphite rod really pops when it breaks-like a gun going off. The thought of recking a two hundred dollar rod scares me off too. For cats there is no need to go ultra lite or ultra sensative. But if you can only afford one rod I would pick one that cound be used for many application not just cats.

I picked up a couple 7 foot Gander Mountain Competetor series musky rods for 19 bucks a piece. They bumped the price up to 29 this year. They are the cheap blue series and they weigh a ton but have good cork and many eyes. They have done everything I have asked of them. Anybody else have any luck with this series?

My luckiest rod is a 20 year old Fenwick Eagle II graphite trigger stick in medium heavy. I have horrible luck with the eyes on new Fenwicks and they just are not the rod they used to be.

I have a Rapala rod that was cheap when it was first introduced, but now I would call mid priced, that has been great.

I have a Cabelas fish eagle musky rod that had bad cork-lots of fill that came out-they offered to replace it but I abused it pretty hard and declined. Otherwise this has been a great mid priced rod.

I have a Shimano Convergence that cost more than the rest but isn't noticably better than the cheaper rods-although this is their cheap line as well. It has a better top eye than the rest.

Mostly I look for a bargain and never pay full retail. And thank god for X mas gift cards. Hans

[slipperybob]

You can't "horse" a graphite rod like a glass rod. I would not position the graphite rod handle 90 degrees to the angle of the line, but for glass or composite type rods that's well withing the parameters of rod performance.