Dead Stick?????

[Kevin]

Looking at buying a dead stick for an extra rod while fishing.
Which brand
What length
What action
Why do you like the rod you suggest

I fish with a tiller 1678 yarcraft front and rear trolling motor.
Mainly fish Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota. Lindys or bottom bouncers
and love to troll cranks.

Thanks for any info Kevin.

[REW]

Basically use a 7 1/2 - 9 foot light action rod as a dead stick rod.
I really don't think that it makes any difference as to the brand, style or any thing else.
The only thing that you need is a rod - that is long enough to get the bait away from the boat, that is limber enough - so that a fish can completely inhale the bait, without really feeling the pressure of the rod.

Rods that are both long and limber meet this criteria very nicely. There is not any need for a rod with lots of backbone either. Generally, by the time that you get the rod out of the rod holder, the fish is well hooked. Actually a lighter action rod, is more forgiving, and is less likely to throw the hook at the boat - due to a heavier rods non flexing nature.

If you want to use this as more of a multi purpose rod, you could go up to a medium light action rod as well, and then have a bit more backbone - if you wanted to use the same rod as a bobber rod - for example, or as a hand held lindy rigging rod.

I would never go heavier than a medium light action rod, if I were to use it for either rigging, or dead sticking - in the waters you mention.

If I was in an area of potentially bigger fish, then I might opt for a somewhat heavier action rod. Not for your lakes however.

Take care

REW

[Lund_Dude]

For dead sticking, I changed to a 10.5' steelhead rod. The one I have is custom, but built on a StCroix blank. The rod is UL action, but the rod builder did a lot of work on the eyes (size & placement) to make the rod cast light jigs like a bullet. I like to use a circle hook and splitshot and cast the rig out. When the fish picks up the bait, the rod slowly loads without them detecting it and the circle hook sticks the fish (no hook set!). This is a great cold front technique.

[ufda]

I agree with Lund Dude on the use of circle hooks on a dead stick and with REW on a long light action rod. This is not, IMHO, the place to spend a lot of money on a custom or expensive rod. Therefore, I simply took a CHEAP light action 8 1/2' graphite fly rod, replaced the eyes with ceramic and the handle with cork. Also works wonderful for side slinging crawlers without snapping them off.

[Todd_NE]

I agree with the 8' or plus "limber" rod idea. I also love these rods for livebait in greater than 30' of water with sliding wire weight systems. As REW and others have said, these rods are sensitive, forgiving, and you can load them without losing the fish.

Two good ones in Moderate (sorta parabolic) action are the folllowing:

St. Croix Premier
PS86LM2 8'6" L Mod. 2 4 - 8 1/16 - 5/16 $ 95

St. Croix Avid
AS80MLM2 8'ML Mod. 2 4 - 8 1/16 - 5/16 $ 160

http://www.stcroixrods.com

Good luck

todd