rigging rods

[3-way guy]

I am looking to buy a rigging rod,have narrowed my choices down to either a St.Croix or G.Loomis,both are 7 1/2 feet long with with a fast tip.Any thoughts on either rod would be appreciated.

[REW]

Be careful in the rod that you choose.
It is important to choose the correct weight rod, for the expected range of weights that you expect to use for your rigging.

For example, the IMS 9000 is a 7'6" IMX loomis rod that is rated mag light. In fact, this rod is an excellent rod, when used with spinner rigs, and weighted with about 3/4 oz or more of weight. However, this same rod, when weighted with only a 1/4 oz weight for a single live bait hook feels very unwieldly indeed.

However, the loomis in the 7 foot version that is rated medium light is in fact a very excellent rod, when it is pulling a 1/4-1/2 oz weight for a lindy rig and a plain hook.

By the same token, in the St. Croix series. The 7-1/2 foot rods that are rated as medium tend to be much too heavy for a live bait rig, but excel as a spinner rig, carrying more weight.

On the other hand, the wild river series of St. Croix, which are basically trout and steel head rods - really excel as a live bait rod, because of their parabolic action, very even loading and very very soft tip.

If you go with the St. Croix Premier, Avid or Legend Elite, and you want to do live bait rigging, you should look seriously at the medium light versions of those rods, in the lengths of interest.

Although they don't carry it any more, the 8' light action avid of a last year and before excelled as a dead stick and live bait rod. Very light rod, with a nice soft tip and parabolic action which allowed for a very nice rod load indeed.

I think that if you are looking for a super live bait rod for rigging, look for a rod with a light to medium light action, and a tip that would be called moderate. The moderate action means that about the first 1/2 of the rod begans to bend when a fish hits.

If you have a jig style rod, only about the first 6-10 inches of rod, have much forgivness. The rest of the rod is all backbone.

For an excellent rigging rod, you would like to see lots of tip action - for visability in setting the hook, with little resistive force being fed back to the fish.
This is also one of the reasons why the bulk of live bait rigging fishermen prefer to use a softer, lower lb reasonaly stretchy mono line. Since you aren't using a stiff rod, you aren't feeling for bites - you are watching the tip of the rod, to telegraph the bites to you - and the long softer rod, and extremely soft tip -- allow a very pronounced tip swing before any resistence if felt at the hook end of the system. This translates to more boated fish, because the fish don't spit up the bait.

Take care

REW

[Box]

Amen REW.

I have a St. Croix that has fast tip and works great for jigging, but it just doesn't work great as rigging. I got a 7 foot Gander Mountain rod that has soft tip and IM6 and medium light that works 100% better than the St. Croix. It just works better because it is more suited to rigging than the Croix.

Make sure the rod you get isn't too stiff or too heavy. Even with heavy weights, you don't need a heavy rod.

My brother has a Berkly Series One 7 footer that he calls the "noodle" - worthless for jigging, but man does that rod kick but with lindy's or floats or spinners. And it feels like every fish is huge! ha! :) He got it real cheap, and its a great rod for this use.

Good luck!
Box

[Eyecon]

Look at the G.Loomis 902 71/2 footer,great rod.If you can get by with a 7 foot try the 8400.Good luck

[Bullhead]

Falcon Rods, have a new series of Spinning Rods called Cara. They have a 7'0 and a 7'6" rod for rigging. If you want to spend around 130.00 this is a very good rod to look and play with. They also have a series called Low Rider that is around 89.00. Their wed site is www.falconrods.com. I have both Loomis rods and Falcon Rods and for the money Falcon makes a very good product.
If you want to spend 379.00 the best rigging on the market is the Loomis HSR9000.
Good Luck in your quest,
Ed

[Shawn]

I personaly prefer the Loomis rod, or a custom rod made on a Loomis blank. The custom rod can be tailored to your specific fishing preferences and techniques but can get pricey. Walleye World custom Rods from Winnipeg make great rigging rods on Loomis Blanks (and you can't beat the exchange rate). Duncan is also quite reasonable with pricing.

If you would like more information send me an e-mail and I can get you Duncan's phone number and information.

If you are stuck on a Loomis branded rod. I suggest going through Dave at Tacklecanada.com, he has the best prices around that I can find, again that exchange thing plays a big role. Dave's also a great guy which makes it nice when you need service.

Just my thoughts

Shawn
www.fishingxcanada.com

[cmb]

I recently built myself a 6.5' SCIII rod. it is a ML fast action blank and works great for drifting spinner rigs. I don't know about live bait rigging becuase that is not a tactic me use often up on the big pond. although it is a fast action it has a soft tip section that loads nicely with a 3/4 oz egg in front of a harness or "mafly" rig. it is extreemly sensitive as well.


BLank is 3s66mlf-however I don't know the coresponding model # for the factory built rod.