I am looking at building a personal rod over the winter. The idea is to build what I would consider to be the ultimate crappie rod. I plan to put a full cork handle on it, full recoil guides with a guide wrapped on the tip vs tip top and very minimalist in style. I would like a 2 piece due to ease of transport and am looking at 7-7'6", although I'm leaning towards 7' and may end up going s tad shorter if it makes sense to do a 1-piece. I have limited experience with crappie blanks but have narrowed it down to the following blanks. Does anyone have insight on these or any other blanks I should consider? I know they cover a very wide price point. Thanks!

-Phenix Elixir FX761-2
-Rainshadow Revelation REVS72L
-St. Crook 5S70LF
-St. Croix 5S70ULM
-St. Croix 3S70ULF
-Point Blank PB701LF



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2015 11:39PM by Nate Nelson.

Nate, what kind of lures will you be throwing with this rod? That will help immensely. Are you planning on trolling small crankbaits, using beetle spins, or live bait, etc? I personally like either a really soft tip or something with a more parabolic bend. I have built on the Rainshadow 1 power popping rods (XP841 and SP841), the Revelation REVS72UL, a Phenix Mirage that was 7'7" (very moderate to slow action, can't remember the model number), Liberty UL/Dropshot series DS700 (really soft tip with lots of backbone available from GetBit who is a sponsor). I do like the Rainshadow blanks and the Revelation ULs, the Phenix Mirage was a bit too soft for my liking (but my customer loves it for big bull bluegills on the bed, he likes to play his fish), but I really liked the Liberty blank a bunch if I'm throwing stuff over 1/16 oz. Hope this helps a little.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2015 07:11AM by Jared Taylor.

You also need to state how this will be used to get any meaningful answers: as part of a spider rigging setup? Around stumps in spring? Livebait or jiggling lure in their face?
Then where is also important as that leads to size of targetted fish and by catch. Down South on sardis Enid Grenada etc you have very big crappies, jiggle a lure around some lakes and you may get into a massive gator gar or similar.
Look at S glass too.....

I have built on, and fish with, the American Tackle Bushido SJ72/4-8. This blank is really fun to fish, not to soft in the tip, but not a buggy whip either. I have used it on gills, perch,crappies,bass, and pike (and the occasional carp). Pitching everything from tiny jigs on 4lb nanofil to small crankbaits to wacky worms, this blank comes through. Give it a good look.

I have built on, and fish with, the American Tackle Bushido SJ72/4-8. This blank is really fun to fish, not to soft in the tip, but not a buggy whip either. I have used it on gills, perch,crappies,bass, and pike (and the occasional carp). Pitching everything from tiny jigs on 4lb nanofil to small crankbaits to wacky worms, this blank comes through. Give it a good look.

Thanks for the replies so far, I should have described my fish I method. It will be most pitching small jigs (1/32-1/8) with a minnow or plastic. Also will be using small bobbers with the jig or plain hook setup underneath. Typical up here in MN we target them early in the season and they will be in 4-15" of water. Crappies here aren't too large, a really good size one in my area would be 12-14". We hook into the occasional bass or pike but I'm not concerned about fighting them. I'll be using a size 25 Pflueger or 1000 Shimano with 3lb Nanofil.

Nate,
It is going to be a great rod that you describe.

However, I have a few different thoughts for MN Crappie fishing.

I used to use a rod similar to what you describe and will still use one with those characteristics from time to time. The rod that is along the same line is a North Fork composite 6'6" that was originally built for very light jig walleye fishing.

But after getting the expensive blank the customer and I decided that this blank was really too light for the type fishing that the customer wanted to use.
So, instead, I built up a St. Croix 5S 6'6" ML rod. It came out great and was just right for his needs. However, the North Fork Composite blank does everything that you describe very well.

Although I do use that rod from time to time, much of the fishing for crappies is done when I need to cast a very long distance and use a bobber for bite detection. For that style fishing, I use either the Loomis HS9000, or one of a pair of 7'6" rods built on light action blanks by a manufacturer that is no longer in business. However, for this style fishing - where I want to cast a very very long distance, I use a very large spool reel that is equivalent to the US Tackle series of reels. With the weight of the Rocket Bobber, 4 lb line and the large diameter reel with the larger diameter stripper guides, I can cast to have the bobber nearly out of sight. This style reel has a very high speed retrieve of 32 inches of line per turn. This allows me to target spooky fish, cast past the school, work the school and then reel back quickly to cast again. All of this without getting close to the fish which will spook them at times.

I am curious as to the reason that you are going to use a conventional guide for an open water rod. I have used it many times before, as have others when they are fighting ice and line freezing but not for open warm water fishing. A larger guide used as a tip top works well when the line is freezing from time to time in cold weather, but is seldom used in warm non freezing and or clean water setting.

Great ideas and I hope that you share pictures of your completed rod. It should be a good one.

Be safe



I also use a couple of the 840 blanks that have are a 7 foot rod with very light tips. Again, excellent rods for this type fishing.

Recoil guides are fine, but Pac Bay Minima guides in the tich finish are about the same weight and give equivalent appearance and performance at a fraction of the cost of the recoil guides.

From time to time, I will also use an 8 foot light salmon rods, to have a rod with sufficient back bone to flip a rocket bobber out 1/2k way across the pond - so to speak. Again, with this style rods, I also use a larger and higher stripper guide to maximize casting distance with minimum line drag and slap.

A long time ago, I stopped using 1000 sized reels when I wanted any sort of distance in the line casts. I have just found that using a reel with this small a spool - has a severe limiting effect on the total distance cast when working with various baits. The only time that I use 1000 sized reels is for ice fishing where I pull the line off of the spool, and for walleye jigging where I am only casting under 100 feet.

But, having said that -- the rod you describe --- will catch lots and lots of fish and should be a lot of fun to fish with.

By the way, I do have a couple of rods, similar to what you describe that I use when fishing for trout, that work very well indeed. So, I am sure that if you are casting shorter distances and only using very light lures with no bobbers that the rod will work perfectly.

Be safe

Roger - thank you for the detailed response, reading this help guides me a bit. For the record, I have a St. Croix 5S 66ML which I LOVE but in my mind is better suited for pitching 1/8 and as low as 1/16oz jigs and for active jigging. It worked well when i used it this year but I found myself longing for a rod a little lighter and a tad longer. Right now i am actually leaning towards 7' and I'd love a 1 piece so i may go a litle shorter (6'10" or so). The bobbers i use are the round snap on orange/chartreuse with a small weight on bottom. We fix them in place and can cast them out pretty far, but I will have to try a rocket bobber. Great advice on teh larger reels, I have size 30 Pflueger i may leverage too.

As for the Recoil guide piece, I have grown very fond of them for both open water and ice fishing and frankly my supplier (Get Bit or Thorne Bros) doesnt carry the Minima line of guides. I'm also thinking conventional to keep the weight as low as pssible versus the double loop Recoil guides I typically use for my builds. My idea behind tying on a tip is to keep the weight down, it may end up being a waste but thats what i do for all my ice rods. I also read that the Recoil tip top uses a stainless tube which i feel would add unnecesary weight. That is still is up in teh air and I may use a Fuji tip top at the end of the day.

Any opinions on 1 vs 2 piece?

I absolutely Batson Forecast SB780 6 1/2 ft one piece. It is a great Crappie rod for casting small jigs, and will handle those Bass that like Crappie jigs. Have sold several of these and all have been well liked. I like mine with a Tennessee split grip.