Hello,
I’ve been trolling this forum for a few months now so figured I sign up and get some opinions on my next build. On Black Friday I ordered up one of the 8’10” 11wt 1-piece MHX blanks for next to nothing. In the world of Musky Fly Fishing, the 1-piece rod is the holy grail…. well at least it is to me. You can’t really find them under $800 or $900 retail. So here are a couple of my build questions. Keep in mind that this rod will live in a boat, thus the reason for some of my thinking.

Should I Under Wrap the guides? – I cast 400gr to 500gr sinking lines and buck tail flies ranging from 8” to 15” long. There will be a decent amount of stress on the rod and guides.

Recoil Guides? – I’ve heard the good, I’ve heard the bad. Any one know how they work on heavy rods?

Anything else I should be considering for a big fish/heavy line rod?

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

I have no personal experience, but I see no reason why REC snakes would not work for the running guides, a two footed ceramic ring 1st and second guide. the only negative I've ever heard about REC is noise. I think they are plenty strong.

I would recommend you not put a hook keeper on it, instead use the frame of the first guide, which will keep the area in front of the grip clean and snag free, and also will usually keep the line/backing knot out of the tiptop by running the leader around the reel and up to the 1st guide frame;

I exclusively fish salt so I have no experience with musky...unfortunately for me. I don't see why you should under wrap guides but I would make sure the feet are clean of rough edges. If you grind them down make sure they don't etch the blank. I've never tried it but you could apply permagloss or a thin coat of epoxy without wraps under the feet to create a protective shell. I've caught some big salt fish without under wraps and haven't had any problems. Good luck.

Chris,
I use the same blank and do some musky fishing with it. No need to underwrap.....none of my tarpon rods have ever had underwraps, nor my offshore fly rods, so no need for musky.
The REC snakes are great, especially for a dedicated boat rod since they can take a lot of abuse. Use the regular wire and not the light wire. The noise is very annoying, especially if you are using a textured line, but that's the only drawback in my mind.

One thing you might consider is adding a bit of length to the fighting butt (for a total length of 2-2.5", or even 3") to aid in two-handed casting. Most of my musky fishing is now done two-handed overhead with a switch-style grip (9" fore grip, 3" rear). It really helps chucking those monster flies with a RIO outbound short, and a two-handed delivery once you get the hang of it.

Post some pics when you complete, and good luck with your build.

Speaking not from Musky fly experience, but just on the math, I would think that a 15" fly would be handled easier with an even heavier line and a two handed cast as described above. Say 600+ grains?

-The Batson TEAM
BatsonEnterprises.com

Geoff Staples Wrote:
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> Speaking not from Musky fly experience, but just
> on the math, I would think that a 15" fly would be
> handled easier with an even heavier line and a two
> handed cast as described above. Say 600+ grains?



There will be a “true” 2-handed rod added to the arsenal at some point, probably a 10’ or 11’ to really launch’m on big water like Mille Lacs in MN.
This rod will get a fighting butt/rear grip like Bryan mentioned above. At least 3 inches.

11 foot min on the TH - for casting 12' is better.

Under 12' a single hander with a double haul is more efficient.

I like a 8'9" #11 with an OutBound short
Herb

Chris

To your original questions, there is no need for under wraps. The fly rod purist police will not arrest you if you do, but under wraps are not needed.

REC guides are good stuff. I am partial to Snake Brand's Universal guides and use them on all rods including the heavier fly rods intended for salt venues. You're not immediately concerned about salt but with that weight rod you might as well keep the salt option open.

I assume you already are planning a fighting butt. You might also consider a fore grip.

Don't go cheap on the reel seat. REC also has some very serviceable metal seats for the heavy weights.

The only noisy REC guides I have encountered are the "coil-style" stripping guides. REC running guides are quiet, absolutely corrosion-proof, and unbreakable. Really. The chief constraint to the size of the opening of your guides and tip-top will be the diameter of your line-to-leader connection, especially if you use a nail knot. Make sure your leader-line connection passes freely through your guide train or the fish of a 1,000 casts will become the fish of 100,000 casts!

The only thing I would add is the comment over rod length......11-12' is great when wading or from the beach, but a real pain in a boat (storage, getting a fish to the net). My current favorite musky rod is a Meiser 9' 9" built just for hucking monster flies two-handed from the boat. But my back-ups are the 10wt and 11wt MHX 1-piece built as described above. They all do a great job, can be stored in most boat under-gunnel rod tubes, allow for easy figure-8 moves at the boat, and applying max side pressure to get the fish alongside.

This last point is only personal preference, and with due respect to others opinions, I don't recommend fore-grips on any fly rod. They kill lower rod action during casting, pose significant rod-breakage risk if not used properly, and discourage proper force angle when fighting large fish. But that's just my opinion...I've known plenty of anglers who use them.

Bryan Yates Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The only thing I would add is the comment over rod
> length......11-12' is great when wading or from
> the beach, but a real pain in a boat (storage,
> getting a fish to the net). My current favorite
> musky rod is a Meiser 9' 9" built just for hucking
> monster flies two-handed from the boat. But my
> back-ups are the 10wt and 11wt MHX 1-piece built
> as described above. They all do a great job, can
> be stored in most boat under-gunnel rod tubes,
> allow for easy figure-8 moves at the boat, and
> applying max side pressure to get the fish
> alongside.
>
> This last point is only personal preference, and
> with due respect to others opinions, I don't
> recommend fore-grips on any fly rod. They kill
> lower rod action during casting, pose significant
> rod-breakage risk if not used properly, and
> discourage proper force angle when fighting large
> fish. But that's just my opinion...I've known
> plenty of anglers who use them.


Bryan,
Thanks for the info. Back to your comment regarding a longer fighting butt. Do you use the removable style fighting butts to give the rod a little extra length or do you do cork over the blank and keep the rod 8’ 10”? I just started adding everything up and it takes up a decent amount of space. 4” fighting butt, 4.5” reel seat and 8”- 10” handle. Probably not far off from the TFO Esox rod I’m throwing right now though.

Chris,
I extended the blank by extending a few inches of fiberglass blank into the butt to give me the added length. The aluminum screw-on butts I've had issues with (breaking) on mini-spey conversion rods, and given the torque applied when doing figure-8's, not to mention casting, I did not want to take another chance on those.
You can use any carbon or glass blanks (I use broken rods kept around for this reason), as long as the taper is close. I epoxy that into the butt of the rod, about 3 inches of insertion is what i"m looking for, and 3-4" extending out the back depending on how long my rear grip is.

OK, musky season is around the corner and I guess I better get this rod built. Here’s what I have loaded in my cart to order. Do you guys have any recommended changes? I’m sort of concerned with the jump from a #16 stripper down to a #4 snake? Should I bridge that gap somehow? Anyways, let me know your thoughts. Thanks for the help.

Reel Seat: American Tackle A10
Fore Grip: 7.5" Full Wells w/Cutout
Rear Grip: 4.75" Spey/Switch Handle
Stripper Guides #1: Qty 1 - Size 20 Pac Bay Model N
Stripper Guides #2: Qty 1 - Size 16 Pac Bay Model N
Running Guides: Qty 7 - Size 4 REC Heavy Snake (RSNX)