All,

I have a buddy looking for a custom sturgeon rod. 7'6" or so with a really sensitive tip. Any suggestions for the blank to fit this build?

Thanks,
Adam

Legal or oversized? Location, white or green?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2016 09:25PM by Spencer Phipps.

I guess I don't understand either of those questions.

He is asking, size of fish and White or Green Sturgeon. The answers make a difference.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2016 10:26PM by Phil Erickson.

They fish for them in northern minnesota on the rainy river. I will ask for these details as well.

I fish for sturgeon in northern CA. I use Calstar BTG 196-7, Calstar GF700XL, Superseeker SS-CLBF704 and Calstar196L -7. They all have a nice sensitive tip with enough backbone to bring in a nice sturgeon. I have caught quite a few sturgeon over 6 ft up to 160 lbs but most are in the 25 to 50 lb range. But if you are fishing fast rivers you would have to use a heavier rod with more weight to hold the bait on the bottom. Some people are switching to 8 ft rods but I still prefer 7 ft. There easier to store and still do the trick.

Adam,
Pick up an 8 foot fiberglass cat fish rod It will work wonderfully well for these sturgeon.

Another rod that works really well is a 10 or 12 foot surf rod of the appropriate power and tip action.

This $20 rod does a great job of catching these sturgeon. No need to spend a lot of money for the rod. When you are fishing for these fish, you put on a decent sized reel, 50 lb test line, a #2/0 hook, a 2 oz non roll sinker and a gob of night crawlers and drop it over the side of the boat. When the tip of the rod bends, reel in the fish.

The glass rod excels for this fishing since there is enough beef in the butt of the rod to land the fish, but the tip is nice and light and able to signal a bite. The physical weight of the rod is not important, since most folks just drop the bait into the river and put the rod in a rod holder and leave it there until they get a bite or until they leave.

Example of non roll sinker:

[www.walmart.com]


Have fun.

Two blanks that were designed with sturgeon in mind are the Batson Rainshadow SWS597 and the RCLB80XL. I personally prefer the SWS597, super light, very fast tip to catch those light sturgeon takes, more than enough backbone for your application. By far my most popular Columbia River keeper size sturgeon rod, which are similar in size and weight to your biggest lake sturgeon. A Abu 6500, or similar sized reel with 50 lb. braid is what is used most with this rod.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2016 10:18PM by Spencer Phipps.

He hasn't heard of the legal or oversized terms either but he says 4-5' average monsters are 7' range. Lake sturgeon as mentioned before on the border waters of Canada and Minnesota.

Thanks to all who have replied, options are good to have.

White sturgeon get to be quite large and live a very long time. To save the fishery, ensuring lots of spawners, they have a slot limit, in easy terms to remember any fish 3 to 6 ft. long is fair game, larger or smaller you have to return them to the river unharmed. A 6 ft. fish is in the 50 - 55 lb. range, the rod I mentioned has taken bigger fish pretty regular. The soft fast tip is the thing, probably good to 12 oz. weight, I don't remember having to go much over 6 oz. on those lake sturgeon when I was stationed in MI. I've also caught big permit, cobia and tarpon on this rod.
The guys who spend a lot of time chasing sturgeon, but also fish salmon and want to use one rod for everything use this blank. I prefer the RX7 graphite SW967 in one or two piece as I think they are better everything rods, but I lean more toward salmon first.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2017 01:03PM by Spencer Phipps.