An angler contacted me about building him a musky rod with use of a spinning reel. Says he has an old St. Croix heavy spin rod that he uses for casting bucktails to musky. Wants a "modern" rod built for the same fishing.

He doesn't like the standard level wind reel, and doesn't want to learn to use one. I know that in some cases blanks marked as spinning blanks can be used for baitcasting and visa versa. Can I use the St. Croix musky blank, (SCII i think) and build it for use with a large spinning reel?
Has anyone every done this? how did it work?
thank you, thank you, thank you

Buzz Butters

Buzz,
Sure, why not? The musky tapers from St. Croix are ideally suited for casting bucktails. A few models to consider:
3M66MHF, 3M70MHF, 3M76MHF (new), 2M610MF, 2M66MHF, 2M70MHF, 2M72MHF, 2M76MHF.
Check out a couple models in the S-Glass for moderate action.

I've used a number of the above blanks depending on power and lenght preferences on spinning muskie rods and they worked beautifully with the larger spinning reels. You have to think 'upsizing' and not 'downsizing' with the guides to properly match with the larger reels and lines used. I would recommend also SiC or TiCh ring material for the guides.

Rich
Richard's Rod & Reel

Buzz, I have been using spinning blanks for casting rods for over twenty years. I go by the lure weight rating more than anything else. I live on the Gulf Coast near Galveston and spinning rods here are called "coffee grinders" and only "pot lickers" use them. It's a macho thing. I build 20 casting rods to one spinning rod. If I can't find the casting blank I need, I'll wrap one labeled for spinning. Ellis

Buzz,

Like Ellis mentions, people around here (Chesapeake Bay area) often scoff at spinning tackle. One reason, possibly, is that "spinning" blanks tend to be soft and whippy, and a MH spinner is NOTHING like a MH baitcaster. This is "THE" reason I started building rods for myself. Tired of rods either without backbone, or else with very heavy guides, unsuitable for finesse fishing casting jigs.

EVERY SINGLE SPINNING ROD I have made has been built on a conventional blank, and using the New Concept of guide sizing and spacing. Several of them are on Musky blanks. They work BEAUTIFULLY. Two thumbs up!

If this means anything to you, every serious striper fisherman that I know, who has tried these rods, besides one, has RAVED about the MB804 rods, and is bugging me to get them one. No lie. This really levels the playing field for spinners. Your client will be VERY happy, if you do your job right.


I've built on Loomis blanks- (Mag Bass) MB804, MB785, (Musky) MU785, MU825. All of them use single foot Fuji guides for light weight. Line break test of up to 30# with no problems whatsoever.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

TH