Hello

I have been reading this site and other muskie sites looking to improve on my existing equipment. It would appear that three rods would cover the majority of situations for muskie fishing. based on 8'6" length

Could you provide guidance on picking three rods and describe the application for each rod.

in a previous post it was suggested that the calcutta CLX80H would be a great rod(including the extentions it would make 8'6") please note the selection is not limitied to factory rod. the price would be open.

Thanks you
Trevor

The Calcutta rod would be for the 'extreme' baits like Mag Dawgs and bigger, but also will handle Double Cowgirls, 8" and 10" Jakes and other larger baits. You could also troll with it. This is the only rod that isn't totally fiberglass that I can recommend you can troll with.

From there, you will need a lighter bucktail rod in the 7-1/2' to 8' range. Either a custom or factory Diamondback with their Meduim Heavy Bucktail blank would be ideal for all your standard bucktail, prop topwaters, small to mid-size cranks and spinnerbaits.

The third rod would be for jerkbaits and really depends on what you like to throw. For Jackpots and Reef Hawgs I would stick with a 6'2" to 6'4" Diamondback Jerkbait blank. You need the short rod with the quick tip on this blank to really make these baits dance. The better choice for everything else would be something like the Tica 6'10"XH which is almost identical to the old All-Star rod. This will be a little better all-around rod for all of your jerkbaits--especailly with all the easy to work glidebaits that are out there now (A-P-Lures, Phantoms, etc).

This is what works best for me, but you can kind of get the idea on the setups: 7-1/2' to 8' extra heavy bucktail/swimbait rod, 7-1/2' to 8' standard bucktail rod, and 6' to 6'10" jerkbait rod. These 3 combos will cover almost the entire spectrum of lures and presentations.
Brett Erickson