If I were a younger fella, insecure in the slightest, and not already more proficient at muskie fishing than the legendary **** Pearson, I might be bothered by his assessment of my gear as “girlie tackle.” I have used the same tackle to land tarpon to 150 and bull sharks to 400, plus a fair number of muskies that approach 40. Muskies just don’t pull that hard, and they aren’t that difficult to hook and land. Muskie anglers fish way, way, way too heavy most of the time.
Granted, the reason for blue-steel stiff rods and winchlike reels is that they are sort-of necessary to cast the kind of giant lures that sometimes get the big bite. This has seemed more the case the past several seasons as bigger and bigger bucktails, crankbaits, and jerkbaits have become the norm in some situations.
I am fit enough to fish like that, but I don’t find the prospect appealing, much less necessary. Even with the new giant bucktails and the pounder Bull Dawgs, I don’t see the sense in the ultra-stiff rods. Yes, I know they’re on the market because people think they need them and therefore buy them. Give customers what they want, I suppose. But the premise of the rest of this paragraph remains as true today as it was 25 years ago: We usually don’t hook muskies by setting hard enough to move a lure in their mouths. We hook muskies by setting and holding on, keeping a sustained and measurable bend in the rod—and, as the fish attempts to expel the lure, the lure moves toward the bent rod as it shifts in the fish’s mouth. The measured bend in the rod insures that hooks catch hide and grind home, without tearing an excessive hole, and without creating slack line.
Ultra-stiff rods don’t provide measured and sustained bend. They bend for a moment then go straight, creating the chance for slack line. They also make the worst possible lever that an angler could ever want to work with, a technical story for another day. I give you, however, that they do a decent job of lobbing out those giant baits. But it takes two to tango. You need the combination of rod and reel that handles what you want to throw, hooks fish well, and keeps them pinned after the fact.
I routinely fish 7 to 8 ounces effectively and fairly comfortably with the heaviest rod I use, which is a custom Thorne Brothers made to order from a Sage graphite blank. The rod has a fair amount of “whoup” in the top quarter when 8 ounces is hanging on the end. It has more than 20 years of muskie, tarpon, and shark miles on it and if I had a dollar for every fish and 5 dollars for every memory—well, I’m already a rich man. Don’t ever question paying a little extra for exceptional quality, I say.
