Big Boy Rods – Sturgeon

So I was recently up on the Rainy River. I was lucky enough to get into some Sturgeon and it was fun! I would go back and target them again.

Question about rods… I was using a 6.5 ft Medium Heavy St. Croix. Paired with a larger Shimano spinning reel and 30 lb braid. In my opinion, it was all the rod could handle on the two bigger fish I got. A neighboring boat up there commented, that rod wasn’t made for Sturgeon and careful cause it could break. Honestly, it felt like it could break at a couple times! He made another comment about fiberglass rods / Ugly Sticks being better (I think) it was a little hard to hear him while I was fighting the fish.

So what do you guys use for Sturgeon rods / reels??

St croix musky mojo paired with a Abu Garcia 5500 or 6500. Good cheaper rod.
Look up tackle industries xh casting rods are pretty good as well. I stay on the cheaper side because it’s something I dont do a ton of.

I have a bunch of Berkley glow sticks, picture, heavy flat head gear. I have mostly 7000 reels.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

I have a bunch of Berkley glow sticks, picture, heavy flat head gear. I have mostly 7000 reels.

I agree, any of those big glass cat rods will work. Bonus: they’re cheap and indestructible

2 whisker whips with 55 okuma baitrunners, 2 8ft war rods with Shimano. charter specials.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dustin Gesinger wrote:</div>
I have a bunch of Berkley glow sticks, picture, heavy flat head gear. I have mostly 7000 reels.

I agree, any of those big glass cat rods will work. Bonus: they’re cheap and indestructible

Yup that’s what the wife and my son use.

Shakespeare Ugly Stik Tiger rods are my gold standard, and can be found online for around 65-70 bucks.

Pair it with an Abu 6500 or 7000 or giant spinning reel and you’ll be set. I also use 65lb Power Pro.

After all the rods n reels I’ve caught Sturgeon with over the years I finally found the ticket.

I now have 6 setups all with okuma evx musky H 8’6

EVx-C-861H-Tb
https://www.okumafishing.com/en/product/evxmusky-rod.html

Reels are all either diawa lexa 400’s or Revo Toro Winch 50’s

Line is 40# big game mono solar green in cold water periods.

Braided line in warm water periods or when vertical fishing anytime and I strongly prefer Team Catfish Tug O War 80# yellow.

I prefer fighting sturgeon with mono but fishing with braid.

Never anything but 8/0 circle.

Finely tuned setup after landing 1000+

I switched from my St. Croix musky rods to Penn Rampage 7′ MH Boat Casting Rods, they are 60 bucks on Amazon, nice looking and bulletproof.

Good input , thank you

Is it true that a bait caster reel will have more “torque” or geared differently for reeling heavier fish? I generally prefer spinning reels and am very much used to reeling with my left hand.

The 7’6” heavy fast st croix mojo cats work awesome one the big sturgeon. Can put big time pressure on them without feeling like it’s gonna break. It’s a fiberglass/graphite composite.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Good input , thank you

Is it true that a bait caster reel will have more “torque” or geared differently for reeling heavier fish? I generally prefer spinning reels and am very much used to reeling with my left hand.

If you want to get a spinning reel that will complete with a baitcaster it will be 4x the size and weight of the baitcaster to be equivalent in power.

My setup is featherlight… And powerful.

Spinning gear you gotta pump the rod and drop the tip to pick up line. Baitcaster, you just reel and keep the rod Bent.

I was trying to find the picture of the bent spindle on a clients spinning reel. Sometime people like to use their own gear which is fine, but I did warn him.

Now that was the only time I’ve ever witness this kind of break down, but with a baitcaster, I don’t even think about it. I’m using Garcia 6500’s since ’05.

A friend let me borrow a St Croix (can’t recall the model but it was a long rod). I only used it once because I could hear the fibers going PING PING while fighting a stur.

Went back to using my St Croix Triumphs $70. With the size of fish being reported now (well into the 60’s), I’m not sure how that rod will handle.

I’m using 4 Team Catfish Carbon Fiber rods (discontinued for the $150. price tag) and 80 pound Team Catfish Tug of War. No chalk on my hands and reel, color holds great and no weak spots in the line.

Just prepare for catching the new state record. If you don’t, you could be left wondering how big that fish really was.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Good input , thank you

Is it true that a bait caster reel will have more “torque” or geared differently for reeling heavier fish? I generally prefer spinning reels and am very much used to reeling with my left hand.

Apart from the reels, I have to imagine that you are putting a lot of stress on your line guides with a spinning rod, whereas a casting rod has the rod blank taking the brunt of the abuse based on their orientation(guides on top versus bottom). Maybe not though? Don’t saltwater guys use those huge spinning setups?

I don’t know that for sure, but I’ve always just made that assumption.

I’d go with Andy’s recommendation, he has caught an S ton of sturgeon/flathead and pays really close attention to his gear. It helps that those Okuma’s are pretty affordable too!

lindyrig79 wrote:

I generally prefer spinning reels and am very much used to reeling with my left hand.

And many baitcasters are available in left hand retrieve as well. You shouldn’t have to make that compromise.

Hard to argue with FBRM or BK as those two have fished and caught more sturgeon than I could hope to.

I am one of those that fish with a spinning reel. I think an important thing to monitor is the lbs of drag for a spinning reel. Just because a reel is big or holds a lot of line, doesn’t mean that it can apply the same amount of power. I have Okuma Avenger ABF 65b reels on my setups and it can apply 33lbs of pressure and it holds a lot of line. For comparisons sake, the Black Max spinning reel size 60 only has 20lbs of pressure. Kastking’s sharky3 5000 series holds the least amount of line of the three I’ve mentioned but has 39lbs of drag pressure. I would try to find one that has at least 30lbs of drag, then in combination with a sturdy rod and 80lb braided line, you can put it to those sturgeon pretty good.

rschmidty wrote:

I think an important thing to monitor is the lbs of drag for a spinning reel. Just because a reel is big or holds a lot of line, doesn’t mean that it can apply the same amount of power. I have Okuma Avenger ABF 65b reels on my setups and it can apply 33lbs of pressure and it holds a lot of line.

Drag is entirely different than pulling power.

Baitcaster are winches and spinning reels are not! Spinning reels require frantic pumping and reeling and baitcasters you don’t need to move the rod, just maintain pressure. Easy peasy. Lose less fish. Less stress and you and the fish.

Most spinning can pull a fraction of the drag. And they weigh a ton more.

You can pick the spinning rod guys out from a crowd when they’re pumping a baitcasting setup. Hilarious. Because most powerful baitcasters cannot pick up line as fast as spinning reels and when I see them drop the rod to reel down they go straight rod whereas they could’ve just kept er bent and maintain constant tension.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

rschmidty wrote:
I think an important thing to monitor is the lbs of drag for a spinning reel. Just because a reel is big or holds a lot of line, doesn’t mean that it can apply the same amount of power. I have Okuma Avenger ABF 65b reels on my setups and it can apply 33lbs of pressure and it holds a lot of line.

Drag is entirely different than pulling power.

I agree with you, which is why I started my post with my disclaimer about you and BK.

I am more just addressing the point that if you prefer spinning gear which I’m not saying is better, to make sure the point I made was under consideration.

Yup for sure you can skin this cat several ways.

RSchmitty

We did watch a guy break his rod this last week on a 60 inch class fish. The amazing part is he still landed the fish.

I have really grown to love my Ugly Stik Tiger rods. I have a 7000 reel and 50# Power Pro. What I like about the rod is the top 1/3 of the rod has a soft tip for detecting bites and the remaining 2/3 has plenty of backbone to pull these huge fish against the current.

IMO there are many ways to skin a cat, or sturgeon.

These are 60” and a 65” from this past week.

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I agree that baitcasters are better suited for sturgeon, but I saw some pictures and video from Darren Troseth who was on the Rainy last weekend and he and his fishing partners were using spinning gear and his rod was completely doubled over. I thought that was interesting considering he’s pretty well versed in fishing for sturgeon and catfish.

blank wrote:

I agree that baitcasters are better suited for sturgeon, but I saw some pictures and video from Darren Troseth who was on the Rainy last weekend and he and his fishing partners were using spinning gear and his rod was completely doubled over. I thought that was interesting considering he’s pretty well versed in fishing for sturgeon and catfish.

Blank – I wouldn’t confuse Baitcasters being “better” with spinning gear being obsolete. If you look at more than just the last video of Darren’s, you will see he uses both.

As long as you have a strong rod, 50+ lb braid and strong spinning real, you won’t have any issues getting in big fish. We get in 50+ inch fish in a couple minutes. The biggest I’ve ever caught was 64 inches and it took maybe 5 minutes at the most.

It comes down to preference as long as you are making those choices above and doesn’t reflect on someone being or not being “well-versed.”

Perhaps I had a poor choice of words. I understand that the correct spinning gear is perfectly capable of landing large fish (common with saltwater), but it often seems that baitcasting reels are easier and more comfortable to use, but I guess that just may be my personal preference clouding my perspective. You’re right, that it does come down to personal choice. I think we can both agree that having the appropriate strength of gear is the most important whether you use spinning or baitcasting.

sorry hate to disagree gang, but imma say this reel is the ticket
i think it was used to catch the World record flatty
ok darnit for some reason i cant seem to all the pic sigh
anywho,
my vote is a Zebco classic33 =D