Rod Recommendations

[mark29860]

Hello everyone, my crappie fishing has been brushpiles and casting around docks. Well I've gotten interested in pushing and pulling. As someone who has never done this I'm looking for pole advice. I think I want to start with 4 poles until I figure this out. My question is which poles and the length. Any other advice will be appreciated also. Thanks

[scrat]

I would start out with the $66.00 for 4 rods from Grizzly Jig Company. The 10' or 12' limit rods from Grizzly until you decide if you really want to make the big investment for the expensive rods. These rods do work good and I have had no problems with mine so far and have had no need to replace them so far. I would also like to add buy some good reels for these and not the cheaper reels.

https://grizzlyjig.com/p-296-limit-rods.aspx

[CrappiePappy]

Mark .... I can only tell you what I use (as I'm relatively new to long pole pushing, myself):

I have one BnM PST 14' rod and two Capps/Coleman 14' rods. At first glance, not much difference can be seen. Add a 1/2oz weight to the lines, and all three rods appear to bend approximately the same. And that's where the similarity ends ... as the Capps/Coleman rods have a lighter tip action than the PST rod, and will "pull down" easier (and/or "bounce" easier/longer in wave action).
But, all that being said, I have caught 4"-6" Crappie on these rods ... and they had no trouble pulling the rod tips down far enough that I had no doubts about setting the hook.

All three 14' rods have baitcast reels on them ... and I measure the depth of the jig by multiplying the length of line out by 0.6 (as long as my speed & the weight being used keeps my lines at about a 45deg angle). I measure "line out" by rod tip to weight (not jig) and keep the rod tips less than a foot above the surface of the water. My normal jig "pushing" speed is between 0.6 & 0.8mph ... using 1/2oz weight & jig on a 18" leader.

Now ... if I were to consider pushing crankbaits very often, I'd probably change the baitcast reels out for some Okuma Magda 15D Line Counter reels, just for the ease & accuracy of depth control; considering the greater length of line being used.

... cp