Rod for a 12 Yr Old

[slam]

Hey Ty:

Need suggestions on a good rod for my son. He just does not have enough muscle on him yet to toss with one of my St Croix 6'6" or 7' Premier's with a Garcia 6500 for long. My thought was to downsize to a 5500 or 5600 with a lighter medium heavy or heavy action bass rod. He loves fishing top water with smaller baits so this should throw them fine. My question is how much lighter is a Mojo Bass rod versus a Premier Musky rod. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Cold Front]

I've got a 7' Shimano Compre with a Curado 200 on it for the smaller folks in my boat. The rod is basically a heavy bass rod and the reel is a low profile. The set up is very light compared with the other rigs I fish with. It'll throw the smaller top water baits and does well with bucktails up ghosttail size. The compre rod is much, much lighter than a St. Croix Premier of comparable action and length and the low profile reel adds very little weight. Both components to this rig can usually be had on EBay pretty reasonably, I paid $180.00 for the combo. Good gear lasts forever and usually can be put to other good use once it's outgrown. I use mine to fish small weedless plastics when the fish are in the slop, I can cast an unweighted sizmic toad into the junk and get very fishable (weed free) retrieves even in the thick junk.

[catchandrelease]

BPS Extreme rods. I have a 7'10" that's pretty light. They're similar to the Mojo Bass rods, but cheaper. They're on sale right now for $70. I have a Revo on that and it works awesome. It can't throw bulldawgs or anything, but it's rated for lures up to 3 oz.

[Ty Sennett]

I'd say the main thing is the butt length on the rod. You'd be surprised on how much lighter a rod feels with a longer but section to balance it out. That means longer fishing time for youngsters. There are a lot of great rods out right now. I prefer St.Croix rods from Thorne Brothers because you can custom order the butt section to your specifications. There are a lot of other rod selections they have there also. You can talk to Lonnie at Thornes and he will fix you up with a rod in your price range that will outperform most any rod you can find. He can also make the foregrip smaller to fit your sons hands better. Just tell him about how much you want to spend and he will set you up or recommend a different rod. He knows rods a lot better than any of us.

Try a Curado 300 or Revo if you want to really have him fish long hours. They are sweet reels. A little pricey though. The 5500 is priced better.

[twells]

I went through the same thing this spring with my 7 year old son. I got him a rod from Elk River Custom Rods in Phillips WI. The rod he got is a 6'5" and light as all heck. It will handle 3/4 to 3 once baits which for a kid is more than enough. Unless your son is like mine and loves the look of the Pounders. He will hold off on that part for a while. It has the longer butt section and smaller fore grip like Ty is talking about. I put on a Garcia low pro reel on it with 5.4 to 1 gears that was round $100.00. I really wanted to get the Revo Winch that they make for the bass guys, smaller then the 50's and would be a great set up if money wasn't a issue with it.

My decision came from lots of looking around and finding something that he would like also something that I would use. Now I am waiting for him to catch a fish with it so I can use it myself from time to time.

[catchandrelease]

Yeah. The longer rear handles are a must. I think the handles on the "adult rods" are too short. Any agreement there? I think the rear section should be 17-18 inches but most are 14-16 inches.

[Ty Sennett]

I agree with that catchandrelease.

[pikldik]

My Grandson who is now almost 13 has used a 6ft9in avid rod with a shimano 250 ct reel for a few years now and likes it better than a bass style rod and reel.
Dick

[Clear Silver]

I bought my son a short St Croix when he was young. By last year he had outgrown it significantly and was in need of something longer. So I took it back to St. Croix in Park Falls and they gave me full credit for the old, used (but in good condition) short rod for a new, longer one....basically my son used the rod rent-free for 5 yrs and now has a great rod for many more years.
I believe one has to return the rod to the St Croix store in Park Falls, rather than to a retailer, to take advantage of this buy-back, but it was only a little bit out of the way when making a trip to the Chip and was well worth it..... and it gave me the opportunity to get rid of some extra cash that I had on an additional rod for myself.