Crappie Rod?

Give me your opinions on JT Rogue vs TUCR Fusion as far as a crappie rod. Thanks

Don’t know anything about the JT.
Are you fishing jigs or spoons? Size?

MX is right … finicky crappies it is imperative to match the rod to the lure weight … unless you are just using a minnow and bobber – then the smoothness of the reel seems more important to me once the hook is set.

I have both rods and use the JT for tungsten/plastics and the Fusion for spoons, so you cant go wrong with getting both

I’d toss the Thorne Bros Quiverstick in the mix. It’s my favorite rod I own.

Nothing wrong with the rods you picked. There are many great rods out there. What is your intent for this rod? Are you trying to achieve a certain prestation or just looking for an all-around crappie rod?

You might want to look into a noodle rod if you don’t have one for panfish. I really like them for small jigs.

I own both. I agree with these guys it depends on presentation. I am not a huge fan of the rogue for smaller lures/light bites. I have had much better luck with a bullwhip from tucr. If you want a feel rod and not sight I would go with the thorne bros panfish sweetheart. It is a sweet little rod that is super sensitive and quite versatile. I like the fusion for smaller spoons like 1/8 so if that’s what you are after that would work as well.

Look into a small custom builder, you can get a more personal experience and they can tune the blank to what you are looking for, JT can not do that. Jeffery is right the noodle rods excel in the 3-5mm tungsten. I love my custom noodle rods for small presentations.

For sure look into a smaller builder. I have a couple custom noodle rods that are amazing for tungsten. Its tough for me to want to use a different presentation because those noodles are so nice.

gonehunting wrote:

Give me your opinions on JT Rogue vs TUCR Fusion as far as a crappie rod. Thanks

I use my Fusion for aggressive crappies with small spoons and one maggot per hook. I use my Bullwhip a lot more for crappie since I am usually using tungsten jigs. If you want one rod that can handle both jigs and spoons, you may like the Fusion Spring Bobber rods. Thread the line through the spring to fish jigs, or skip the spring guide to fish spoons.
Dan

If you are going to look at spring bobber rods, JT is the only company out there that uses a tapered wire spring bobber. Everyone else uses a straight wire. That tapered spring bobber is so much better with the way it works and loads. I will not put a different wire on my rods.

That’s a fun edit of what I wrote.

Fusions are great for larger panfish lures and spoons where a noodle rod would have them bouncing too much. I rarely use a jighead for panfish anymore. Almost always a Pinhead Mino or small sized Tikka Mino/Rapala jigging rap.

Thanks for all the input. Fishing larger crappie with spoons. Mostly pinhead and Kastmaster tungsten spoons.

gonehunting wrote:

Thanks for all the input. Fishing larger crappie with spoons. Mostly pinhead and Kastmaster tungsten spoons.

Then my pick is the fusion. I’m sure there are many builders that can help you out also.

MX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gonehunting wrote:</div>
Thanks for all the input. Fishing larger crappie with spoons. Mostly pinhead and Kastmaster tungsten spoons.

Then my pick is the fusion. I’m sure there are many builders that can help you out also.

Agreed! And if you have the chance to go to the St. Paul Ice Show, you can walk around and talk to all the builders and have hands on time with each maker’s rod.

I have done some studies where I made a jig to hold 4 rods and put the same setup on all of the rods. Then my son jumped next to it to create a light jigging motion. Like you would jig the jig to seal the deal once the fish is engaged. Also tested the way the rod flexed with a load to simulate how the rod would react in a fight. It was fascinating. I had 10 buddies stop by and bring some of their favorite rods to add to the testing. Every blank used was recorded along with guide placement. One of my buddies looked at me and said these rods are like instruments. Some you have to be very talented with it to get it to sound good and then there are some where any kid could bang on it and it would sound great! You can see this in the clips. Matching up the right action rod to the right lure just makes it play without effort. The same rod that won with the spoons didn’t win with a jig of the same weight. This is because with a less aggressive prestation we wanted less. Different rods performed better with different weights. It was very hard to feel the differences between the rods by flexing them with your hands. But you can see it with the way the jig reacted.

To sum up, grab your favorite line with your favorite jig. Thread it through the rod you like and see if it plays the way you want it to play.

Sorry I can’t get the clips to load.

Wish I could share these MP4. It shows exactly what I am talking about. I even converted it to WebM, mpg, mpeg-2, wmv, and avi that will not load.

This free link will only be up for 2 days if it works.

^ Check out the second to last rod with these 1/16 oz jigs in this test.
Sorry I was only able to load one file without paying.
I was able to achieve that action by removing some of the material from the blank before I built it. It surprised me where I had to adjust the tapper of the blank to get it to react the way it did. You see how some lures jig a little, some a lot (that 2nd to last one just dances so nice), and some just swing. It all has to do with the right combination of tapper and guide placement. Things you can’t feel by flexing the rod.

Great explanation Rodwork. I can imagine what your talking about and agree that there is so much to fitting the right action rod to your presentation.

To the OP I would also add one more to look at, the JT Panhandler is a really nice rod for big crappie, I actually really liked it for small eyes too. Well until I broke it up on LOTW, it got quite the work out though.

GoneHunting where you located?

That is very interesting. I wish at the ice shows they would have a tank and let you try all the rods with different presentations.

Youbetcha wrote:

That is very interesting. I wish at the ice shows they would have a tank and let you try all the rods with different presentations.

I was surprised when I put the jigs in a tote of water. The lures reacted almost the same. Only just a tiny bit less movement. I thought the resistance of jigging in water would have muted the dancing more. The clip just proves sometimes it is the rod and not the angler. You can see how if I had rod #3 and was catching all the fish. You could match my lure and the way I am jigging. But you will not get the same action out of your lure to seal the deal.

OtterTail County area