Trout Fishing Situation Question

[Clark]

recently i got a rod building supples from ebay and i was going to thinking of make a trout spinning rod for stream in ozarks area and i would like to know what lenght of rod blank and will the trout hit a spoon and small crankbait and a small plastic worm and the hair jig, i'm trying to look on blank later when move to sprinfeild mo this august, but will like to know how wide stream that the spinning rod will able to casting into..

i'm still look at the sage blank or a st croiz blank and FTO blank in lenght but it's going to be a ultra light or a 3 or 4 wt blank into spinning use 2-4 lb test

advice on fly blank or a ultra light blank turn into spinning rod will be help make right pick blank to building into trout spinning rod..

leave many idea and the situation so i can look at all to make a prefect

[Al Agnew]

With a good rod you can cast just about anything down to 1/32 ounce or so with very light line and spinning reel. What you DON'T want, in my opinion, is one of those noodly little very short UL rods. Make something that's at least 6 feet in length, with UL power.

As for lures, very small marabou jigs, in-line spinners in smaller sizes, minnow type lures, and small crankbaits all work well on trout. Keep in mind that in the blue ribbon trout streams soft plastics of any kind are prohibited. I never liked spoons for trout in streams because most of them sink too fast and get snagged too often.

[RSBreth]

If you want some good rod advice for building from a fly blank, you may want to got either rodbuilding.org, or bigbluegill.com.

I know the guys at Bigbluegill.com are big into turning light fly blanks into ultralight fishing sticks.

And Al is right, a dinky 4' noodle isn't good for much, except for getting waxed by the guy with a 7'6" rod built from a St. Croix 2-weight fly rod blank.

[Wind Knot]

My ultralight rod is a 7' 6" blank with a Shimano Stradic 1000 FI. My girlfriend has a 7' rod with the same reel. We can throw lures into the next county and I really believe that the higher-end reels help prevent excessive line twist.

[flytyer57]

...We can throw lures into the next county...

If you're fishing the White River below Bull Shoals, it's not hard to cast into the next county since Baxter County is on one side and Marion County is on the other. I guess if you were somewhere in the middle of the river, you'd have to cast what? Maybe a couple feet?

[jdmidwest]

When I buy a rod or have one built, I look for a Light Action rod. Ultra Light is too limber and Medium is too heavy. I usually toss 1/4 to 1/6 ounce lures with 4 or 6 lb test when spin fishing. I have had some built with St Croix Blanks and really like them. 5 1/2 to 6 foot lengths are preferred as most of my fishing is done from a kayak or canoe.