could use some suggestions on rods for the BW I have all three and one will be a fly rod the others bait or spin and what weight line / type of leader?
Thanks Bill

quote Eightweight: "could use some suggestions on rods for the BW I have all three and one will be a fly rod the others bait or spin and what weight line / type of leader?
Thanks Bill"

7 or 8 weight for smallies slash pike, 2 piece spinning rod 6.5 to 7.5 feet long with clear 8 pound Trilene xl, and unless your going to do alot of fishing for trophy pike I personally would leave the baitcaster at home, but thats just me .

Thank you very much I appreciate the info and will leave the bait caster.

Ditto.

Take some leader material for the fly rod. Some prfer heavy (40+ lb) mono tippet to prevent pike bite offs. I like 13 lb Surflon wire. You can get by without it but will lose a maddening number of flies if pike are around.

Yup agreed - the best 2 rod combo would be:

1. 6.5'-7.5'2-piece Medium-light Spinning rod, 8lb mono (or whatever braid if you like)
2. 9' 8wt fly rod

If you really want to add a third rod you could add another of either of the above. You could add heavier or lighter spinning, fly, or baitcasting rods depending upon what you want to do but these two will best cover "the big 4" of the boundary waters. Anything outside these is going to be a "specialized" piece of gear, nothing wrong with that, you'd just need to have some goals in mind ahead of time to pick out anything else.

I bring 2 spinning and 1 baitcasting per person. I typically use the baitcaster when targeting pike but like the accuracy when tossing jigs and plastics into tight cover.

quote Basspro69: "

quote Eightweight: "could use some suggestions on rods for the BW I have all three and one will be a fly rod the others bait or spin and what weight line / type of leader?
Thanks Bill"

7 or 8 weight for smallies slash pike, 2 piece spinning rod 6.5 to 7.5 feet long with clear 8 pound Trilene xl, and unless your going to do alot of fishing for trophy pike I personally would leave the baitcaster at home, but thats just me . "

Listen to basspro is all I know and really, that's all one needs to know!

quote Ingvald: "I bring 2 spinning and 1 baitcasting per person. I typically use the baitcaster when targeting pike but like the accuracy when tossing jigs and plastics into tight cover."

This is what I do also. I like a baitcaster for tossing top waters and cranks.

Just to add- I do most of my fishing with one spinning rod. I like having the second as a back up for catastrophic failure.

Eight,

I bring a spinning, a baitcaster, and a flyrod. The spinning is what I use for jigging, lindy rigging, and slip bobbering. The baitcaster gets used when trolling, and the fly rod is used whenever I feel like breaking it out.

I use a 6' med action spinning rod with 6lb test mono

6'6" med-med heavy (I alternate on rod stiffness here) with 8lb flouro

9' 8wt. fly rod.


Some people swear that bringing a baitcaster is just going to cause problems (ie birds nests, etc) but I know how to use mine and this is never an issue. Plus I like the bait click on it when I'm slow trolling. Some other people might say thats too many rods altogether. My primary reason for being there is fishing so I'm willing to bring the extra weight in rods and tackle.

Think about how you'll be fishing and apply the rod that works best for that technique.