This post is by college fisherman and (former?) Blaster intern Brett Jolley, who fishes for East TX Baptist U. He pings a lot so I asked Trey Kistler if he would send Brett one of the new-ish Kistler 6′ 9″ Lite-Medium Jig Head Minnow Rods – to get an expert opinion. Sounds like Brett loves it:
> To me, this is the best jighead rod I’ve ever had in my hands, I’m no pro, but I am a 22-year-old that spends most of my fishing time looking at FFS. I’ve gone through my share of jighead minnow rods and this one is just legit.
> The first time I really used it was in MT catching smallies. We used a minnow pretty much exclusively up there and it was absolutely incredible.
> That rod is so light I was able to throw a minnow all day for a few days straight without getting fatigued or anything.
> The light weight of that rod really helps me get way more bites. I give it a lot of different twitches and hold it at different positions depending on what kind of minnow I’m using. The light weight just gives me so much control over my technique.
> You can make these micro shakes with your hand and that rod has such good action – it throws tons of slack in the line with those small movements and gives a bait a different action, without pulling the bait to away too fast.
> It has such a unique action too. A lot of jighead minnow rods I’ve used are either stiff all the way through or you can wrap ’em in a circle. This rod has the soft tip with a good backbone – it’s just right.
> A huge deal for me is the action of it – its ability to load up on a cast and on fish is insane. Even though it’s a light rod, it’s still got that backbone to drive an exposed hook in. And that action helps so much with fighting fish. That action takes so much of those head shakes and runs.
> I can launch an 1/8-oz jighead as far as I want. Even with bigger baits – like a bigger jighead and a 5-7″ minnow – it loads up just right to be able to put that minnow on target.
> The MT smallies were pre-spawn on shallow rock so we didn’t even see ’em on FFS, but that rod was still key for loading up on those fish when they bit.
> And when those big 4-6 lb smallies came up and jumped, or pulled super hard, or made one of those last runs at the boat, that rod took all of that. I was never scared that I was gonna lose a fish because of it jumping or something.
> Since I’ve had this rod I’ve been using 10-lb Berkley Forward Braid, and with the combo of this rod and that line I can put lighter jigheads way out there with such little effort. That line really is the slickest braid I’ve ever had on a reel and it just launches stuff. You can tell just by the sound of it going through the rod eyes how slick it is.
> I was skeptical going to such a short rod for a minnow, but that it is so light and loads up so well on a cast I have zero issue getting minnows out to 100’+. It is absolutely my go-to rod for jighead minnows now.
> Here on my home lake – Sam Rayburn – it’s been great giving fish a different look when everyone here is already throwing minnows. That’s where I think the unique action of this rod really shines – places where everyone is throwing a minnow already.
> These big largemouth that see minnows every day can’t stand it when they get a different look at a bait…that rod action is great.
> Another deal is I’ve been using it a lot for crappie. On Sam Rayburn, TX I’m casting to crappie with a jig 99% of the time and that rod just get’s ’em in the boat.
> You can give crappie jigs those little shakes to get ’em to commit when they’re finicky, and that rod has enough play to not rip a hole in their mouth and keep ’em pinned until they’re in the boat.
You can get the rod on the Kistler website here.
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