Restocking Rods at Anglers Inn
As a friendly reminder and public service announcement, you DO NOT need to bring rods on your trips with Anglers Inn to El Salto, Picachos or the Amazon. They provide top-notch St. Croix sticks, replaced annually to assure freshness and functionality, at NO CHARGE. That wasn’t exactly the case when I first started traveling to El Salto in 2009 (St. Croix came on as a partner several years later), so on a later trip I left a tube with a bunch of rods down at the lodge. Some of them have been there for seven years, and as you might imagine, they’ve experienced wear and tear. A few broke. One has a messed-up handle. Others are missing the ceramic inserts in their guides. It’s probably time to replace a few.
Again, remember that’s not strictly necessary. Any competent angler could have a fantastic trip with the provided rods. Additionally, as a general rule, traveling with a rod tube is a major pain in the ass. Don’t do it unless you’re prepared to be hassled, disappointed, and possibly lose a few of them. I’m fortunate that I’m in a position where if a few get messed up I’ll be unhappy, but it won’t change my life in a meaningful way. That means it’s time to restock my toolbox down there. I’ll be flying to Mexico with a rod tube for the first time since 2016. Here are the sticks I’m bringing:
7’9 Swimbait Rod, 1-5 oz. lures
As I get further into the swimbait game, I’ve decided it’s time to finally bite the bullet and get a dedicated stick for big baits and leave it at the lake. No one in the rodmaking game knows big baits better than Gary Dobyns and every rod of his that I’ve used has been exceptional. My friends on the Dobyns pro staff assure me that it’ll do everything I need it to do – bigger soft plastic swimbaits, Bull Shads, big wake baits like the SPRO Rat, even an Alabama Rig. I traveled down in November with my F5 Travel Rod, which handled these responsibilities admirably, but the trip home was filled with tension due to weird security measures, I need to have one down there full-time. This may be the specialty rod that excites me most — because if I get bit on it there’s a good chance it’ll be a giant.
Shimano Curado CDCC80H
8’0 Heavy Action Cranking Rod
As I’ve opined before, if there’s one specialty rod that is most helpful at El Salto, particularly from April through July, when the deep crank bite can be your best ticket to success, it’s a dedicated cranking rod. I found this one on sale for $109 (list price is $169.99) and jumped on the deal. It should work well for 10XDs and the like, along with some lighter swimbait use.
7’11” Medium Heavy Crank Launcher
I’d planned to bring down one new crankbait rod, just in case one of the two we keep there suffered an irreparable injury, but then I started to worry what would happen if we suffered two casualties during a hot crankbait bite. Would I have to fight a mean little redheaded wife for the remaining rod? Hanna has enjoyed using this rod so much over the past few years that when Tackle Warehouse had a 20% off sale I decided to pounce on another.
7’3” Medium Spinning Rod
Yes, I’ve decided it’s finally time to have a spinning rod of my own down there, even though I’ve never used one. It’ll be great for dialing in some of my finesse presentations, dropshotting vertical cover where I want a straight fall, and skipping floating worms and flukes into cover when the water is high. In addition to big baits, Gary Dobyns comes by his finesse roots honestly and knows how to make a top-notch spinning stick.
7’0” Medium-Heavy
This will be another all-purpose rod for Texas Rigs, Senkos, and light jigs. It’s probably beefier than what I’d use for those lures at home, but then again so are the Mexican bass and the cover that they live in. I’m also anxious to give the Winn Grips a try and see what I think of them.
Abu-Garcia Veritas VTSCLTD70-6
7’0” Medium-Heavy
This is another rod labeled “medium-heavy” but it’s slightly lighter than the Lew’s listed above. I’ll likely use it for spinnerbaits, Keitechs in shallow water, flukes and Rat-L-Traps, along with Senkos.
6’10” Heavy
At just $99.99, this feels like a rod that costs more, and should be good for vertically-challenged Hanna to throw the big Rico, a Spook or a buzzbait, and possibly with larger lipless baits and some Texas Rigs. These last three are “all-around” models that aren’t dedicated to any particular purpose. Instead, I need to be prepared to put them to use when some oddball bite develops, or when another “all-arounder” goes down.
A Few Notes on Bringing Rods:
Make sure that the juice is worth the squeeze. If you’re just planning to throw a lizard a topwater and a trap, it’s easier just to grab rods from the lodge than to travel with a tube. By using the St. Croix rods down there it has convinced me to buy more of them for use at home.
Don’t bring rods you’re not prepared to sacrifice. Between TSA and the travel process generally, there’s a chance they’ll get damaged or lost. You’ll notice that none of the rods listed above retail for more than $260, and most are in the $100-150 range. I’d love to have a set of $600 Loomis NRX rods down there, but neither I not my wallet can stomach the idea of never seeing them again.
If you’re going to bring rods, think specialty tools. The lodge has plenty of high-quality 7’ to 7’6” medium, medium-heavy and heavy baitcasters. If you need a special rod to flip or crank or throw a swimbait, that’s where the need for your own might arise.
If you must bring rods, consider travel rods. As we’ve delved into the topic and experimented with quite a few of them, I’ve been amazed at their high quality and performance level, as well as the number of specialty models available.
