If I were a younger fella, insecure in the slightest, and not already more proficient at muskie fishing than the legendary **** Pearson, I might be bothered by his assessment of my gear as “girlie tackle.” I have used the same tackle to land tarpon to 150 and bull sharks to 400, plus a fair number of muskies that approach 40. Muskies just don’t pull that hard, and they aren’t that difficult to hook and land. Muskie anglers fish way, way, way too heavy most of the time.

Granted, the reason for blue-steel stiff rods and winchlike reels is that they are sort-of necessary to cast the kind of giant lures that sometimes get the big bite. This has seemed more the case the past several seasons as bigger and bigger bucktails, crankbaits, and jerkbaits have become the norm in some situations.

I am fit enough to fish like that, but I don’t find the prospect appealing, much less necessary. Even with the new giant bucktails and the pounder Bull Dawgs, I don’t see the sense in the ultra-stiff rods. Yes, I know they’re on the market because people think they need them and therefore buy them. Give customers what they want, I suppose. But the premise of the rest of this paragraph remains as true today as it was 25 years ago: We usually don’t hook muskies by setting hard enough to move a lure in their mouths. We hook muskies by setting and holding on, keeping a sustained and measurable bend in the rod—and, as the fish attempts to expel the lure, the lure moves toward the bent rod as it shifts in the fish’s mouth. The measured bend in the rod insures that hooks catch hide and grind home, without tearing an excessive hole, and without creating slack line.

Ultra-stiff rods don’t provide measured and sustained bend. They bend for a moment then go straight, creating the chance for slack line. They also make the worst possible lever that an angler could ever want to work with, a technical story for another day. I give you, however, that they do a decent job of lobbing out those giant baits. But it takes two to tango. You need the combination of rod and reel that handles what you want to throw, hooks fish well, and keeps them pinned after the fact.

I routinely fish 7 to 8 ounces effectively and fairly comfortably with the heaviest rod I use, which is a custom Thorne Brothers made to order from a Sage graphite blank. The rod has a fair amount of “whoup” in the top quarter when 8 ounces is hanging on the end. It has more than 20 years of muskie, tarpon, and shark miles on it and if I had a dollar for every fish and 5 dollars for every memory—well, I’m already a rich man. Don’t ever question paying a little extra for exceptional quality, I say.

Most of the time I don’t fish even that heavy, however. I know I’m out of favorable fashion strutting down the runway these past seasons of the giant baits, but I still fish small bucktails (1 to 2.25 ounces), and my favorite J-mac and 6-inch Lunker City Shaker combo (maximum 1.5 ounces) about half the time. It is specifically the tackle I use to fish these lures that the Right Honorable Mr. Pearson considers less than manly.

In combination with 50- or 65-pound superline, one can fish very comfortably and create great dread in any muskie population with a flippin’ stick and a wide-spool low-profile reel. For TV fishing the last five seasons, I’ve used an All Star graphite rod (the P907FS) and a Pflueger President widespool reel (the PRESIDENTWLP). The P907 is their upper-end graphite flippin’ stick. They also make a less expensive Team All Star option that performs just as well, although it’s slightly heavier in weight.

Every good company makes a great flippin’ stick that works. Then just find a good reel to match. The tradition is to fish with round reels, which is fine. But as I’ve said, wide-spool low profiles work just fine. These combinations are readily available and are not expensive.

The confidence I have in going Muskie Lite comes from long experience in using the tackle to land big fish, many of them saltwater fish that fight much harder than muskies. With the superbraids you can pull much harder on fish than most anglers think.

In freshwater, I fish with the drag tightened down so it barely gives. It takes a really big fish at boatside to require giving any line. If required, I pull hard, putting a total bend in the rod, which gives me enough time to hit the freespool bar, allowing me to thumb off some line. You can’t do that with fish in saltwater.

How light is really light? My biggest fish of last season weighed 30-something and was bested by 14-pound Berkley FireLine, a 7-foot medium-action All Star spinning rod, and a 30-Class Pflueger Supreme reel. I was fishing for walleyes and whatever else would bite on Mille Lacs with a 5-inch Berkley Swim Shad on a 3/4-ounce Owner Saltwater Bullet Ultra Head Jig.

It was very windy and the fish was up on a portion of a weedflat about 8 feet deep. When fish are up and feeding in heavy wind, waves often wash them to the surface. “Wind rollers” aren’t like the lollygaggers you see frolicking in calmer conditions. The wind rollers often bite. We pulled off the area where the fish was, came back down the adjacent weededge, and hooked up.

Lucky? Only in getting the fish to bite and not getting bit off, not in playing and landing the fish after the fact. Lots of situations exist where medium-duty spinning tackle is adequate for muskies. I know the immediate industry spotlight is on fishing bigger and badder, but muskie lite still is right much of the time.