Review: Redington Big Game 11- and 12-weight Musky Fly Rods | Hatch Magazine
June 23, 2026 
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Modern-day fly anglers are incredibly lucky to be living through a time of intense specialization, particularly in the warmwater space. From the sometimes mind-boggling lineup of species- and technique-specific fly lines and rods, to the immediate availability of high-quality predator flies from highly-skilled fly tyers with ecommerce businesses, it’s never been easier to approach niche fly fishing targets with a high degree of preparedness.
The pursuit of musky on the fly in particular has gained significant momentum, and in the last several years, at least a half dozen rods have been introduced by major fly rod manufacturers as musky-specific rods. Having fished almost all of these rods, and as someone who spends almost half of his year fishing and guiding for musky in Virginia, I would confidently argue that, in my opinion, very nearly none of those rods completely meet the unique demands of pursuing musky with sinking fly lines and large flies.
As I’ve written historically (“What To Look For in a Musky Rod”), my issue with these rods starts and sometimes ends with the lack of guide trains with ceramic inserts. Fishing fly rods built with standard, albeit premium, titanium snake guides and tip tops with sinking lines will result in wear and grooving over time, threatening imminent tackle failure through fly line damage. In a game of low odds and high stakes, this is not a reality most anglers are willing to accept, nor should they be marketed tools that will lead them to unknowingly accept those terms. This is why I, along with many other serious musky anglers, have historically relied upon small boutique brands and custom makers that understand the musky game for true musky fishing tools. This is also why the whisperings of Redington’s newest offering, the Big Game line of rods, caught my attention so quickly. Seeing ceramic guides on a fly rod built by a major manufacturer made this musky angler finally feel seen by the industry.
Over the past several months, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time putting the Big Game 11- and 12-weight models through the paces, and I’ve been impressed with the designs. I’ll admit, at first blush, I thought these rods were pretty basic models with the simple addition of ceramic guides. I slapped my standard 11- and 12-weight reels and lines on them, cast them in the yard, and found them to be broomsticks with little feel. Then I dug deeper, and put them in a wide range of real fishing situations and in the hands of my clients.
These are not standard 11- and 12-weights. They are not just two musky rods, one slightly heavier than the other. They are two completely different tools, in my mind, and in the minds of the designers that built them. To risk sounding dramatic, the ability of these two rods combined may be the biggest step forward that a major rod manufacturer has taken in the musky space in quite some time, and does well to consider where the sport of fly fishing for musky and its techniques are today, and where they’re headed in the future.
Here’s the rest:
Both Rods
What Works
Components and build
As I’ve waxed on about, the thing that first caught my eye prior to this rod’s introduction was the componentry–specifically the ceramic guide train. However, the rod is also built with composite cork grips, which I’ve found to be much more durable than standard cork grips when subjected to the high torque that casting musky flies and sinking lines brings. As most musky fly rod builds do, the Big Game also features an extended fighting butt, which provides leverage to the angler in casting and performing boatside maneuvers.
Grain window designation
I mentioned above that these rods are not standard 11- and 12-weight rods. This is a complicated topic. According to the AFFTA approved fly line weight specifications, a standard 11-weight line should weigh somewhere around 330 grains in its first 30 feet; and 12-weight, 380 grains. This is how fly line weight designations are decided. However, as the sport has evolved, these things have run away a bit.
Most rods that are designed to cast large, wind-resistant flies–”streamer rods,” if you will–are often built extra-fast for the purpose of being able to carry a larger, heavier fly line than its “weight” designation would suggest, offering increased ability to command large flies in the air and efficiently deliver them to a target. For example, though standard 11- and 12-weight lines have grain weights of 330 and 380 grains, respectively, most folks I know put lines that weigh anywhere from 380 to 450 grains on their fast-action 11-weight “musky rod,” and a 500-grain line on a similar 12-weight.
As a guide or retailer, this makes it nearly impossible to advise someone on the best line to put on their rod without specific knowledge of the action and taper of that rod. This is why specifying a grain window on a fly rod is a good move, particularly in rods designed to target large fish with large flies. Redington’s Big Game series rods all specify grain weight windows, and those windows fall above even the normally inflated ranges of similar rods.
A closeup of the ceramic guide train on Redington’s Big Game rods (photo: Matt Reilly).
The taper
Musky rods require a unique blend of capabilities that have to be considered in designing a proper taper. You want the rod to have enough flex to be comfortable to cast and absorb some of the shock your shoulder and elbow would otherwise sustain through the casting stroke, but it can’t be too loose. It must have adequate mid-section rigidity so as to not turn into a noodle when a big fish eats 50 feet from the boat, your rod is angled down in the water, and you execute a strip set. Too much flex can also, at times, dampen the action of your flies, particularly larger flies. A rod also must have enough tip power to be able to confidently and effectively set the hook on a fish in the figure eight with a foot and a half of line outside of your rod tip.
With the correct line, the Big Game rods meet this mark. I have definitely cast rods that were a little more fun and comfortable to cast, but as far as fishing a fly and hooking and fighting fish, both at a distance and boatside, the Big Game rods do so with authority.
Lightweight and durable
The Big Game musky rods are very lightweight for their grain window designations and their intended use, which is definitely a pro. However, durability is a big consideration for me in a musky rod, and lightweight rods are almost always less durable than slightly heavier rods. That said, I’ve put these rods through the paces quite a bit–caught fish, dug flies out of snags with the tip, had flies collide with the blank, and boogered up casts, and haven’t had any breakage in either rod, yet.
Price
At $450, the 11- and 12-weights of the Big Game series are $50 more expensive than the lesser weights. This is explicitly because of the specialized componentry that’s used in these models. And, for a specialty tool, this is a very reasonable price.
What Doesn’t
Misleading weight designation
A large part of me wants to stand by the idea that, if the proper grain weight window for a rod is so far off of standard for a given weight rod (the Big Game windows are 2 to 6 line sizes heavier than true-to-weight rods), the “weight” system shouldn’t be used at all. At the very least, it’s misleading, and, I would argue, irrelevant. That said, I think using both systems in tandem helps some users make sense of what they’re looking at.
Still, the grain weight windows should be listed in the model specs for these rods on the manufacturers website, so that customers can know what they’re getting. This is why I initially didn’t appreciate the rod. I knew I was dealing with 11- and 12-weights, but frankly didn’t realize that I was casting the wrong lines until I started to inspect the rod a lot more closely.
Currently, the only suggestion to the inflated grain weight windows relative to the “weight” designations that exists are the product photos of the rod’s butt sections. That said, at least on the Redington website, the photos associated with the 11- and 12-weight models are only of the 11-wt. So there’s no way to know the grain weight window on the 12-weight without inquiring or ordering it first.
Photo: Matt Reilly.
The 11-Weight
What Works
Good single-hand rod
Specifically, the 11-weight is rated for 450-550 grain lines. Lines on the lower end of this window will give you a faster action, while heavier lines will slow down the required casting stroke a little and make things more comfortable. I’ve found the rod to pair well with a 500-grain Scientific Anglers Sonar 3/5/7. With this line, the 11-weight is a good single-handed casting rod. Going a little heavier, up to 550 grains will give you a little bit more performance out of this rod with a two-handed cast, but it starts to become a little heavy for most casters when casted single-handed.
What Doesn’t
Fast action
I’m generally a fan of rods that have a little more feel than I get out of the Big Game 11-weight with a 500-grain line. I certainly wouldn’t want to fish it with a 450-grain line. Stepping up in grain weight helps load the rod a little more deeply, but then you’re casting a 550-grain line single handed, which can be a chore for some folks.
As a guide, I generally like to have some lighter 10-weights around for folks to throw if the bigger rods become taxing, which would lead me to want to try the 10-weight in the Big Game series, but since it’s not built with ceramic guides, I likely won’t.
That said, for anglers who typically cast a fast action single-hand 12-weight in their musky pursuits, the Big Game 11-weight will make you feel at home.
Photo: Matt Reilly.
The 12-Weight
What Works
Great entry-level two-handed rod
The 12-weight is rated for 550 to 700 grain lines. I’ve found the sweet spot for me to be about 650 grains, which I’ve achieved using the Scientific Anglers Sonar Musky Custom Cut line. The fact that this rod can handle lines of this size make it good for two-hand casting, which is a somewhat progressive technique that will certainly become increasingly mainstream in the future. In my own fishing and guiding, this style of fishing has, over the last several years, allowed me to push boundaries in fly size and design, and introduce a wider range of anglers to the pursuit of musky on the fly. This is where I give major props to Redington for not only building a good tool, but making a versatile rod that can be cast single- or two-handed and be applied to a wide range of angling situations by a wide range of anglers.
What Doesn’t
Only 9 feet
Over the past several years, most of my musky fishing has come to be done with two-handed rods and fly lines in the 500-700 grain range. I’ve also come to really appreciate a 10-foot rod for this type of fishing, both for the reach in the figure eight, but also for the longer level and ability to keep large flies propelled by wicked line speed further away from my body. So, though it performs amazingly, I’d love to see this rod built at 10 feet, since it performs best, in my opinion, as a two-handed rod.
Could be beefier
For what it is, the Big Game 12-weight is a great rod. But if we’re talking about it as a two-handed rod, throwing lines up to 700 grains and giant flies in excess of 15 inches long, it is much less substantial than the other rods I own with similar applications and specs. Still, I haven’t broken one, or felt to be in immediate danger of doing so, and I’ve spent a lot of time fishing flies of modest bulk up to 14 inches with this model.
Final Word
Redington has always been an unassuming brand, aiming to build high-quality rods for the everyday angler at an affordable price, and they’ve been quietly building some of the most well-loved rods for decades. The Big Game musky rods are a solid step in continuing that legacy. These rods excite me as a musky fly angler and a participant in the fly fishing industry, as it seems to mark the reaching of a critical mass in fly fishing for musky that will drive the development of more highly specialized offerings in the future. Redington has done well to hit a couple of sweet spots, creating two different musky fishing tools and setting a bar that’s long been due for setting for major fly rod manufacturers. And they’ve done it at a good value. With proper fly line pairing, I’d recommend either of these rods to new and seasoned musky anglers, alike.