i fish the shenango for muskie with a spinning rod, i use a 7' ugly stick lite pro medium action rod pfluger president reel spolled with 30lb spiderwire stealth braid with a 18 inch 65 lb spiderwire stealth braid leader, however i use live bait, 5-9 inch chubs and suckers form a nearby trib, i use this same  set up for cats to, never lost a fish from the line brakeing

I fished muskies for 42 yrs in western NY and western PA.,  casting and trolling, mostly Chautauqua lake because I live here. The rivers mentioned I am not familiar with. Spinning gear does have it's place in muskie fishing. IMO it's the best choice for fishing jigs/reapers, lizards, or pork, 1/2 to 3/4 oz. jig heads, dressed or undressed. Lakes or rivers, anywhere jigs are a good choice,  what you want is a spinning rod  about 7 ft long rated for 1/2 to 1 1/2 oz lures. I prefer mono, 15 lb maxima ultra green for fishing jigs. Jigs are great muskie lures especially for cold water. Some rivers are well suited to fishing jigs, some aren't. Along weed lines, around rock piles, drop offs, etc. spinning gear, jigs will work.
 
Bait casting is the way to go for all  other casting applications. Rivers with a lot of brush where you're going to be fishing a lot of surface or shallow running stuff,  most definitely bait casting. This reply is kind of long winded. To sum it all up: Spinning only for fishing jigs. Bait casting for everything else; surface, jerks, glides, twitch baits, bucktails, soft plastic swim baits, etc. If you can afford only one rig for casting for muskies, definitely get a decent quality bait casting outfit. $300, maybe a bit more will get you there.
 

You can pick up the new Daiwa Lexa for around 160 online very smoothe rare backlashing and 24 pound drag and large line capacity for low profile baitcaster. For the baits I use the st. croix x-heavy bass mojo is fine and only costs 100 bucks

If you're looking at winter fishing the rivers, which I would imagine you are, a spinning rig with 17lb mono is the only way to go.  The eyes on baitcasting rods are too small and will freeze up causing you to waste half your time busting the ice out of them.  Braid also freezes and any mono I've tried over 17lb is too stiff.
 
I started years ago using a 7' rod but quickly came to the conclusion that it was too long, 6-6 1/2' is much better, preferably a heavy action with a long handle you can tuck under your arm to help with jerkbaits.  There is no problem using jerkbaits with a spinning rod as long as it's a nice heavy action.  Ugly stick saltwater rods work well.  The longer rods are tougher to cast in confined areas, give up too much leverage and are harder to use jerking from shore because you're not up above the water like in a boat.  When you're actually in the water the effect is even worse.
 
Okuma makes some pretty nice spinning reels for the money, pick one with a large capacity so you can get a lot of line on it.  A good drag is critical because it needs to be set so that you can get a good hookset but will let line out without breaking.  Cheap reels many times have drags that stick somewhat then smooth out (especially in the cold weather) which puts too much shock on your line.
 
You can use a baitcasting setup if it's above freezing but below that it's almost impossible.  You received some pretty good advice here for fishing 8 or 9 months out of the year but anyone telling you to use a baitcaster this time of the year hasn't done any winter fishing.  Another big advantage to the spinning gear, as was mentioned by another poster, is the ability to throw lighter lures.  I rarely throw anything larger than 6" in the winter and using something like a Rapala is almost impossible with a baitcaster.  Even if you can get it to work you will throw it twice as far with a spinning rod.

I fish rivers in the winter, I use a bait caster. Never used a spinning rod in the winter. I have fished in temps as low as 12 degrees. In fact I got my PB that trip. All of my friends that winter fish use bait casters, so some people do use casting gear in the winter and have success
 
Fact is reguardless of what you use in below frezing things will get frozen when dealing with water.
Also what works great for myself might not work well for someone else. If you want to use spinning gear, by all means use it. Same goes for casting gear. No one can tell you what wouyld be best for you, I can only say what works for me from my experence.

You could fish them with a cane pole too but it's certainly not the most efficient way of doing it.

We are Penn Reel spinner users. Not knocking the baitcasters just stuck on what works for us. The older 4400 Penn spinning reel has landed and handled all large fish from Muskies to Niagara Lakers to those mean Hybrid Stripers. I'll admit repeat casting does take it's toll with the heavier reel so we step down to the 4300 also. The drag is the most important issue with large fish and the Penn's have never failed. Very easy to get parts and it's made in our state. I'm ready to try baitcasters just for the faster retrieve ratio but I've yet to buy one. Too old school I guess.
Oh I forgot.............Mario's on the board already 40" Musky caught and released several weeks ago.........lower Shenango River....very healthy fish on a stick bait !

I'm going for a musky this year, but I'm not just targeting musky alone. If I catch one, I catch one; if I don't, I don't. I'll be hitting Pymy and the Shenango River. I bought a cheap med. heavy spinning combo for $50 and I spooled it with 50# green power pro braided line. I'm going to use chubs at both lakes and rivers. I'm just going to play around with it and see what happens. 
 
A friend of mine told me to use bass fishing gear in the spring and into summer and then use Musky gear from late summer into the Fall. I'm not planning on fishing for them at that time of the year,so I'm not going to buy the larger stuff, unless of course I get into it, then I will. 

SmMouthSeeker

I'm going for a musky this year, but I'm not just targeting musky alone. If I catch one, I catch one; if I don't, I don't. I'll be hitting Pymy and the Shenango River. I bought a cheap med. heavy spinning combo for $50 and I spooled it with 50# green power pro braided line. I'm going to use chubs at both lakes and rivers. I'm just going to play around with it and see what happens. 

A friend of mine told me to use bass fishing gear in the spring and into summer and then use Musky gear from late summer into the Fall. I'm not planning on fishing for them at that time of the year,so I'm not going to buy the larger stuff, unless of course I get into it, then I will. 

 
Good deal, but to warn you part time musky angling can lead to a very expensive habbit, I guess its like cocaine one good trip and your hooked for life (never done drugs but from what I hear its like that).
 
You may at first be in denile, until you look at your gear and see half dozen rod and reel combos that equal the cost of 4 mortgage payment, the lightest line is 65lb and the lightest bait is 4oz, and you have thousands of dollars of tackle sitting in your basement,garage,truck... and use only the 8 in your tackle box that sitting in the boat.
 
Rig those chubbs with a treble hook or two and give the fish a 10 count and drive home the hooks. Use a leader, I cringe at the use of chain store cheap leaders, but if thats all you got its better than nothing (Yes, it is better than no leader at all. Strait braid isnt a substitute for a leader, its worse than strait mono).
 
Good luck!

Guys I fish the Susky river in Central Pa. I have caught many muskies on 8lb and 10lb test. I just use a simple 7ft rod with a spinning reel(I wade). I don't mess with any leaders, fish won't bite with them on. A 6 dollar husky jerk HJ14 works most of the time. No need to spend a ton of money. Keep it simple and put your time in.