Best slip bobber rod??

Let’s switch gears a bit….what is everyones favorite slip bobber rod?

Love the St Croix Eyecon Slip N Rig!

Here’s what I don’t understand, if it’s a slip bobber rod or s dead stick rod it has no effect on the bite, its all on how one sets the hook, I don’t need a $ money rod when fishing this way, and no one sitting next to me has so far and don’t see it ever happening, now jigging, or casting is a different story

Slip bobber rods are all about being soft enough and long enough to lob baits on long casts without throwing the bait from the hook. The added length is great when picking up slack on hooksets as well.

I really like a St.Croix Premier 7’6″ Medium Light Fast action. If I were to buy a rod dedicated to bobbers I’d look at going to 8’+

St Croix Legend Tournament 8ft slip bobber telescoping..

Pretty sure they dont make this gem anymore, but its great.. I bought a higher end bobber rod so it can run double duty as a back up rigging rod for long leaders on Mille Lacs.
Its a sensitive long rod with telescoping for storage, and personally I dont like 2 pc rods at all. This rod works well for me.

7’6″ Mr. Walleye Series by Gary Roach

FWIW, when slip bobbering, I rarely cast my rig out… too many times, I am wondering…did the leech fly off right before the splash ??? I drop it behind the boat and let it drift back.

A few years back, I bought a bunch of the Gary roach rods. The bobber rods are great for the money. I also have a few Jason Mitchell 8′ bobber rods, they were on sale, BOGO free. They double as a nice trolling rod. Bobber rods, for me, need to be long with a softer tip.

brian_peterson wrote:

Let’s switch gears a bit….what is everyones favorite slip bobber rod?

The kind that comes with a case of beer when you buy it.

Limit Creek has an 8′ 3″ telescoping slip bobber that is a sweet rod. Very reasonably priced too.

I use my 8’6″ Okuma SST ML Steelhead rods. They are nice and long for hook-sets and I can pack them away easily. They are great dead stick rods too. $80 bucks.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

Limit Creek has an 8′ 3″ telescoping slip bobber that is a sweet rod. Very reasonably priced too.

I’ll second the Limit Creek.

I like a 7 Mf. I have a St Croix premier. You don’t need an expensive rod to bobber fish just something to cast far and feel the tension. I have caught thousands and I mean thousands of walleyes on bobbers and hundreds over 28″. Super long rods are not necessary to take in slack or cast far I have no issues with casting far or bringing slack in. I don’t like mlf actions as the don’t cast as far. I can’t pitch a bobber more accurate
Ly and farther with a fast tip and tighten line faster as well. I wrote an article that is supposed to be in Midwest outdoor in March about bobber fishing. Check it out. It will have some good tips.

Outdraft wrote:

Here’s what I don’t understand, if it’s a slip bobber rod or s dead stick rod it has no effect on the bite, its all on how one sets the hook, I don’t need a $ money rod when fishing this way, and no one sitting next to me has so far and don’t see it ever happening, now jigging, or casting is a different story

Most people just let the bobber alone. My Ugly Stik works just fine.

If you vertical bobber/jig, better rod may let you feel the bite long before the bobber even sinks.

Amazing we catch any fish on the $25/no name bobber rods in my boat.

I’m with Phil. I use a 8’6″ steelhead rod. I think it’s a Browning that cost $20. I used to drink a lot of beer while bobber fishing the flats on Mille Lacs. (the old me). I would miss fish feeling for them before I set the hook, and the next fish I’d swing at a bunch of slack line and not get a good set. A long rod coupled with a high-vis main line and a flouro leader is pretty idiot-proof I can tell you from first-hand experience.

I don’t think anybody is saying you have to have high end rods for bobber fishing. I like a 7-8′ ML rod. My main rod is a 7’6″ st croix avid only because I bought it for rigging but never liked it for that. Tried it for bobbers and power corking and I like it. Other rods are a Mr Walleye, Browning, and Ugly Stick that we use. Reel down until the rod loads up and set the hook.

I didn’t get a case of beer but I did get a wind breaker. A 7’4″fen wick elite tech. It’s not 200$. But it has back bone and sensitivity like any 200$ rod.

Trent W wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom Sawvell wrote:</div>
Limit Creek has an 8′ 3″ telescoping slip bobber that is a sweet rod. Very reasonably priced too.

I’ll second the Limit Creek.

3x the Limit Creek a very nice multi purpose rod.

A few years back, I wrote this piece in my Outdoors Blog in the Star Tribune. It isn’t about bobber rods but a general way I see this “need” for “sensitivity” when shopping for a rod. Right or wrong, just my opinion/experience.

On a recent guided walleye trip I did on Gull Lake, one of my clients asked me about the various fishing rods offered in the walleye fishing market. He asked a good question like “what action is best for the various walleye fishing techniques used in today’s walleye fishing world.” “How do I know what sensitivity to buy?” While we waited at the dock for his walleye hunting partner, this was a good time to explain to him how we were gonna fish. His question about “rod sensitivity ” was a good example to use when I explained the nervous minnow part of the day’s fishing technique.

Hitting the rewind button, I recall back in the ’60’s we equipped our fishing arsenals with the cheapest rods we could find that could hold up to hundred’s of hours of use each year. For years on end. Of course, unlike in today’s never ending world of choice, it wasn’t too hard to decide. But the one thing I don’t recall discussing back then was “rod sensitivity”. Yes, rod action was important as we wanted to match the potential bend in the rod to the size sinkers we were gonna use or if we wanted a long rod for casting, trolling and the like. But sensitivity was not part of our thinking back then. We always knew when we had a bite or our lines were in contact with the bottom. It wasn’t hard to teach our gangs of non-fishermen to know the same. Even with the cheapest rods we could find. Boron , Graphite, IM7 and the like were not part of anyone’s vocabulary back then. And nothing has changed in my boat in that regard!

So when the dock talk at Gull went from me saying “you need to only spend $25 to $40 on a spinning rod for Lindy rigging”, and then went to “make sure you tell me when your minnow gets nervous in 40ft. of water”, the student became even more confused. I knew what he was thinking. Had he wasted $175 dollars on a rod he was told he needed by that Pro giving the seminar last winter? Or was his guide for the day nuts?

No one is more concerned about their walleye fishing tackle than yours truly. I am obsessed with how my bait looks to the fish from every aspect possible. But I never have had a fish bite while it considered the type of rod the bait was attached to. So I buy my rods on the cheap end of the price spectrum, saving money for better live bait, quality hooks and all the stuff that makes a true difference in the frying pan. I don’t own a rod that costs more than $40!

My latest classic example of how money is wasted on big buck fishing rods, to ensure that one knows when a 2 pound fish is biting or a light sinker is hitting bottom, is my favorite wife. When she clicked her mouse in the process of us meeting for the first time 6 ( now 13 years ago in ’16) years ago, she had never had a fishing rod in hand let alone knowing what a bite felt like. Or what a nervous minnow felt like. And yet, when she lost her walleye fishing virginity on her maiden Mille Lacs voyage, holding a $22 dollar spinning rod, she had no doubts. On a recent trip to Farm Island Lake, still holding her $22 dollar spinning rod and Lindy Rig with a nice 4 inch Redtail Chub on the hook, as easy as it was to click her mouse, she was able to confidently say “oh! my minnow’s nervous—-and now it got ate”!

So as I finally baited the clients hook the other day, I imagined he was skeptical. Here he was, paying close to $500 to go fishing with me, and had to use cheap tackle. Or better said, “cheap rods”. I am sure he was wondering how he was gonna be able to follow my rule and tell me when his minnow gets nervous after hearing at a seminar that he needed to buy a rod that could exceed $200 just to feel the light bite of a 16 inch walleye. So as a nice walleye mark came across my graph screen, I warned him of potential action. Sure enough, seconds later, with a walleye big enough to eat him, staring him down, the 4 inch chub had my client blurting out ” my minnows nervous!” And then ” I got a bite!” He knew his investment for the days fishing had just saved him hundreds of dollars. He knew if he could feel a 4 inch minnow pull and tug on his line in 40 ft. of water, there wasn’t a walleye, dead or alive, that could bite light enough for him not to feel it.

Now, when your making out your Christmas wish list, you can add a few more fishing rods to the arsenal for the cost of one of those high buck ones that mean nothing to the fish nor the fisherman. And you’ll have the rest of the winter to rehearse your lines. “Oh! My minnows nervous aaaannnnndddd it got ate!”

^^^^ this,why?? I have a chemical injury that has substantially limited my sensitivity to feel things with my hands,IE,I can get second degree burns on my hands before I realize that I grabbed something hot.

that said,I have several rods that cost 150 plus to “help my sensitivity issues”
and I was sorely disappointed when they did not help.
I believe that these rods not only make “us” more sensitive,they also help the fish detect our blood pressure pulse etc.in other words,the fish feel us as well as we feel them.

and I wonder why I catch less with the high dollar rods versus the cheap ones I am used to using,especially with a bobber??,I am not any kind of expert on this subject,this truth I will tell you,but,when my catch rate goes down after spending bookoo dollars on equipment versus what I grew up with?

I am going to go back to watching a bobber,or the line,and to think when I was six years old,we used a three inch red and white plastic bobber on braided line to catch a one pound bass in a farm pond in central iowa.

hhhhmmm?? I used to almost limit out in MN. fishing with an ugly stick and a fourteen cent balsa pencil bobber up there back the eighties and nineties,but not since spider wire and the almighty sucks%^& 832 came out.

maybe,just maybe,I need to go back to my roots and use a ten foot cane pole and shoe lace to bring back the glory days of fishing??