What are your guys thoughts on these types of rods. Do you guys like them? Ive been throwing around the idea of getting this type of rod for panfishing. How do you use them what kind of lures are you guys using with this set up?
A Power Noodle is the smartest investment in your fishing dollar you can make.
Consider never having to fart around with a float or a spring bobber. Power Noodles are the epitome of sensitive. Period.
If you are questioning thier strength, personally I landed a 15 pound carp thru the ice using a Power Noodle and a reel spooled with line of 1 pound test or thereabouts….the line was actually monofilament quilting thread. The carp was not impressed, but I was.
Buy one Power Noodle. Do it now. Before this next ice season is over you will have two of them I can almost promise. The PowerNoodles are that great of a rod.
The frabill quick tip rod is hard to beat for the money! Try one and you’ll never want to fool around with a spring bobber again. For panfish teamed up with a good flasher and you’ve got all you need catch fish! I love a Northland Bloodworm on 2 or 3 pound mono on a 27″ rod. Good luck!
I have both of those rods and the powernoodle is hands down the better rod. Way more sensitive and all around better. Get the powernoodle and enjoy.
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I have both of those rods and the powernoodle is hands down the better rod. Way more sensitive and all around better. Get the powernoodle and enjoy.
I agree I have both and there is a night in day difference in the two, get the powernoodle!! You will not be disappointed. And as Tom said you will end up with two. Im in the process of trying to get another one.
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What are your guys thoughts on these types of rods. Do you guys like them? Ive been throwing around the idea of getting this type of rod for panfishing. How do you use them what kind of lures are you guys using with this set up?
I’m a big fan of the Thorne Bros power noodle rod. I love the orange tip, and the action of the rod. It fits me perfectly for dancing the tail of a ratso or shrimp. This rod also works well for getting the right cadence out of a 1/16 ounce slender spoon for gills/crappies. 
The quicktip rods are mass produced in China and can come with guides out of alignment and tips turned, but the biggest issue with them is that they seldom are built with the guides on the spine. These might be good for casual use, but if you want pure quality go with the Power Noodle.
The Power Noodles are custom built, by hand, right here in Minnesota, one at a time to YOUR specs. They can be made for indoor or open ice use and in varying lengths.
Have several rods and the Power Noodles are nothing but fine and outshine any other rod on the market. You pay for what you get, yes. Make no bones about it that if you opt for the lesser rod so you can get three of them you still are on the short end of the stick.
The Powernoodle from Thorne Brothers is the best panfish rod I’ve fished with for the “Tip Watchers”.
As I see it there are a couple different bite detection methods for finicky panfish. The most common method employed by ice fisherman largely due to the extreme fine nature of fishing line is tip watching. Spring bobbers have been created a number of years ago to take the emphasis off the rod. Today spring bobbers are offered on multiple fishing rods, or sold seperate to purchase as an aftermarket attachment for your existing rod. When spring bobbers are correctly matched with the weight of your jig they are very effective at detecting light bites up or down. There are a number of shortcomings while using the spring bobber set up. Working a bait with a no tip tension eliminates a fine shaking/vibrating presentation lethal for big “Pannies”. Still simply put anytime you can eliminate variables that can potentially ice up or have your line tangled within; You likely will have a few less headaches,and a few more fish. Many “Iceheads” believe the most critical feature that seperates the “Powernoodle” versus using a noodle rod or spring bobbers centers around the hooking percentage. This can directly be attributed to load to set. Even the slightest load on a Powernoodle allows anglers to set the hook with zero lag or whip turning a hook or potentially dislodging a hook from the mouth of the fish.
Once a fish is hooked up the true quality of your fishing rod is often directly transferred to the loading effect. When a high quality rod is loaded up fish have a much tougher time shaking the barbs via head shake. Many of us quickly realize by the heavy pumping on the end of the fishing rod the estimated length of a fish before coming topside. It is the side to side head shake that translates to a the up and down motion in your fishing rod that we see topside. It is very true the longer fish are the more effective they are at shaking the hooks simply by creating a slight lack in tension within lesser quality fishing rods. This by no means is isolated to ice rods mind you.
Long and short is I completely agree with what Tom has said; Anglers tend to get what you pay for in fishing rods. I’d advise dropping a few extra sheckles on the TB Powernoodle, and yes you’ll soon demand more from your other fishing rods. 
It is my experience in life that I’ve rarely second guessed purchasing high quality products. The initial cost seldom determines the overall best deal in reality. I still chuckle at my buddy snapping a rod at hookset last season while on a big walleye bite. YES “Search and Destroy” member of Rainydaze Guide Service SNAPPED his rod. Of couse a snapped rod tends to reduce your chances of landing the fish. Not sure if he’s sleeping well yet or not. 
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It is my experience in life that I’ve rarely second guessed purchasing high quality products. The initial cost seldom determines the overall best deal in reality. I still chuckle at my buddy snapping a rod at hookset last season while on a big walleye bite. YES “Search and Destroy” member of Rainydaze Guide Service SNAPPED his rod. Of couse a snapped rod tends to reduce your chances of landing the fish. Not sure if he’s sleeping well yet or not.
I’m not laughing 
That is second time this as happened to me. Their are now 2 brands of rods I will never buy again. In fact the manager at the GM store tried to give me their best one last year after I brought inferior rod in I refused. OK Chris, Not Nice to bring back those memories, Can we going Ice fishing Soon ?
Andy i do not know why you have to buy anything Cgris should have lots of rods for you to use.If he was a real Pal he would just hand you his.LOL
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Andy i do not know why you have to buy anything Chris should have lots of rods for you to use.If he was a real Pal he would just hand you his.LOL
LOL!! Even good friends might have a little friendly competition on the ice every once in awhile. I personally think Andy should try something else again. I kind of liked his quick below the ice release. I’m sticking with the experts at TB!!
Im thinking the TB powernoodle is going to be adding to my collection this year. I cant wait to get it on some shallow and deep water whitefish.
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Im thinking the TB powernoodle is going to be adding to my collection this year. I cant wait to get it on some shallow and deep water whitefish.
One of the great things about the “POWER” noodle is that even when guys are sticking panfish you can actually handle a larger fish. We hook big Whitefish sometimes when fishing for Crappies. The backbone of the PowerNoodle comes in pretty handy for the occassional Whitefish, Pike and Walleye roaming similiar structure.
Would a Powernoodle work as a deadstick rod for Walleye?
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Would a Powernoodle work as a deadstick rod for Walleye?
Thorne makes a rod called the dead stick that is designed just for dead sticking eg fishing with out a bobber. That’s the rod you want for true dead sticking for eyes
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Would a Powernoodle work as a deadstick rod for Walleye?
Thorne makes a rod called the dead stick that is designed just for dead sticking eg fishing with out a bobber. That’s the rod you want for true dead sticking for eyes
I’ve yet to see this rod Tim. Are you saying by “TRUE DEADSTICK” that this is promoted to be used without a float as well?? I’m going to have to try one of these rods.
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Would a Powernoodle work as a deadstick rod for Walleye?
Thorne makes a rod called the dead stick that is designed just for dead sticking eg fishing with out a bobber. That’s the rod you want for true dead sticking for eyes
I’ve yet to see this rod Tim. Are you saying by “TRUE DEADSTICK” that this is promoted to be used without a float as well?? I’m going to have to try one of these rods.
YES. I picked one up last month. Can’t wait to give it a shot.
FDR
TALK to me FDR. Is the Deadstick being promoted as a rod that guys won’t use with a float?? What is the characteristics of the Deadstick say versus the Perch Sweetheart……Inquiring minds want to know
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Would a Powernoodle work as a deadstick rod for Walleye?
Thorne makes a rod called the dead stick that is designed just for dead sticking eg fishing with out a bobber. That’s the rod you want for true dead sticking for eyes
I’ve yet to see this rod Tim. Are you saying by “TRUE DEADSTICK” that this is promoted to be used without a float as well?? I’m going to have to try one of these rods.
Yep Chris no bobber needed on the dead stick it’s almost the same rod as a PN just beefed up for eyes/perch.
Very interesting guys. Thanks for sharing!! Apparently the TB Deadstick news has yet to hit Ifalls. Probably stuck in road construction. I need to check this out. If by chance any of our guys scheduled to fish December Walleyes have one PLEASE show me. I’d like to see it in action.
Heres Matt and Lonnie talking about the dead stick.
dead stick info
I have several Thorne Rods and can attest to the quality of product they put out. For Power Noodles, I have a 24″ inside, and a 32″ outside with the recoil guides. Since I fish outside most of the time, the 32″ gets used the most. I can say with 100% certainty, that if I am fishing panfish, the Power Noodle is the first rod out of the bag every time. It is simply the best panfish rod I have ever used.
This is a photo I shot out in my garage with my 32″ Power Noodle with the handle clamped in a vice (with a pad for protection). The action on these rods is unreal.
In the high res version you can just barely make out the 2 lb line running through the guides down to the weight on the floor.
I thought I would chime in here on this topic. Last year I finally made the investment for two TB rods. I purchased a 28″ Quiverstik w/fly reel and a 28″ Powernoodle w/recoil guides. Down here our ice fishing tends to be in shallow water for the most part. In particular a shallow slough area is where I used the Quiverstik for the first time. All I can say is AMAZING on the sensitivity of this rod !!!! Set up with the florocarbon line that TB rigged on it I’ve never used or held a finer rod for panfish. Now as far as the Powernoodle rod goes I never got to use it until we went up to see Chris the last weekend in March at RainyDaze. Fishing in 30-35′ of water was a whole new ball game for me. But once Chris showed me how to actually use that rod to it’s full potential it was unbelievable. Never had I gotten a chance to use that light tip for “watching” the bite than I did then. Thanks Chris !!! Oh and I will be adding another Powernoodle to the arsenal for this year !!!! You won’t own a better rod than a TB rod. 
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The backbone on the Power Noodle is insane. Go to Thorne Bros. and compare a cheaper rod to the noodle and it is not even a comparison. I’ve landed rogue pike, bass and large ciscos with the noodle.
I think this is what seals the deal for me. We’ve all owned the inexpensive noodle rods, and I can’t come up with something opposite-enough to contrast it to. Rarely when fishing for panfish do we wish to exclude the largest member of the species, other species, or even largest members of the other species like bass, pike, eyes, etc. With any other spring bobber (built-in or attached) I can think of, you sacrifice just that. You trade bite-detection for being outmatched. NOT with the power-noodle.
Check out this bass at 3:50 on 2lb line with the original 28″ power noodle. If it looks like I’m casually reeling in a nicer than average bass, it’s because of the confidence I have in that thing.
Joel
Another great example of the power in these rods at 5:15 – nice fish Chris!
Joel
I just looked at the quick tip frabill that has the orange bead on it and it seemed ok, it had the frabill fly reel on it.
I don’t know anything about fly reels, but I wonder if the frabill one would work ok for a cheaper option, anybody have any idea?
Two other cheap “powernoodle” options are the Gander mountain one and the HT Ice blue series. My dad has these and likes them quite a bit. The Blue Ice is only $9, and I think the Gander “powernoodle” was like $25. I’m sure the TB powernoodles are awesome and i’m all about buying good equipment, but a $60 to $90 panfish rod is way more than I want to spend right now. Gotta save money for bass fishing stuff.
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I just looked at the quick tip frabill that has the orange bead on it and it seemed ok, it had the frabill fly reel on it.
I don’t know anything about fly reels, but I wonder if the frabill one would work ok for a cheaper option, anybody have any idea?Two other cheap “powernoodle” options are the Gander mountain one and the HT Ice blue series. My dad has these and likes them quite a bit. The Blue Ice is only $9, and I think the Gander “powernoodle” was like $25. I’m sure the TB powernoodles are awesome and i’m all about buying good equipment, but a $60 to $90 panfish rod is way more than I want to spend right now.
Check out the thorne bros “hardwater” noodle rod, its basically a lower grade version of the powernoodle. Great rods, I have a few that are my Borrow out rods for people who wanna try them.
red89 I just got another powernoodle today and put the new frabill fly reel on it. I like what I see so far. Pat Smith at Thonre said they have been very popular so far this year and we don’t have ice yet. Once I get a chance to test it out I’ll post my findings here.
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