Thorne Bros walleye rod

I’m in need of a new walleye ice rod and am looking for some suggestions. I drive past Thorne Bros every day so was wondering what you guys/gals suggest from them. The rod will mainly be used for jigging a spoon with the head of a fathead.

Why not stop in and ask? I know I would if drove past every day

Get the perch sweetheart. You will love it. If jigging bigger then 1/4 oz go to the walleye sweet heart. Both awesome rods.

Would the walleye sweetheart work well for a jiggin rap?

get of the computer and go in and ask the people that work there!

gimp wrote:

get of the computer and go in and ask the people that work there!

I’m stopping in tomorrow. Before I drop $100 on a rod, I wanted to get some opinions from more people than just the ones who work there

gimp wrote:

get of the computer and go in and ask the people that work there!

Ignore this dude. Feel free to ask all the questions you want.
Thats why I’m here and thats why most of us started here. After a while itll all make sense.
Yes the walleye sweet heart is what I run on ripping and jigging raps. When I target larger fish. When I fish for walleye known to be 24 inches and less I find the perch sweet heart to be perfect

Perch Sweetheart is great.

32” perch sweetheart is an excellent rod.

Perch Sweetheart is your Rod! Don’t let the name fool you, It will handle bigger fish just fine as well.

I have both the perch and walleye sweetheart. I prefer the perch 90% of the time. If I was catching bigger walleyes than the max 20-21in that I do, maybe the walleye sweetheart would be better, but if I had to choose just one it would be the perch.

Like others have stated, perch sweetheart is a solid rod. The guys at Thorne are great, and they have a good variety of their rods on the floor for purchase

Same as above, stop in. They’re great to talk to and extremely helpful. I did a few years back, voila a Perch Sweetheart. 7 years and still my favorite “walleye” rod! Get a floor model or have them custom it up, you won’t regret it.

Key thing I learned from Thorne. It’s not about the species it’s about matching the rod to the lures. I primarily jig 1/8oz spoons or right close to that for walleye. If I was predominantly 1/4oz heavier lures then I may have moved up to the Walleye Sweetheart.

If you’re using jigging raps #5 or larger a Perch Sweetheart might be a bit light.

You may want to look at a medium light sweetheart.

The Perch Sweetheart is perfect for 1/8 oz spoons.

Id stop by Thorne Bros sooner than later. They sell out stock quick then you’ll end up waiting for them to build you one.

The Perch Sweetheart is my go to for up to and maybe slightly over 1/8 oz spoons. I bought the blank and spun up my own rod and left it at 36″. I have a 32″ walleye sweetheart I bought years ago also. It’s a very nice rod but smaller fish won’t flex it much and I think I lose some because of that.

Like said above It’s what I’d lean towards if using #5 and bigger jigging raps as they are pretty heavy. The tip of the perch rod will get a little mushy on those.

You could possibly talk to the guys at Thornes about taking the Perch SH blank and trimming the tip back just slightly to allow it to work the heavier jigging raps better. There would be a limit for how much to take off but could end up being a pretty good all around rod if done right. They will be the ones to know if that’s a good option or not.

I build rods on other blanks, and even hand sand some to suit my needs, but I haven’t found an off the shelf blank that quite replicates all the characteristics I like of the Perch Sweetheart blank.

Tucker

The people at Thorne Brothers are great and very helpful. I am glad I am over an hour away from them because I have dropped a lot of $$$ there over the years there and it would be so much more if I wasn’t so far away. The Perch Sweetheart is great blank. Have fun playing in their store.

Well I stopped in and ended up with a perch sweetheart and a walleye sweetheart. Almost grabbed a panfish rod too but decided to save some of my xmas bonus. Thank you for all of your suggestions.

Very nice. You should be able to tackle pretty much any walleye scenario you run into with those.

For the future my 1st good ice rod was a 28 inch panfish sweetheart. Probably had it 20 years now. Few years ago I built myself a 32 incher on a Quiverstick blank. Great rod as well. I use the Quiverstick more now but not sure if that’s because I like the action more or the longer length. I’m tempted to build on a 36 inch panfish sweetheart because I think that could be a really nice rig.

I like that some of the Thorne blanks are just slightly more moderate than some of the other customs out there now. I like the rod to load a little to help keep line tight while fighting fish. They are still fast, just maintain a good flex in the rod.

Thorne-Brothers rocks good people.
Walleye Sweetheart like others have mentioned 1/4” & up .
But I’d agree with Bearcat on the Perch Sweetheart as a purchase.
I stopped in there the other day and they now have various handles that seem to be more sensitive.
Mine are the cork style , but now they have a foam & a plastic mold , maybe others can chime in.

Only rods I use. I absolutely love them!

They are great rods! I have built 6 rods using their Perch Sweetheart blanks and 2 Panfish rods using their panfish blank(cant remember if they called it a panfish sweetheart or power noodle). I have had them for at least 4 years now and have sold every other ice rod that I have owned prior. My next build will be a Walleye Sweetheart for using with Rippin’ Raps, Jiggin’ Raps, and other lures over 1/4oz just as others have said. The guys at Thorne Brothers are very informative and helpful with any questions you have. You cant go wrong with Thorne Brothers or their rods.