You are right. I was talking about other areas within walker bay. I have never been to that area that your map is showing. I apologize.

Walker bay doesn’t really have a lot of structure, just a sand bottom. We always just went wherever our rented fish house was set up. Anywhere from 9 to 25 feet of water. Wherever the fish are biting you will see houses out

Last hour of day light through the entire night is best time for walleyes in my experience. Leech is definitely not a numbers game from what I’ve seen. A good night will produce 5-10 walleyes. Good chance at a 25+ though. I usually go out of walker bay.

What’s the smallest tungsten jig you guys would use with the power noodle?

stabilicers do not fit my boots well. I wear big boots though, size 13 irish setters. They have good traction and don’t fall off but they are a pain to get on. I would to with kahtoola microspikes if I could do it over again. Who knows maybe those don’t fit either.

With a good drag on your reel a bullwhip does well for walleyes in my opinion. The only thing I don’t like about it is if you use a heavier bait, that noodle tip can get pretty loaded down and it just isn’t as enjoyable to jig with. But I only fish walleyes a couple times a year so a bullwhip and a fusion are all I use for walleyes and they work great.

For me it really seems to come down to the weather. During a cold front the fish really turn off. With the right weather I’ve had really good nights, 10-12 walleyes throughout the course of the night. I would say typically we catch 3 to 6 walleyes on rattle reels per night. But it’s definitely a low light bite. I have never caught a walleye during the day.

I got to play with these in the store the other day. These are well-made and lightweight. After looking at them however, I am much happier with my tuned up custom rods. The light action noodle rod that they have does not have a very sensitive tip. A TUCR bullwhip is way more sensitive and has more backbone as well. Easy pass for me on these “custom” ice rods.

I was just at Denny’s Resort on Winnibigoshish and they showed us a spot that was just loaded with them. Put the vexilar down and they were all up and down the water column in 43 FOW. We weren’t really interested in catching them, more out there for perch. We caught 4 in about 5 minutes and left.

I haven’t seen a noodle rod offered by any custom company thats longer than 36″. I custom ordered a 40″ bullwhip from TUCR and love it for standing up when I’m hole hopping. I would maybe look into offering a rod like that. I also feel like there a ton of companies making custom rods, but you have to do a good amount of digging online to find a lot of them. I feel like a small custom rod company will still do good from local business and word of mouth. I would also probably offer a rod with a nice titanium or nitinol spring bobber attached. I love noodle rods, but a good spring bobber on a stiffer carbon rod is really nice for tough bites. These are just my opinions though. good luck.

I really appreciate it guys. I ordered some of the fiskas and am going to wait to see what those look like before ordering some akaras.

first world problems.

bassh8er wrote:

There has been some really good videos recently from the Angling Buzz YouTube channel and one was when they asked various pros about of custom ice rods are worth the money.

Lots of variation, but hearing our own Joel Nelson talk about a custom rod for a specific bite at a specific lake made me really think about this. If Dave Genz and Jason Mitchell can get by without a custom rod, I’m feeling pretty good about my $40 Meat Stick that I splurged on.

I also watched that video. I thought it was funny that almost all of the guys that said custom rods weren’t worth it were the guys that had their name on mass production rods. IMHO jason mitchell’s meat stick rods have way too small of guides to use outside. I agree that you don’t need a $120 rod to catch fish, but I also believe that my tuned up custom rods are my favorite piece of equipment that I have bought for ice fishing.

I just bought my propane auger and spent a lot of time researching online before I bought one. Maybe it was just me, but I found a lot of guys saying that the jiffy propane augers have line leaks, bog down when cutting through a lot of ice, and don’t start well when it is really cold. I went with an eskimo hc40 8″ and after 50 holes it has been perfect. I’m sure eskimo has issues just like jiffy, but I simply didn’t see as many guys complaining about them online.

Thanks guys, that is what I thought. I definitely don’t need another rod for panfish, as I already have 2 bullwhips and a precision noodle. I think I will be going with the precision.

I’m about as amateur as it gets when it comes to walleye fishing, but something to maybe think about is how much time you give them before setting the hook. Sometimes I feel like walleyes love to grab the tip of the minnow and just suck on it for a while.

Great video, thanks for sharing! A pet peeve of mine is when guys spend so much time in their videos goofing around, but yours was great! I subscribed to your channel and am watching all of your older videos.

I would call TUCR and talk to them about length of rod. I had a 28″ and I liked it, but I ilke 32″ more. Bullwhip is great for medium tungsten up to perch spoons. Precision noodle is better for small tungsten to medium tungsten.

Craig Sery wrote:

I had asked John that exact same question when I ordered my first rod, the Precision Noodle. He said there was no need for it with how sensitive the tip is. It is a very sensitive tip, but with really tough finicky bites, there’s still times where I think a thin wire spring bobber would help. Talk to him, I’m sure they could figure out something if that’s the way you want to go.

I agree with this completely. I’d say the precision noodle is sensitive to see bluegill and crappie bites 95% of the time. If there’s a cold front and they are biting really light, a st. croix legend ice rod with the spring bobber is really nice to have. But, honestly in those situations, when they are biting that light I never catch very many anyways.

yea I agree. The person in charge of marketing these plastics should get a fat bonus this year as they are super good looking on the website and on the shelf. But the packaging is an absolute pain to deal with.

deeper water will not be a problem. The bullwhip has a great backbone. I switch from a precision noodle to a bullwhip in deeper water.

slipperybob wrote:

I know we want the rod to match the fish, but I will say that the rod is more for the lure weight and presentation. And so it also happens that lighter lures usually calls for smaller fish and holds the same general guideline as heavier lures will target larger fish.

That being the case my TB panfish sweatheart has handled catfish up to 28″ comfortably. It would be my preference to use my TB <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye sweatheart instead.

I agree, I feel like rod action is more about lure weight and less about fish size. In my opinion, landing bigger fish relies more on having a good drag and not horsing the fish. My favorite walleye rod is my TUCR bullwhip, just because I like to fish really small spoons and I enjoy seeing the bite on the soft tip. I’ve never had a problem landing walleye and landed a 29 inch northern last year.

what is budget for you? the HT ice blue rods for like 10 bucks are nice but they have small eyelets and no backbone. Honestly the beaver dam glass noodle rod is unbelievable for the price. It is around 20 bucks and has a really soft tip, really big eyelets that are honestly really similar to the recoil guides on some high end rods, and it has a pretty good backbone. I can’t believe this rod doesn’t get more attention. To be honest though I started out going cheap and eventually just worked my way up to the tuned up custom rod line. Wish I would of just went with them in the first place, now I have noodle rods laying around everywhere. For a spoon rod I am not the one to ask. The rods I am talking about are for small to medium/large tungsten jigs.

Jamin wrote:

Very cool! I’m still debating between the BW and PN and seeing you have both isn’t helping me make a decision.

It was too hard of a decision for me to make which is why I got both.

Dan Baker wrote:

I remember that rod at the shop! We were all super impressed and curious. Thanks for the info on how you plan to use it.

Thanks! I have a feeling a lot of guys will be impressed with it, There aren’t a lot of other options for longer ice rods for standing and fishing.

Here’s another pic with my 32″ bullwhip and PN, for comparison.

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I’ve been to leech 3 times and have never caught a walleye that wasn’t either at night or during the dusk/dawn periods. But I’ve only been there 3 times so I’m obviously an amateur (seriously, I am). I have always heard that it’s a really tough lake to catch walleyes during the day on because the water is so clear. I usually target perch during the day and have done really well the 3 times I have been there. I have heard that purple is a good color for this lake, but when I go it has always been in a group and we have all been using different colors with no difference in catch rate.

Tickle stick: My opinion is that the eyes are way too small on this rod. I had one and if it was below freezing at all it would ice up so bad that it was unusable. The tip also snapped which is why I don’t have it anymore. It was a great rod in the tent though because it was really soft but had a really good backbone.

TUCR inferno: I don’t own one but I played around with one at Cabela’s the other day. They have a very soft tip on them. They also have less of a backbone than a precision noodle. If I didn’t have a precision noodle or a bullwhip it would be a top 2 option for me along with a st. croix avid glass.

St. Croix avid glass: I would say this rod is just a bit less sensitive than a precision noodle, but is still plenty soft for up bites. I have one of these and really like it.

My favorite rods by far are the precision noodle and bullwhip, but those are obviously more expensive.

red89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>cgriff20 wrote:</div>
I bought an otter because they advertise the super durable sled. You guys are telling me that dragging by hand for 10 feet down a concrete boat ramp is going to ruin the sled? I should of just bought a cheaper lighter frabill in that case.

I think you will be fine without it. I have had an otter cabin for probably 5+ years now and haven’t done any damage to my sled other than normal light scratches. I agree it’s funny they advertise such a tough sled but then everyone says you have to put hyfax on.

That is exactly what I was thinking, who cares how durable the sled is if you have to put a hyfax on it anyways.

I bought an otter because they advertise the super durable sled. You guys are telling me that dragging by hand for 10 feet down a concrete boat ramp is going to ruin the sled? I should of just bought a cheaper lighter frabill in that case.