Any tips for fishing with a noodle rod?

[Alex from GA]

For the west coast guys Kencor made noodle rods.  I used to tape a Mitchell 308 to an old fly rod with mono sewing thread, about 1 lb test, line for crappie usually with a micro jig that Tom talked about.  That was the original noodle rod.

[wvhunt]

I've got a 10' noodle rod that I purchased several years ago for a steelhead trip.  It was great for playing large fish on 6lb fishing line.  I use it now for fishing dough bait for trout in a local lake.    

[LionHeart]

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[redmeansdistortion]

On 5/22/2024 at 1:35 PM, Alex from GA said:

For the west coast guys Kencor made noodle rods.  I used to tape a Mitchell 308 to an old fly rod with mono sewing thread, about 1 lb test, line for crappie usually with a micro jig that Tom talked about.  That was the original noodle rod.

Fun fact about Kencor. It was founded by Kenny Kawakami, the first president of Daiwa USA. He ran Kencor and Daiwa USA at the same time. Pretty impressive. I don't think anything like that would fly these days. Working for one company while being a competitor at the same time.

[ChrisD46]

Use #8 lb. to #10 lb. braid to #6 lb. FC leader.

[TnRiver46]

I like glass rods. Use treble hook baits where you don’t really set the hook anyway

 

i.e. “Glass cranking rod”

[redmeansdistortion]

20 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I like glass rods. Use treble hook baits where you don’t really set the hook anyway

 

i.e. “Glass cranking rod”

Yep, love me some glass.  This is a fantastic stream smallmouth setup.  The rod is a Graywolf 5'4" 4-8lb progressive E glass.  

[bulldog1935]

Every glass casting rod I've ever fished will fish below its rated low end - what it does best is skip-cast (reverse spiral) lite lures below its rated low-end.  

Can't exactly call it noodle, but this 6'4" bad boy S-glass, I set up to skip-cast 1/8-oz bunny shrimp to redfish backs under mangrove overhang.  

This is my river kayak version for cypress overhang, and only 5' - the 1-pc composite blade has S-glass tip and an IM6 layer on the butt for turning bass. 

 

[Westcoast]

Noodle rods used to be the rage for east coast steelhead. They were made for small hooks and light line. Hook sets were reeling up slack then a long sweep of the rod. When fighting fish you have to lean all the back to get into the rod butt before you have any power and when you do you can land some large fish quite quickly. They are not nearly as effective in the west coast’s steep and fast rivers and even in the east they have been replaced by modern more effective rod designs.  
 

[OmegaDPW]

Again, thanks for all the replies. I have had some success with landing fish on this rod. It will never become a favorite, though. Right now, I'm using it as a panfish/crappie rod because of the length and have 4lb mono paired with a float and a 1/2 inch curly tail grub on the tiniest jigheads I own. I actually caught a redear, crappie and a 2.5lb bass this morning with a slow straight retrieve about 1.5 feet under the float.

 

I don't think I've ever caught a bass under a bobber before, so that was kind of cool.