10-14 foot trolling rods

[IAeyeman]

Hi Bob,

I'm new to the message board, and have been doing some snooping around, and I notice some of the guys are posting about some seriously long sounding trolling rods. I mean 10 to 14 feet long! Is this really necessary? this sounds like alot of fishing pole to me!

Trolling is my favorite method of fishing and I'm just wondering if theres something I'm missing out on.

Thanks!
IAeyeman

[Bob Jensen]

Back in the day we used a lot of 8'6" Steelhead rods to troll crankbaits. This started at the Gary Roach Invitational Tournament in Minaki Ontario. We used the long rods because we wanted to troll big crankbaits in deep water. The walleyes were about twenty feet down over a hundred plus feet of water feed on whitefish or cisco or something like that.

To get the big crankbaits(#9 Shad Raps) down that deep we used six pound test line. This was before we had been introduced to Snap-Weights or FireLine or other assists for getting deep.

However, with six pound test mono and a normal length rod, we broke quite a few fish off on the strike. The longer rods had a more gradual bend. When a fish hit, the rod just bent over slowly, with the impact of the strike being distributed over the entire length of the rod. The rods were also very forgiving during the battle. I don't believe I ever lost a fish that got hooked.

I am sure the 10-14 foot rods you refer to are good for trolling, but I'm not sure they're necessary. If you're trying to spread lines more, you could just go to planer boards.

So, do the longer rods do a good job. Yes, they do.

Are they going to enable you to catch more fish. Maybe in some situations.

I don't have any and don't have any plans to get one. However, I'm going to keep watching to see if I encounter many situations where a rod that long would be advantageous.

Great question, thanks for asking, and thanks for visiting our website.

Best Fishes,

Bob Jensen

[IAeyeman]

I do have some 7 1/2 footers, and they are nice since my boat is kinda wide. (I have a Navigator 165 CS). I'll have to do some thinking on longer rods. I have bought some planer boards, but havent used them yet. Just havent got around to it yet.

IAeyeman

[Dan....]

I noticed that Scheel's now offers a 14' trolling rod. Has anyone had a chance to use one and what is your opinion? Thanks...

[Youngeye]

Haven't tried the long rod from scheel's but the also have the new "shorty". I just picked a couple up and can't wait to try them. I use a couple of st. croix glass trolling rods and the gander mountain series rods. I don't have anything close to 14' and don't really see the need. Sounds like a pain to haul around in the boat.

[Rlcrouse]

I have used the 5' and the 10'6" Scheels rods and they are nice.
I use the long rods for both lead and mono.
It's personal preference if you want to use the longer rods or planer boards for pulling cranks.
Some days, leaving the planer boards in the bag is nice.
I plan on getting the 14' rods someday so i can leave the mono on them and the lead on the 10'6"er's

[BCLII]

I use the 12' & 5' rods for pulling lead core in the river. It gives you a nice spread and the lead core tracks nicely off the rods when contour trolling. No tangled messes.

[WALLEYE IOWA]

Let say your trolling a drop off! If your using your boards one is way off the drop in deeper water and the other is off into shallow water, and getting snaged up. I use 2-8 footer criss crossed in the back then 2-6 footers out the sides and then 2- 12 footer outside that. Now i have 6 rods out at 6 foot apart. If you dont use the long rods you have more tanggle up lines. or be long lineing less lines. And again still have a shallow runner up shallow on a board also. I use this on a river mostley.

[eyeballs]

long rods are advantageous over planer boards in a variety of situations. When trolling right up tight to the bank you have more control of your bait and feeding line or cranking in a bit. You can watch the wobble in your rod tip to be sure the bait is working properly. You can watch the rod tip as your bait occasionally bumps structure.

On a hot bite or when species like crappies or white bass are in the area in numbers it's less work to run 2 longs and 2 shorts.

Running four leadcore rods and keeping baits precisely in the zone as depths change requires constant adjustement - something you can't instantly achieve with boards.

I still like boards for multiple situations though - flats, open water, over weed tops in clear water, etc.

[Chad]

Hi Bob,

I'm new to the message board, and have been doing some snooping around, and I notice some of the guys are posting about some seriously long sounding trolling rods. I mean 10 to 14 feet long! Is this really necessary? this sounds like alot of fishing pole to me!

Trolling is my favorite method of fishing and I'm just wondering if theres something I'm missing out on.

Thanks!
IAeyeman

We use te 10' rods when contour trolling. Lots of time we are using leadcore others fireline. The long rods allow us to spread our lines alittle more which helps avoid tangles when trolling. We use 10'6" rods whic re about as long as we like. The nice thing is we can avoid using boards which in certaing situations are a pain (snags, weeks, etc.)

[coho kid]

I do have both, but when I am using planer boards or mast system, I use my 7.5'ers. Once you have a "fish on" the fight is not as fun with the longer rods. That's also why I love to use my mast system more and more, once they are on you have the free feeling fight. No extra weight of the planer board or not tugging in with a great big ole rod.