Walleye Rod

[lama231]

Would appreciate some help. We spend 1 week per year on the west arm of eagle lake. Last year I bought a Cabelas Walleye Prodigy rod in 6'3 MLF. It is ok but I wanted something more sensitive so I picked up a G Loomis E6X 6' LF but am concerned that is going to be too light for bigger walleye not to mention the occasional pike or large smallmouth while vertical jigging. The options are either keep what I bought, or exchange for a Fenwick Elite Tech Walleye 6'3' MLXF or a St. Croix Avid 6'3" MLXF. I purchased a Pflueger Patriarch 2500 and plan on using Pline CXX copolymer in 6# test for this set up.. We only go north once a year and have limited space so I only pack one jigging set up and do not want to end with a broken rod in hand and have to improvise with a rod that I am not as comfortable with for that application. Thanks in advance.

[pjshorthorn]

Originally Posted by lama231

Would appreciate some help. We spend 1 week per year on the west arm of eagle lake. Last year I bought a Cabelas Walleye Prodigy rod in 6'3 MLF. It is ok but I wanted something more sensitive so I picked up a G Loomis E6X 6' LF but am concerned that is going to be too light for bigger walleye not to mention the occasional pike or large smallmouth while vertical jigging. The options are either keep what I bought, or exchange for a Fenwick Elite Tech Walleye 6'3' MLXF or a St. Croix Avid 6'3" MLXF. I purchased a Pflueger Patriarch 2500 and plan on using Pline CXX copolymer in 6# test for this set up.. We only go north once a year and have limited space so I only pack one jigging set up and do not want to end with a broken rod in hand and have to improvise with a rod that I am not as comfortable with for that application. Thanks in advance.

Lama,

I fish UL and ML rods from 5' 6" up to 6' in length almost 90% of the time when fishing walleye in Canada. I jig with them, pull spinner rigs on bottom bouncers, use floating jig heads on drifts and backtroll using a combination of different live bait and artificial lure combinations.

I've landed walleye up to 30", northern up to 44", smallmouth over 18" and quite a few other species which were average or better in size. I like the lighter action and I feel it helps me sense the bottom better while allowing me to feel those really light walleye bites. Conversely, there are a number of great rods in longer lengths that give you the same or better sensitivity.

I wouldn't shy away from a lighter action rod ,but it definitely can be a matter of where your comfort zone is. The reason I finally migrated to a lighter rod was from hand and wrist fatigue as many years ago we would troll almost exclusively in areas that had a ton of structure......rod holders were not an option. Glad I made the change.....the arthritis has kicked in big time with age.

PjShorthorn

[outdoorsron]

Hello: My advice would be to go to a heavier 6'6" rod or a 7'er. If the length is too long I would go to 2 piece rods, I like Fenwick rods. I would also leave the 6 lb. test at home and go with 10 lb. test , should help you save a lot of jigs. I have never found Canadian Walleye to be line shy. Your reel should work fine. Does it have an extra spool or is one available for it ? That way you could have a spool with lighter lb. test and another with heavier line. My preference would be a braid. Just my opinion. Good Luck. O - R

[shell_guy]

I have 2 Fenwick 6' MF HMX rods with spinning reels, these are used to jigging and Lindy Rigging and they work great, we fish for Walleye and catch the occasional pike no problem. I also have 3 HMX mhf rods that have casting reels on them, they are 7' and I use them for bottom bouncing and crank baits.


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[lama231]

Here is an update.
I decided to exchange the Loomis rod at Cabelas and pick up the Fenwick Elite Tech.
They told me that because it was more than 90 days they could only offer store credit at the lowest price sold for the item in the US or Canada. The rod was $179.00 and they offered me $69.00 in store credit.Talked to a manager and he said that was the policy and there was nothing he could do.Bear in mind the rod was never used and still had the original Cabelas tag on it and was just sitting in my rod rack since the purchase. Here is the kicker. I found out later that my brother in laws neighbor works in the same store. She is picking the Fenwick rod up for me for $71.00, price in store $149.00. No wonder they are selling to Bass Pro and Gander just filed for BK. I dont mind paying a little more for convenience and service but when the service goes away price is all that is left. It will be herd for me to buy anything at Cabelas fishing related from October thru March because if you change your mind you are stuck. Now they would have exhchanged the purchase for another Loomis rod same model different action but that is not what I wanted. Guess I will keep the loomis rod as a spare before I will give it back to them for $69.00

[jmahlum]

If you find yourself in the market again for a new jigging rod I would like to make a recommendation. G Looms is always a great choice I have found however for sensitivity unless you buy there high-end rod it does seem to dull out but all of them are light in weight. For me personally for all jigging presentations I like to stay in the 6ft - 6'6" range Medium-light fast action in either the Bass Pro Walleye angler series or the St. Croix Eyecon. Both are super sensitive and do not break the bank. The BPS Walleye angler runs around $100 and the Eyecon runs around $150. Nice thing about these rods is the light action really throws the bait if you like pitching or casting jigs. I personally use fire line or nanofil so the fast action on the rod tip has a great shock absorption for fighting big fish and has great backbone for getting good strong hook sets. I hope this helps if you find your self in the market again for a new jigging rod. If you find yourself unhappy with the sensitivity of the rods you have try running a no stretch line if your not already. No stretch line has much better sensitivity than mono.

Happy fishing!!

[doug1542]

I'd break it over my leg before i would take 69.00 for it.

[pjshorthorn]

Originally Posted by lama231

Here is an update.
I decided to exchange the Loomis rod at Cabelas and pick up the Fenwick Elite Tech.
They told me that because it was more than 90 days they could only offer store credit at the lowest price sold for the item in the US or Canada. The rod was $179.00 and they offered me $69.00 in store credit.Talked to a manager and he said that was the policy and there was nothing he could do.Bear in mind the rod was never used and still had the original Cabelas tag on it and was just sitting in my rod rack since the purchase. Here is the kicker. I found out later that my brother in laws neighbor works in the same store. She is picking the Fenwick rod up for me for $71.00, price in store $149.00. No wonder they are selling to Bass Pro and Gander just filed for BK. I dont mind paying a little more for convenience and service but when the service goes away price is all that is left. It will be herd for me to buy anything at Cabelas fishing related from October thru March because if you change your mind you are stuck. Now they would have exhchanged the purchase for another Loomis rod same model different action but that is not what I wanted. Guess I will keep the loomis rod as a spare before I will give it back to them for $69.00

Their return policy is no different than many other big box stores after a certain period of time which is typically 90 days. They will only issue store credit at the current sales price. This is especially the case if you don't have a receipt . If you had a receipt, the store was just covering their $ loss potential on an item that was most likely going to go on clearance and be removed from their shelves permanently. If the item was truly on "sale", then the store would eat the difference between your original purchase price and what they could sell it for moving forward.

The return policy of only offering store credit without a receipt is one way to combat folks who lift merchandise for a living and want to return it for cash. A person would be asked to provide a driver's license when returning stuff without a receipt and after a few times of doing that, the store system will recognize the ID and refuse to even issue a store credit. Off to the pawn shop or Craig's list they go.

The fact that you are getting a deep discount on a Fenwick rod through an employee ,instead of paying full retail price, doesn't help the profitability of that business unit (store) and/or it's long term success. Poor customer service or return policies don't define a store's profitability in and of themselves.


PjShorthorn

[lama231]

The item was not on sale. All I was trying to do was exchange a current rod that retails for $179.00 for a current rod that retailed for $149.00 They wanted an additional $80.00 for the transaction. This is lousy customer service. The amount of markup is just another way of pointing out of the gouging of the consumer that is going on. No business needs 120% margin to exist. They are not the manufacturer. They do not have the R and D cost of bringing an item to market, let along the cost of building the product.I am not saying that they are not entitled to a profit but at least provide some service for the profit. Also I do not believe they are selling to employees at cost so who knows what the true margin is plus the fact imagine the margin on all of the Cabelas brand item when they control all of the cost. All I read on these forums are boo hoo the brick and mortar stores can not compete with the online businesses. I say pigs get fat hogs get slaughtered. BTW I have the new rod in hand with a receipt if anyone does not believe me. 71.07 plus tax for a rod they sell for $149.00. I wish I could get away with those kind of markups and then cry poor. No wonder Bass Pro wants to money up to buy the company. Sorry for the rant but all I wanted to do was get value for my money. End of rant

[hunterjoe]

Another thing to keep in mind before bashing the store, your friend is likely buying the rod directly from the vendor and not through the store. I worked at one of these stores and you could get a lot of things super cheap going directly to the vendor. Some things were 60% off MSRP.