Fishing Michigan

As the season approaches, what does it take to hook walleyes and bring them up onto the ice?  Getting started with a good rod is never bad way to start the discussion.  As the selections of rod sizes and actions vary, so does the quality and variety according to manufactures.

The local choices would be Cabela’s, Gander Mountain and Bass Pro Shops. Not only will they have a decent selection of differing rods, but their house brands are pretty good quality too.  I wouldn’t go in and say one brand with its varying sizes and actions is better overall than one of the other companies, but if you were to go through see each of their models, you will find a rod to meet your needs for the presentations that you use.  Although Dick’s, doesn’t offer a line-up in their name, they have had a decent selection in the past.

Local favorites,  that aren’t national companies with a good selection would include Knutson’s in Brooklyn, Bottom Line in Gilbralter and Lakeside Tackle in St. Clair.  The cool thing about each of these shops is that they don’t try to please every type of fishing.  Usually they will stock rods for the fishing most popular in their areas, and the methods used to land them.

Online companies to search through include Thorne Bros.,   Reed’s,  and Frank’s GreatOutdoors.  The first two places are in Minnesota,  Frank’s is in Linwood, on Saginaw Bay.  Each has a good selection of quality manufacture’s walleye rods, only Thorne Bros.  offers their own line-up of ice rod selections.

Thorne Bros. is located in what can be considered the heart of the ice fishing revolution that started to take place about 10 years ago.  They were the first to really offer specialized equipment to match the methods used by anglers.  They worked closely with their own guys like Pat Smith, local legend Dave Genz and the crew over at In-Fisherman.  Although you may pay a bit more for their rods, the quality could only be matched by Loomis and St. Croix if you were to compare them to open water rods.  Best part about it is once you get an idea of what you want, you can have the rods built to your own specs, types and lengths of handles, small or big eyes, and the color of the wrapping around the eyes too.  They also have a fair amount already made up if you need your order shipped quickly.

The new kid on the block is Jason Mitchell from the Dakota’s.  I haven’t sampled these yet, but I will get a hold of a few of these while in Minnesota at the championship.  You will get to the point when you order rods, that you will want to have them in your hands first to test out before you buy.  Although the variety isn’t there in the walleye line-up, there looks to be a couple of interesting models available.

I have 30 or so rods when it comes to walleye fishing through the ice.  Some are short enough to fish inside a shanty without whacking the roofs on the hookset, while others are long enough to fish outside with your flasher while trying to locate the fish.  Some are extras, where I got a really good end of the season deal on them, and liked them so much I wanted extras in case something happend to them.

The rods I have set up for active fishing inside are all 26 and 28 inches.  I do have a 30″ Ugly Stik rigged for a slip bobber to cover any extra holes I might have in inside the bigger house. The other rods are either the original Genz Berkley Lightning Rod 26″ mediums, or 28″ St. CroixAvid med. light or medium.  Even though the Avids are no longer made, the same actions are available in a cork handled Premier model.  Nothing too heavy here, but if I find a 28 or 30″ med. heavy in a graphite model that I like I will get a few of those to fish heavier baits.  Off the top of my head,  I think Thorne Bros. does have a model available, but I haven’t seen or held it yet.  Might be the excuse I need to go to the store again while in MN in December.  Its too easy to be that “kid in the candy store” up there.

My outdoor rods jump up in length starting at 32″ to 36 inches, all the way up to 52 inch.  There are lights, mediums, med. heavies and heavy action rods in the arsenal.  Each was picked out to fish a certain way while chasing and icing eyes.  The determining factors can be the type of line used, the size of the jigs and the action each jig gives while being swimmed and jigged by you up above.  These rods vary in makers from St. Croix, Genz Lightning Rods,  Thorne Bros. and even rods that I have made up or tweaked myself.

When I get some pictures of the shop posted later on this week, I will make sure to have some of the rod and reel set ups in there. Then I can tweak this piece up a bit so you can get an idea of what I mean.  Although some of these rods might be out of your price range, many of them should fall right in  for folks starting out and wanting to get a few set ups in the water.