River Walleye Fishing

Walleye Fishing Rods

One of my favorite walleye fishing rods is to the left.

This past summer I had the opportunity to fish on my home waters (Columbia River south) an awful lot. During the months of August and September I hit the water at least 4 times a week. During this time I finally stopped using that Bass Pro Shops Walleye bottom bouncer rod because I needed to figure out how to stop loosing so many bottom bouncers. No, the rod will not make a difference in helping you from loosing walleye fishing rigs and spinners and such, but a combination of

factors will. Click the picture above to find out about the Okuma steelhead/walleye fishing rod. And that is what we will discuss. As you can see below those are the walleye fishing worm harness we use on the Columbia. It doesn't matter if we are fishing at Lake Roosevelt, Umatilla or John Day, that's what we use to drag worms on the bottom with. The key to our success, what changing over to the 8' walleye fishing rods.

I Love 8'6" Bottom Bouncing Walleye Fishing Rods

As you can see our Walleye Fishing Rigs of choice are above. To learn more about these walleye secrets or techniques check out bottom bouncers for walleye fishing with worm harnesses. Now back to the walleye rods. Like I already mentioned I was using the walleye bottom bouncer rod from Bass Pro. It's a 7' something model and it is ultra sensitive. I absolutely loved that feature and really did miss it when I switched over. However, after a few passes I quickly learned how the new walleye rod worked.

Our primary purpose for changing over was the fact that my walleye pro buddy was hanging up about 1/4 less than I was. He was using the Okuma Celilo rod on a Ambassador level wind with 10 lb maxima. When he did hang up we usually saved it by heading up river about 200 yards and then it would pop loose. With my Bass Pro rod, I was using braided line and the Ambassador level wind reel. We could save my walleye rigs 1 out of 5 tries. I firmly believe that the braided line allow my bottom bouncers to travel closer to the rocks which allowed them to wedge easier in between rocks. With the mono line he would ride a little higher and have the ability to skip over the rocks instead of wedging in between.

Anyway, that was my theory and once I switched over to my old steelhead rod guess what? I spent more time fishing than trying to get my rig back. The cost of loosing a rig is around $4 and you do that about 4 times a day and it adds up. Add on top of that the gas/diesel prices and it sucks.

Using The 8' Walleye Fishing Rods Allowed Us To......

Now, before you think I am nuts let me tell you that my walleye buddy and his father limited out about 5 different times within a 8 day period. They were knocking them dead. One night we went out and fell one fish shy of catching our limit and that occurred in a 4 hour window. I watched his dad slam a limit out in less than 2 hours. It was a ton of fun catching fish and the worst day of the season we managed to catch 3 fish but the last one caught was a 26 incher.

Using these rods we are allowed to let the walleye take our bait before we set the hook. What I mean by that is if you have ever caught walleye using bottom bouncers most of the time you only feel the fish fighting after they have taken your worm. That's what it felt like with both the Bass Pro special and braided line. Using the longer rod with monofilament line it was pretty darn easy to feel the walleye taking the bait. When we felt that we would either let some line out or we would walk our rod towards the back of the boat. Actually it's not walking the rod, rather taking your rod tip towards the back of the boat. By the time our rod was pointing straight behind us, it was time to set the hook.

Trust Me On This

The only time we used the 8' walleye fishing rods is when we are bottom bouncing or trolling plugs. If you are jig fishing you better get something different. Trying to jig fish with an 8' rod is murder and I am not going down that road. I remember jigging for salmon once and yes, it was fun catching the salmon it was not fun trying to jig fish with a 8'6" rod. I had tendonitis for over 3 months after the experience of jigging and catching salmon and sturgeon.

Take a serious look at the Okuma steelhead rod for walleye fishing. Don't get the heavy model or anything like that, instead look for something in the medium range and you can't go wrong. The reason we are using the Okuma Celilo series is because we can get them pretty darn cheap on Amazon and they are an excellent rod that we also use for steelhead fishing. In fact the reason we have our 8' all over the place is because most of us are now bobber fishing with 9' or 10' Okuma rods.

Now before you get all serious on me, Yes, I do fish a lot with my St Croix rod for steelhead, but my all time favorite cross fishing rod is the Okuma. They work extremely well and I wouldn't hesitate to use it for steelhead and walleye. So, if you fish for both species and you don't want to spend an arm and leg on a fishing rod for both, then you will never go wrong with a Okuma Celilo casting rod. Check it out at Amazon because that is the cheapest place we have found it. I think you will love these walleye fishing rods as much as we do.

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