Maybe lure specific rods would make for a better thread.

In many cases the series of rods is species specific with each model labeled for a given presentation/lure.

I personally think St Croix does a pretty darn good job with their recommendations. There are other not exactly custom, but definitely not mass produced, manufactures that put a lot of time into developing rods for specific techniques. Alpha Angler is a company that works directly with professional bass fisherman. They also have had some social media stuff to explain some of their design process that it is pretty good stuff.

Of course, even when you get the rod a pro uses for a given technique, it is just his opinion.

lol..."doodle socking"....never heard that term used for a crappie hog stick before... a new name to put on one of my decals..seems the original post has swayed from rod builders to rod manufacturers which I know nothing about since I started building my own...Like Tom says "a blank is a blank is a blank"

Kent,
I'm willing to bet a bunch of those short, light powered rods some of the waders love are in the walleye short light jigging rod blank wheelhouse. I used to use to old pre-2000 catalogs to select many of my rod blanks because they listed the many species they thought that rod/blanks could be effectively used on. Species specific in reverse.

lol Steven. I laughed when I first read it all those years ago. A year or so ago I was watching a Youtube video of an interview with Dee Thomas. While he didn't call it doodle socking, he talked about bass anglers cleaning up in tournaments using a crappie fisherman technique using long rods and dipping baits into holes in cover. Evidently other competitors were complaining because of people using that technique, so BASS came to him asking about a rod length restriction. If I remember right he suggested 8', and the flipping presentation was born out of that restriction.

David Baylor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lol Steven. I laughed when I first read it all
> those years ago. A year or so ago I was watching a
> Youtube video of an interview with Dee Thomas.
> While he didn't call it doodle socking, he talked
> about bass anglers cleaning up in tournaments
> using a crappie fisherman technique using long
> rods and dipping baits into holes in cover.
> Evidently other competitors were complaining
> because of people using that technique, so BASS
> came to him asking about a rod length restriction.
> If I remember right he suggested 8', and the
> flipping presentation was born out of that
> restriction.
Thats interesting. My Doodle Socking rods have caught a lot of bass by accident for sure.. definitely going to have to use that term on one of my decals...lol

David Baylor Wrote:

> ....an interview with Dee Thomas.
> While he didn't call it doodle socking,


I just watched a video on doodle socking and it appears to be about the same thing as jigger pole fishing?

This video with Ray Scott lists both techniques in the video title and infers they are one and the same thing? Only difference being a cultural difference in what it is called? [youtu.be]

In the following video of Lynyrd Skynyrd, this film was shot on Doctor's Lake off the St. Johns River in Orange Park, Florida near his then home on Brickyard Road a month or two prior to his death in the plane crash 1977. As the film opens up you can clearly see the lead singer of the band, Ronnie Van Zant using a jigger pole to fish for bass. Is this also the same as doodle socking? I'm not familiar with this term in Florida, but we are familiar with jigger pole fishing. [youtu.be]

Another curiosity- who made the first flipping rods?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2022 10:03AM by Kent Griffith.

Fenwick made the first flipping rods that I recall of fiberglass back in the 60s..

You can call it whatever you want ..... it's using a long rod to dip a bait into cover. It's not species specific, it's technique specific

One things for sure. You never want to use your doodler in heavy cover for bass.

The profusion of names for specific rod builds for specific species zooms upward. My guppy rod is an example.

ben belote Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fenwick made the first flipping rods that I recall
> of fiberglass back in the 60s..


Wow. OK. That goes back further than I was expecting. Thanks.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2022 09:02PM by Kent Griffith.

I definitely agree Mark. I sure wouldn't want to try pulling a fish vertically out of heavy cover with that long of a rod. Probably end up hurting myself. With that said, I have doodled bass out of heavy cover with my flipping and pitching rods a few times. It's definitely exciting.

Doodling is also a deep water technique that I learned about at a Bass University seminar I attended years ago. Rich Tauber was the presenter. It involved using a brass bullet weight with a glass ball as a ticker and shaking the bait in place vertically under the boat. I tried it a few times back then and caught some smallmouth out of deep water. I've since switched to a drop shot for that type of fishing, but the whole doodle socking thing has me wanting to try it again if I can't get the fish to hit a drop shot.

Any time you get into an argument with a fish in heavy cover, just keep the entire rod pointed directly at the fish.

Then, simply reel and use your upper arm, forearm and elbow to literally hoist the fish out of the cover.

Since the rod is pointed directly at the fish you are placing essentially 0 force on the rod - only on the reel and your body.

But, if folks are using unusual rods that are too light, too heavy, too short or too long - take the rod out of the equation and essentially hand the line back to your location.

Best wishes

Especially if dealing with novices when fishing from shore. I simply tell the person who is fishing to keep the line tight and when the fish gets close to the shore, simply stop reeling and simply walk backward with the tip pointed up at 45 degrees to keep the line tight and continue walking until the flopping fish is well away from the water. Then, there is no excess stress on the rod, on the reel and the fisherpersons body. Let your feet do the walking to simply walk the fish ashore. This technique works particularly well if the shore is a sandy non rocky shore.

My brother in-law in Wisconsin has a rod he uses for walleyes, In FL I have a rod I use for bass. When he visits me, his walleye rod becomes a bass rod and when I visit him, my bass rod becomes a walleye rod.

It is amazing how these rods morph or transform depending on location and specie. HOW do they know?

By the way Phil, does your guppy rod come with a video?

Have fun

My videos require a wide-screen projector with a zoom lens. Otherwise, you might mistake my species-specific rod for an ordinary fishing pole.

G Loomis since the 90's has built multiple species of rods on the same blanks. A hotshot blank will also be seen in their walleye section for Lindy Rigging or other trolling needs with crankbaits. Their Hot Shot, Mag Bass, and SJ blanks can be found painted green for their Green Water series. Their catalogs had a alphabetic system behind the rods description that when you referenced the letters and the bottom of the page you could see what other species they thought that rod would crossover into.
I see no reason why some of those short, light powered SJ blanks used walleye 1/8 oz. jig fishing wouldn't be effective for those Texas waders that like the short rods.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2022 03:13PM by Spencer Phipps.

Fishing is an act of faith. The physical properties of blanks is not. Their physical properties do not depend upon the names marketers/advertisers give them.

Marketers of fishing rods or blanks would do anglers and rod builders a great favor by specifying the attributes of specific blanks with measurements and numbers which distinguish the physical attributes of a blank rather than suggest which species of fish you should fish for with this blank!!. Specifying the target species or fishing technique for a blank will sell more blanks but won't improve fishing success.
There are tens of thousands of fish species and thousands of of fishing techniques, and tackle builders/retailers will gladly sell you a "different" blank or a rod for every one of them, especially blanks for suckers.

Phil,

They already offer those specs.

............