I love noodle rods. Or wave rod. Gotta use the wave technique. Since it's so limber you will notice with a quick short jerk up, a wave rolls all the way down the rod to the tip. If you stop the jerk slowely you will get a positive then a negative wave, the negative wave being a mirrored image of the positive wave or upstroke. This actually slacks the line a bit. If you stop the pole quickly the energy will snap the end of the rod up with alot more force than just pulling up with a standard hookset motion. If you have sharp hooks, and you should anyways, you should easily be able to make penetration.

I have got several big fish on a noodle rod. my bigges was a 25# king with 4# line. the 2 biggest things are sharp hooks and small hooks. I wouldn't use anything bigger than a #4 hook maybe even double #6's but if you keap them small and sharp you will hook them. I find that setting the hook isn't that important.with small sharp hooks their own jaw presure is all it normally takes.

dc

I'll agree with the superline scenerio. You want virtually NO stretch in your mainline when you're setting the hook. I sold off the last of my true "noodle" rods after losing fish after fish in a local river. They're good open water rods (which they were originally made for), but a pain on a big fish. Most of the advice was dead on. Keep that rod tip low to the water and slap your butt with the rod when you get a bite. I used to give it at least 3 hook sets just to be sure. Small hooks were a must so you'd drive that hook in. No worries about straigtening out the hooks since the line/rod took up the slack of the beef of fish.

AKkings, my biggest fish was a 54# king on 8# main/6# leader with a noodle rod. Caught many in the 20-40# range on that rod. But lost alot too, so I left her at home (and eventually sold it) because I didn't like having the odds I had stacked against me. Too many crossed lines and then "snip". But tons of pictures on my wall with slab kings and noodle rod.

69...slap your butt with the rod?

Is that for good luck? Do you do the same to others?
I would like to have hooked up but...there's no butt slappin in my boat! :p

FJ...out.

LOL FJ. Slap your butt as in bring that rod back as far as you can.

Of course there's butt slapping while I'm fishing, always have RG nearby.