Okuma Dead Eye Pro Trolling Rod

Been using these for about a year so far trolling for walleyes, trout, striped bass and hybrid striped bass, currently running five rods with more to be ordered shortly, I have landed hybrid stripers in the 8-12lb class, pure stripers up to 20lbs and one musky over 43” so far with zero complaints, they look good, the handles are a nice design and they work great for running planer boards and dipsy divers with mono or put braid on and use them for bottom bouncing. The ability to collapse them is nice compared to having having a two piece rod that needs to be taken apart each time. Time will tell on how the cork holds up. So far myself and my fishing partner have been thrilled with them and will continue running them as they are an affordable and quality rod.

I didn't follow my instinct when I bought 4 of these. I convinced myself that they would be durable since they were called trolling rods. Going against my better judgement, I bought them. Up front, I thought that the ends of the rear grips might be trouble since they weren't protected for use in trolling rod holders. I was right. After the first morning of use, I removed a rod from a rod holder and I saw that the cork end had split off a 1 inch chunk up about 3/4 of an inch up the grip. The other 3 rear grips showed a little wear around the bottom edges of each as well, but they had not broken off any large pieces. I ended up repairing all 4 by cutting a few inches of cork off of the ends of each one, exposing the blanks, and epoxying Fuji rubber gimbals onto the end of each one. They are much more durable and suitable for trolling now.

These rods are very light and the rods are composed of carbon blanks and not Glass. Prior to purchase i emailed Fish USA about the actual PROS who endorsed the rods and the sensivity of the glass rods. Response was limited to the rods are very sensitive and they sell alot of the these rods. I have glass rods already and these rods cannot be fiberglass rods. Fish USA was great with customer service and emailed a return authorization postage prepaid form immediately. Light weight fishing they seem okay but pulling boards i just dont see long term durability. Rods will be returned.

Exactly what I need for my new boat, 8'6" rod telescoped out, but 7'3" when shortened to fit in my boats rod locker. Paired it with an Okuma low profile line counter for bottom bouncing and planer trolling.