A 22 year vet in Mesa roasted my wall fishing technique and he was right, I was being lazy

Daniel Nelson · 2026-10-05T15:20:04.697356+00:00

I've been running coax and cat5 for 12 years and I always fished walls by just cutting a bigger hole and patching it later, figured that was just how it goes. Last month I was on a job in Mesa doing a 4 room install in an older ranch house with real plaster walls, and the homeowner's brother was there, guy named Ray, 22 years in the trade. He watched me punch a 3 inch hole behind the TV and just says "you're making work for the patch guy, watch this." He pulls out a magnet on a string, finds the stud bay, drills a tiny hole up top, and fishes the whole drop with a glow rod through a 3/4 inch opening. Took him maybe 6 extra minutes and I spent 40 minutes patching the last room. I swallowed my pride and asked him to show me the magnet trick on the next drop. Now I carry a stack of rare earth magnets and a set of glow rods in the van and my callbacks for drywall touch ups dropped from like 3 a month to almost nothing. Funny how a guy who's been doing it longer than me can make you feel like a first year helper in 30 seconds. Any of you older installers out there still cutting big holes or did you switch to the magnet method at some point?

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A 22 year vet in Mesa roasted my wall fishing technique and he was right, I was being lazy | Cable Installers - Thought Shares