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Posts: 405
| Not much of a troller but possibly interested in learning how to do this so that possibly I could put more fish in the boat on those tough days on the water I have purchased a couple of the diawa sealine line counter reels but am unsure what rods I should buy. Any help on what rods you use and any advice for a beginner thanks
Edited by brandonschorle 12/2/2006 5:29 PM
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Posts: 2024
| Shimano TDR's are good for the price ($30-40). Unfortunately, I did have one explode after hitting a stump in ~40ish degree air temps. Thought it was a little warm for the rod to "brittle up" so I'm not sure what happened.
If you don't think you're going to be trolling a whole lot, you might consider just using your normal bucktail rods. My TDRs are used as board rods, but my down rods are my MH Shimano 7' and 7'6"ers. |
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| 2nd the Shimano TDR's..get the 8' med/heavys or Catfishing rods in the 7-8' length are great for trolling rods too....
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Posts: 405
| On the TDR's would it be ok to go with the 7 Footers im just thinking that size so it will fit in my rod locker |
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Posts: 405
| I bought two of the line counters is there a cheaper trolling reel?? |
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Posts: 2024
| I have the Okuma Magda. Cheap, good loud line clicker all for about (again) $30-40. Got mine on ebay, here's a link
http://cgi.ebay.com/OKUMA-Magda-Pro-Line-Counter-Trolling-Fishing-R...
Edited by esox50 12/2/2006 10:08 PM
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Posts: 1529
| try the shakespeare tiger rods. soft tip but strong backbone. they make excellent planer board rods and up to big bait 10ft dipsey rods. you will never need another set.. hundreds of st clair trollers use them daily |
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Posts: 20211
Location: oswego, il | Brandon, I have trolled alot and have put close to 200 muskies in the boat doing it. For rods, I like the st croix sc glass series or a light bucktail graphite or composite graphite rod. I like the graphite because on a down rod you can see if your bait is still working by feeling or looking at the rod tip. For a planer board rod, it gives slightly less give and surges and jerks the planer board more for more erratic action.
For reels, go with a line counter. It is so easy to replicate what you are doing if you use one. Garcia just came out with some mechanical line counters in their 5600 and 6600 series. They look nice. Bass pro has their smallest diawa accudepth line counter for 49 bucks. That should do the trick nicely. You don't need a giant line counter reel. Most of the time you will have 20-40ft of line out and extreme cases 100ft. The small reel is more than enough.
For line, I like mono or flourocarbon. P-line and big game are good choices in 20-40lb. I like the give and I don't have an issue getting a hookset on a strike.
Hooks. I am a huge stickler for hooks. Light wire hooks like the mustad short shank rounds bends just plain hook up on a strike. I have had too many fish not get hooked up with 4X hooks while trolling to ever use them again. Bring extras because they will trash in the net when the fish hooks the net. Helps on the fish too for releases. Never had one straighten while fighting a fish.
Planer boards. Go with the church tackle mr walleye boards. You want the fastest board to unhook and fight the fish and with this board, all you have to do is unclip the front, one second and let it slide to the leader. The offshore board you can't do that which takes way more time and the offshore will pop off your line, the mr walleye board can't. It also handles 10" jakes. Muskies hooked while trolling will have forward momentum. The longer it takes to remove a planer board can often times mean that much time the musky came to the boat and you have a bunch of slack line. Very easy to lose a fish that way. A couple things with the mr walleye board. Have some extra clips. They can wear out and they are unusuable untill the clip is replaced. The board can submarine when bringing it in or when it stahls while trolling then starting back up. If that hapens on the troll, move the weight to the rear. When bringing it in, don't pump the rod, steady retrieve and point the rod at the board.
For rod holders, I like the scottys. Alot of people like the downeaster, I don't. I think they are a pain to work.
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Posts: 58
| For structure trolling I use 10 1/2' Daiwa Heartland dipsy rods with Daiwa sealine reels run 90 degrees to the gunnel and 7' ugly stick big water rods with Shimano Tekotas straight off the back of the boat. this setup tracks very well and with a selection of shallow and deeper running baits on each side you can make very tight turns without the lures fouling each other. Cheap reels aten;t any bargain because they perform like.....cheap reels. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | bass pro has their linecounters on sale for 39.99 lifetime warrantee! i have 4 of them and they work out fine for me, i dont do alot of trolling but what i do they work fine! the tdr rods work great and are a great price, also the bass pro catmaxx rods are good and reasonable as well!
Edited by muskihntr 12/3/2006 9:33 PM
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Posts: 2378
| I use 9' Catfish rods from Cabelas.
Lots of good linecounters on the market. |
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Posts: 1270
| I like rods designed for Dipsey Divers for trolling for musky. Personally I use Abu-Garcia Workhorse DD rods in 8' and 10' but these are no longer made so go with just about any of them on the market and you will be fine. $50 is about tops for these rods also so they won't set you back that much. The nice thing about DD rods is you can get them up to 10' pretty easy. I like to run 8' on a down rod and then a 10' straight out the side with another 8' for the board rod. This way you spread your baits out without having to use a lot of boards.
As for reels I use Abu 7000's spooled up with 80lb SpiderWire Stealth. I also switched to florocarbon leaders for trolling. I don't really care for them for casting but love them for trolling. I use 3' of 100lb. Vanish for my leaders. I also switch baits a lot so my snaps get used a lot so I go with BIG snaps.
For rod holders I like my Tite-Loks that I use for salmon fishing as they are rock solid but must be permanently mounted to the boat which a lot of guys don't like. I alsu use a set of down easters for my down rods, I don't really care for them but how else do you down rod? I have use Scotty holders for down rods and while I have never seen one break I just have a concern about a plastic holder with 80lb. line and only 10' of line out!
Also make sure to loosen up your drags. The forward motion of the boat will set the hook even with a lighter drag. |
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Posts: 5874
| I like the Gander Dipsey Rods and Downrigger rods for my boat and board rods. For my down rods, I've been using a 6' MH Ugly Stick. With only 4-8' of line out, this rod has seen some awesome strikes!
I'll disagree with Todd on the boards. Offshore is what I use, and in my opinion, they are the superior product, if you learn to use them. I have used both the Mr Walleye board, and the biggest problem I have with them is they submarine easily, and are nearly impossible to bring back up to the surface when they do. The Offshore's do not do this. Also, the Offshores do NOT come off. Use the OR-16 releases, anr they will not come off your line. As for releasing them, yes, they take a bit more time, maybe 2 seconds, but then you don't have that big heavy board flopping around on the fishes nose! Sorry, Todd, just relaying my experiences.
I use linecounters. Diawa Sealine are great, Diawa Accudepth are good, as are Shakespeare Tidewaters. Never had an issue with them in 6 years.
I do agree with the Big Game Mono, 25-40 lb, with FLouro leaders, 50 or 80 lb, is all I use. Never broke a line, and never cut a leader with fish up to 51 1/2". Owner Hooks are frightfully sharp, and that's why I use them. I think I will have Folbe rod holders next year.
I use good ball bearing swivels and snaps.
Edited by Shep 12/5/2006 4:01 PM
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I like the Fig Rig T.T Glass rods. They also double as nice casting rods in late fall for big crankies and rubbers. I like my Daiwa LCW's alright, but since buying an Okuma Convector last year, I'll get a few more if any of the above ever fail. It is one sweet reel man. i like the offshore boards, but hate the clips, even the heavy duty ones. They all pop off, though I use superline. i like the Yeller Bird, Big Birds. The clips can be a pain, but they stay on. Only a fish or a snag pops em. you can run a snap in place of the back clip too, so they slide down if you wish. Big Birds will handle any lure you put back. That said, I had a couple dudes fishing with me this fall who said the Mr. Walleye deals are even better. I might try them out. I really want a mast system, as I feel it will make things simpler for setting up and dealing with fish. Would look funny in my rinky dink craft though. Ohh, get some floro leaders made up by ToddM. I used them exclusively this year and last, and have not had a failure. I could not beleive how well the floro withstood big fish rolling in it, and all of the abrasive fishing in boulders, stump fields and ship wrecks.
Edited by Reef Hawg 12/5/2006 10:54 PM
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