Different Rods?????

[Boltman]

I have 4 rods and reels that are the same,I've used these rods as Diver rods and that's what they are set up for, but can I use two of them as downrigger rods?.....Or what's the Difference.

[Paulywood]

You probably could use them as rigger rods, but they aren't the best. I prefer a rod with more flexibility. A good, economical rigger rod is a Daiwa Heartland. Should be able to get one for $30 or so. A lot of people like the Ugly Stick 1 piece rigger rod also. They are more expensive but very nice. I also have a Berkley Power Rod that I use as a light line rod. Very flexible tip but good backbone. That was only around $25.

[Nailer]

Welcome, Boltman. How are these rods set up? Ie; do they have Mono or do they have Braid on them? The answer is yes any rod can be used as a rigger rod. Diver rods are best set up with Braid or some sorta of supper line. Rigger rods usually have 15-25 pound Mono on them.

[1mainiac]

Well it depends on what kind of rods they are my braided line dipsey rods are 10 ft OKUMA MOOCHING rods very stiff lot of backbone not anything I would want on my riggers. My old down rigger rods are Okuma classic pro 8 ft medium action and I bought a couple of Diawa Wilderness rods 862mr they work well on my riggers and at under 20 apeice I may grab a second set for spares. But if you want a wild time at least a few times a year I use my 10ft Steelhead rods on the rigger with 8lb test. My personal best is about a 15lb king that required pulling all the gear and running down with the boat on 8lb Maxima. Was like one of them Marlin fights you see on TV took forever but had a blast. I love light gear and as much as I love big fish catching 10 to 20 lb kings on 30 lb line is not as much fun.

http://www.daiwa.com/Rod/detail.aspx?ID=259

those are the rods I mentioned good luck I got 2 of em on sale last spring for 15 bucks ea which is why I tried them they worked fine for me so will probably get a couple more.

[Boltman]

Sorry guys, the rods have 25lb mono on them, becaue I originally was going to use all four for dipsey's, still might have to if I don't findsome electric Big Jns and a very cheap price....You'd think they'd be out there somewhere.

[1mainiac]

Well after using mono on my divers for years I will never run anything but braid or wire on a diver rod again. I don't know what you consider a very cheap price but the pro tournament models you mentioned in your other post are not likely to show up on the used market for a long time. Simple cause like our boats we tend to sell our gear to friends and family so very little makes it out on the open market. My Big Jons are old and have been sent in for rebuilds a few times and may get auto stops and speed controls this year as a update. They would still bring 2 to 3 hundred ea on EBAY I saw a set of old manual Rivera's like the ones on my old boat in the front yard go for 150 ea and they weren't much more than that new 10 years ago. Even when we buy new gear most of us hang on to our old stuff which would explain the row of old unused tackle boxes that are full in my garage next to the wall of fishing poles collecting dust cause I seldom use em anymore.

[Boltman]

Maniac, you never mention why your using Braid or Wire? What the big difference?

[1mainiac]

Lack of stretch using mono on divers down deep there is so much stretch in mono that often you cant trip them very well. So you have to fight them all the way up till you can get them to trip. Happens a lot with smaller fish the diver rod takes off and you begin the fight and feels like you have a whale so you don't want to horse it and break it off. as you finally get it close to the boat the diver trips and you have a small fish to reel in. With wire and braid there is no line stretch so even down deep you can feel the diver and get a clean release. You also feel every head shake as you are hooked to the fish with a 100 yds of mono out you lose a lot of the feel as the head shake and some of the lunges are lost in line stretch. There are charts that tell how far differant lines stretch under loads but with 25 lb test tied to a tree start with 100 ft and connect a hand scale and begin pulling see how long the line is at rated strength my guess is at least 10% longer maybe more then continue till it breaks and see how much the line grows before it breaks. Try the same thing with braid or wire you will be lucky to gain 2 in.

[boomerang]

as for me why KNOT mono...???Mono stretches like crazy with the larger divers. trying to let them out far so that they run deep....causes a little trouble...if you want to trip the dipsy and "POP" the release to retreive it the mono acts like a huge snubber and stretches like crazy and makes Poping the dipsy impossible......and just try reeling in a big dipsy without the release poped, now mono has its place, mainly running it on smaller divers set on #3, here is why, the mono will stretch and cause the dipsy to "fly" or track more sideways and dive less this will cover more water laterally allowing you to cover more water, here in chicago the CoHo are shallow and the more water you can cover and the wider your spread the better espicially when in shallow, OK now why wire/braid?? easy NO STRETCH, also the wire/braid has thinner OD allowing it to get deeper and has less drag and water resistance......and also makes POPING easy.....i hope this is clear and answers your question

[1mainiac]

Ok I buy that but when I can run 14 lines crew permiting divers are not my choice for running shallow. I only run divers to be outside and behind my riggers for wide I start with 2 colors and a dive bomb behind a board can get that down to close to 25 ft and out 200 ft on each side then send out five colors with a dive bomb on next board to cover down to about 35ft and 125 ft off the sides full cores on boards 60 ft off ea side next run out a high diver on braid and a low diver on wire and four riggers and you are 400 ft wide covering pretty much everything with 14 in the water and still have my 2 copper rods and 2 spare rigger rods that I can use to change out or throw in the mix somewhere.

[Boltman]

Ok Well that answers my question, I'm going to stick with my Mono, until I'm at pro levels like you guys.....Your the greatest....Dudes//