Reels and Rods Question

[wiergacz]

What are the better line counters used and what length rods do you use for the downriggers and the planer boards or dipsey divers

[Paulywood]

Shimano Tekota's would be one of the best linecounters out there. Price tag around $160. I use Daiwa Sealine's. They are around $90. Rod length varies greatly. Some people like rods shorter than 7' for every rod. Some like long, 10'+. I use 7'6" rigger rods, 8'6" wire rods, 10' braid rods, and 7' leadcore rods. Hope this helps.

[Reel World Fishing Team]

I use a variety of Daiwa 47 series line counters and older standard non line counter Daiwa reels for most everything. If I were to buy new reels I would look hard at the new Sealine 47LC's I know a lot of guys like penn 320's for riggers but they also say how easy they are to rebuild at the same time. The Daiwa's I use I have rebuilt several after years and years of use, but the only reel I had a problem with out of the box was a Penn 330. That was replaced and that pair of 330's are now getting close to 10 years old and they are great.

Another reel I would consider is the Okuma Convector series reels. I bought two 55's last season for copper and really like them. I would stay away from the lower grade one though if it were me.

Shimano's? The're great reels. However I can't justify them myself and I fish over 300 hours a season. I have a hard time convincing myself I need them that bad.

For rod's I now have switched to only three kinds. I have 6 Okuma 8' medium downrigger rods. I only have 3 riggers and three are dedicated for 20# and 3 are dedicated for 25# that I only run spinnys on. I also have 2 Daiwa 7'6" medium light riggers that I run with 12# when the sun comes up and they bite slows. Great fight when thing are slow and you have time to enjoy it and long leads and light line down deep take late morning kings. For dipsys, all segments of core's, and 4 copper rods I use the 9' Okuma Medium's Classic Pros. Tough and inexpensive. They work great, I tried several types and over and over everyone, especially kids and women liked those 9' for fighting fish with the extra hardware on the line. Go with what works.

Man I'm ready to fish

[anthonyyost]

I have had good luck with the Cabellas Gold Line Counter Combo Series, you can choose your size of reel, and have at least a half a dozen choices in rods at a very reasonable price.

If you want to save a little more, you can use the standard Cabellas line counter combos for around $60.00 for the rod and reel. Cabellas does a nice job of standing behind their products as well. I had a reel for about a year that the anti reverse went out of, and they replaced it no questions asked.

I bought 1 Gold Series reel to try out on lead core, and the 45 size reel works just right for size.

[Nucleus]

What are the better line counters used and what length rods do you use for the downriggers and the planer boards or dipsey divers

Hi!

My faves when it comes to line counters are Shimano Tekota, i have four of these on my boat. I do also use the Daiwa Sg47lc linecounters 13 of these on my boat.

I use 8,6` Daiwa interflow for the downriggers, and Shakespeare 10,6´DD rods for the dipsies. My planerboard rods are Shakespeare Ugly Stik gold tiger 7´, I use 17 of these ones.

/Kjell

[1mainiac]

I bought 4 Okuma Magna 45 linecounters with Okuma rods 4 years ago with the idea they were just something cheap to start with. Well they are about to start their 5th season with no issues. Sure theycould use more bearings so yes they will eventually wear out and the drags are not high end but a few web searchs will point you to many places you can buy quality drag washers and I have a few old reels that don'tcontain a single ball bearing that still work so I am not yet convinced that the Cheap Okumas will die anytime soon. I tend to like longer rods so my rods range from 8 to 10 ft.

[Yoda]

We spooled up 2 of the Okuma Convectors CV30D's up with 1000 feet of wire last spring, After seeing there performance we will be adding more this season, I don't think you can abuse a reel more that filling it with 30# wire and drag dipeys all day. Very good reel for the price you pay. Rod length are a personal prefrence items, shorter rods are a bit easier to handle on smaller boats.

[Yankee Troller]

What are the better line counters used and what length rods do you use for the downriggers and the planer boards or dipsey divers

Daiwa makes a few different line counter models. They range from an economic price point to a premium price point.

Accudepth Plus - Can be found for around 50 bucks and is a great reel for the weekend warrior.

Sealine - Tough reel with years of service in the Daiwa lineup. Probably one of the most popular reels on the great lakes.

Saltist - New for this year, and line counters will be available come summer time. Also these offer a sick gear ratio of 6.4:1.

As for rods you cant beat the Daiwa Heartland trolling rods. For downriggers most guys run a 7'6" rod up to a 8'6" rod. For dipseys most guys are running the 9'6" or the 10'6" Daiwa heartland dipsey diver rods. For 30 or 35 bucks you cant beat the price, and they are tough as nails.

[TheKingfisher]

Okuma Convectors get my vote for a good value and performance. We have 10 Convectors rangeing from the CV30 to the CV55, We do have one Tekota, and no doubt there are a nice reel, but you pay for it. For riggers I use (and really like) the Shimano Charter Special reels with the lever drags, all 4 of our riggers will be these this year.

Rod lenghts vary, but mostly I use the 8 footers for riggers and cores and copper and 10 footers for divers. I have a mix of Okuma, Diawa and Shimano rods. You should check out the new Okuma Classic rods, they have a lifetime warranty, stainless steel eyes and you can get 3 for the price of one Shimano Talora. I can't wait to try mine new ones out!