John E Powell

Chris Kempf is in Cheektowaga near Buffalo. https://nyreelrepair.com/ He’s serviced and/or upgraded all my reels. I found his work thorough and fairly priced.

I personally do not like the Saltist or Tekota because the line counter sticks way out on the left side and presses against my wrist. For this reason I prefer reels with top mounted counters. In my opinion the best top counter reels are the Okuma Catalina CT-305Da and the Penn Fathom II FTHII30LWLC, both a considerable step up from the Daiwa SG47LC3B. The Okuma Cold Water and Penn Squall may be slightly better than the Daiwa SG47LC3B, but not enough to warrant a sidestep to them.

Yes, you can install a Twili tip on a rod with ceramic ring guides. Ceramic ring guides better resist abrasion from wire (and weighted steel line) than stainless steel ring guides. Trolling rods with large ring stainless steel guides are best used for softer weighted lines like copper or lead core. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Medium light or medium power and moderate action are best for riggers, and a technique specific diver rod for pulling divers. The reel drag necessary to pull a full size diver (with a flasher and bait) at salmon trolling speeds is generally a little bit more than you want to fight a fish with, especially soft mouthed trout. Once you set your diver, adjust the drag so it just barely holds the line. A surge in speed should cause line to creep out off the spool. When a fish hits the first thing I do before removing the rod from the holder is to back off the drag a good bit. Only then do I remove the rod from the holder, reset the drag for fighting the fish, and hand the rod off for someone to fight and land the fish. Some people attach a pinch pad release to the rod in front of the grip to help hold the line so they can use a lighter fish fighting drag setting on their diver reels. Other people use a heavy rubber band half hitched and snugged down on the line with the free loop hooked over the reel handle to accomplish the same thing. Still other people rely on snubbers behind the diver or fashion a slide diver style setup on a longer section of mono to give some stretch to braid or wire diver lines. If you pay attention to diver reel drag details, and come up with a way to manage it that works for you, your landing percentage of hooked fish will be better than if you do nothing and fight fish at the reel’s drag towing setting. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Braid is usable for divers when there are no spiny fleas in the water, but attempting to run braid divers with fleas is a nightmare. That’s the main reason why wire is the best choice if you are only setting up one set of rods, wire can do it all. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

I recommend you rethink your plan for using two 27s for Lake Ontario dipsy rods. You really need 47s for salmon diver rods for adequate capacity.

In my opinion, fishing end of July generally means warm water and fishing deep offshore. 2 riggers, 2 wire divers, 2 weighted lines run off large or inline planers is a simple easy to run pattern for first timers to the lake who have trolling experience elsewhere. One rod per rigger. One each 300’ and 400’ weighted steel or copper; you’ll need big reels for these. Keep in mind the lake can, and does, flip at that time of year so it wouldn’t hurt to pack some extra gear to run shallower if it does flip. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

You can also use a short piece of shrink tube if you’re worried about it hanging up. Slide the shrink tube on the wire first and then slide it back down over the crimped sleeve up to the Spro and shrink it in place. It will smooth out any sharp points and steer the sleeve more smoothly through the guides. If I retie a rig at the dock at the end of a day I’ll use the shrink wrap. If I have to retie out on the water I go without. It works both ways. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

I use a crimped sleeve with wire passed 3 times through crimp. I crimp in the middle so ends of the sleeve stay round. It will go through Twili, and traditional rod tips, guides, and levelwinds. Steps: Tie mono to Spro first. I use Palomar knot so it needs to be tied before you make the crimped connection. If you wait to tie the mono on until after crimping the sleeve, then you’ll need to use a mono knot that does not pass the swivel through the knot. Find smallest sleeve that three (3) wires just pass through. Pass wire once through sleeve and then Spro. Pass wire backwards through sleeve second time. Pass wire forwards through sleeve third time and position end of wire at end of sleeve. Pull on portion of wire for second pass to minimize the size of the second loop. When crimped, it’s the tiny second loop that prevents the wire from slipping inside the sleeve under heavy loads. Carefully pull main wire to minimize size of first loop. Spro should have just enough room on wire loop to be able to move. Check for any final adjustments and use the correct matching crimping tool for the sleeve you chose, don’t use pliers. Crimp only in the center of the sleeve so ends of sleeve stay round. Round sleeve ends don’t pinch the wire and they go through guides easier than sleeves that are flattened along their entire length. Pull on mono to load test crimp for holding power.

I have wire tied to spro swivel, tied to 15-25’ 30lb big game, tied to ball bearing swivel, tied to 4-5’ fluorocarbon leader. Diver is installed to slide on big game. Clear bead installed on big game and rests against ball bearing swivel (on lure end) and prevents diver sliding last 5’ to fish. I prefer how the slide diver release holds, and operates, on mono compared to braid. The tiny Spro swivel at the end of the wire winds right through guides and levelwind.

You’re welcome. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Zahno Marine has reasonably priced covered/indoor summer storage. They’re on Rte 104 near Ransomville. Not sure about in/out though, may only be long term. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

If you want to keep you wife happy I recommend an autopilot. 1 person on rod, 1 on net, autopilot to steer... 2 riggers 1 rod each, 2 divers, 2 inline planer rods to pull up to 5 color lead cores and/or 200 & 300’ weighted steel. 2 people, 6 rods, nothing down the middle to get in the way. An easy spread to setup and run. John E Powell John’s Custom Rods Winner, 2016 International Custom Rod Building Challenge.

You have a problem. Start diagnosing the problem by taking your battery in to have it tested. If this checks out, you may have a wiring problem or short, a unrelated malfunctioning onboard device, or a charging problem with an auxiliary charger or the boat’s main power. If you do go the two battery route and plan on a simple parallel connection (without isolated charging) they should be same battery type, group size, capacity, and age. John E Powell John’s Custom Rods Winner, 2016 International Custom Rod Building Challenge.

There are no spiral direction rules, just recommended guidelines based on how the rod is used. Generally, spiraling towards the reel’s handle will provide more line clearance for the hand holding the front grip. However, with divers, if your habit is to have the reel oriented upwards then you’re loading the rod sideways hour after hour, and the line path of least resistance would be a rearward oriented spiral (port side away from reel handle, starboard side towards reel handle). Again this is a guideline, not a must. I’ve wrapped port side rods both ways for different people. If you keep your diver reels oriented to directly oppose the pull, then it makes more sense to wrap on the handle side. Bass guys, and anyone who lays their rods on a boat deck should also wrap handle side to keep the guides upwards through the spiral and off the boat deck as the reel’s handle will orient the other side of the rod down to the deck. Heavier rods using conventional reels (without levelwind mechanisms) should be built considering the preference of how the angler prefers to manually manage line lay on the reel. Without a levelwind, line will naturally stack on the side the line spirals to. This has to be controlled. Some people find it easier to reach up with their thumb and push the line than to hook and pull the line, other anglers have the opposite preference. The guideline here is to spiral towards whichever the angler finds more difficult to do so the natural stacking to one side effect will help them with the direction they find more difficult. Lastly, some of the cheaper levelwind reels have a tendency to stack line to one side of the reel. If you have a reel that does this it’s probably best to spiral away from that so as to not exacerbate the stacking problem. This is more of an unusual situation, but as trollers we might hook a huge fish and have it strip the reel down to the spool and then rewind it all back on and find that our neatly hand filled reel is now stacking line at or above the reel spool lip. If you find this happens after you build a rod, you can reposition the butt guide angle a few degrees to center the line above the blank’s central axis and it will compensate for the problem caused by the poor levelwind function. John E Powell John’s Custom Rods Winner, 2016 International Custom Rod Building Challenge.

The rod’s action and power will remain unchanged. I’ve converted more than 50 factory downrigger, diver, and copper/core rods to spiral wrapped rods for people over the years. Most everyone likes the improved fish fighting experience once they get past the unconventional appearance, especially with the diver and weighted line rods where the pull the angler experiences is more than with rigger rods. If you spiral a diver rod and tend to orient the reel’s position up so you can read the line counters, it’s best to make a port and starboard rod where the guide spiral direction is rearward towards the transom when trolled in the side mounted rod holders. All other freshwater trolling rods should spiral to the handle side of the rod no matter where fished on the boat. A down side is that some people may need to adjust their rigging habits - basically, if it’s your habit to set the rod butt on the deck and allow the weight of the reel to turn the rod upside down so you can run your hand up the blank and over the tip to grab the line, the guides along the tip section will be in the way. If you’d like to see what your rods would look like when loaded, just assemble them with the tip upside down and pull on the line, you won’t hurt the rod with the line switching from above to under the rod between just two guides. If you would like to see one of my spiral rod’s loaded, message me and I’ll send you a short video. John E Powell John’s Custom Rods Winner, 2016 International Custom Rod Building Challenge.

The op asked about upgrading his rods. I suggested something most people wouldn’t consider, improving what they already have instead of buying new. If you don’t like my suggestion, fine, but don’t be snarky about it. John E Powell John’s Custom Rods Winner, 2016 International Custom Rod Building Challenge.

You could always try upgrading your existing 2-piece rods by turning them into spiral wrapped rods. I’ve outlined the steps: 1) Remove the second and third guide up from the rod’s butt. 2) Reinstall the second guide rotated approximately 60 degrees away from its original orientation toward the reel handle side of the rod. 3) Reinstall the third guide rotated approximately 120 degrees away from its original orientation toward the reel handle side of the rod. 4) Apply epoxy rod finish to seal and protect thread wraps. 5) Assemble the rod with the tip section’s guides facing downward. Spiral wrapped rods are more stable in the hand than conventional guide layouts because the fishing line is taking a more natural path along the underside of the rod blank. As the line passes through each guide along the underside of the rod, the guide acts as a lever arm to counteract the force the angler needs to apply to the rod’s grips to hold the reel in an upright position. The bigger the fish and the harder it pulls, the greater the lever arm effect and the more stable the rod becomes. Here’s a product video I found online that explains the concepts: If you don’t know how to remove and reinstall rod guides, YouTube has lots of videos on the subject. All you need is a hair drier, single-edge razor blade, masking tape, nylon rodbuilding thread in the color(s) to match your rod, a book and something of medium to heavy weight (placed on book to apply tension to thread, run through pages of book, while you wrap your guides on), epoxy rod finish, aluminum foil, and a small disposable craft brush. You can buy rodbuilding thread and epoxy rod finish from online rodbuilding sources like Mudhole, Get Bit Outdoors, or Jann’s Netcraft. John E Powell John’s Custom Rods Winner, 2016 International Custom Rod Building Challenge.

All wires will curl near the end even with a Twili tip unless you run a short heavy leader that gets the splice near or onto the reel. If you store your rods with wire in the guides it’s going to curl. 7 strand is more popular than 19 strand for a couple reasons (it’s cheaper and 19 strand was failure prone when it was first introduced), but I think the 19 strand that is being sold today has improved to the point that it is better than 7, here’s why... Rod guides: 19 strand is clearly easier on rod guides and a Twili tip than 7 strand. Tangle and kink resistance: 19 strand is far more kink resistant than 7 strand. In fact you can tie a terminal knot in 19 strand wire. Pre-failure warning: When 19 strand is damaged a few of the fine strands will break and form a tiny “rats nest” at the point of its pending failure that is easy to see when you’re retrieving and deploying the wire. This warning allows you to cut it back and re-terminate the wire. 7 strand wire doesn’t really give you any warning, so when it breaks you lose your diver, attractor, lure/fly/meat rig, and swivels at a cost of $25-50. Cost: 19 strand has a higher initial cost, it’s about $10 more per spool than 7 strand. However, when you find and repair your first 19 strand pre-failure warning you just saved far more than it’s added cost in all the gear you haven’t lost. In my opinion, the Torpedo brand 19 strand wire is the best wire for Great Lakes diver fishing.