Wire line?

[dane]

Just returned to Maryland from a trip to Lake Ontario for brown trout and kings and am considering rigging two of my rods with wire line for future trips. Should I?

If I will be using the wire mostly with dipsy's, what is the advantage over braided line?

The reels I have to put the wire on are Penn GTI 320s -- will they work?

Thanks in advance.

Dane

[Big Dave]

Do a search there are tons of posts on wire line. They take most of our fish alot of days.

[carpedium]

Dane,

 

wire line will cut through the fleas when they are bad, also some people say that the conductance of the wire line improves the strike rate. Kind of like copper. 

[gander lander]

Wire takes 60-70% of our fish.

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Tim Bromund]

Just returned to Maryland from a trip to Lake Ontario for brown trout and kings and am considering rigging two of my rods with wire line for future trips. Should I?

If I will be using the wire mostly with dipsy's, what is the advantage over braided line?

The reels I have to put the wire on are Penn GTI 320s -- will they work?

Thanks in advance.

Dane

 

Line counter reels are better for divers, but the 320's will certainly work, just not as easily repeatable to get back to the same depth.  You'll have to figure out how much line is played out per pass of the level wind.  Many years ago when I was running mono divers on Penn 309's it was approximately 8 feet per pass (left to right, or right to left, not back and forth) so I was able to approximate how much line was out (10 passes 80 feet, 15 passes 120 feet, etc).

 

Tim

[Thun]

The Blood Run website states their 30 lb wire has a .015" diameter.

 

http://bloodruntackle.gostorego.com/salmon/30lb-stainless-wire-1000.html

 

This Mel's Place website states 15 lb test Berkeley Big Game has the same diameter as the wire.

 

http://www.mels-place.com/Contents/ABCs_and_Goodies/Line_Diameters/line_diameters.htm

 

And the Penn Parts (Scott's Bait and Tackle) website states the 320 GTi has a 325 yard capacity with 15 lb test.

 

http://store.scottsbt.com/PennParts/ReelSpecs/PennGT.aspx#specs

 

So that's 975' of wire on a 320 Gti (if these websites are correct) without backing and they have pretty good drags so you should be able to use them. I would make sure you keep the line carriage guide in sync with the line as it comes off the spool. The gear ratio is horrible at 4.2:1 and that's a lot of reeling to retrieve your line. Also the 320 GTi doesn't have a built in line counter so you'll have to deal with a clamp on. I really wish I had bought two reels with line counters and better gear ratio's. The Berkely clamp on line counter worked but the lever that holds the line in the counter had to be held in the closed position or it would open and free the line from the counter. As far as fishing with them, I'm still learning myself.

 

[Tim Bromund]

4.2:1 isn't a bad gear ratio for a wire diver reel.  I believe my old Penn 209 and 309's that I first bought when I got into this game had a 2.8:1 ratio, now that's a slow reel, though it did make it impossible to horse a fish

[Thun]

I almost put wire on a couple of 309's now I'm glad I didn't. I think you get about 22-23 inches per crank with that 4.2:1 gear ratio. I guess I was comparing it to some of the Daiwa's that get 36-42" per handle crank

 

 

[Sk8man]

The 309's are a heck of a lot better drag and higher capacity etc. than the 209's and the Penn 320GTI's are are not bad reels with an improved drag over the other two. Do yourself a favor though and ANY Penn trolling reel you use get power handles for them from Penn or an after market reseller. They will make your life easier on the retrieve cycle. I'd also put at least 50ft or so of 30 lb mono on the spool first to reduce slippage and binding.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Sk8man

[Thun]

I do love the Penn 320 GTi's. I own 8 of them and with Alan Tani's awesome reel repair website, I broke them down completely and installed new greased drags, dogs, dog springs and a few clickers. I also removed the bearing seals, cleaned them out with brake cleaner fluid and re-lubed them with Corrosion X. Then I put the seals back on and they're as good as new. I think they're great rigger rods. Here's a thread from his website that touches on gear ratio's and reel handle size also.

 

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=7329.0

[TyeeTanic]

Wire line is the best. You need to take care of your rods if you put on wire - you can't just put it on any rod, as it can saw through the eyelets.

 

Most guys convert their rods to wire lods by adding a twillie or torpedo tip to the top.  That normally extends the life for a while.

 

As for the reel - you'll want one with a line counter and big enough to fit 1000 ft of wire - so something like an Oukuma Convector 30D.

[dane]

Thanks all for the great information. I do have one 320 with a line counter- I'll look for another and get the right rod tip for wire. Thanks again!

Dane

[KilliansRed]

Love the wire dipsys, just the way that reel screams when a fish hits gets the adrenaline pumping. I use Okuma 55Ls no line counter so I just marked the wire with a sharpie every 20 feet. 

[devilfishIII]

Just watch the digits that **** is sharp. I coulda taken a couple stitches just from ting to drag it by hand and the drag was too tight, a bandaid for about 2 weeks straight did the trick tho