Small lakes trolling setup

[craveman85]

I've got a 14' boat that I'm going to use for 90% lake trout and 10% other trout in smaller lakes. I made a removable downrigger/ trolling board that slips into my oar locks and tightens down with wing nuts. This will be mostly smaller lake fishing. I'm running one downrigger which I have a couple ultra light and medium rods for. Now I want to get 2 rods for running dipsy divers off the sides. May also run one straight back but usually only the 3 do you guys have any recommendations for rods and reels for these setups? I do have one heavier trolling rod but it's probably more of a salmon weight rod. This boat will never see salmon. Would a medium weight be what I'm looking for? Going to run the dipsy, a flasher, snubber, then usually spoons or swim baits. Also troll small rapalas sometimes

[Sk8man]

A couple things come to mind with the above type of fishing you intend to do (e..g. no Pacific salmon fishing)depending on budget. If you have the $$$ to spend but are budget minded think about getting  a couple new wire dipsey setups already rigged for that purpose with 1,000 ft of wire already on it. For example places like Runnings often have them already set up  and ready to roll for about $130 or so. They are not the top of the line reels and rods but are serviceable for what you intend to do.... basically medium action stuff. I think they often use something like the Okuma 45DX Magda Pro for those and they aren't bad for that type of fishing. I have a few of the reels  I use on the Finger Lakes and they have decent capacity.

 

On the other hand another option is to see if you can pick up a pair of second hand Diawa 47LC Great Lakes model reels (have a good retrieval rate of about 5:1) They are often for sale here on Lou and reasonably priced and they are fine for the type of fishing you mentioned and set them up with 30 lb  7 strand or 19 strand Torpedo stainless wire. Look for a couple Okuma GLS medium Dipsey rods. If they come with a twilli tip (for use with wire) you'll be all set if not places like Fish USA or Fish 307 carry them or places like Runnings or Gander Mountain etc. In any event in order to run wire without damaging your equipment you'll need either a twilli tip or a rod with a roller tip and roller first guide. You may wish to send the reels out to Tuna Tom for carbon Fiber drags and you'll be a happier camper . I think the rods come in9 and 10 ft sizes so with either you'll get good separation from your downrigger but the 9 maybe more practical with a smaller boat.

Edited July 30, 2016 by Sk8man

[Jeremy Goodison]

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[Jeremy Goodison]

My 14' crestliner. Does anything my big boat does just have to watch the forecast before you head out to the shipping lanes

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[craveman85]

Mine isn't that deep so it won't be going in the big lake. Maybe someday even my 1961 queen merrie 18' is done that will go out. This 14' is a 73 sea king. Pretty flimsy but the price was right and it fills a hole I needed filled. Worst weather I'll ever see is 1' in otsego lake. Was just at my local running and no trolling stuff. Utica bass pro is 25 miles away though so maybe I'll head there almost done with seats and transom work. Hopefully I'll be dragging next weekend

[hookedupf7]

I wouldn't rule out running a10 color lead core rod. We have caught more fish on lead in the small lakes that we fish than anything else. I have recently started running copper down the chute and doing well with that also !

[craveman85]

Lead core may work in the spring and fall but they tend to go deeper than I can reach with that. How much deeper does a dipsy run with wire over braid? Honestly most fish caught will probably be 26 and under. My average this year for Lakers is about 22.5" average of about 60 fish with biggest being 28 this year. I'd be doing better but this was all out of my canoe on one line with a heavy trolling rod. A couple of times I reeled in to change lures and found about a 14" fish on my line. Rod has no bend for these little guys. When I start getting to otsego lake more my average will go up. My lifetime average Laker from there is 28" biggest being 33

[Jeremy Goodison]

Run the clip on torpedoes weights. They cover every bit of the water column, of planer Mast or small in line boards. Way sensitive than dipsy and cover allot more width

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[craveman85]

I ended up going to 4 Dicks, 2 runnings, and the Utica bass pro ended up with 2 pen warfare line counter reels, and 2 eagle claw starfire medium fiberglass rods. There wasn't much else to choose from out my way. I've already got a huge assortment of dipsy divers so I'll stick with all of those for now.

[Adk1]

Sent from my XT1254 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

dude....that is your garage! Wow. Flat screen on the wall and work on the boat in comfort. Best man cave ever

[craveman85]

I don't like to run planer boards much. Some of the lakes are pretty small and boats can get very close.

[craveman85]

Opened up one of my penn reels and it has a cracked casing on it asking with a bent power handle. No box damage though. Returned both of them to bass pro because I didn't like them. Was going to order from Amazon but realized last minute there was no line counter. The search continues.

Edited August 4, 2016 by craveman85

[fishhook]

I've had my old 15' starcraft aluminum out in 5-6 footers on Seneca not good but caught alot out in 3 footers

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[Todd in NY]

I have a 1974 Sears 16' row boat that I mounted two Penn manual downriggers on. I use the Okuma Magda Pro 45 reels on Okuma medium rods, but I also use some of those shorter white Berkeley Big Game rods because it's easier to net a fish while holding a 7' rod rather than a 9' rod.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Todd in NY

[craveman85]

This boat won't be going out in 3' waves. It's got a 50" beam and it's 14'. Pretty shallow too. Just picked up a new mercury 9.9 Saturday. That little trolling motor pushes it from 1.1 to 2 mph. I will never use one as a sole form of propulsion again.

[Sk8man]

For the kind of fishing you are talking about and after seeing your rig above I think you could find a couple of Down East rod holders on Ebay or perhaps on here (they are strong and easily clamp on the gunwales of your boat) and will tolerate the torque of dipseys but are inexpensive (old school approach ). Order one or two Okuma Magda Pro 45DX's or ask on here or look on Ebay for used ones as well as a couple used Okuma medium GLS downrigger or dipsey rods. Fish 307 sells twilli tips so that exchanging the tips so you can run wire is important. Amazon and many other places has 30 lb stainless wire in 1,000 ft spools.  As long as you aren't fishing Lake O you'll be able to handle about anything on the smaller lakes with those wire dipsey rigs and will be able to get down pretty deep depending on the size of your dipseys what you are running behind them and how much wire you have out at the usual speeds. Put safety lines on your rods just in case they should pop out of the rod holders too. Todd does make a good point about netting fish and the benefit of shorter rods but when solo I usually end up hand lining fish anyway even salmon

Edited August 15, 2016 by Sk8man

[craveman85]

I may try running a board across like Todd's. I was thinking I could use a 2x6 with some bolts through the oar locks. That way it's easily removable for the lakes I can't trailer launch in. Several I go to have 10hp motor restrictions as well. But there's a few I go to where I have to hand launch. Like Otsego out of glimmerglass. It's not ideal but easier than the state launch in Cooperstown

[vogel451]

Nice Rig, I miss my 14' Aluminum.  I went everywere 

[Todd in NY]

My mounts are called Eagle Feet. They attach to a 2x2 that I lag bolted to the side of the boat (from the outside). The board is a 2x6, and it doesn't get in the way at all. The Eagle Feet mounts seem like they are easy enough to remove but I've never had the need to remove the board.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Todd in NY

[craveman85]

I wanted to get a deeper one but free is too good to pass up. With a registration. And it only leaked a cup or so in 6 hours

[Sk8man]

One of the things I found with the board approach on my 12 ft aluminum was that I had to locate the board across the mid section of the boat for balance and weight distribution as the drag from the weights in the water changed the way the boat rode in the water but I had Seth Green rigs and  4 ft boom downriggers too ....something to think about or explore though.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Sk8man

[craveman85]

Yeah I learned balance in boats the day I threw a 20lb downrigger weight over the side of my canoe.

[Sk8man]

[craveman85]

10lb not 20 but I imagine you can guess the effect.

[craveman85]

I did get a 4lb but I'll be using the boat from now on for that stuff.