What reel for the finger lakes?

[Dan M]

So I've taken the wire off my Tekota 600s and replaced with braid for musky trolling, and swapped the Talora roller rods for St Croix Musky trollers.

That leaves me with 2 Talora wire rods. - now I'm on the fence with what to do. I originally thought maybe I'd be able to go for salmon, but I found myself just fishing in the finger lakes for trout on dipsys, and chasing musky this year.

Catching trout on the 600s was not fun at all, 0 fight on 30# wire.

I still have the wire - should I get 2x Tekota 300s? and run the wire on them with dipsies?

Any other suggestions? I'd like to have at least a little fight on the fish, and the 600s just horsed them in really, even the 10# laker I caught.

[Fishstix]

Certain times of the year lakers fight harder. Ive had them jump and rear and tear. But most of the time unless its a real big one you dont get much fight. If I wanted a fight I would skip the wire dipseys and go with light mono on noodle rods.I would run them off the down riggers .I had a couple noodle rods.Its hard to get your releases set loose enough to release with the rods. It limits you to spoons or stick-baits. Even a 4lb laker will give you a fight. Only downfall is its hard to revive a fish after a long fight.You end up keeping more fish . I ran noodle rods many moons ago.Before sea fleas. As far as reels go 300s would be great with 10lb test.

 Good luck   

[Dan M]

1 hour ago, Fishstix said:

Certain times of the year lakers fight harder. Ive had them jump and rear and tear. But most of the time unless its a real big one you dont get much fight. If I wanted a fight I would skip the wire dipseys and go with light mono on noodle rods.I would run them off the down riggers .I had a couple noodle rods.Its hard to get your releases set loose enough to release with the rods. It limits you to spoons or stick-baits. Even a 4lb laker will give you a fight. Only downfall is its hard to revive a fish after a long fight.You end up keeping more fish . I ran noodle rods many moons ago.Before sea fleas. As far as reels go 300s would be great with 10lb test.

 Good luck   

If I was going to continue to run dipsys - don't really care to invest in riggers right now - would 10# be too little of a weight? Thinking the 30# blood run I have might just be what it ends up being - and putting as much as I can fit on the 300s - unless I wanted to move up to 500s

[Sk8man]

Just run the wire off 300 reels and use medium weight downrigger rods with a twilli on the tip. I have a couple setups that are about this way for the Fingers and they work fine and I adjust leader strength according to what I run from them.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Sk8man

[Dan M]

3 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

Just run the wire off 300 reels and use downrigger rods with a twilli on the tip. I have a couple setups that are about this way for the Fingers and they work fine and I adjust leader strength according to what I run from them.

I'll have two leftover Talora wire roller rods that I'm going to have a rod builder friend replace the guides on with high end ones (at cost) that will run wire - and a twilli top. That way I don't have to buy anymore rods, and won't get killed trying to sell my two rolller setups.

But yea, I think the 300s will be good with the wire, not sure how much it will fit, but I'm sure it will be more than enough for the finger lakes.

 

[Sk8man]

I should think that 1,000 ft wire should fit on it OK. I have an Okuma 30 that takes it.

[Dan M]

7 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

I should think that 1,000 ft wire should fit on it OK. I have an Okuma 30 that takes it.

1000ft of wire fit on my Tekota 500. I think the 300s fit 500-600ft.

Looking at the https://www.tackledirect.com/daiwa-lexa-lc300pwr-p-lexa-lc300-line-counter-baitcasting-reel.html now - which will probably end up being what I go for.

[Sk8man]

As for the original question regarding fight: feel of the fight is more determined by the rod than reel used. I would think that you wouldn't need 22 lb drag on the Fingers more so on Lake O and for a lot less money you could have a worthy reel that would hold the wire. Your money though

[Dan M]

9 hours ago, Fishstix said:

Certain times of the year lakers fight harder. Ive had them jump and rear and tear. But most of the time unless its a real big one you dont get much fight. If I wanted a fight I would skip the wire dipseys and go with light mono on noodle rods.I would run them off the down riggers .I had a couple noodle rods.Its hard to get your releases set loose enough to release with the rods. It limits you to spoons or stick-baits. Even a 4lb laker will give you a fight. Only downfall is its hard to revive a fish after a long fight.You end up keeping more fish . I ran noodle rods many moons ago.Before sea fleas. As far as reels go 300s would be great with 10lb test.

 Good luck   

I'm going to install downriggers on the next boat for sure. So for this one I'll stick with dipsys. Prob load up a 300 with wire and just enjoy the fight for what it is - meat for the cooler - when I'm not fishing for musky

[ken francisco]

I run 300s on noodle rods with mono for DRs & flatlines however they are a bit light for wire and dipseys IMO

[Dan M]

Well since I just got an ok for a newer boat from the wife I’m going to put the wire back on my Tetkota 600s and 80# braid on Saltists 20s for musky. 
Gonna buy something more capable of Ontario when it’s nice.