Dipsy Rod?

[blackdog_2]

I'm new to dipsy fishing and I've pretty well decided on the Daiwa Heartland/Accudepth Plus combo spooled with Power Pro.

I think that the 9'6" Heartland dipsy rods may be too much for my boat (16' Crestliner). That and the fact that I fish alone quite often. Besides the length, the only real difference I can see between the Heartland 'downrigger' and 'dipsy' rods is the power. I do not fish Lake O, only a small inland lake trout lake. Do the experts see a problem with using the medium power downrigger rods (8' or 8'6") for dipsy's?

[chowder]

Okuma 8'2" Blue Diamond Dipsy rod , economical w/ good action for FLX size fish!

[Trolling Keuka]

I use the 9'6" Daiwa Heartland dispy rod. I fish solo I the Finger Lakes from the my 16' Tracker. I don't have trouble landing any fish with the longer fishing rod. I used to use an 8' downrigger rod for my dipsy rods. I definately like the 9'6" vs the 8' dipsy rod.

[chowder]

Black Dog, the longer rods will enable you to keep the dipsy lines away from the downrigger lines that you will eventually add + it will actually help you to land fish, because it acts as a longer lever to get the fish closer once the diver is at the rod tip. I think if I was going to fish alone a lot I would go w/ the longer rod unless you are going to use slide divers instead of dipsy divers. Since I am just starting to experiment w/ the SD, I cannot say that's the way to go but I would seriously consider trying one out after you have played w/ the regular dipsy divers. Longer dipsy leaders = more fish but will be tough in the netting department.

[momay4000]

Blackdog,

You want a heavier "power" rod for a dipsy in order to take the punishment of the intense drag from the diver. If I'm not mistaken, the shorter Heartland Downrigger rods are medium power (do not confuse power with action of the rod). At any rate, if you want to use a shorter rod, go with the Okuma's. I run 9'6" and 10'6" Heartland Dipsy rods on my 21' Trophy without any problem. Just run shorter leads off the rods if you're worried about netting. Here's my opinion:

1.) The longer rods are typically used so you can clear your outside gunwale mounted rigger boom

2.) Use a heavy power rod for Dipsy's

3.) Run as long of a lead as you can depending on boat length, but keep it consistent with the rod length.

4.) Keep it as economical as possible

Good luck,

Chris

[traveling man]

I really like my 8'6" dipsey rods. I run roller rods because i run wire. If i was going to set up power pro dipsey rods i would go with the 8'6" blue diamond dipsy rods. i run 8' leaders and land most of the fish we get to the boat.

[Iceman]

The longer the fishin pole the more leverage the fish has on you! Use the shortest pole you can get away with. I run Big John out & downs with a four foot boom, & run Talora roller rods 8' long next to them as my wire dipsey set up, & they wok great. My original 10' Heartland rods with the twilli tip are gathering cob webs in the garage. Once I switched to the shorter roller rods, running wire dipsey's is a joy. I can also put a lot of leverage on those 30 pound kings in Lake Ontario without a lot of effort. I find it much easier to keep heavy tension on the fish with these set up. I cannot keep as much tension on a big king with the 10' rods. Less tension = more lost fish!

[chowder]

Black Dog, PM sent.

[blackdog_2]

Thanks for the advice guys.

chowder, I don't see an 8'2" rod on Okuma's website. Are you referring to the 8' model BD-C-802H-1?

[chowder]

Thanks for the advice guys.

chowder, I don't see an 8'2" rod on Okuma's website. Are you referring to the 8' model BD-C-802H-1?

Yeah, Lake Michigan Angler has it listed as 8'2", probably because of the model no. Pretty sure it's an 8' rod.

[raider44]

I like using Okuma rods and reels. My dipsy reels are "Magda Line Counter" and rods are 10 foot "Convector" dispy diver rod.

I like the 10 foot poles because it makes it much easier to net fish. I have used 8 foot poles before with divers on lake erie for walleye- but I will shorten my leader to 5-6 feet.

[Billy V]

We've been running 9'6" Daiwa Heartland dipsy rods for years now and they've been great. You won't go wrong with them Blackdog. Although I'd personally choose to spool up with wire rather than with Power Pro.

[gotaway]

Blackdog, several Capt.s I know run 7' dipsey rods .. Last year I decided to give them a try.. I used 7', 1 piece, Shimano TDR medium rods (TDR-70MB) and I'll never go back to a long rod ( I was running 9'6" rods).. I fish out of a 19' Islander and find the short rods easier to handle and store .. I have Scotty outdowns with 4' booms and haven't had any problems with clearance, using up to a 9' lead from the dipsey back hasn't been an issue when netting either..

The Accudepth+ reels are the way to go unless money is no object, I run 4 of them and know a bunch of guys who use them with no issues (except the price has gone up twice since I bought mine)..

Good Luck, Joe (Gotaway)

[Iceman]

Gotaway;

Right on!! In my post above, I did not mention that I am using Tekota 600LC reels, IMHO these are the very best reels for Lake Ontario Kings, using florocarbon, wire, or superline. The drags are smooth. 4.2 to 1 retrive ratio, & so far the six I have set up have had nearly zero problems. I did change out one drag washer set at no charge to me, as Shimano sent me rougher surface finish washers to make the loading up of the rod on the rigger stay put. With the initial set of washers the reel would creep out line, & you would loose the load up on the rigger rod. Plain & simple, the shorter the rod, the more control of the fish you have. The longer the rod the less control you have of the fish.

[ray koziatek]

Well the shorter rods  are a no brainer as to the fish having less leverage on you but ive stuck with the longer rods for clearence and down speed indacators on my big boat.With that said i stuck one of my (power pro)dypsy reels on a 6ft meat rod (sethgreen rod) with a roller tip for my trip to seneca yesterday in my canoe.OMG what a difference as you might imagine fishing with a long rod out of a canoe could be dangerous at best in the dead of winter not to mention deploying ,retriving ,or holding (rod holder) issues,i stuck that 6 ft rod in my plastic rod holder held in place with a small clamp without torque issues,retriving the fish was effortless even reeling in the "set" dypsy to change depth was a breeze almost effortless. in fact 3 or 4 times i tripped and retrived my dypsy because it pulled so little i thought it was tripped or wrapped ,just could not belive the difference in rod torque at the handle or tip as far as that is concerened.After yesterday i will be buying 2- 7FT" Heavy "1 pc Ugly Stix (30 bucks at walmart). 2 twillies,retiping the Uglys with twillies and replacing 2 of my dypsy setups with the short rods. Ill keep the other 2 long ones for now till i learn where in my arsanal ill be deploying the shorter rods...... I know Bill and some others dont like the power pro products for this applacation (dypsy) but as ive said many other times it dives as deep as wire ,if you use the 65 lb test you can use a slide diver with no slippage and unlimited length of line out from the slider to your bait,the lake ontario fleas are not a issue with PP (fingerlakes strain diff story),youll almost never cut off a rigger fish on power pro , no kinking,no curling,no fraying(gets a little fuzzw near the swivel)and ive got a reel with the same line for going on 7 years with PP same knot and swivel ,cant say that for wire (some of my own dooings)start out with 1 of each and go from there... i edited the roller tips to twillies after rethinking and others input

[Billy V]

I've stuck with my longer rods for separation purposes and also because they're all in really great shape so until one of them breaks I'm not going to spend any more $$ to replace it. I've taken a look at some of the shorter rods out there and when I finally need to replace some rods (which might be years, those Heartlands are indestructible) I think I'll give a couple of short sticks a try.

I've also never run Power Pro with my Divers. I've had such good success with wire that I haven't felt the need to try it, and also because I've fished on a few boats that have used some sort of braid with their Divers and they loaded up pretty badly with fleas and that really turned me off. I have no idea what brand of braid they were using, so maybe Ray's onto something with the 65# Power Pro. Anyone else used it with similar results? I'm wondering if both fish hook and spiny water fleas don't stick to it?

I'll also second the Daiwa Accudepth Plus as a great reel for the money. I was at Bass Pro yesterday and they still have them for $49.99. The Tekota is a fabulous reel no question about it, but you can get three ADP's and spool one of them with 1000' of wire for the price of one Tekota. I have two ADP47LC's that I've been running with wire for three seasons now and they still operate like new and we haven't missed a beat with them.

[Iceman]

Just bought another Shimano 600LC NIB last week, paid $159.95 for the reel & $8.53 for S&H (no sales tax, out of state seller). Baitnhook e-mail baitnhook.net/. So Billy V. you won't be getting the 1,000 feet of wire too, just the 3 reels & a couple of extra bucks.

[jekyll]

Yeah Bill, others out here use braid. I use both braid and wire. I concur with everything Ray said except I use 30# for deeper diving. Braid does collect fleas more than wire and they don't come off as easily as from wire but, the other attributes make it very attractive. Braid is much better than mono for fleas (collects less and cleans far easier). I got a braid dipsy all SNAFU'ed with copper last year and there was no damage to the copper. Can't do that with wire, the copper would be toast. I think the wire out produces the braid by a tad but I haven't performed a statistically valid test. Maybe I'll put them out identically this year and answer the question.

[gotaway]

Ray, where are you getting the swivel/roller rod tips ? I found them in the Jann's Netcraft cataloge but they're a bit on the pricey side.

Joe

[ray koziatek]

i havent gotten any yet im shure they ant cheep the more i thought about it today im a wondering if the swivel tips have stops so you or someone on your baot cant wrap the line around the tip ..ive used twill tips with great results and the saw the fleas off wire and the Pow.pro.the rod i used yesterday had a fixed pully so you had to pay attention to rod position ... i dont know if it was the pully or ,shorter rod that made it seem so much more effortless realing in fish.if anybody has horror stories or good luck with rollers id like to hear the twillies are idiot proof which are good for me as i fish alone and sometimes in 4 and 5 ftrs the last thing i want to do is loose a fish and 30.00 worth of tackle for a little less reeling resitance....hmmmm thought s to ponder

[Gill-T]

Ray, I have a set of 10' Med/heavy Ugly sticks with roller tips which I use with my wire set-ups. I REALLY like them. In fact, when Lady Bluegill was on my boat for the Sodus Pro/Am he commented on how easy it was to move dipsys in and out. The roller and action make the difference more so than the length IMO. Just make sure the roller rod you get has tight tolerances between the roller and housing for obvious reasons.

[Miss em]

I believe most swivel tips spin all the way around. Not worth it in my opinion becasue you still have to have the rod postioned right so the line is on the rollers, regardless of what the tip is doing. I still recommend the twillys on the custom rods we build, rollers or not. I have personally gotten away from the rollers just to avoid the hastle of worriying about having the rods postiones right in the holders. We put gimbal butts on the roller rods, but then the rod has to put in the holder so the reel is towards the bow, in order to keep the line on the rollers. Tough to see the counter. If you do want rollers, the ligthweight Aftco rollers are the way to go. Seven footers all the way, makes life a lot easier in my opinion. I know my wife and kids appreciate them!

[ray koziatek]

thanks jeff i agree with the twillies just gotta wild hair and thought i might try something different ill get the uglies 7 ft ..tomorrow and some twillies and edit my other post

[gotaway]

Jeff, thanks for your info regarding the swivel/roller, I'm using twilis now and think I'll stay with them..

If anyone is looking for a real sweet 7' Dipsey rod Jeff and his dad the Fish Doctor make a quality rod with the right action

Fish Doctor is one who turned me on to the short stick, since then I've switched to 6'6" and 7' rods for the riggers as well.

Joe

[blackdog_2]

Lots of great info guys. Thanks, I really appreciate it!!

Sounds like the Accudepth Plus reel is the best bang for your buck. I'm a big fan of Shimano (I have an old BassOne Mag baitcaster that close to 20 years old and still going strong), but I can't justify the Tekota as it's close to $220 CDN here in Canada. For that price I can get 2 AD+/Heartland combos and still have money left over for a case of beer. I also like the Okuma Convector based on the fact it's comes in a left handed model.

Seems the jury is split 50/50 on long vs short rods. However, it looks like a heavy power rod is a must for dipsies. Looking at some of your guys pics, the dispy puts a huge bend/strain in the rod.

As far as Power Pro vs wire, it seems the wire is better for fleas and may get you a little deeper. Since there are no fleas in the lake I fish, I likely go with PP for now until I get some experience.

Only 2 more weeks until the fishin show comes to town!!