Wire and braid dipsy setup rod/reel?

[Epic22]

I am looking into adding a dipsy setup for the upcoming season. I fish Canandaigua Lake and as of now only use a Seth Green rig and do not have any downriggers. I would appreciate any feedback on how to set up a dipsy rod, what rod and reels you would recommend, and any other advice you may have. I appreciate all your time and information on the subject. Thanks.

[FLXTroutman]

Hey epic

I use a 9' 6" and a 10' rod equipped with a Daiwa Great Lakes Sealine LC and I use a Tekota 600 LC.

The Daiwa I have had for over 10 years still works awesome. Good drags are what you want, you get what you pay for.

I know that Dan Keating has recommended shorter wire rods too, I like longer rod to get away from riggers. You will want good rod holders too, like a Tite-Loc or Berts, you adjust to horizontal or parallel to water.

[IRISH56]

What FLX said!

I use 8' 6" rods w/Okuma Magda line counter reels, get the best reels you can afford. The Magda's have served me well but others have had problems with the drag systems, especially for Lake O. kings. Tite Loc rod holders on my boat, very sturdy.

If you're choosing between wire and braid just remember the braid will pick up fleas during the mid summer months pretty heavy. Wire picks them up also just not as thick and is easier to get them off. Wire takes a little getting used to but catches a lot of fish.

DAN

[Epic22]

Thanks for the replies. How much wire do I need for Canandaigua? Where is the best place to get wire?

[FLXTroutman]

here is a shot from my old boat

Last year I went to Gander Mtn, but it took me forever to find what I wanted, they don't know what they have and I had to search for it.

Either Mason 7 strand wire or another brand but I can't think of the name, some wire is stainless

steel color some is camo color or sort of brown color. Most spools are 1000' feet. Tie the wire direct to the spool,

and have someone hold the wire spool tightly as you reel the whole spool of wire on, it is very important to wind it on tightly.

If you don't get it on tight, connect a 1 lb. ball to the snap swivel with out any rig or hooks and moving as in trolling let it out in deep deep water and then reel at all back in watching so that it is even and tight. You may not have to let all of it out. (search wire line knot on this board, it's basically a half hitch onto the snap and then an overhand knot above it, Tim Bromund has posted a nice pic by pic of the knot somewhere.)

[snyder]

Last year I picked up a couple accudepth 47 reels and firewolf rod combos at bass pro for $59 and spooled them up with 65lb powerpro. There was only one time I had a problem with fleas on cayuga and everything worked allright I just had a big gob build up on my last eyelet and had to work it back and forth a couple times to saw through it. That was the only time I had trouble though. The drags have held up..its only been a season though and used on weekends on the fingerlakes.

With that bieng said I have used wire dipseys on other peoples boats and really like how easy you can trip the dipsey when you want to reel it in.

I know with the ol' seth green rig you must have at least one good rod holder. A friend tried to put a dipsey rod in a plastic rod holder that had adjustable positions. He said is went snap..snap..snap until the rod was facing straight towards the back of the boat.

[Epic22]

Good info everyone. What size dipsys do you usually use for the finger lakes? How long of leader from dipsy to lure and do you use any attractors? I am looking at getting some new tackle and would love any suggestions of go to lures or setups. I now mainly use suttons with the seth green rig.

[Tripleduece50]

Last year myself and Snyder learned a ton from this board, And Ray K. lent alot of great info as well. Probably felt the need to since Snyder and I cornered him in Snyders basement with a bogus furnace service call We both run Power pro braid, with as long as leader as you can have and still net a fish in your boat, remember you will only be able to reel up to the dipsy and the rest will be trailing...So thats what mine are run at. Use alot of Spin Doctors with flys set 18-22" behind

Docters. Snyder and Myself both use to run Seth's good day 8-10 fish. Dipsy's and downriggers now 20-25 fish pretty consistantly If we fish sun up into late afternoon.

hope this helps

22-250

[chowder]

Go to the Howie Fly website, 1000' spools of 30# wire. The Okuma Blue Diamond rods (8'6")paired w/ Daiwa 47 accudepth line counter reels will make a nice pair( Lake Michigan Angler website), you can always get the drags souped up later if you want w/ Penn components. The Walker Mag Dipsy divers are a good choice.You might want to consider biting the bullet and going w/ a track system for the rod holders, then you have flexibility down the road(Bert's or Traxtech).You can search this forum for other posts on wire dipsy rigs.

[NitroMusky]

snyder - I also have the accudepth 47LCs, which have worked well for me on dipseys and are an awesome price, but I was rather dissapointed in the drag which I think is the only real failing of this reel compared with the sealines. in a hair's width it goes from slipping to too tight-the progression is just horrible. just this week I got around to upgrading the drag to carbontex and I'll tell you from playing around with it looks to have the progression its advertised to.

there are also the extreme smoothies, but carbontex has a higher lb drag resistance which is what I wanted since I also drag large cranks (note my sceen name ); but both the smoothies and carbontex have a great progression (and smoothies even more so).

$10 a kit and easy to do. If anyone's interested I can post step-by-step.

[B8buket]

NitroMusky

We're intrested! I own all LC's , I've stayed away from the Accudepths because of the drags ,

but if I can soup'em up .....I'd change my mind about them....cant beat the price!

[NitroMusky]

LOL- I said to myself as I was replacing them that I should be taking pictures. guess so. Ok. let me take and import a picture of the part diagram and I can reference the key #s int he instructions- that will make it pretty easy for some one to follow.

[B8buket]

Sweet! I work and do all the upkeep on my reels.....also interested on where to get the soup'd up high performance

parts like swappin out a 6 cyl. out of the Accudepths and throwing a hemi in it

[kremer01]

slider, i love the new avatar!

sweet

[NitroMusky]

I posted the instructions and ordering info in the 'tackle tips and techniques' forum.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9596

BTW- they have drag upgrades for a lot of other reels as well.

[IRISH56]

Epic - standard dipseys (the bigger LJ Dipsey's) w/about 6' - 7' leader. Smoke dodgers, Luhr Jensen or Opti, Smoke w/painted green stipe LJ dodger if you can find one (let me know if you do), white or green E-chip flasher. Green, white, silver (alone or in combination) flies or squid and occasionally baby blue. Best producers for me over the past few years.

I prefer the darker diver colors, black & purple, but others swear by the lighter ones. Have not tried the Walker divers but probably will this season.

Good luck. DAN

[rolmops]

I prefer the Penn black Sabre rod with carboloid guides.I use it with a Penn Senator 113.

The reel has about 150 feet of backing and 600 feet of 40 or 50 pound test single strand wire line.I use 3 and 5 ounce bucktails.In fact it is the exact same setup I use for striped bass in Cape Cod bay.This is a jigging setup.I jig while trolling and the salmon really like it.

[eturc]

No matter what the rod is- change out the eyelet on the tip with a swizzle tip.

It's a spring in a plastic housing that you glue to the tip. The wire will cut right through a standard eyelet on the tip in 100 feet.

I use a penn power rod 8' 6" medium flex with a okuma convector with 1000' of mason 7 strand stainless...

Works beautifully with a size 1 disk on Lake O.

There is a guy on ebay up in Michigan that has the mason stainless braided wire are really good prices. He also carries the okuma's at discount- look him up.

[muskybob]

No matter what the rod is- change out the eyelet on the tip with a swizzle tip.

It's a spring in a plastic housing that you glue to the tip. The wire will cut right through a standard eyelet on the tip in 100 feet.

Close but no cigar, They're called twilly tips.