Which trolling rods and reels do you use?

[Walleye_Rick]

Curious who is using which models of trolling rods and reels on your boats. What are your favorites?

[wakina]

Curious who is using which models of trolling rods and reels on your boats. What are your favorites?

With just myself and 1 other fisherman I use my Shimano Tekota 300Lc Reels mounted on GX2 7ft med action Ugly Sticks with either Tuf-line XP by Western Filament or Jerry Brown braid in either 30 or 40 lb. Color doesn't seem to matter as I have either Hi vis yellow or the red version on my reels. All of my leaders are made out of 20lb Fireline crystal. These are my favorite setups.

If more than 2 are on board I also use my Okuma Coldwater 153d Lc reels mounted on the same type ugly sticks. But have blue Tuf-Line XP on 2 of them and Fireline 30lb blaze orange on the other 2. Line color does not seem to bother the fish as each set-up catches their fare share of fish. But then again I only fish the Western Basin with its somewhat murky/cloudy water.

Only if there are 5 on board which does not happen very often do I use the Diawa accu-depth plus 17lca reels and they have 30lb green braid on them.

I also use the Church Tackle TX-22 in-line planer boards I have 8 of those 4 yellow and 4 orange, if needed I run my Walleye special boards. I also have a set of the TX-44 boards but use them very little if at all as they pull way to hard in my opinion, and on occaison I run the Church Tackle TX-007 Stern Planers.

[Hoytman86]

We've got 9' Cabela's Depthmaster trolling rods with Ambassador 4500 line counter reels. I don't hear of many people suggesting the Ambassador, but they're the smoothest reels I've ever used and I've had one that I've used hundreds of times catfishing as well as a few days spent fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and it's still going strong. We only fish 4-8 days per year, but we haven't been disappointed in this setup yet.

We only have Church "The Walleye" boards, but I really like them. I prefer them to the others because they have the pin on them that not only insures they'll be safely on my line even if the front clip pulls off, but because of the clip I can actually give the line a quick tug and it will pull out of the front clip (if I rig it properly) and allow me to pull the board in without having to fight it. Even if the back clip pulls off, the board just moves on down the line to my sinker and I don't even have to bother with removing it while a fish is on which is where most of my fish are lost.

[wakina]

We only have Church "The Walleye" boards, but I really like them. I prefer them to the others because they have the pin on them that not only insures they'll be safely on my line even if the front clip pulls off, but because of the clip I can actually give the line a quick tug and it will pull out of the front clip (if I rig it properly) and allow me to pull the board in without having to fight it. Even if the back clip pulls off, the board just moves on down the line to my sinker and I don't even have to bother with removing it while a fish is on which is where most of my fish are lost.

Check the back pins for groves! Some of my boards are 8 years old or older and some of the pins are grooved/cut from the braid. I purchased new stainless pins made by/for TX-12 walleye, TX-22 and TX-6. I got them from X-Tackle for $4.29 each. It makes an excellent repair part and a great upgrade from the original pin all at the same time. I needed to repair them anyhow so why not do it right?

By the way there is absolutly nothing wrong with the TX-12 Walleye boards, they are great fish catchers and planers and fit right in the spread with the TX-22's

[Lazy Ike]

I have 3 Daiwa 47's and 3 27's mounted on an assortment orf rods. Two of the 47 is on Gander Mountain Musky rods, 1 is on a St. Croix Musky and the 3 27's are on Cal 1100 Ugly Sticks. Will be making some changes this spring...
Wakina,,, How do you like the GX2's ? do you think they are as good as the old Cal 1100's ????

[skinny5382]

We only fish Central from June to September. Rod/Reel are Shimano TDR with Daiwa 47LC. Rods are about $35 and reels off ebay for $50.
We run Med lite on downriggers and Med on Dipsy. Dipsy rods are loaded with PowerPro braid 30# and riggers are12# mono. Seems to work for us, many limits last season.

[wakina]

I have 3 Daiwa 47's and 3 27's mounted on an assortment orf rods. Two of the 47 is on Gander Mountain Musky rods, 1 is on a St. Croix Musky and the 3 27's are on Cal 1100 Ugly Sticks. Will be making some changes this spring...
Wakina,,, How do you like the GX2's ? do you think they are as good as the old Cal 1100's ????

They have great backbone and the tips are still very readable, if you happen to not be looking at the board when the bite on the board happens you can actually see the tip vibrating or rod bouncing the holder from the strike/bite. You can't miss it unless you are totally distracted and not seeing either one when it happens. I do not use the tattle tail flag system but rely on reading the rods and the boards. Personally I think they are every bit as good as the old model CAL 1100.

[walleye2go]

Big boards and use Okuma Deadeye ML Big Board Rods. They are hard to beat for the price. I've got over 3 years on the rods and Magda reels, with very few issues. I'm going to start swapping out the reels with Coldwater's.

[sherman51]

I use daiwa sealine sg17lca and accudepth plus adp17lca reels and will die bragging on these reels. right now if I was buying rods it would be the daiwa wilderness trolling rods in 8 ft medium for 15.95 at fishusa.com. but right now I have been just buying rods that felt good on my divers. I have 2 6.6 rods 2 wilderness 8 ft med action and two other rods that's 9 foot. just helps keep my lines to me divers separated. but for running inline or big boards it would be the wilderness 8' med rods. good luck.
sherman

[BtweenShots]

I have been using Okuma Magda Pro 20s with Ugly Sticks 6 for big boards and 4 on downriggers. Most are 6 years old, and 2 are going in for repair. I am
either fortunate and I just feel no need to change either rod of reels. I also at times put out 2 OLD 5 ft. steel rods with dipsys or bottom bouncers and garage sale reels and always good for laughs when it's fish on.