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Our new boat came with everything but fishing poles
- Thread starter hardee
- Start date
A
Anonymous
Guest
Fishing is one of lifes simple pleasures. Enjoyed singly or in company (especially grandkids) fishing is a great pastime. Once I realized no casting is involved while salmon or bottom fishing I also realized that i didn't need $300 reels etc. I found that you can buy virtually new (Antique) Penn reels on ebay for near nothing. The older classic stuff seems to fit the decor of something salty like our C-dory's well. Sure they are filled with braid and placed on graphite rods so I guess that makes me competitively classy! Be sure to discover all those brightly colored thingies at your local tackle shop as well ! Mike :wink
starcrafttom
Active member
I have two rules about buying rods and reels. 1) Buy good stuff but not high priced stuff. I like abu garcia reels. They are under a $100 and work for ever. Any of the mid-priced graphite rods will work. No reason to spend $300 plus on a rod until you decide you really like fishing. Okimua makes the "celilo" cheap but light and strong. Shakespear makes the Interped line of rods,also cheap and strong. There is nothing worse then closing a rod in the door, except closing the door on a $300 rod. SHOP EBAY.
2) go light. I have a lot more fun fighting fish on lite gear then on big gear. I fish 8 to 9 ft rods rated for 10 to 18 pd test and 4500 to 5500 reels for every thing from pinks to kings. You can use a 12 t0 30 # rod with a penn 209 on it, but you will never feel the fight. Those rod and reels where made for trolling without down riggers. you had to us large weights or planers like pink ladys. The whole reason for downriggers was to fight the fish on lite line.
Rule three( yeh I cant count) I like to have matched sets of rods. When I troll for salmon I use two matching rods rigged the same way down to the swizels. After the end of the main line I may run two different lure set ups but every thing else is the same. same thing for halibut, every thing but the lure is the same . same rod,reel ,line and snaps. I always use snaps on the end of my main line.
As you get into it you will have differnt rods for different types of fishing, but for now start with one type( trolling, mooching , jigging, etc) until you get good at that and then move on to some thing else.
if you need help learning how to set up for trolling take someone with you for one day. You will learn more in a day on the water then 50 e-mails or a hundered books.
books are good for a lot of things. Ideas that may work in your area or ideas that you can change to work in your area. heres a list of some that I find helpful
1. Successful downrigger fishing by fred Olsen. Out of print last i looked but can be found on ebay or amazon some times. this book is old and the equipment is out dated but all the info on temps and finding fish is great. It was written just when downrigging was coming out, a good read.
2. The art of trolling by Ken Schultz. This book covers a lot of different types of fish, striper walleye, etc.. The chapters on trout and salmon are really informative. Also rigging and lure set ups, how to use sonar to decide how to arrange your spread. How speed and lure seletion is dictated by weather and temp. really good stuff.
3. Trolling top to bottom edited by Mark Romanack. Same as the above book, both of which where written for the mid west great lasts fishing. I think mark also wrote the trollers bible. that book has charts for the trolling depth of all types of lures based on speed of boat, amount of line out and size of line. really great info for river and flat lining trout in lakes.
4. the trollers hand book by Ray Rychnovsky. Another good general knowlage book about all types of trolling. great charts on blow back of balls at differnet speeds. A 10# ball at 2 mph and 50 feet of cable will be 50 ft deep. but the same ball at 200 ft of cable will only be 180ft deep. if you speed up to 2.5 mph the ball comes up to 150 ft deep. Great chapter.
5. How to catch salmon by charlie white. read every book he has written they are all good and full of info to keep in the back of your mind. good info on tides and times.
here are a few rules to remeber to start.
1) fish with the tide. When you get to the end of a area dont turn around and try to troll against the tide back to your starting point. pull up and run back to your starting point and cover it again, or just a little deeper.
2) run the same type of lure on both rods. Spoons do not work at the same speed as plugs so tring to run both at the same time is a waste. find the speed with the current that works the best for your lure type.
3) change lure color or type every half hour if you do not get some thing. Also change speeds and directions (zigg zag). Change the lenght of the leader if you are using flashers.
4) know the tides and fish the two hours around the change over.
5) get to know your birds. Some birds will show you where the bait is. others will only show you where the krull is.
Anyhow thats just some things to get you in the right direction.
2) go light. I have a lot more fun fighting fish on lite gear then on big gear. I fish 8 to 9 ft rods rated for 10 to 18 pd test and 4500 to 5500 reels for every thing from pinks to kings. You can use a 12 t0 30 # rod with a penn 209 on it, but you will never feel the fight. Those rod and reels where made for trolling without down riggers. you had to us large weights or planers like pink ladys. The whole reason for downriggers was to fight the fish on lite line.
Rule three( yeh I cant count) I like to have matched sets of rods. When I troll for salmon I use two matching rods rigged the same way down to the swizels. After the end of the main line I may run two different lure set ups but every thing else is the same. same thing for halibut, every thing but the lure is the same . same rod,reel ,line and snaps. I always use snaps on the end of my main line.
As you get into it you will have differnt rods for different types of fishing, but for now start with one type( trolling, mooching , jigging, etc) until you get good at that and then move on to some thing else.
if you need help learning how to set up for trolling take someone with you for one day. You will learn more in a day on the water then 50 e-mails or a hundered books.
books are good for a lot of things. Ideas that may work in your area or ideas that you can change to work in your area. heres a list of some that I find helpful
1. Successful downrigger fishing by fred Olsen. Out of print last i looked but can be found on ebay or amazon some times. this book is old and the equipment is out dated but all the info on temps and finding fish is great. It was written just when downrigging was coming out, a good read.
2. The art of trolling by Ken Schultz. This book covers a lot of different types of fish, striper walleye, etc.. The chapters on trout and salmon are really informative. Also rigging and lure set ups, how to use sonar to decide how to arrange your spread. How speed and lure seletion is dictated by weather and temp. really good stuff.
3. Trolling top to bottom edited by Mark Romanack. Same as the above book, both of which where written for the mid west great lasts fishing. I think mark also wrote the trollers bible. that book has charts for the trolling depth of all types of lures based on speed of boat, amount of line out and size of line. really great info for river and flat lining trout in lakes.
4. the trollers hand book by Ray Rychnovsky. Another good general knowlage book about all types of trolling. great charts on blow back of balls at differnet speeds. A 10# ball at 2 mph and 50 feet of cable will be 50 ft deep. but the same ball at 200 ft of cable will only be 180ft deep. if you speed up to 2.5 mph the ball comes up to 150 ft deep. Great chapter.
5. How to catch salmon by charlie white. read every book he has written they are all good and full of info to keep in the back of your mind. good info on tides and times.
here are a few rules to remeber to start.
1) fish with the tide. When you get to the end of a area dont turn around and try to troll against the tide back to your starting point. pull up and run back to your starting point and cover it again, or just a little deeper.
2) run the same type of lure on both rods. Spoons do not work at the same speed as plugs so tring to run both at the same time is a waste. find the speed with the current that works the best for your lure type.
3) change lure color or type every half hour if you do not get some thing. Also change speeds and directions (zigg zag). Change the lenght of the leader if you are using flashers.
4) know the tides and fish the two hours around the change over.
5) get to know your birds. Some birds will show you where the bait is. others will only show you where the krull is.
Anyhow thats just some things to get you in the right direction.
Cutty Sark
New member
My suggestion for good all around gear, for all the salmon opportunities you might have out there. A good penn 320 reel , which are about 80 bucks( 209's are good too). Or maybe a shimano Charter special. And for the rods a shimano TDR or Talora. The TDR is about $30 bucks, and is a good downrigger rod, the Talora is more at $75, and is a little nicer. I like a rod from about 8'6" to 9'6" for downrigger applications. While you could get by with smaller rods and reel combo's, these are good all around gear for salmon, not too small for big kings not too big to feel a pink pull. I agree with Tom that smaller gear is more fun, but being as close to Neah Bay as you are there are some hogs around and I personally would want a bigger rod, for that. Plus if so inclined you could probably get away fishing halibut with those and braided line. As long as you don't hook anything too big. Reading books is a good way to get some basic info, or if you have a local fishing club like puget sound anglers or something check them out, those guys will know what works in your specific area and the meetings are open to the public. Good luck!!
Sark
Sark
hardee--
Once my boat is here (still waiting on engines), we should hook up. I fished the Sequim/PA area quite a bit in the past and have some info that may be useful.
There is some great fishing in your area, and the spring salmon fishing can be excellent...in fact, that fishing is one reason I opted for a larger boat.
My first advice is to do some research before you invest heavily in gear. In fact, I can probably loan you rods and reels and cover rigging basics to get you started.
Keith
Once my boat is here (still waiting on engines), we should hook up. I fished the Sequim/PA area quite a bit in the past and have some info that may be useful.
There is some great fishing in your area, and the spring salmon fishing can be excellent...in fact, that fishing is one reason I opted for a larger boat.
My first advice is to do some research before you invest heavily in gear. In fact, I can probably loan you rods and reels and cover rigging basics to get you started.
Keith
As Sark stated the Shimano Talora and TDR are great rods for the price. I have the Shimano Convergence 10 1/2' with the Canadian style handle and really like it. I have it mated to an Alvey 525 C52 reel and it works well for Salmon. I also have 2 older (Circa 1972) Eagle Claw mootching rods that have gotten more salmon than I can count. They are both mated to the original Penn 209's.
For downrigger fishing I prefer to have a Fiberglass rod as the strain from having them in the downrigger is very hard on a graphite rod.
For a reel the Penn 320 is a great reel that will last you for years. The old 209 with the metal spool will probably last longer BUT has a much lower gear ratio (Easy to get them on Ebay for reasonable prices). I don't care for the new version of the 209's though. They just don't have the same feel. If you like to really feel the fish fight you can go with a knuckle buster reel (Shimano 2000 Moocher or Diawa M-1 for about $60) and then get a rod like the Convergence that I bought (Diawa makes a similar rod for about the same $50-$60 price tag). This is a great way to really feel the fish. The Alvey that I use is similar to a knuckle buster but has an anti-reverse handle that doesn't bust your knuckles. I like it because it brings in the line pretty quickly and is very easy to service. IE: It is very easy to take apart and clean if/when I need to.
For downrigger fishing I prefer to have a Fiberglass rod as the strain from having them in the downrigger is very hard on a graphite rod.
For a reel the Penn 320 is a great reel that will last you for years. The old 209 with the metal spool will probably last longer BUT has a much lower gear ratio (Easy to get them on Ebay for reasonable prices). I don't care for the new version of the 209's though. They just don't have the same feel. If you like to really feel the fish fight you can go with a knuckle buster reel (Shimano 2000 Moocher or Diawa M-1 for about $60) and then get a rod like the Convergence that I bought (Diawa makes a similar rod for about the same $50-$60 price tag). This is a great way to really feel the fish. The Alvey that I use is similar to a knuckle buster but has an anti-reverse handle that doesn't bust your knuckles. I like it because it brings in the line pretty quickly and is very easy to service. IE: It is very easy to take apart and clean if/when I need to.