# Trolling rods.....HELP!!



## large6er (Sep 1, 2013)

I am new to the world of trolling and have a few questions. Is there a differance or is Cabelas just trying to give me a headache. I see downrigger rods, trolling rods, and planer rods. A while back on this site about planerboards and using downrigger rods with them. all responses where, yea there fine to us. So whats the differance and what should I be looking at in a good trolling rod that I plan to use with plannerboards?

large6er


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## large6er (Sep 1, 2013)

I almost forgot about lead core rods. HHHHHELP!!!!!


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## K gonefishin (May 4, 2004)

Rod blanks are built with different action for different applications.

Downriggers rods are meant to be bent and "loaded up" so they basically are a half moon with tips in the water, out of all the trolling rods these are by far the most flexible rods available. These rods are usually medium or medium light. 

Planer boards have stout bottoms and softer tips so absorb the pressure and pull from the boards pulling through water and rough water. They have great backbone. These rods are ususally medium action 

Dipsy diver rods are very stout throughout but also allow for alot of bend so handle the load and trolling speed and shock of when a fish hits a dipsey diver being pulled. Out of all the rods these are the most specific rods and are really only meant to pull dipseys if you used them for planer boards they would be broomsticks and they wouldn't work well for downriggers due to them being too stiff. These rods are typically medium or medium/heavy or heavy action.

The big trolling rod manufactures make specific rods for these applications. Most trollers have separate rods for every applications. 

If you are want a rod for pulling planer boards I would buy a rod just for that, keep in mind this rods can pull double duty for flatline trolling, bottom bouncers and small dipsey, jets. They will NOT handle the pull of a big dipsey and if you tried to run one downrigger fishing more than likely you'll snap it when trying to load the rod up while in the downrigger holder. 

Leadcore/copper rods are similar to dipsey they are built to handle a good load throughout the entire rod blank due to the weight of the copper or leadcore, sometimes they have special guides. 

If you go to FishUSA, Bass Pro, or Cabelas Website or even Diawa, Okuma or Shimano (the big 3 who make trolling rods) you will see that they label their rods for these technics.

I personally like 9 ft dipsey rods (better for long leaders) Shimano TDR are cheap and good, Talora is a nice rod too for 80.00 by Shimano
I run 8 ft Gander Mountain planer board rods they are specific to planer boards and are medium action. Alot of guys run 8 ft Diawa Heartlands which are actually downrigger rods, they are pretty soft boards but they work well. 
Then for downriggers I run 8ft medium Diawa Heartlands.
For Copper/Leadcore I have 9ft Shimano Talora. 

Shimano makes Talora and Compre they are their higher end rods and Okuma makes a good rod called Dead Eye that alot of guys run. 

You can spend 30-130 on a trolling rod. My opinion is you don't need a real sensitive rod for trolling. I will say buy RODS THAT MATCH. 

TONS of guys run 7 ft Ugly Stick CAL1100 its a 30-40 rod, it's a general trolling rod that tough that guys like. 

There are a ton of options out there really. Ask 10 guys what rods they run and you'll get 5 different answers.


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## large6er (Sep 1, 2013)

That's great information K and I never thought about the Ugly Stick. So when these rods are designed are they intended for Mono use or will rod selections be different with braided line. I know there is no stretch in braid so I would assume that would make your boards run a little different. Does it make a difference if you run long line (I think it called when lines run straight back no boards).


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## K gonefishin (May 4, 2004)

U can run braid or mono on board rods. If you are using braid I would opt for a softer rod and a quality line counter. IMO mono way to go 

Sent from my XT907 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## large6er (Sep 1, 2013)

Great, thanks for the info. I will be busy this winter getting all set up


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