King set-up

[jusgrinnin]

I'm looking to set-up for kings next fall, what are the most affordable set-ups for kings rod& reels?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[K Gonefishin]

I would do a few searches for rigger rod and linecounters first then if you have any questions then post a more specific questions. Alot of good gear for most any budget you'll defintely find something from 90-300 per rod/reel.

[jusgrinnin]

I've done some research and am leaning towards okuma convectors 45d line counter with either heavy ugly stick or blue dimond rods, just wondering wqhat the general concencus is on a good king set-up.

[Mortigan]

Been discussed in detail many times. Use the Search function to check the specifics...

[TyeeTanic]

Get ready to receive a million different opinions on this.

Anyhow - I had to learn the hard way - don't go cheap, you will end up replacing everything.

The main reasons are the cheap stuff breaks and fast, and also doesn't work smoothly bringing salmon

in and so compromises a landing.

I'll give you some general discussion on each main tackle component.

ROD:

Rod make - there's a number of good rods - Rapala, Shimano, Okuma and Ugly Stick. I have Rapala RSC's they are affordable

and very good - but be prepared to spend around $80 - $120 for each rod.

Rod type - there are essentially two types of rod and then a hybrid. You can use mono line or braid line on the regular loop guide

rods. Then you can use wire line (steel wire in a 7 strand braid). Here you should use a rod with roller guides (get a shop to show you

one). Wire lines are really good, strong, get you down deep, but it can bend and crimp which weakens it. Mono is probably a very popular options because it is very easy to use - but it is thick and you normally can't get alot on your reel. Braid is thin and strong, which solves this problem, but then we have a big flea problem in the water in June/August which renders braid useless. Given all the benefits and dissadvantages of each type - I use two different options - I have two rods on wire and two rods on mono. I don't use braid because the fleas make it painful and I don't want to switch. So not sure how many rods you want to get - you can start with 2 on mono line and then get use to that and then add 2 wire lines after. So the mono line will need regular old rods and the wire lines will need rods with wire guides. Now the hybrid I spoke about earlier is for the wire - you can use a rod with special hardened steel loop guides and what we call a twillie tip - a lot of people use these, but I prefer the roller guides - the action on these is a lot smoother.

Rod length - I would go for anything 8 - 10 feet long. I like 10 feet - the reason is when

you have all your tackle on the line it will be more than 10 feet long. A long rod helps you reel all that up to the first

guide on the rod and then you still have line out. By lifting the rod you get the fish close to the boat for netting. Trust me

this is a very important factor.

Rod action - you want medium to heavy action - with a lean towards heavy action, but you do want a flexible tip to take the stress off the lines when a big king shakes!

FISHING LINES:

Mono backing or wire backing should be 30 lb test. You will need preferably 300 yards of it and no less than 250 yards. For wire line - use 7 strand wire it is very flexible and forgiving. You should attach a leader to this line before your tackle - use anything from 20 lb to 30 lb flourocarbon leader. Seaguar is a good make.

REELS:

You will need to get a trolling reel. Not a baitcast, not a spinning reel. Trolling only. There are four things you need to have on your reels. (1) They must have a line counter (counts feet of line spun out). (2) They must be able to hold at least 250 - 300 yards of whatever line you put on it. (3) They must be made of the right materials. The line spool guide should be steel (it hast to be if you are using wire line) and it is preferrable that the reel spool and sides is steel as well. (4) It must have a good drag. This comes with quality of the reel. Shimano, Rapala and Okuma have good reels. I use a Rapala Magnum II Reel - but I really like the Rapala RSC reels - they look much tougher.

BAIT:

There are a few types here, but start off with the simplest and most commonly used ones. (1) Spoons (lures) - You will need to get a variety here. Sizes should range from 3" to 4". Northern King, Williams, Nasty Boy are decent makes. Get greens, blues, blue/silvers oranges - some good colors to get are monkey puke and hawg wild and glowing spoons. (2) Flies - I would go for Atomik flies - these are really good. Again same variety of color as above - but get some glowing ones like green glow.

ACCESSORIES:

Depth Divers - How will you get to depths of 30 - 60 feet? You will need some #1 dipsy divers, get about 4 different colors.

Attractors - You may want to put an attractor/flasher ahead of your flies - get some 8" spin doctors - match your spin doctors to your fly colors - put them side by side and check out what colors flow best together.

Net - get a good net - again dont' go cheap, but they aren't expensive anyhow. You should get a minimun 20" diameter net - preferably 24", made of solid aluminum with a solid net material and a long handle.

Swivels - get some quick connect swivels and double barrel swivels - with a break strength of 60 to 80 lbs. Quick connects should be ball bearing types.

Weights - get some 3 oz and 5 oz bass weights. Instead of dipsy divers, if you want to fish the top 20 feet of water then you can attach big old bass weights on your line. 200 feet of line on a 5 oz weight gets you about 20 - 25 feet down.

Herring bait scent goop - I like to put this on my spoons and flies to help attract fish.

Pliers - again a good set of needle nose pliers to unhook fish.

Lead line - 25 meters of 20 lb or 30 lb fluorocarbon lead line - Seaguar is a good make.

Scissors - small pair of scissors (nail scissors) to cut your loose ends of knots.

Tackle Bag - get a good tackle bag to put all your stuff in. Get one that holds at least 4 plastic storage containers (rectangular about 14" wide). Put your lures in one, flies in another, Spin doctors in another (there's a special wide container for spin doctors), and then your lead line, weigths, etc. miscellaneous stuff in another. Your dispy divers will normally store in side pocket of the tackle bag.

I hope this helps. I replaced all my stuff at least once, if not twice - and I'm now happy with what I have. I wish I had someone that could zero me in on what to get when I started - so make use of this advice!

[jusgrinnin]

Thanks Mark for takeing the time to write all that I've got a lot of the nessary tackle just need the rods&reels, I also have downriggers and planner boards.

[adam2000]

get diawa heartland rods and sealine 47 reels, you can use accudepth reels too but i dont like there drag, okumas are nice but i keep breaking my clickers, if you want rigger rods i use eagle claw and okuma glt classics, both are super cheap. dont spend a 100 bucks on a rigger rod, for diver rods i use 9'6 heartlands and i also use 10'6 accudepths when i run 4 divers. you dnt need roller rod for wire i know 1000's of guys that dont use them, and guys that do use them say unless your gonna shell out 300 for a real good one your better off with a twili tip

[hawkeye625]

My current set up for the riggers is Ugly Stick 1101 9' light action rods (roughly $50) and reconditioned shimano charter special 2000 lever drag reels ($65 off ebay) that have the carbon drags from smooth drags. The lever drags make setting lines very easy and drag adjustment a snap - which is a plus for me as my crew changes all the time (too many friends without a boat). This set up has been awesome.

For divers we use Gander mountain 10' heavy action diver rods ($39) with a twili tip for wire ($7). No need for rollers or special guides for wire, just a twili tip. 7 strand wire for divers, or 30-40lb braid if fleas are not bad. In the fall you shouldn't have trouble with fleas. We have okuma convector 30's for the diver rods, but upgraded 1 to shimano tekota and plan on another for next year. (daiwa saltists are nice too). The convectors are o.k. for the money, but the drags are a little sticky.

My best suggestion is to look around charter boats and see what they run for reels...these guys use them daily and put them to the test. I think you'll find alot of shimano's and daiwa's.

Do yourself a favor and DON'T skimp on the reels...it cost me a ton of tackle over the last 2 years. If you have the time wait til winter months for sales..most of the big box stores have great off season sales on fishing equipement...and the LOTSA show is a great place to pick stuff up.

[jusgrinnin]

Thanks Hawk, gearing for next Sept live back east so watching for sales is not a problem I appreciate the help.

[jekyll]

I had bad luck with Blue Diamond rods this summer. While I like the triangular fore-grips, both rods failed. I added 2 Okuma rod/reel combos of Blue D. rods and Convector 30D reels(rods are rigger rods and reels were used on Dipsies). Both rods needed to be replaced under warrantee after the first month. First one broke popping a release. The second rod lost a gold eye insert. Loosing eye inserts was an old problem suppossedly fixed last year but, mine were new in June and .....

One of the Convectors is being replaced because the line counter skips. At least Okuma replaces them without hassel except for a long return wait. I shouldn't have needed to return 3 out of 4 pieces in 2 months.

I also bought 2 Okuma Classic Pro rods which have the same triangular fore grip as the Blue Diamonds. I actually like these better than the Blue D. and they are $20 cheeper. My dealer will ask Okuma to replace the second Blue D rod with a comparable Classic Pro. It should be a win/win for both Okuma and me.

Never had problems with Heartland rods (as long as nobody steps on them).

[Knotlost]

I can tell you that after fishing hard for a few years, I'm changing all my rods over to the Heartland specialty series rods. They make a planer/walleye pole that's perfect for browns as it has eyes that are bigger than most poles allowing you to "reel" in your swivel right to the reel, and many rods have eyes to small. There down rigger rods are great and have larger eyes as well, If you look at there rod for dipsys its great in my opinion as its a bit stiffer in the top than most giving you great control and feel. My biggest complant is the small eyes on the poles and I like to run longer leaders and get the swivels down to the reel.

Reels are exactly what you pay for, there are not magic bullets here. I like the Daiwa saltiest high speed, I should say I love them, but they cost more. The sea-line is about the cheapest you should go, any cheaper and you will be posting on craigslist with that stuff for sale. I can not attest to many other brands, I only own 1 Okuma, it seems fine, although unremarkable, they Penn's I have are older and getting long in the tooth so its not a fair to compare them with a new reel. I did just get a Shimono and that's nice but lower speed.