Dipsy Rod length

[shadster]

What would be the best length of dipsy diver or wireline rods for fishing from a smaller boat solo?

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[Fish Hunter]

We use 10' Ugly Stick/Dipsey rods.

[momay4000]

Shadster,

 

I run 9'6" Heartlands and have done so for 6+ years. I fish solo on occasion and IMO it's not really that bad to net a fish with the longer rods in my 22' boat. I have the longer rods b/c at the time the 9'6" and 10'6" (which I used to use) were the only Heartlands in a Heavy format called "Dipsy" rods. More importantly, I like the longer rods so that they clear my downriggers when I run my booms to the side.

 

Fool around with a 9-10' rod in your boat in your driveway (take one of your rigger rods and tape a stick on the end to make it 9-10') and see what you bang into when you are pretending to land a fish. If it seems cumbersome in your boat, get smaller heavy action rods.

 

Good luck,

 

Chris

[Kuba]

Lol.....watch out for neighbours:)) they might think you're nuts !!!!!

[momay4000]

lol.......I was wondering if someone would get a little chuckle out of that.....nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.....

[shadster]

LOL, my neighbors already think I'm nuts. That would verify it....

 

Thanks for the replies.

[Don Supon]

In a smaller sized boat, rod length is important. More so is the rod stiffness.

 

Consider the length of a dipsey set-up. When fishing a spoon behind the dipsey, the length is considerably shorter than if a spin doctor and fly are behind, but still long. To this length, if the rod can bend to the equivilent of 90 degrees, how much room do you have to move the rod forward before hitting an obstruction? Assuming you reel the line in to the dipsey at rod-tip, you'll have about 8' of line out to the fish. When the rod bends a lot, that's 8' you have to reach with the net. A solo fisherman has to do this with one hand on the net.

 

I have an 18' boat with bimini top and walk-thru windshield. When the top is up (almost always) the fisherman's fighting space is shortened and rod movement is restricted. With a limp 10'er rod, it is very difficult to get a fish close enough to a back corner to net, especially fishing solo. My solution was to change rods to 8'6 and heavy action Heartlands (to decrease rod bend). My wire rods are Blue Diamond rollers, 8'6 heavy. Also have a long handled landing net. With the heavy action rod I can position a fish for self-netting using only one hand on the net. With the longer and limper rods, the fish was too far away to reach the net with one hand. With another to net the fish, the longer, limper rods were useable.

[gokudl3]

I fish out of a 16' and run 10'6 on outside dipseys and 9'6 on inside ones

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app....Doug

[Blue Heron]

Since  I seemed to spend most of my time fishing from the smaller boat I started to run 7' rigger rods a number of years ago and they will take down a King as well as any 8-9 footer. (there was an article in GLA Mag several years ago that explained the dynamics of this)

 

Based on my above experience and some reccommendations I heard - I had a couple of 7' roller Dipsey rods made up last year (made by Fish Doctor) and all I can say is WOW are they sweet rods - they handle Kings on Wire excellent and they are much easier to manuever in the smaller boat. That said I still run my 9.5 ft rods as the outside rods when I am trying to run 4 wires    

[Sk8man]

I am convinced there is no RIGHT ANSWER that fits all situations. My wire and braid rigs are run off 6 1/2 ft rods with roller tips. There is enough separation on my boat and they work great. I run top stuff and small dipseys from 8 1/2 rods from my 15 ft. outriggers..again good separation. The down riggers have telescoping booms and I run them off the back corners angled 45 degrees usually but at higher speeds straight back and seldom if have ever have had a tangle.  I find that the shorter rods are much easier to handle in my particular boat (after a lot of experimentation with various rod lengths). An additional benefit is that t is easier to net fish as I often fish by myself. The decision regarding rod size pretty much boils down to personal preference, particular boat set up, and whether or not you can do all that you want or need to do to catch fish. I seldom run more than 6 or 8 rods so this is also a consideration.

[shadster]

Thanks for all the input guys. I'm looking at a Shimano Talora 7' wire line roller rod that is rated for 10-20 # line/wire. Would this be enough?.

[Sk8man]

Yep ..should be fine if you are using 30 pound wire

[Big Dave]

Love my 7' roller fish dr. rods,  Haven't put the long rods in the boat in years.

[shadster]

Looks like I'll be going with the 7'. Unfortunately, the good fishdoctor does not have any 7 footers. He does have a pair of 9's though if anyone is interested.

[John E Powell]

For fishing solo kings from a small boat I recommend 7 foot spiral wrapped rods with the appropriate action and power to tow your gear and keep it out of your rigger lines in a bad cross current. Spiral wrapped rods are much more stable in your hand than conventionally wrapped rods especially when you only have one hand on the rod while netting a large fish.

 

A customer of mine who fishes solo a lot has his technique pretty well worked out. Just before netting the fish, he places the rod in a gunwale mounted rod holder (adjusted so the tip of his rod is just over his shoulder as he stands ready to net the fish). He then reaches down, grabs the line and hand lines the fish the last few feet into the net with no hand on the rod at all.
 

Accomplishing something like this is a lot easier with a shorter rod than the typical 9-10.5' diver rod.

Edited June 12, 2013 by John E Powell

[HallettB&T]

We use okuma blue diamond full rollers. 8'6" heavy action 2-3 rods each side and stager them 3'apart. works good for us and we get a good spread. I haven't read the other comments but this works awesome for us.

[GAMBLER]

I run 2 Okuma Blue Diamond 10' roller rods on the outside and 2 Okuma Blue Diamond 8' roller rods for my inside divers.  I would perfer 4 10' rods because you can run longer leaders without as much headache.  The combo of 8' and 10' together just makes things a little easier to manage when you are letting out divers. 

[Miss em]

Here is some solo, short rod, king action...

 

Edited June 12, 2013 by Miss em

[shadster]

Thanks for the video, Jeff. Certainly answers some questions, for sure.

[Lined-out]

We run 3 different dipsey rods with slide divers except on the wire rigs.   We run 10' ugly stick, 9' 6" heartland, and 10' Okuma.    If you don't mind the 10' length I recommend the ugly stick.   I can't tell you what it is but that rod takes 3 times more fish than are other setups.  We also experimented with the same exact lure sets.   I realize there are other factors but it's very strange.

 

If you fly solo often you may want to look at a shorter rod.   However, you can muscle the fish a lot with the ugly stick so you have more control.    We took a 36.5 lb king on it last year.