Help starting out

[mwinter66]

I've read as much as I could so far, but starting at ground zero with respect to trolling. What rod/reel suggestions would you have for someone getting into both salmon and walleye? I'd rather slowly buy quality gear versus quickly buy gear that I would want to upgrade later. Looking hard at the Shimano Tekota series. The 600LC seemed like it would be a little better for both species versus the 500LC series. Looking for down rigger, dipsy rods, and planer rods, and would like your recommendations as specific as possible. Been going through Cabelas a lot and have quite a few gift cards saved up. Thanks for any help.

[spoonfed-1]

You won't find much that will handle a 30 lb King and be good 6 lb Walleye.

You are on the right track as far as buying quality over quantity. It will save you headaches as well as money in the long run. You really should consider different gear for the two different species.

 

Tekotas are very nice reels and I personally own about 16 of them and they get used plenty. 600's are good for Kings and the 500's are good for Browns and Walleye.

Rod quality, weight and action is important as well.

Edited December 19, 2016 by spoonfed-1

[bandrus1]

And looking on here too buy used

[mwinter66]

You won't find much that will handle a 30 lb King and be good 6 lb Walleye.

You are on the right track as far as buying quality over quantity. It will save you headaches as well as money in the long run. You really should consider different gear for the two different species.

 

Tekotas are very nice reels and I personally own about 16 of them and they get used plenty. 600's are good for Kings and the 500's are good for Browns and Walleye.

Rod quality, weight and action is important as well.

So if I wanted to run 6 rod/reel combinations for walleye and for salmon, I would need 12 different setups? Is the any commonalities? Not even for rods?

[spoonfed-1]

So if I wanted to run 6 rod/reel combinations for walleye and for salmon, I would need 12 different setups? Is the any commonalities? Not even for rods?

 

Are there any commonalities between landing a 3-6 lb Walleye and a 20-30 lb King?

 

You can use your Salmon gear to fish for anything with a line change but you got to understand you will simply be winching the fish in with no consideration for a battle of any kind. Rods are the most important factor.

[mwinter66]

Okay, thanks. Sounds like Tekota 500s and 600s covers it, but that's a lot of reels if I wanted to run 6 rods both for salmon and walleye and quite the investment. I know rods are cheaper, so I guess I'll just start to slowly accumulate. If anyone has any specific rod recommendations, it would be appreciated.

[work2fish]

You could run the new segmented leadcore that has the braid already attached for boards between segments. I think they are 5,7 or total 12 colours. You'll need a bigger reel likely though. One reel vs 3. So you can deploy 5 colours then 2 more for a 7 colour. Then the other 5 for 12 colour total. 5-2-5 segments. I haven't used this but thinking of going that route. Saves me 2 rods and 2 reels in the boat.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[spoonfed-1]

Okay, thanks. Sounds like Tekota 500s and 600s covers it, but that's a lot of reels if I wanted to run 6 rods both for salmon and walleye and quite the investment. I know rods are cheaper, so I guess I'll just start to slowly accumulate. If anyone has any specific rod recommendations, it would be appreciated.

 

Personally I run Shimano Talora tla-86m-2 for Kings and Shakespear ugly sticks BWD 1101 8" 3" light action for Browns/ Walleye.

You will get a lot of different opinions here and thats good. Just keep in mind there is no one rod that will be good for both types of fishing. If you want to save some money on reels you could go with something like a Diawa sealine sg27lc's for the Walleye and Browns for about $100.00 a reel. They are good quality reels and would work fine for the smaller fish. They aren't Tekotas but I believe you would be happy with them.

[mr 580]

Rod and reel choices tend to be pretty personal choices. To me no problem using the same rigger and dipsey rods for salmon and walleye trolling. The only thing you might do is drop down in leader size for the eyes. I run more leadcore for eyes so I have different setups for eyes vs my board lines for salmon. I like larger capacity reels so I can handle a king or handle leadcore plus backing on the eyes. IMO the place to put the money is in the reel to get a good drag- today there are some decent rods priced pretty reasonable. Likely you'll find that 6 is just a start.

[Firechief48]

What these guys said about good reels is true with the salmon. All mine for riggers are original Penn 320 GTI's which are not made now. Diver reels are Cabelas which seem to hold up ok. Rods I think for the money you can't beat Shimano TDR's for riggers and Eagle Claw Diver Rods.

Edited December 19, 2016 by Firechief48

[mwinter66]

Great info, thank you. Is this a decent price for used Taloras?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Shimano-Talora-Trolling-Rod-TLA86M2-86-/152360634398?hash=item237966c81e:g:BusAAOSw8gVX6bva

[spoonfed-1]

Great info, thank you. Is this a decent price for used Taloras?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Shimano-Talora-Trolling-Rod-TLA86M2-86-/152360634398?hash=item237966c81e:g:BusAAOSw8gVX6bva

 

Yes if they are in good condition. I paid $69.00 new with shipping.

[Sk8man]

I guess a preliminary considerations would be to consider just how much money you wish or are able to wrap up in something that you haven't tried and decided that you like yet. It is always smart to get the best quality equipment you can get within your own personal budget. Many of the folks on here have gradually upgraded their trolling equipment usually after using it for some time and then deciding that they would like something either more heavy duty, higher capacity, or with a smoother drag in the case of reels and sometimes they end up selling even that new stuff on here after they decided that it either wasn't what it was cracked up to be or didn't live up to expectations or it wasn't superior to what they had in the first place., One critical determining question for a setup for fishing Lake Ontario should be "how much chinook fishing do you intend to do"? This is important in three basic ways: 1) you need a rod that is fairly sturdy especially at the base of it and flexible at the tip for most things, 2) you'll need a good drag hopefully in the 20 pound (carbon fiber desirable) range, and 3) you'll want a reel with high line capacity whether for mono such as on downriggers, braid or wire for dipseys, or especially for long (e.g. 400-600 ft) copper wire setups. For wire dipsey setups either a roller tip or a twilli tip is essential. With the roller tips make sure it has hardened SS side plates on the roller tip because the 30 lb SS wire can cut through the aluminum side plates on the cheaper ones. Dipsey rods need to be stiffer than the basic lighter weight  downrigger rods to support the torque from the larger dipseys especially. The Tekotas are great reels with smooth effective drags but they are pricey too as are the Telora rods but they are high quality. For the most part if you get any high capacity high quality Daiwa, or Shimano Tekotas or even mid sized Okumas (I have a couple of the less expensive Magda Pros for eyes and they work fine) you'll be able to leader down for walleyes and just set the drags lighter and you'll be ale to get away using them OK. Obviously lighter action rods with fairly soft tips give you more information regarding light hitting eyes so an option would be to  use the reels on just different lighter weight rods....not much to shift them over and avoid the expense of duplicate reels. The inexpensive 8- 8/12 ft Okuma GLT series seems to be pretty good all around for the price and I have yet to have one break or have it screw up but the same goes for the Ugly Stiks although I use the 7 footers for the riggers and the light to medium version  would be OK for the eyes. I still have about 12 or so Diawa 47H reels for rigers  that hold 300 yds of 30 lb Sea Flee line plus fluoro leader and so far I've never had a king  that I wasn't able to handle with them even in the past with 12 lb mono. They also are decent (maybe overkill) for the eyes when I use them that way. I know a lot of guys would feel that they are minimal for kings but I've caught some 30 plus kings and many 20 somethings on them and never had any problems with them. With dipseys I use light/medium 6 ft Shakespeare Tidewaters with roller tips that have been replaced with SS Allen rollers and they are great for running in close to the boat and have enough give in them so that I can see everything going on with the tip and front of the rod so they aren't stiff as say a fiberglass boat rod but are a breeze fighting big kings. I run Diawa 57 Sealine SG3B reels with 30 lb SS wire on them and they have done real well.

 

Before wrapping up your entire savings   maybe try some "middle of the road" equipment and later on you can always move up as needed. If you have plenty of money then go for the highest quality stuff you can afford. There have from time to time been some great bargains in lightly used equipment right here on LOU.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Sk8man

[bandrus1]

12 set ups is a lot?

I'm in trouble guys

[moonfish]

Go to fishusa.com and view the rods and types of rod for each model. Make sure u read the reviews and q&a. There are dipsy rods that can double as a planer rod as well. I'm not the most experienced but i think if you run #40 braid, out of fear for that 30 lb king, you can change your fluorocarbon leader out according to species of fish, walleye/salmon. But lose advantages of copper or lead. Again, I'm not an expert, but if I could buy just 6 rods and fish two different species, that's how I would do it.

Would require some tying the night before tho.

I've also heard of switching reels out on the rods that are spooled with different line too.

I don't know, we do what we can depending on money. Some have more than othder.

Edited December 20, 2016 by moonfish

[moonfish]

Okay, thanks. Sounds like Tekota 500s and 600s covers it, but that's a lot of reels if I wanted to run 6 rods both for salmon and walleye and quite the investment. I know rods are cheaper, so I guess I'll just start to slowly accumulate. If anyone has any specific rod recommendations, it would be appreciated.

If you like shimano the tdr rod series has 11 types great reviews and are $30. Okuma glt & eagle claw are same price range.

Edited December 20, 2016 by moonfish

[GAMBLER]

12 set ups is a lot?

I'm in trouble guys

Don't let my wife read this topic!

[TileMan Dan]

Lol. I'm well over thirty.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[mwinter66]

I guess a preliminary considerations would be to consider just how much money you wish or are able to wrap up in something that you haven't tried and decided that you like yet. It is always smart to get the best quality equipment you can get within your own personal budget. Many of the folks on here have gradually upgraded their trolling equipment usually after using it for some time and then deciding that they would like something either more heavy duty, higher capacity, or with a smoother drag in the case of reels and sometimes they end up selling even that new stuff on here after they decided that it either wasn't what it was cracked up to be or didn't live up to expectations or it wasn't superior to what they had in the first place., One critical determining question for a setup for fishing Lake Ontario should be "how much chinook fishing do you intend to do"? This is important in three basic ways: 1) you need a rod that is fairly sturdy especially at the base of it and flexible at the tip for most things, 2) you'll need a good drag hopefully in the 20 pound (carbon fiber desirable) range, and 3) you'll want a reel with high line capacity whether for mono such as on downriggers, braid or wire for dipseys, or especially for long (e.g. 400-600 ft) copper wire setups. For wire dipsey setups either a roller tip or a twilli tip is essential. With the roller tips make sure it has hardened SS side plates on the roller tip because the 30 lb SS wire can cut through the aluminum side plates on the cheaper ones. Dipsey rods need to be stiffer than the basic lighter weight  downrigger rods to support the torque from the larger dipseys especially. The Tekotas are great reels with smooth effective drags but they are pricey too as are the Telora rods but they are high quality. For the most part if you get any high capacity high quality Daiwa, or Shimano Tekotas or even mid sized Okumas (I have a couple of the less expensive Magda Pros for eyes and they work fine) you'll be able to leader down for walleyes and just set the drags lighter and you'll be ale to get away using them OK. Obviously lighter action rods with fairly soft tips give you more information regarding light hitting eyes so an option would be to  use the reels on just different lighter weight rods....not much to shift them over and avoid the expense of duplicate reels. The inexpensive 8- 8/12 ft Okuma GLT series seems to be pretty good all around for the price and I have yet to have one break or have it screw up but the same goes for the Ugly Stiks although I use the 7 footers for the riggers and the light to medium version  would be OK for the eyes. I still have about 12 or so Diawa 47H reels for rigers  that hold 300 yds of 30 lb Sea Flee line plus fluoro leader and so far I've never had a king  that I wasn't able to handle with them even in the past with 12 lb mono. They also are decent (maybe overkill) for the eyes when I use them that way. I know a lot of guys would feel that they are minimal for kings but I've caught some 30 plus kings and many 20 somethings on them and never had any problems with them. With dipseys I use light/medium 6 ft Shakespeare Tidewaters with roller tips that have been replaced with SS Allen rollers and they are great for running in close to the boat and have enough give in them so that I can see everything going on with the tip and front of the rod so they aren't stiff as say a fiberglass boat rod but are a breeze fighting big kings. I run Diawa 57 Sealine SG3B reels with 30 lb SS wire on them and they have done real well.

 

Before wrapping up your entire savings   maybe try some "middle of the road" equipment and later on you can always move up as needed. If you have plenty of money then go for the highest quality stuff you can afford. There have from time to time been some great bargains in lightly used equipment right here on LOU.

I have been fishing my entire life and have fished a lot, so I have a lot of experience, but none of it with respect to trolling. I've always wanted a boat and now I'm at a point in my life where I can afford it. I've been out with others, just never had my own. So, it's not like I'm trying something new to see if I like it, but trying something new because now I can afford to do so. I really appreciate everyone's help. Thank you.

[1 old guy]

Cheapest part of salmon fishing is the boat.  Welcome to our world.    22 reels and 9 rods.  Do  alot of switching reels when things change.

Edited December 22, 2016 by 1 old guy

[Silver Fox]

Ugly sticks 1101 9' light action. I use these for salmon and browns w/o an issue.

Lake Ontario salmon fishing charters

[Paul Czarnecki]

Are there any commonalities between landing a 3-6 lb Walleye and a 20-30 lb King?

You can use your Salmon gear to fish for anything with a line change but you got to understand you will simply be winching the fish in with no consideration for a battle of any kind. Rods are the most important factor.

Walleyes don't "battle" anyway. Change lines or reels and winch the walleyes in. Walleye fishing is harvesting not sport fishing anyway.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Silver Fox]

Walleyes don't "battle" anyway. Change lines or reels and winch the walleyes in. Walleye fishing is harvesting not sport fishing anyway.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

X2. Just yank them rags in.

Lake Ontario salmon fishing charters

[spoonfed-1]

Walleyes don't "battle" anyway. Change lines or reels and winch the walleyes in. Walleye fishing is harvesting not sport fishing anyway.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

 

This one did on the light gear. Kid had a blast.

[King Slammin]

They put up a nice fight through the ice.