Great Lakes trolling anyone?

[Steelheader323]

Been fishing the piers and rivers since I was a kid 20 years ago, from summer skamania to fall kings and spring coho and browns..i recently purchased a 1650 crestliner sport fish with a 50hp Mercury on it..I want to get it setup for trolling..so far I have my down riggers..just manuals but they were handed down to me and I’m sure they will work fine..I’ve got 6 Berkeley buccaneer rods..I keep seeing a lot of guys have separate rods for down riggers and dipseys and boards..can anyone explain as to why?

 

[MrTom]

Dipsys "load" different than riggers do and the rods used for dipsy are generally "softer" in the tips. Dipsy rods can take a real beating in my opinion and we use fiberglass rods for them. Planer rods are best in several lengths if you are stacking the boards with two or more lines. The rod lengths help prevent lines from tangling. My advice is to hop on board with someone who fishes each of the techniques so you can see first hand what the differences are in the rods for dipsys and riggers and seeing first hand how the rod lengths are used on the boards will go a long way in the learning curve.