Well, I finally have some usable information on the subject of wire line rods for Great Lakes Salmon. There has been much discussion about whether or not different ring materials will handle stainless braided line without grooving. I feel 90% confident that with Zirconia or higher grade material, it won't be a problem. I have 6 spiral rods with over a years service on charter boats, most having SIC guide rings, no failures or even scuffs noticed-even with magnification. A roller tip has been almost a given as the line will curl something horrible without. Okuma has actually brought out a high end (if there is such a thing in retail stuff) series of salmon rods. They have one labled "wire line rod" that uses zirconia rings.

Ten foot rods are the normal setup for Great Lakes diver rods as they have to clear other rods in the spread. This has also been a challenge, getting a rod with enough spine to handle the heavy pull of a mag diver without being too stiff as to pull hooks from angry kings-braided stainless has less than zero stretch and is very unforgiving to the guy that wants to horse a fish. Blanks also can't be expensive because Charter captains usually run at or over 12 rods at a time and won't spend an arm and a leg on any single rod. I have been very happy with the Rainshadow RDR series of blanks for most of my downrigger, light diver, leadcore, and copper rods. The quality vs. value is unmatched in this series of blanks. The RDR100H has been my go to blank for leadcore and copper rods, buy just didn't have the backbone for wire diver application though. I had to fish with one of the charter captains to see for myself, it was a big disappointment for me, the rod just bent too far, losing far too much length of reach. On a bright note, the rods fight fish better than anything else out there, and as a leadcore or copper rod, it can't be beat.

The guys at Fishsticks and Batson have been a very big help. Recently Ray at Fishsticks sent me a blank to try after I sent him some photos of the RDR100H pulling a diver with a huge bend. This blank looks to have what it takes, too bad I don't know what it is or where it came from LOL. Service like that is hard to come by in this day and age, thanks guys at Fishsticks. Am hoping to have it built in time to fish a tourney out of Manistee on a thirty year charter captains boat this weekend.

As the Great Lakes waters clear up, the anglers are constantly finding new ways to fool the salmonoids. The rodbuilder that stays on top of it can do some good business. The retail rod companies are very slow to react to change and in most cases simply modify a current offering in the hopes that it will sell with value pricing and heavy marketing. As you would expect, most of the time it performs exactly like it was designed, mediocre at best. Being able to adapt and build rods that are application specific and that stomp retail rods performance is the difference in building a couple of rods a year and having a waiting list that grows every time I take a day off to go fishing myself.

Just thought I owed some guys an update on this topic. Sorry for it ending up being a novel. I have every notion that there will be a sequal at some point as things are ever changing on the Great Lakes.

Do you have the particulars ( model #'s) on these blanks ? After a couple years rodbuilding hiatus, I have been recently asked about these & planer rods.

For walleye, the RDR70 works very well. The RDR86MH is a very good all round blank, planer board, core, copper, and even works well in the riggers, however a little long for me for that application. The RDR100H is a thing of beauty for leadcore, copper, light divers, or any other application. They work very will with inline boards or even the bigger boards. Fighting a salmon with that blank is nothing short of a pleasure. You have total control of the fish and the rod is very forgiving for less experienced fishermen. Being able to hoist a Mag diver, 6-8 foot leader, teaser rig, terminal rig and an angry king to within netting distance is easily done with this blank. I dream of the day when they develop and offer a 7'0" RDR with a heavier spine and a line rating of 15-25# for the rigger rods. For that I am using the Batson SPG series with great success-they have a very slow parabolic action which works perfect for the rigger.

Good information, thanks for getting back with everybody.

.............

New to the line up for 2008 RDR96MH :) 9'6" 12-25

Karry Batson
Batson Enterprises Inc.
Ph: (877) 875-2381
Fax: (360) 683-3579
karry@batsonenterprises.com
www.batsonenterprises.com

How is that new blank spined compared to the 100H? I love the 100H for everything short of the Mag divers. I suspect that with the 12-25 rating, it will also be slightly light for the mag divers. I hate to use the term "light" as it implies that the rod can't handle the strain. That is not the case-even with the rod bent heavily from the diver, the rods all still have enough reserve to handle a big king rip. For a guy that runs a single diver rod each side and just needs to get around an out and down rigger, the RDR100H is fine. The problem I am working on is that most of the larger charter guys will run as many as 3 diver rods per side of their boat, each slightly longer and divers set in incremental higher turn ratios. If the rods bend too much, it throws off the stagger and a big fish rip can crash rods together before the rod can be taken out of holder, plus the loss of length due to the bend. The rods all have plenty of fight/spine for any of the salmon that swim Lake Michigan, just wanted to clear that up, this is just a case of a specific application that is becomming popular in my area. Any hope for the 7'0" rigger stick?

Did Bill recieve the photo I sent? I sent it from my laptop while in Ludington and wasn't sure if it went thru? Working with Fishsticks and Batson has been a pleasure, it is nice to see that this kind of personal customer service is still available.

I did manage to get the still a mystery blank built, and fished it in the Manistee club King Salmon tourney. While that particular rod didn't fight a fish, the mission was accomplished by confirming it was a perfect stiffness and bend for pulling Mag Dipsy divers on wire. I have no doubt that the blank will be equally fine at fighting fish as well. Thanks Ray. We did struggle at times with the wire getting fussy around the @#$%& roller tip, making it a big necessity to check the tip religiously before putting a rig in the water (even more so than you would normally). I considered wrapping a 6mm guide a half inch in front of the @#$%& to keep the wire from getting away. These rods are never cast and weight is not a big issue either, so will this help? That is why the "Twilly tips" are so popular on Great Lakes wire rods. They are basically a plastic sleeve holding a progressively larger diameter coiled spring that the line exits through. Very ugly, but very effective as a tip running wire. Now we need a roller guide company with a better way of controlling the wire on the incomming side of the roller. I'll put that on my Christmas wish list.

I like that idea of the guide in front of the tip. Keep us posted on that! You didn't mention but are any of the rods spiral wrapped? I would thing that would be a perfect application for a simple spiral??????

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Yes, all of my trolling rods are simple spiral. I used the @#$%& spiral roller tip. It works great while pulling in divers or fish, but we did have more than normal issues with the wire getting into mischief when line had no tension ( setting lines, rebaiting, etc..). The wire gets curley even with roller tips, and is so fine that it is very squirly without tension. You would really have these issues no matter what kine of tip you use, short of the UGLY Twilly, just seemed like more than normal. I am open to suggestions on any better methods of tipping a wire rod. I hate the Twilly tip with a passion, but can't argue it's simple effective design. I will update on the guide in front of the roller when done.