I'm about to embark on a trolling rod, one dedicated for bunker spoons, and, to steal a phrase from Raymond Chandler, what I don't know about trolling rods you can almost crowd into Yankee Stadium.

I have my blank, my reel, and an idea of the components I'm going to use, but I have a question about line. Most of the old-timer bunker spoon sharpies recommend wire line, because it gets the spoons deep, which is where you want them to be. This makes sense, but wire is expensive and a hassle to use. I've read a bit about using braid instead of wire, and I'm wondering if braid is a suitable alternative. While it makes sense that wire line sinks -- metal is heavier than water, after all -- I'm imagining that a bunker spoon weighing a pound and a half attached to very thin braid would get just about as deep as a spoon trolled behind wire. Does this make sense?

Does anyone have any opinions about wire line versus braid, for trolling generally, and for bunker spooning in particular?

Chris,
A pretty good article on Bunker Spoon fishing.
Take it for what it is worth.

[www.striperspoons.com]

Roger

Chris, Just out of curiosity, what blank are you using?
Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Dennis Danku Wrote:
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> Chris, Just out of curiosity, what blank are you
> using?
>
> Dennis J. Danku
>
> (Sayreville,NJ)

At the suggestion of someone here, Dennis, I used a Lami BT96-3M-H. It's an 8-foot, one-piece, glass blank listed in the Lami catalog as a boat/trolling model.

I've never handled one, but this blank evidently has characteristics that are desirable in a bunker spoon blank: soft action and toughness (both a natural for a glass blank), and the length, and a soft enough tip, to be able to pump with the motion of the spoon and make the thing dance in the water. The two Lami blanks that bunker spooning pros use are the BT96-3M-H and the BT108-3M-B, which are supposedly very similar, except one is 8 feet and the other 9. The nine footer evidently imparts better action on the spoon, but I went with the shorter version because A) 9 feet is a lot of leverage to give away to a fish big enough to take a spoon, and B) the shipping hassles of a 9-foot blank were something I didn't want to deal with. I'm hoping that by studious attention to the building process, I get get the spoon to dance even with an 8-foot blank.

These kinds of topics in rod-building topics, esoteric methods that not many guys use (I call them the lunatic fringes of fishing) interest me greatly. There's a small number of guys who really murder stripers with bunker spoons; many are charter boat captains, and understandably are very tight-lipped about their methods. From time to time you'll see something from one of them on the topic -- there was a recent article in the NY/NJ edition of Fisherman Magazine -- where they give you the basics of the endeavor, without disclosing the real secrets that put fish on the deck. I read these things with interest, but when it comes to tackle, especially rods, I view much of what they say with great skepticism: they may have a general idea of what works (like how a long fiberglass rod works better for bunker spoons than a short graphite rod), but anyone who's subscribed to Rodmaker for a year or two, in my experiences anyway, knows way more about the nuts and bolts of rod components, of what works and what doesn't, than almost all the sharpies do. So with this project I'm going to try to mold the published information on bunker spoons with my meager knowledge of the rodbuilding process -- we'll see how it turns out.

It's going to be a fun project; I like doing stuff that is totally new to me (one might say that I like getting myself into stuff I know nothing about). If I remember, I'll post the results here. Cheers.

Great lakes salmon anglers use lots of wire and braid to gain depth, usually with the aid of divers. Wire will dive deeper than braid per similiar line strength due to the diameter of the wire vs. braid and as you stated the weight being heavier than water. Wire also creates the same electric hum as the downriggers when trolled thru the water, which many believe is picked up by lateral lines on predatory fish. Myself, I don't run any wire line. I find for myself, the braids gain sufficient depth, and the obvious hassles of wire don't pay off for me personally. I did fish with one of my best charter customers today on Lake Michigan, and three of our 7 rips came off a wire dipsy. The rest off riggers.

Chris, The reason I asked what blank you chose was, back in 2000 I began building bunkerspoon rods using AMTEK model #ESW761H which is a 71/2' E-Glass blank that is now out of production and , for the price ,cant find a replacement. I've been using Seeker surf blanks cut down to 9' and they work great but the price is a killer.
Guides I use are Pac - Bay BBSG's ,(thier a heavy framed Sic ringed guide that can handle wire without any problem) with a good roller top.
A Stewert TUFF BUTT is my choice that finish's it off to a lenght of 9 feet.
I read that artical in The Fisherman, very in depth and right to the point. I liked it. Every Spring and Fall they run a feature on bunkerspoons. A combo of how to build and fish them.
Last fall in Raritan Bay(S.Amboy/Perth Amboy) we were getting Bluefish up to 15lbs.on the spoons.And then within resetting the spoons we were into Stripers.
Chris, Thank you for your reply, I hope you have fun building those rods,and let us know the outcome. Thank You, Dennis J. Danku(Sayreville,NJ)

The best tip top for wire is hands down the "Twilly" tip. It is horrible looking and a stupidly simple in design, basically a door stopper. But for controlling wire, virtually eliminating line twist, and simplicity, I haven't seen a better tip. I have tried all the roller tips, even the Aftco swivel tip with the SIC exit ring. That Aftco is in my opinion the best roller tip, but still doesn't work as reliably as the "twilly". At a cost of $5.95, if you can get past the ugly appearance, it works like nothing else. The fuji silicon nitride turbo boat rod tips have worked on a couple of wire rods for a charter captain, but he does see more line twist at the end of the season with the standard guide vs. the twilly. The roller tips all work well to tame twist, but they all have issues with slack lines, like when you are setting lines or netting fish. One kink in the stainless and it is done for.

Wire line rods are the toughest rods to get perfect for me on the Great Lakes. Finding a blank with enough backbone to pull magnum divers with enough reserve to take a 20# king bite, and at the same time be forgiving enough to fight fish without pulling hooks is a tough job. For 10' wire rods I have used a variety of American Tackle and Lamiglass surf blanks, and for 8'6" wire rods, the Batson RDR86MH works very well. The longer the rod, the tougher it is to find the correct balance of stiffness (for reach) vs. fightability.

Many times a salmon fishermen will request rods to be multi purpose rods. For example a good downrigger rod can double and work equally well as a leadcore rod, and in a pinch work for a high diver. But wire rods should always be dedicated to just wire, or you will sacrifice too much in one area or another and end up with a rod that doesn't work well.