I use Prokote exclusively. I mix mine using a stainless steel .5 teaspoon measuring spoon. Fill with part A level, scrape out as much as you possibly can with stir stick. Fill part B again level. The tiny amount of residual part A will guarantee you never get a larger part B mixture, and I have never had any issues with non curing finish. This method worked with Threadmaster prior to switchi
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Take a look at the MHX musky and surf casting series. I have used them for wire diver rods. Perfect action and power. The Batson RDR blanks work, but, they will take a very deep bend with a mag diver, which can make it tough to clear around a rigger, especially on a strike. Email me, I'll send you some photos of each blank pulling a mag diver with wire.
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My season started out normal enough. I had planned to pull the boat out of storage in March and take it to a local Boat Shop to have the bottom stripped to gelcoat, new barrier and bottom paints applied. Sounds easy enough. Well, I also instructed them to be aware that I hit a dead head late last summer, and to look for any signs of that impact. Shortly after beginning to remove the old bott
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Fuji Silicon Nitride guides have held up perfect on Great Lakes wireline diver rods in spiral wraps. Use a simple spiral, load the rod to make sure the wire can't touch the blank and you are good to go. Much lighter than rollers and makes for a much better handling rod as well. No reason that I have seen not to spiral a rod simply due to the wire line. You just have to make sure the line neve
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I have over 70 of these rods fishing the Great Lakes using SN guides, some for as long as 8 years on charter and tourney boats. I have yet to see a failure. Roller guides for wire rods are a thing of the past. I have designed a rod that a major manufacturer will be debuting very soon that will utilize SN guides for Great Lakes wireline applications.
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The only thing I would worry about is whether the bearing surface will be too thin and make the wire curl? The rings add a little radius. Wire curls like ribbon pulled across scissors if the angle towards the load becomes too sharp.
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Do a search for Torpedo Tip, it is produced by the Torpedo Wire company. It is designed just for wireline applications. It has a tiny guide right before the roller to keep the wire on the roller. It also has the extended arm with an SIC insert. The whole tip swivels about 45 degrees each way. I use these exclusively on all of my wire rods for Great Lakes Salmon. To answer your question, I d
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I bought a set to play with them for SS wireline diver rods. Ran into the same issue you found. SS wire rubbing on any blank is a no go.
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I emailed you some info, let me know if you need anything else, or if the files don't work.
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Do a search for "simple spiral". That is what I use. Other than the first three transition guides, the spacing is just like any other castin/trolling setup. Place guides to evenly distribute load and get a nice line path. I would be happy to give you a couple starting point recipes I use for 9 and 10 foot divers.
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Another benefit to the spiral wrap is that because you don't twist the tip section from the line force, your blank "should" have a longer life.
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Yes, spiral wraps the guides to the bottom of the blank. This technique removes reel torque (rod wanting to twist in your hands caused by the line trying to get towards the resistance or bottom of blank, pulling on one side or other of the guide train-simplified). Your spiral rod will fight much better without needing a death grip on the rod. I add an extra guide on every length rod, if I woul
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Steve, I have tons of wire diver rods fishing Lake Michigan using Fuji's Silicon Nitride rings. A few of these are tourney boats in their 5th season of hard use. For spiral setups, I use the Twilly due to lack of a suitable alternative. For guides on top builds, I go with the Torpedo Tip. I tend to space the guides slightly closer (one extra guide for a ten footer) for wire rods as insurance
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I put the dot on the blank edge not on the thread.
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I have done some rods with just using a gold dot (paint pen) on each piece of the blank. On the female, I just run the finish from the wrap over the dot, the male just dab a dot of finish over it.
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I build a bunch of downrigger rods. There is absolutely zero difference in which side you place the transition.
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John, I had a manufacturer tell me that their fiberglass blanks had a shelf life as downrigger rods. This was a discussion I had with them after one of my best customers was seeing blank failures in the fourth season of usage. He had a total of 8 downrigger rods in service, and each pair of two was built so that we could keep them straight. The first two to fail like clockwork was the first tw
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John, the email listed on this site is an old email that I no longer use. Please email me at eyefullsportfishing@gmail.com
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I would like to give a couple a try. Where are you located John? Jeff said they were also the best he has seen.
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My buddy at Traxstech said he seen that tip at the Niagra trade show? He is supposed to be getting me contact information?
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If the rod will use ss wire line, take a look at the Torpedo swivel roller tip. It is the best tip for wire that I am aware of. The Twilly tip is effective, but very crude and will at some point wear through and fail if the rod is fished enough.
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John, looks like we share a passion. On our tourney boats, we also run three divers (all wire) per side. This season we are also playing around with getting rid of the chute rigger during the high sun periods and deploying a "chute diver". I am playing with 6'6" and 7" blanks for this. The 6'6" is a total riot to fight fish on wire, but takes a skilled angler to not o
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I have a ton of these rods fishing Lake Michigan. The best blank I have found hands down is the SU1209F-2-MHX. For a nine footer, the SU1088F-2-MHX works great inside the 10', with an ever so slight softer action that keeps them seperated.
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One other consideration is whether the user will be using inline planer boards? If so, longer rods will get the line up higher, resulting in more sideways travel of the inline boards.
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Look at the MHX Downrigger series. They are glass blanks, so very durable which is good because trolling rods tend to get knocked around sometimes. DR845-MHX is a 7' 12-25# glass blank. DR1024-MHX is the 8'6" two piece 10-20#. These all have a very soft medium power. They load up nice and absorb wave action softly. Mudhole has free catalogs.
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Take a look at the MHX downrigger series. Nice soft actions, plenty of power, pulling bottom bouncers behind either big boards or inlines made easy. Easy on the pocketbook, and unbeatable warranty.
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Now we are talking. Liking what I see. Good call, this application should be very similar to the bunker spoon program.
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Bill LOL! Yeah, us Great Lakes Salmon guys love the metal, SS wire, Copper wire, etc.... The SS wire is used on wire diver presentations. It dives much deeper than mono or even braid due to its ability to cut through the water (smaller diameter equals less drag). So, you can get deeper with less line out. We run as many as 15 rods at a time, so everything has to work together or you get a hu
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Roller guides are old school for wire. The SN guides from Fuji are designed for wire and make for a much lighter and user friendly rod. I build tons of wire rods for standard outside of the spread use. Running one down the chute will present some new issues. Looking at some of the Saltwater live bait blanks. Thanks for the article suggestion. It was written by John King, I know him. He has
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With the waters of Lake Michigan getting clearer and clearer every year, the salmon are becomming very shy of traditional tactics. Downriggers almost become worthless after the sun gets above the horizon. Wire diver setups are normally the hottest rigs on the boat. I want to build a wire diver rod that will go right down the middle where the chute rigger would normally run in the spread. Thi
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