Seawolf XI

There is definatly shorter dipsy rods out there....9ft for sure and penn made some rollor wire diver rods that were even shorter...id look for some diawa heartlands....cheap and durable for the amount you fish, and i know they make a 9'3" ive had mine 5 years now and i go almost 100 times a year....the ugly stick diver rods are quite heavy and ive had the grips come apart on 2 sets....the only rods that arent ugly sticks on my boat are my divers....and i hate to tell you this...but i think okumas suc for divers....they constantly creep drag back nomatter wat you do....and u end up cranking the drag to tight and lose fish and gear because of it....id go diawa sealines the 100$ model with gold trim, saltists...if you have the cash, or penn makes new line counters reels that have a proven drag in them....i dont have a huge boat either but i like long rods 11ft and 10'3" are wat i run but i have long outdown arms also 6' gotta cover that water....the diawa's break down and store easily

send that old braid my way ill use it for another 10 years.... Lol

till it breaks...lol Well personally ive left backings on reels for up to 10 years....i use dacron or powerpro for the first 100 yards on all my reels...i like dacron especially on reels with mostly mono....this backing usally never sees the light of day so for the most part it stays strong and fresh...i just strip off 100 or so yards every year or 3 after the reel gets on the low side and splice in new line...its frugile and effective...as for cores and copper let the wear determine how often you change them i have some cores that are 5 years + and seem fine to me usally the core will start popping through in spots if u see this definatly change it and i usually put a small length of 40 or 50 lb mono in between my powerpro and cores or copper to connect the board onto....my first copper rod never broke a fish off for almost 5 years till someone cut it off i think it would be fine still...same concept if you see a fray or excessive wear change it....if i had unlimited money and unlimited time maybe id change every year....but every 2-3 yrs would be fine in my mind....ofc it depends on how much you fish and mostly on how much sun...ie uv light degradation your lines are exposed to .....this is really the deterining factor in my my opinion.....now i spooled my diverrods 14 years ago with 1200+yds of spiderwire and just this last year i put another 600 yards of power pro on both both reels still using that old spiderwire as the backing.....did i break off fish on these rods over the years....yah a few and i mean a few but this was more because i didnt cut it back through the wear of use.....was the line bad....i really don't think so it worked fine out 200-400ft all of last year....the manufactures pushed that it would last 10 years + when it first came out.....and i really do think this is the case.....again i'll push the cut it back and spool up a new 200-300 yards....this is about all the line that will ever see use on a reel....who cares much whats underneth ..... i like a full reel it works better and it is faster on the retrieve.

Uhmmmm.....this isn't rocketsurgery.....last year the water column was quite warm even 10 colors and 200-250' coppers weren't taking hits cause the fish were 90+feet down the majority of the year.....running a 75' copper 20-30 feet down in 80`+ water puts you 70 feet and 30 degrees out of the thermocline on most days last year....really doesnt make much sence to even run it...I bought 3 new rigs to take 400+ last years so i could get 5 in the fish catching zone most of the time.....if the conditions are right the shorter stuff will catch fish....it just didn't happen untill oct nov. last year.....

3 to 10 feet depending on your rig and rigger spread....4-6 is pretty standard but i like em on the long side of this....but its mostly because of the configuration of my riggers....my out downs are ahead of my back riggers and short ones get into the cables sometimes

UHM a clicker pawl usally costs less then 3 bucks and takes 2 mins to replace....and what makes em wear out worse then ne thing is turning them on and off when there under a load....and a little dot of grease would work alot better then torquing on the clicker switch in the heat of battle....but hey i just fix reels....what would i know:no:

Man i never understood that horses**t about lengths of 50+ ft it just doesnt make ne sence on lead core....i usally put on about 20 feet and replace it when it gets down to a rod length or less.....My best core last year was a 20 color that i run out 3-4 when i harbor fish....i only put a 5 ft leader on this rod cause i thought it would save me from cut offs well it worked out deep to......and you can fill the reels fuller with core or copper if you dont have 50-150 ft of mono on there.....wtf does 10+ lvl winds do except put more drag on a rod thats already out 100 yards..... except lose depth and increase the likely hood of geting it cut off by 150 ft when your in a pack of boats.

NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo

Big white paddle or beckhold with krw amys baby or daybreak

Well theres a couple few that always catch fish for me. Silver dipsey with a orange lazer red ladder proking 25-40 feet out set on 3 1/2 this rod will take strikes in 30-70+degree water it will suprize you....and my go to lures on the boards over the years....silver with a orange crush diagonal tape stinger, silver with a strip of orange lazer on one side stinger.....I know it sounds simple and lame....but they work...and its a good option for the lures that have lost there paint.....i'd put my steelhead catching abilities up against ne one and these have been my main gotos for 20 years +

I want those how did you make the grove in those pins. Yah the original brass pins where much better.

Personally i prefer J-plugs and i tend to run alot of 3s. They seem to hook better to me but the trick there is to tie them direct or use a mcmahon snap so they can slide up the line. The ones i use are usally pretty doctored up mostly with permanent markers. But i fish with a guy and all he uses in hordes and i do have alot that do well. I second the fact that they are made in america and he is a hell of a nice guy too. But they have a tendancy to break alot and dont hold there finish as well... ive never cracked a j plug unless you count the one that got caught in the belt of the engine. I have a pile of about 10-15 ace hi's that are busted and hold water basically junk and at 10$ a pop its and expensive pile of junk too. While the J-plugs that have been riding around with me since the 70s look good and still catch fish if i have the guts to put them out cause i dont want to lose them. J-plugs dont have the color selection they once did and the new patterns are quite gaudy to me fisherman catchers not fish catchers. Hordes have about ne thing you'd ever want. When the hordes showed back up again in shops...yah we had em in the 80s when J's were god. I really made an effort to fish the same pattern side by side and the J's seemed to win in my mind at least hit for hit. I mentioned this above but it seems the hoards do better in open water and the J's better in shallow... maybe its just a brain fart of mine? This year the old pearl j was hot later in the season, but in deep water a blue lightning horde was hard to beat. Like always let the fish tell u wats best. I think alot of people gravitate to the horde (especially charter boats) because the hooks are attached. Just to lazy to deal with a 2 part system i quess. Theres one more added bonas to using a J-plug for us frugal folks. If you tie it direct or use the swivel i specified and a fish breaks you off...............hey you can just turn around and go pick it up, though this is more difficult then it use to be runnin 2 300 coppers 2 450 coppers and a 600 down the shoot. But I have to say out of my two 5gallon buckets full of J-plugs pretty close to half have been found floating or on the beach and have been recycled on the Seawolf.

I always loved spoon. Ive fished the river alot and like crocodiles, and loco spoons, but on the bay do jiggers are the way to go. But in the last few years theyve seemed to let me down a little. Last year i never changed lures after the first week and limited almost every time on a small firetiger jiggin rapala and some weird multi colored nils master jigggin lure. But friends sittin right next to me caught fish but not as many on a parrot jig head. Every year it seems they want something just a little different.

do you have the #1 perma steels vmcs still i want a butch!!!!

Uhmmm it never stops.............lol

Js tend to be a second week of july till end of sept. lure. You can run them on ne thing but for some reason i dont use them much on divers. In my normal Aug. spread i run them on leadcores and copper alot. If you have a 3-4 rigger program i tend to run them on the out downs with longer leads with the flashers on the inside downriggers deeper. 300 and 400 coppers last year were hot with plain white, all glow, or blue glow Js and hordes in deep water. In harbor like fishing situations pearl, green glow, or red chrome heads are the ticket but ive had years where just plain old silver bullets are best. With the GGs and pearls best in morning, and the red head usally shines as best in mid day sunny conditions, but you have to let the fish tell u wat they want on a given day. In august and sept. its hard to beat a pearl j most years period. Last year pearl was my best in manistee harbor.

Take it from someone who has about 10,000 flys and squids laying around its not really worth it. For some reason it seems fly colors doesnt matter much....But i will add that in a particular year you usally find a hot pattern or one color that the fish want. Green, aqua, glo, black, or blue, or clear mirage or uv and somekind of white and combos of those should cover about ne thing that the fish will want.

Spray cans work great. Theres a paint called metal-cast that will get u about ne type of dolphin, kevorkean, ect., see through effect u want. Rustolium makes nice floresent colors. You also need a good clear coat of some type ace hardware clear seems to work best to me but there might be something better lemme know. Make sure the spoons are clean and wipe them down with thinner or lauquer thinner before u paint them. If needed use a sheild or some tape, but if your carful you can easlily do one side one color and the other another with silver in the middle, or like green orange tips, or 3 color graduates. Clear coat your paint job with like 2-5 coats of clear. If u need dots or a pattern make a stencil from a deli type lid, if you wanna be fancy you can even form it to the spoon with some heat. Then just spray through it and u have your pattern Tape and enjoy your brand new spoon.... If you wanna make moonshine type lures theres some nice powder paints out there and with a little trial and error they come out pretty nice. I have an airbrush but its not worth the setup and clean up time. I can match just about ne spoon made and i dare ne company to make a blue dolphin or steelie stomper as pretty as mine..lol. I have close to 100 lbs of spoons from over the years and they still are my #1 producer overall through the year. If somethings hot i just pull out some spoons that just dont do it for me ne more strip them by soaking in some thinner for a while, and paint it up And i have some stuff thats won touneys for me and noone else has now theres satisfaction at its best...and its kinda fun in the wintertime when you wish you were out on the lake insteed.

Rubberbands will increase you hookups on rigger hits by far use 31s make sure you cintch down the knot good and at $1.45 a box there cheap and u dont even need band busters just attach a large snap swivel or a length or think aluminium bailing wire to the end of your ball its worked for me for 30 years + and ive used them all and have still to find a better method although offshore reds work nice they seem to be tough on the line.

KRWS all the way baby!!!!