3-way equipment

I’ve been fishing a lot with 3-way rigs this fall, mostly with 3/4 – 1oz dropper jigs and floating jigs. This is done with 7ft medium casting gear.
I was wondering, when you guys get into 3-waying with heavier weights like 3 oz plus, can you still use medium casting gear or is it better to go to trolling outfits with line counter reels ect. Also, what’s the max speed for 3-ways and do you go with bowmount trolling or switch to kicker for that? Any help would be appreciated.

For a live-bait 3-way presentation, I typically keep my speeds well below 0.5 mph….normally just a slow upstream crawl or cross-current slip. Under those circumstances, a casting outfit or even a spinning outfit (to feed a bit of line, for hesitant biters) works just fine.

If you’re going to dial up the speed and/or use a heavier weight, then trolling gear works well. I use either 10’6″ rods (st croix wild river) or 7’6″ tournament series casting (heavy bouncer) rods coupled with line counter reels. You can certainly still hand-hold a crank/heavy weight presentation, but you’ll wear your forearms out pretty quickly.

For slow 3-way/bait presentations I’ve come to rely on my Terrova 101 coupled with MinnKota’s new i-Pilot. Check out this link for more information on that specific application:

i-Pilot for 3-way/bait presentations

For faster 3-way/crank presentations or to deal with heavy flow, I am nearly always on my kicker.

Thanks Jason. Nice read on the I-Pilot – I have a Maxum though so no Auto Pilot for me. Question: I noticed in the article you used 1 oz weights – why no jigs for the droppers?

When going with heavier weights much similar to any other style of fishing for effectiveness a person should generally go with a heavier rod.Example you wouldnt throw a surface Bass lure on an ultralight would you?If you did the rod would overload making for a poor percentage hookup. Fishing 3 oz weights on a med action rod especially in rocky areas will hang weights up & load rods up longer than you would usually like.When it does break free the lure can make a superman surge forward making the fish look at it like That lure has wayyyy more action & energy than I want to exert trying to catch it.Sometimes this works with the large surge forward but most generally I found its not the case.As far as needing a linecounter you can fish without them.For running multiple lines keeping seperation,being exact & for duplicating passes it is allmost a must,weather it be 1/2oz or 6ozs. Speeds can vary alot depending on water conditions,temps & time of year.Sometimes just hovering over a group of fish when you have them dialed in will put #s of fish in the boat in short order.When looking for active fish or possibly going downstream 2mph+ can put fish in the boat.I do like running downriver at times as it is a more natural approach to the fish looking for a meal to come by.When they do commit to your offering it generally is with authority. There is no bump,bump & drop tip back like you have going upstream at a snails pace. I run both kicker & bowmount in conjunction with each other for the ultimate in control especially in current.If the current is slow strictly bowmount with remote in hand! You can dial those bowmounts with a remote in to gain or loose .1 mph easily & hold you right on the spot if need be. Just my $.02 Best of luck fishing! WHITE TIP