Downrigger rods?

Can you use downrigger rods for both planer boards and or dispy diver set ups??

Trying to get into great lakes fishing with out selling my first born…if I had one..
tia

al

I do use same rods for down rigger and planer boards they are a litle light for divers I think. But will work.

Thanks.

Al

I use planer board rods for downrigging, but they are nowhere near heavy enough for dipsy’s from what I’ve seen on the great lakes charters. Those divers create some serious stress on rods. The planer rods I use on my riggers are 8 1/2 ft Cabelas Depthmasters and I have great luck using them with riggers, boards, and flatlining for walleye. The reels are spooled with 10/4 fireline. Good luck gearing up for big water trolling – your gonna need to spend some dough to get ready!!!

The downrigger rods are a little light in my opinion and for dipsey rods I would look at a 10 footer. With the line mentioned above on the reel

Thanks all, we used the 10 foot Shimano downrigger rods (not sure which ones) and they seemed to handle the dipsy’s ok, they were fairly small though.

Larry also emailed me and said not to buy anything, he has a garage full of fishing gear that he’ll look though and find stuff for me, also has a pair of electric downriggers that needs a bit of electrical work (new power cords) and he says he’ll sell me cheap.

Ya, been looking though the catalogs, easy to spend money on this kind of fishing if ya want..:)

I was a little hesitant about using my 185 Tourny Sport but if I watch the weather it should work ok, seen quite a few boats out that size already.

Al