Mono over braid pulling harnesses?

[CSH Kucinski]

Bluefin2 you bring up a couple great points and one totally slipped my mind. I do believe my drags were and are set properly, I have gotten in the habit of using the clicker with six rods in the water and it works great. BUT my real problem I now think after reading your thread is the action of my rods. I'm using 8' - 6" Taloras which I like but all six are MH. What make are you using? Thinking now how much easier it would be for me to pick up light bites on the planer board mast too when now I may be missing some due to the stiffness of the rod. Also would greatly reduce the issue I have with tripping of the releases on my downriggers when cranking the rods down. Just when you think you have the best all around set-up or you know it all, someone comes along that has even more experience.

[Bluefin2]

CSHK: had to respond here. Error when I tried to respond to your email off-board.

Taloras are great rods, but I personally think the MH is overkill. I use relatively cheap Okuma Blue Diamond trolling rods that are 8'6" ML action. I generally use inline boards unless with a certain friend, and even these light rods do awesome with the boards bouncing over 3-5 foot waves. In fact I use these same rods for rainbows up to 10lbs in the spring, still with inline boards and braid, and these great fighters still never seem to come off...though they don't have paper mouths either.

With the light rods, they are constantly bouncing and giving as the boards move; it actually takes some time to get used to having them move so much, but there's MUCH less stress on the line.

As far as drag, with inline boards out, I set my drag to the absolute lightest it will go without having line go out free spool with the clicker on. That way, the board sets the hook on the fish when it hits, but the fish has very little extra drag on the line apart from the board until it completes its initial run and fight, which is when I find that the walleye are most likely to be lost.

During the fight, it's awesome to see the rod tip move a full foot up/down just because an 8lber shakes its head. That tells me there is little stress on the line. Also, during the fight I keep drag as light as it can be while still bringing in the fish effectively, so that a head shake or last ditched run can cause line to come out as needed, rather than cause a hook to pop.

Hope that helps...can't wait for open water!

S

[rps]

10# Power Pro Depthunter on 7'6" medium power moderate action rods. Soft enough not to tear out lures but strong enough for any size fish. Use the same rods to rig, BB, and flatline troll. I do not use boards so what works in a clip is a non issue.

[AllenW]

Kinda like which boat do you prefer I think.

Been a long time mono fan and I still use it for just about all my fishing.

I tried braid on just about everything and except my musky rods and jigging heavier weight jigs in very deep water I'm back to mono.

I'll use a power pro 12-14#? for the jigging (trout and such in Superior) and 60# for musky's.

Fishing the line that works best for your style of fishing might be the key here, I don't believe one line can do it all.

Al