# Wireline Rods



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

This condescending post is in response to Ton_Def's interest in Wireline fishing rods in another thread.

Here's 2 rods I made. One's a "user" and the other is one I showed off at outdoor shows years back. They doubled as saltwater rigs so they had roller guides on them:









Large-capacity reels:









Wooden handles were cheap and offered a good grip. It was best to hold the rod in your hand while wirelining, not in a rod holder, while you aimlessly drug a huge Flatfish or popgear across the bottom of the lake....for hours and hours:









The rollers on this one are hardened; note the "H":









1 wrap of nylon "A" under the guide feet, then a wrap of nylon "C" over, followed by yet another wrap of "D" over the guide feet each pass followed by 2 coats of thread preserver, and finally 2 coats of epoxy rod finish:









Of course I gotta throw in the butt wrap for those that haven't seen it yet:


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

A wireline rod for freshwater fishing-only should double as a rod for braided, co-poly or mono line. It just takes extra-hard guides like silicon carbide, carbaloy or other abrasion resistant materials. Note that braided lines can carry alot of abrasive dirt that can groove a regular guide as fast as wire. The old carbide guides have been around forever and are still used today. None of the high abrasion-resistant guides are cheap.

As more and more fisherman went to downriggers fewer fisherman used wireline or longlines, especially in a busy lake like the Gorge. I gave up; too many downrigger guys cut across my stern and caught my wireline. They usually lost their rigs and then chewed my butt out.


----------



## Ton_Def (Dec 23, 2008)

Oooooh... :shock: aaaahhh...  Me Likey! I still am fascinated with your wrap of The Gorge. (seen it on a thread awhile back) It's clever! :O||: 

I'm always interested in purchasing one of your "Mona Lisa's".. still have your number, just tell me when to come pick it up.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Ton_Def said:


> Oooooh... :shock: aaaahhh...  Me Likey! I still am fascinated with your wrap of The Gorge. (seen it on a thread awhile back) It's clever! :O||:
> 
> I'm always interested in purchasing one of your "Mona Lisa's".. still have your number, just tell me when to come pick it up.


Nov 1, 2018, around 5:00 pm.


----------



## Ton_Def (Dec 23, 2008)

wyogoob said:


> Nov 1, 2018, around 5:00 pm.


Perfect! My kids will be out of the house then and I will have PLENTY of time to fish with it!


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Typically, when fishing wireline at the Gorge you hold onto the rod while the lure runs close or on the bottom. That way when the lure hangs you can jerk it free. After an hour of that, yo uare give out. It takes a lot of physical work just keeping the trolling reel pointed up. 

That being said, a spiral-wrapped rod, with each successive guide rolling downward until the tip is facing straight down, will keep the rod loaded lessening the amount of energy, if any, it takes to keep the reel pointed up.

I have a matching set of spiral-wrapped trolling rods with silicon carbide boat guides that I can use for wire. I just can't find enough real estate on the Gorge to use them, and in my opinion, overall, downriggers are a much better way to fish.


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

I was thinking about making myself some wireline rods while I was out on the water. Tuesday and Wednesday seem like great days to try it. You practically have the place to yourself on those days.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dodger said:


> I was thinking about making myself some wireline rods while I was out on the water. Tuesday and Wednesday seem like great days to try it. You practically have the place to yourself on those days.


Yeah, and you could use them on the Utah side of Flaming Gorge on Mondays and Fridays too. No one fishes the Utah side.


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> Dodger said:
> 
> 
> > I was thinking about making myself some wireline rods while I was out on the water. Tuesday and Wednesday seem like great days to try it. You practically have the place to yourself on those days.
> ...


 :lol:

I actually spent way more time fishing the Utah side than the Wyoming side this last trip. In 8 days of fishing for 10 hours per day, or so, I only filled up the gas tank once! That's pretty unheard of for me.

It felt good to go up to Wyoming at the end though, just to get some pullage from the fish that don't exist there. :O•-:


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

P.S., you have a recipe for a blank/guide layout you like on a wireline rod?

I've been oogling some penn 49s on the auction site.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dodger said:


> wyogoob said:
> 
> 
> > Dodger said:
> ...


Carp, no doubt.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dodger said:


> P.S., you have a recipe for a blank/guide layout you like on a wireline rod?
> Yes, but as you know guide placement is different for every blank/handle/reel configuration.
> 
> I've been oogling some penn 49s on the auction site. The 49 is a great reel, very large capacity. But it is heavy, a hard one to hold and keep twisted upright for long periods of time wirelining a busy lake like the Gorge. It's a great salt water reel too.


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> Carp, no doubt.


Real ugly ones with tiny little scales and hooked noses. A lot of them were pink and stuff too! :shock:



wyogoob said:


> Dodger said:
> 
> 
> > P.S., you have a recipe for a blank/guide layout you like on a wireline rod?
> ...


Sure. I've seen that Amtak has some wireline blanks that are just solid E-Glass. Batson has some as well. It just doesn't seem like there are a ton of choices for blanks and a lot of them are designed for salt water stuff. I'm just wondering if you have a blank you like that has worked well for you.

It is always hard to build a rod for a type of fishing that you've never done. You don't know exactly what you want out of it until its done and it either does or does not do what you want. So I was just wondering if you had a recipe that might start me on the right track.

Is there a reel other than the 49 that you like? I've got a bunch of old penns - my favorite is an old monofil 25 that is gray. It was produced for one year in 1955 and it didn't sell well. So they are rare to get a hold of today. I've also got an old 1934 penn sea-hawk that is marked "pat pend" on the side, even though the patent was issued in 1933. It was the middle of the depression and Penn couldn't afford to throw out all the old side plates after their patent was granted. I've got a bunch of others but those are the coolest. Don't even get me started on the 720s, 710s, 704s, and 706s. :O||:

I imagine a big enough senator would work (my buddy in VA bought a 16/0 that was just ridiculously large). I've seen on the internet some like the 113 but that's probably a little small, as I understand it. I ran into some guys that were up there wirelining and talked to them about how to do it. They said to run 400 feet of line behind the boat (the reel loaded with about 900 feet of line) and troll really slow. They were using custom rods that were well constructed by a guy in Riverton, I think. They also used the carbaloy guides instead of rollers.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Yeah, I wouldn't put rollers on unless you were going to use the rod in salt water. 

The solid glass blanks are fine. Nothing wrong with Ugly Stik blanks for wireline also. Shakespeare has a great saltwater line, very durable rods at a good price. If you can't find the blanks, just buy one built up and strip it. Not much difference in price between that and a blank. I like Seeker blanks for my boat rods and salt water stuff.

The bigger Senator reels would be fine. I found the Penn 505 HS good for wireline, but not 900 feet though, more like 600 foot, with 400 foot behind the boat. It's also a great jigging rod for offshore Gulf of Mexico and halibut in the Pacific.

The carbaloy guides are OK, but they are not cheap. When wireline was trendy I put many a carbaloy tip-top and a few choice guides on trolling rods. If the stripper guide is in the right place in relationship to where the wire comes off the top of the spool you really only need a carbaloy stripper and tip-top. I like silicon carbide for my personal stuff. And a spiral wrap is the only way to go. No constantly fighting the reel trying to flip over.


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Do you have any pictures of these:

"I have a matching set of spiral-wrapped trolling rods with silicon carbide boat guides that I can use for wire. I just can't find enough real estate on the Gorge to use them, and in my opinion, overall, downriggers are a much better way to fish."

What size wire do you use? Can you really get 600 feet of it on the Penn 505hs?

I've looked at the Seeker BT 20, 30 and 50 at the rod building show. They were pretty stiff as I recall. But, I do like Seeker blanks. Maybe the 30 or the 50 would work?

I've never spiral wrapped a rod for real (a couple for practice just to see how it works) but I think that would probably be a good idea. The guys I saw had two rod holders out the sides of the boat and just put their rods in those. 

Nobody knows anything about this kind of fishing at any of the stores. I think downriggers are probably more fun, but I'd like the whole Gorge experience so I'd like to try wireline too.

Can you spiral wrap roller guides? That doesn't seem like it would work.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Seeker has a large line of blanks.

I have no idea what size of wire line I have. 80lb, I think. I haven't used it for a long time. 

I don't think wrapping roller guides would work.

I never cared for keeping wireline rods in rod holders on the Gorge, too many snags, lost lures, lost fishing time.

I have 2 spiral wrap rods here at home. I have posted pics of them before on UWN but the spiral wrap pics didn't come out very well.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Here, one is rolled for starboard and the other is rolled for the port side of the boat. Sorry about the bad pics:









Also see topic:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8783&p=100891#p100891


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Geeze Dodger, yer off for 2 weeks, drive thru Evingston 4 times, hit the liquor stores, Maverick, McDonalds, Wal Mart and the XXX novelty store twice, but can't stop at ole Goob's place.


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> Geeze Dodger, yer off for 2 weeks, drive thru Evingston 4 times, hit the liquor stores, Maverick, McDonalds, Wal Mart and the XXX novelty store twice, but can't stop at ole Goob's place.


Don't forget the fireworks!

And, whaddya expect? Y'all don't even have any fish in Wyoming!


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> Seeker has a large line of blanks.
> 
> I have no idea what size of wire line I have. 80lb, I think. I haven't used it for a long time.
> 
> ...


I'd love to stop by and see some of your rods next time I'm headed to the Gorge. I'll be headed up at least a few more times this fall. If you wanted to explain how the whole wireline thing works while I'm there, I wouldn't mind that either. :mrgreen: It's kind of a lost art.

I like those rods you made too. They are pretty sweet. I could show you some of mine, but I'm no pro. I even forget color preserver sometimes. 

In the meantime, I'll look around for some seeker blanks and do some homework to get the parts.


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

What do you think of this setup Goob? It looks a little light to me though it seems like a quality setup. I think it would be better suited for Cape Cod stripers than Flaming Gorge macs though.

Edit: Now with link

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad ... =3&search=


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

I've been doing some looking around Goob and I think I've settled on a Seeker CLB 708 blank. It's 20-30# and 7'. They have an 8' that is rated for the same stats, just a foot longer.

I'd like your thoughts before I pull the trigger on the blanks. What do you think?


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dodger said:


> I've been doing some looking around Goob and I think I've settled on a Seeker CLB 708 blank. It's 20-30# and 7'. They have an 8' that is rated for the same stats, just a foot longer.
> 
> I'd like your thoughts before I pull the trigger on the blanks. What do you think?


I've always like the Seekers for freshwater, and saltwater, boating. I made 7'-0" heavy-duty downrigger rods for fishing outfitters out of Manila years back. That number 708 sounds familiar.

I'm on the road. I will look in the records when I get home Sunday night.


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Thanks Goob. 'preciate it.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Dodger said:


> What do you think of this setup Goob? It looks a little light to me though it seems like a quality setup. I think it would be better suited for Cape Cod stripers than Flaming Gorge macs though.
> 
> Edit: Now with link
> 
> http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad ... =3&search=


The ad is gone, I'm too late.

sorry 'bout that


----------



## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

No problem.


----------

