Thread: What reel are you using on trolling rod ?

I been using spinning reels and was wondering if anyone had used bait casters. I have heard of a few people doing this and was thinking about giving it a try


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Okuma Magda 15's & Shakespeare ATS 20's are on my long rods for Pushing jigs/cranks. I started with baitcast reels and they worked "Okay" ... it was just a pain to have to pull out line by hand to get the baits back to the distance needed. Line Counter reels take that out of the picture ... all you do with them is put the bait in the water and let the line freespool until you get it to the number on the counter that you want.
10# mono diameter is the "calibration" diameter for Line Counter reels. Two of my reels have 30/10 braid, while the other three have 10-20# mono ... all leaders are (3ft) 6# mono for jigs & (5ft) 8# mono for cranks. 1oz trolling weights are used for jigs - 2oz trolling weights are used for cranks. Jig Pushing speed is 1mph avg - Crank Pushing speed is 1.5 to 1.8mph avg.

I used the trolling chart arithmetic to determine depth of baits : every 5ft below surface = 3ft of bait depth (or multiply length of line out below surface by 0.6) with your lines running close to a 45deg angle.

That's just how I was taught, so I did it that way. For as long as I've used this equipment & depth factoring, it's worked just fine. I've gotten away from Pushing ever since I got Livescope ... but, IF/WHEN Pushing is the thing to be doing, Livescope will just be a greater help in keeping me out of the brushpile forests.