Eagle Claw Starfire X trolling combo’s. Any good ( enough )?

[matt167]

Anyone have any experience with them? 8’6 medium heavy with a line counter reel is $90 at Dicks sporting goods. Walmart has a similar rod and reel for same price but it’s probably built for WM as they do that. I’ve got to outfit my boat since I’ve never had a trolling boat myself and I need a couple more rods. My dad suggests a medium heavy with wire and a twilly to run dipsys. He doesn’t know what reel I should get that won’t break the bank as he likes Penn reels except he does not like his Penn line counters. He told me that most of my fish will be cought on dipsy’s

Finger lakes fishing. Lake trout. I do have down riggers and planers as well.

 

[aspeck]

Catch 50/50 of the lake trout with dipseys and downriggers. Medium-heavy rod should be okay. I have not used them personally, but have seen decent reviews on these combos. At $90, they are a great value, I believe. If I needed more I would not hesitate to purchase.

 

[matt167]

Looks like I’ll be buying a couple

 

[dingbat]

My dad suggests a medium heavy with wire and a twilly to run dipsys. He doesn’t know what reel I should get that won’t break the bank as he likes Penn reels except he does not like his Penn line counters.

Still have two Penn 113 HSP loaded with wire. Neither have not left the rack in 10-15 years. Braid works just as well w/o all the head aches of wire.

Gave up on line counting years ago. Tried clip-ons and LC reels just sux. Starting counting “bars” to set lines.

Turns out, one trip of the levelwind (over and back) on my Penn GTi 330 and 320 reels are a couple of inches shy (320) and a couple in over (330) 10 feet. It’s bullet proof and a whole lot easier than watching a counter.

Makes it easy to tell people to let this rod out “15 bars”…let this rod out “10 bars”.

 

[matt167]

Still have two Penn 113 HSP loaded with wire. Neither have not left the rack in 10-15 years. Braid works just as well w/o all the head aches of wire.

Gave up on line counting years ago. Tried clip-ons and LC reels just sux. Starting counting “bars” to set lines.

Turns out, one trip of the levelwind (over and back) on my Penn GTi 330 and 320 reels are a couple of inches shy (320) and a couple in over (330) 10 feet. It’s bullet proof and a whole lot easier than watching a counter.

Makes it easy to tell people to let this rod out “15 bars”…let this rod out “10 bars”.

Never thought about watching the line guide travel to measure a set distance. Makes sense though as it’s constant and counting in 10’ lengths is easy math

 

[matt167]

I was in town yesterday so I picked up one of the Eagle claw combo’s. They listed they had 4 in stock but one was it. I also grabbed a Daiwa 8’6 downrigger medium heavy as well.

 

[matt167]

I looked at the ones in Walmart and they are Eagle feather lights and are a medium light action vs medium heavy but the reels are the same for the same price. they do have a 7’4 rod with a size 15 reel for like $74 that it looks like discounted to $67 bought online. Not really sure I want one though. It would help my spread being I have 1 9’ and 2 8’6 rods. But really another 9’ or a 9’6 would be better.

 

[dingbat]

I looked at the ones in Walmart and they are Eagle feather lights and are a medium light action vs medium heavy but the reels are the same for the same price. they do have a 7’4 rod with a size 15 reel for like $74 that it looks like discounted to $67 bought online. Not really sure I want one though. It would help my spread being I have 1 9’ and 2 8’6 rods. But really another 9’ or a 9’6 would be better.

Why such long rods for trolling?

All of my trolling rods (#20 and #30 class) are 6’ long. Use 5’-6” for #80 class rods

Normally fish just 12 rods but have provisions to fish up to 20 rods if needed.

 

[matt167]

Helps get the lines up and away from the boat. It’s pretty easy to find 8’6-9’ rods around here but shorter rods not so much. Might be a regional way of thinking. Not sure. But taller rods closer to bow, shorter rods in the stern. The spread won’t tangle. Obviously dipsy divers and planers takes some of that even with shorter rods

 

[dingbat]

Helps get the lines up and away from the boat. It’s pretty easy to find 8’6-9’ rods around here but shorter rods not so much. Might be a regional way of thinking. Not sure. But taller rods closer to bow, shorter rods in the stern. The spread won’t tangle. Obviously dipsy divers and planers takes some of that even with shorter rods

I guess the real answer is because you can.

Using longer rods for separation isn't really an option. The addtional leverage from a "good" fish would be too much for the average angler.
We're left with elevating rods as needed then using a combination of distance, depth and width (planer boards) to create separation.

I fish a 200' x 300' "V" pattern in a 2' - 30' deep "W" pattern. Gives me ~25' of seperation between baits.

 

[matt167]

Found 2 cheap Shakespeare rods in storage that I bought a few years ago when I wanted to troll off my 14’ and never did. I cannot find the reels for them ( which I think were ATS line counters )

are vintage Penn peer 209 level winds a good option? I can get a couple pretty cheap. Im thinking of loading them with multi color 30# braid and running dipsys. Expense of wire doesn’t seem worth it at this point. Not yet anyway

 

[dingbat]

are vintage Penn peer 209 level winds a good option? I can get a couple pretty cheap. Im thinking of loading them with multi color 30# braid and running dipsys. Expense of wire doesn’t seem worth it at this point. Not yet anyway

The 209 are “clunky” and slow, at best.

In that class, I’d go with the Penn 320 GTi. A real workhorse. One of Penn’s most under rated reels. Parts are still widely available. You can find them on eBay for less than $50.

You’re going to have “digging” issues with #30 braid on a level wind reel.
When fishing braid on a level wind, you match line diameters, (#65 braid = #15 mono) not weight to avoid digging into the spool and not getting cut handling the lines.

I run #65 braid with a 20’ “top shot” of #80 mono to deal with big, toothy critters at the back of the boat. In your case, a top shot of #25-30 floro would work well.

No need for expensive three color braid. Simply count “bars”. One pass of the level wind, back and forth, = 10 ft. of line.

 

[rolmops]

The most important thing for fishing off a boat, where far casting is less important, is to keep the rods short so within the limited space of the boat they do not get tangled up while fishing and during storage.
I used to have a few eagle claw rods and they were fine for fishing in lakes where fish over 10 pounds are rare. They are all gathering dust now together with the Penn 112 and 113 reels. These days I only fish Lake Ontario and The Pacific Ocean off the Costa Rica coast. I still have some Penn 320,330 , 340 and one 345. They are on Talora rods and I use them for 28 pound test 10 color leadcore and 7 strand weighted torpedo steel lines.
My dipsy rods are 8.6 foot Taloras with roller guides and either Shimanov or Daiwa 57s loaded with 7 strand torpedo wire
For trolling brown trout and salmon I find 7 foot Sturdy sticks with Shimanov reels best. The brown trout rods have 12 pound test line and the salmon 30 pound test. It is hard to beat the drag on the Shimanov and Daiwa 57 reels.

 

[rolmops]

No need for expensive three color braid. Simply count “bars”. One pass of the level wind, back and forth, = 10 ft. of line.

That very much depends on how much line is loaded on your reel, but at the same time it proves that while fishing, too much precision is overrated. Besides, a line counter does not actually count feet of line it counts rotations and dependent on how much line you have on your reel, one rotation can be less than half a foot to well over a foot.

 

[dingbat]

That very much depends on how much line is loaded on your reel, but at the same time it proves that while fishing, too much precision is overrated. Besides, a line counter does not actually count feet of line it counts rotations and dependent on how much line you have on your reel, one rotation can be less than half a foot to well over a foot.

A levelwind lays line across the spool in “layers”. The ratio between the drive and levelwind gear determines the number of wraps/distance per “bar”….full trip, over and back of the levelwind pawl.

Once you know the number of wraps per bar it’s pretty easy run a “bar” to length regression using the starting diameter of the spool and the diameter of the line

Back when it first became popular to ditch line counters and count “bars”, I ran the calculations (excel) on the accuracy of the methodology using 3/0 and 4/0 reels. To my surprise, it’s pretty darn accurate.

Accuracy just has to be close. Boat speed plays a much larger role than distance in controlled depth trolling