Lake Champlain United - Forums

I finally got a lite bite, and fished with it for a few days before catching anything on it. Yesterday I hooked into my first fish with it! I also found that my reel was not up to the task of dragging the lite bite, and I had to pull the fish in by hand (just a small laker). The reel is toast. It was just a cheap crappy thing, anyway, and I knew it would happen-- just not so soon.

What reels do folks use for the slide divers?
Can I stick with spinning reels, or do I need to use a baitcaster-type reel?

You need a good levelwind trolling reel with line Counter for sure. You have to know how far out your Diver is. A nice 9-10 ft Diver rod doesn't hurt either.

tekota 600lc works good

Cheap ol cabelas depth masters will do it... any medium to good quality line counter level wind will do... the tecota is a Cadillac and very smooth but you don’t have to spend 300

Last reel you will ever buy

I run them on okuma Magda pro 30 series reels. Relatively cheap and work well. Going on 3 years with that setup and it works. They are on daiwa wilderness rods, but any cheap medium action rod will work.

9 foot Ugly stik Downrigger rod light action Tekota 500 or 600 will last for ever

The Diawa SG sealine LC are decent reels too.

I like the Diawa Saltist levelwind.

Thanks! "Levelwind" wasn't even a word in my dictionary

Holy cow, these are much bigger reels than I'm used to. I wonder if I'll find them cumbersome in my kayak. It's difficult to get an idea of the size of the reel online. I noticed that some of these reels come in smaller 20 size. Do you think a smaller size would be insufficient?

I'm thinking I'll start off with an inexpensive one.

I have a Okuma Magda Pro 20DX as my slide diver reel. While the reel is OK, it works fine for the amount I use the slide diver.

If you don't use a line counter reel and want to use a smaller lighter level wind you can by mono that has different colors for measuring how much line you have out.

A sixe 20 or 30 should work just fine... Remeber to use 30-50lb braid line... NOT MONO. Mono has too luch stretch to get good releases with long setbacks... Braid is key! and you can put plenty of 50lb braid on a 20size reel...

Thanks again! I stopped by Rack N Reel, and they had a few models in stock. I bought an Okuma Magda and some 40 lb braid. I'm already craving a better reel. I mean, it works fine ("ok" like JDK said), but boy does it make an annoying sound

I put my hands on some pricier reels at the store, and they sure are nice objects. I'll wait a while until I'm more familiar before I make the investment, though.

Like most, I came to the conclusion that it is far easier to find an inexpensive decent rod than an inexpensive decent reel. I've had the Magda for 5 to 6 years now and used it with the slide diver for 2. I can see the clicker wearing out but so far it has held up. The line counter works, the drag is OK, and I haven't really had any issues with it as of today.

Will I climb the tallest tree to sing it's praises? No, but so far it has held up.