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For the past few month (maybe longer) I have been trying to find the perfect kokanee downrigger rod -- 7 foot - 1 piece -- great flex and not too costly. I regularly look at rods at sportman's and this weekend went to Calebas -- I have found nothing to really say YEEHAW for under $60.
Then yesterday at Cabelas I had a thought........ I have two brand new $100 St. Criox 9' Fly poles with Brand new reels & line.
Now my question for the BFT'rs -- has anyone fished a fly pole off a downrigger??? I am having visions of battling a 24" kokanee from a boat on a fly pole and I can't wait.
The only problem will be rigging up a way for my downrigger to hold the fly poles. (I'm thinking PVC pipe).
So if no one has had this brain cramp before I will lay claim to
[black][size 4]"DOWNRIGGER FLY FISHING"[/size][/black]
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I am going to the Gorge this weekend for Macks but I am going to try this method out.. I hope will report a NEW FISHING BATTLING TECHNIQUE that will catch on....
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I have not tried a flyrod but if you are looking for a Kokanee rod try Vances Tackle website. They sell all kinds of Koke stuff and they sell an ultralight downrigger rod just for kokes. I think it is about $80.00. I have not used on but I hear they are great. Shasta tackle also makes one and Shimano makes a light koke rod in their Talora series.
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I have 3 koke poles from Shasta tackle. I love them. And I believe they were under $80.00. Check out the web site. If you want to see one before you buy one pm I have both styles. I broke one once(stupidity on my part). Called Gary at Shasta and he replaced it free. Plus free shipping. What service.
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What you mention has been done by salmon fishermen in British Columbia for over 2 decades. They use 9' fly rods with single action reels to troll with downriggers in the salt water for Kings and Silvers. To use one with conventional reels, you need to by an appropriate fly rod blank and have it built with a reel seat to acommodate whatever reel you want to use.
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Jared Johnson of Rocky Mountain Tackle turned us on to the Lamiglas Kokanee rods. They are carbon fiber, very flexible with a good back bone and not that expensive. As at Sportsman's. I think they carry them.
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Dave Biser an infamous Kokanee Angler makes his own rods out of fly rod blanks. Vance tackle offers a spiral guide Medium Light action rod designed for Kokanee you can see it on their web page, look under “other products”. A one piece rod is definitely a more sensitive rod. However with advancements in materials there are several 2 piece rods that are very competitive. Let me offer a few words of caution when searching for the perfect Koke Rod. Graphite rods are stiff rods so if you use Flourocarbon or braid DO NOT USE Graphite. If you use either one of these types of lines it is strongly recommended you use fiberglass rods. The idea is to play the fish with the Rod and not with the line. If you are looking for a decent rod for under $50.00 Cabelas whuppin stick model WSCML 70-2 is a great rod for the money. Try to find the lightest rod you can get and you won’t be sorry. The biggest factor in loosing kokanee is trying to “horse them”. St. Croix, Kistler, and G-loomis all have great offerings but you pay more for the name than for the product.
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welcome to the site Tom. i use a 7ft grafite anglers touch rod and i love it. i also have a 7ft innerline glass anglers touch rod that i got and am looking forward to using in may at the gorge
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Both of those are fantastic Rods, however in the spring and depending on the run off situation the innerflow rods will clog up with moss and literally lock up when retrieving line.
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[red][size 3]I had an old 6 weight fly rod I didn't like much as a fly rod so I tore the cork, reel seat and guides off and replaced it with a spinning rod handle and single foot guides. Kinda' quirky, kinda' long for downrigger, kinda' fun for Kokes! [/size][/red]
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I did not see a website posted that you referred to. I am not familiar with Dave Biser and his site. You mention Vance Tackle also. Is that another site? Let me know where to look at these. Thanks
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Vance tackle can be found at [url "http://www.vancetackle.com"]www.vancetackle.com[/url] Dave Biser is the author of a book called Kokanee - The complete fishing guide, he doesn't offer the rods for purchase just a few basic instructions as to the "how to" in his book.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Guilty![/size][/black][/font]
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>LOL.. i know where its been. TKB had it alot longer then you
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[#008058]The old downeast pole holder ought to be the ticket.....This is the one where you take the rod handle straight up and it spreads apart.....What weight of fly rod were you thinking of? Are you going to use any kind of flasher? Man, that's a lot of weight for anything less than a nine weight rod.[/#008058]
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] Shasta Tackle is in the process of getting a new shipment of rods in. Was having a problem with the manufactor of the rods but should have it worked out. If you go to the Shasta web site, They are not on there right now due to this. You can however purchase the rods from Sportsmans that Shasta has that have the line that runs inside the rod. Same rod as the others that Gary carries just that the line is inside. I beleive that they are 59.99 at Spoertsmans. LAst i checked, Riverdale had seven of them. They are called anglers touch rods. 
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