Newbie mooching gear questions

highbank

highbank

New Member
Hi all, I fish Puget Sound, mostly downrigger trolling, and have been wanting to give a Canadian style mooching rod and reel setup a try. My local stores don't carry a lot of that gear and are sold out of tons of stuff currently so I had been looking for used and came across a listing on craigslist for a bunch of gear. The pictures were quite bad and they knew nothing about the gear, but I could see there was at least one mooching reel and 2 mooching rods. They'd only sell everything together and it was quite a drive from me but I negotiated a pretty low price and figured what they hell, I'd give it a shot. It turned out I got tons of great stuff for the price and now I have a bunch of questions about what I should use and how I should use it. :)

In addition to several Shimano Calcuttas, TR-200Gs and a nice Lamiglas 'Kenai King' rod, I ended up with three mooching reels, a Diawa 275B, a Shimano 4000GT and an Islander anti-reverse MR2. The two mooching rods are a Fenwick HMX 10'6" fiberglass rod and a Lamiglas Certified Pro X 106 MH-CP.

I'm thinking for downrigger trolling I'll start out with the Fenwick rod and the Islander reel, does that seem like a good combo? I researched the reel a bit and since it's anti-reverse it's not a true "knuckle buster", but I'm a newb with this gear so maybe that's a good thing. Is anyone familiar with the Lamiglas certified pro rod? I can't find any info about it. Is it a good idea to use it in a downrigger? I've never used graphite only rods in my downriggers (I use Lamiglas XCC 1064 GH composite rods currently).

Is the Diawa 275B worth trying for trolling? I did a bit or research on that one and I guess its a two way drag, but I don't actually know what that is or how it makes it different. :) The 4000GT was the reel I was considering buying new if I couldn't find anything used, so that one seems straight forward and lots of info out there about that one.

Thanks!

Josh
 
Josh - Fantastic pile of awesome gear. Buddy of mine from Olympia had MR-2 AR for years fishing both Puget Sound and WCVI. Any of the gear you got will work in the downrigger. My recollection is the Lamiglas certified pro CP = center pin ) has some glass in it. A 100% graphite rod will eventually fail in the DR, usually in quite a spectacular fashion. check w Lami in woodland first. My winter homeport is in DesMoines, reach out if i can be of assistance.
Jim
 
TomicTime said:
Josh - Fantastic pile of awesome gear. Buddy of mine from Olympia had MR-2 AR for years fishing both Puget Sound and WCVI. Any of the gear you got will work in the downrigger. My recollection is the Lamiglas certified pro CP = center pin ) has some glass in it. A 100% graphite rod will eventually fail in the DR, usually in quite a spectacular fashion. check w Lami in woodland first. My winter homeport is in DesMoines, reach out if i can be of assistance.
Jim
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Thanks Jim! I'm really looking forward to trying out the new gear.

I contacted Lamiglas about the "X 106 MH-CP" rod and they recommended not using it in downriggers. It is a graphite only rod. So, I'm not sure how I'll use that rod, may just end up selling it and getting another fiberglass or composite mooching rod for the downriggers.
 
highbank said:
I contacted Lamiglas about the "X 106 MH-CP" rod and they recommended not using it in downriggers. It is a graphite only rod. So, I'm not sure how I'll use that rod,
Click to expand...
Put a 2 ounce mooching weight on and then a 6' leader tied to a small flashy spoon or Apex- put it right where the bubbles run out very effective on Coho especially late in the season.
 
I think the mr2 AR is a good reel. Especially for salmon up to 15lbs. Great for kids. If the fish is real big, the drag can be pulled at its max setting. It teaches people not to hog fish in but is also challenging around the boat. For the guys that tend to loosen the drag and use the palm break it won't work. It works like a level wind with no gears. For the true mooching reel experience you should use the Shimano you picked up. Most people only get knuckle busted once.
 
Brett83 said:
I think the mr2 AR is a good reel. Especially for salmon up to 15lbs. Great for kids. If the fish is real big, the drag can be pulled at its max setting. It teaches people not to hog fish in but is also challenging around the boat. For the guys that tend to loosen the drag and use the palm break it won't work. It works like a level wind with no gears. For the true mooching reel experience you should use the Shimano you picked up. Most people only get knuckle busted once.
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This is great feedback, thanks! I'll definitely be trying out both the reels.

One question, why could I not also palm the mr2 AR even while the handle knobs aren't spinning? Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying (and I haven't had it out on the boat yet), but playing with it at home it seems like I could still palm it as any other mooching reel when line is being pulled out.
 
highbank said:
This is great feedback, thanks! I'll definitely be trying out both the reels.

One question, why could I not also palm the mr2 AR even while the handle knobs aren't spinning? Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying (and I haven't had it out on the boat yet), but playing with it at home it seems like I could still palm it as any other mooching reel when line is being pulled out.
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If you back the drag off to the point where you'll be palming the reel, you wont be able to gain on the fish as the handles will just slip when you try to turn them. Drag needs to be tight enough that you're able to put some pull on the fish when reeling in. On a standard mooching reel, you can still turn the reel in with 0 drag.
 
Dogbreath said:
Put a 2 ounce mooching weight on and then a 6' leader tied to a small flashy spoon or Apex- put it right where the bubbles run out very effective on Coho especially late in the season.
Click to expand...
Nice, I'll give this a shot. I've pretty much only fished from the downriggers or jigged with point wilson dart lead jigs.
 
FisherTim said:
If you back the drag off to the point where you'll be palming the reel, you wont be able to gain on the fish as the handles will just slip when you try to turn them. Drag needs to be tight enough that you're able to put some pull on the fish when reeling in. On a standard mooching reel, you can still turn the reel in with 0 drag.
Click to expand...
Ah, that makes perfect sense. Thanks!
 
Buddy w 2x MR-2AR has lots of Tyee to his credit and a few 40# plus fish……. A skilled angler beats a fish w rod loading IMO….
 
You will love that 1264!
The 275B doesn't have a strong drag. You might strip the threads tightening it up when fishing deep. They were for mooching...
 
I finally got out this weekend to try out this gear. At first I had a bit of trouble with the MR2-AR when dropping the downrigger. I usually just hold the rod in my hand when lowering my levelwinds, but that definitely didn't work with the Islander! Once I just put it in the rod holder, loosened the drag and let it down it worked great.

Landed a nice 13lb blackmouth (which is pretty large for my area of Puget Sound) on the setup and it was super fun! The drag is nice and smooth. I can see how it would be nice to be able gain line even with the drag very loose without the anti-reverse feature, I found myself adjusting the drag quite a bit.

I ended up having to keep the drag almost completely tightened to stop it from slowly feeding out more line while in the downrigger. I was only fishing about 115ft deep. Is that normal for these reels?
 
highbank said:
I finally got out this weekend to try out this gear. At first I had a bit of trouble with the MR2-AR when dropping the downrigger. I usually just hold the rod in my hand when lowering my levelwinds, but that definitely didn't work with the Islander! Once I just put it in the rod holder, loosened the drag and let it down it worked great.

Landed a nice 13lb blackmouth (which is pretty large for my area of Puget Sound) on the setup and it was super fun! The drag is nice and smooth. I can see how it would be nice to be able gain line even with the drag very loose without the anti-reverse feature, I found myself adjusting the drag quite a bit.

I ended up having to keep the drag almost completely tightened to stop it from slowly feeding out more line while in the downrigger. I was only fishing about 115ft deep. Is that normal for these reels?
Click to expand...
Reel creep is a real drag but can be addressed. When was it last serviced?
 
The islanders love to creep unless you have the drag super tight which isn't good either. You'll have to loosen the drag when you hook up with a fish. You can keep the drag loose and add another release clip from the boat to the line near the reel to keep the line from creeping.
 
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