I tried that phantom red stuff last year, and it's true-it does disappear quickly. But after fishing for a few hours, my hands and the carpet in the boat turned red.

I tried power pro in 65,80 and 100 for trolling . I hated it all. Great for casting sucks for trolling. The biggest problem I had was eating up guides . The braid is not as smooth and cuts like a file. I blew two ceramic guides on one snag in the detroit river. I use 30 lb Mason P-LINE and have had zero problems. Like Wills Yozuri its tough as nails but a little thicker. I would stick with Mono and wire leaders or like Will says florocarbon leaders. I have been trolling Muskies since 1996 and in my book there is no better setup than a glass rod and Mono line for trolling Muskies. Mike

You are correct they both exploded. But I did have two black widow Diawa dipsey rods get light grooves cut into the guides from 65 lb braid. The grooves were sawn into the surface of the guides. I was running 10 inch Lokes on them for a season. At the end of the year I noticed one tip was grooved and checked the rest and found several of them were grooved. It wasnt real bad but enough for me to replace the rods and stop using that line. Silicone carbide guides wont break or groove but most guys dont spend a ton of money on trolling rods. I know I dont. They get tossed around a lot. I am still using the same 6 Shakespere uglysticks with the replaced guides all wide stainless steel. With Mono there is nothing more that could go wrong and in the last 7 years Ive never had any problems with that set up. Most guys I know like Bob devine who troll with braid use soft rods and soft drags. Larry Jones uses 10 and 12 foot rods as huge shock absorbers. I dont get it? Why go to all that trouble ? Expensive rods, guides , reels? just use mono or hybred. But hey its a different feel and you will get more depth if you run braid. Just be aware of the sawing action of braid and big lures. It will groove any cheaper guides and if you get snagged the heat builds up very fast with braid because of the friction. You can also cut yourself badly in a snag situation by wrapping the line around your hand. Dont do that! I tried it, hated it now I use the leftover for my heavy casting rods where no stretch is a real plus. Also like Will has stated if you use braid use the heavy stuff like 100 lb. The diameter is thicker and you wont have it get buried in the spool on a solid snag. Make sure your drags are working perfect and that you have Downeast rod holders. A sticky drag , no stretch line and plastic rod holder equal one broken holder and a lost rod to the first hard snag you find. Mike

–tip from the kid,
When you have exhausted all options to get your lure back and
its a pull 'til something gives, any line can slice you like a dull razor.
I wrap my line around my paddle/orr and pull away.Center your
weight and bend your knees, you dont want to go overboard backwards
and end up on a video. [smilie=biggrin.gif]

OK- back to subject……..

Will you mentioned something about line and planner board clips.
Can you guys give me a little more insight on a cheap entry-level
set-up.This is something I wanted to dabble with this season.

side note– I have 3 different lines on my rods I use for trolling.After
a visit to the King ranch a couple years ago I got turned on to the
P-line mono.Great stuff.I have both green and clear.Niether has
shown an advantage over the other. However,..I have trolled up
more fish using my rod with the Power Pro on it. Now I must admit
that rod trolls my bigger harder pulling lures so factor that in.

Also I think Chad has a used set of boards for like 50 bucks. Dont need a mast just two short tubes with some weed whacker line.

My new 10 footers are Shimano Taloras. They are very cool and I can run any line type with them. Life time guarrantee and only 79 bucks each. Mike

"hemichemi" said:
Speaking of trolling equipment: what's the prevailing opinion on the Folbe rod holders? They clamp on the rod around the reel and can put a rod down into the water, too. Are the Down-East Salty's still better in some way?

I'm not going to put my rods in a plastic rod holder…

Yes that was a war eh? I wont get into it again. W e know what has worked for years and years. The folbe might hold and then again it might not. Im not going to be the one to find out. You see I lost that Michigan state record fish(or one near as big to a broken Compositer/plastic rod holder coupled with an old penn reel that had a sticky drag and no stretch line. Ouch !! all three against me! I stripped the teeth on the rod holder which jammed the rod then the drag froze and I dragged a 50 pound class Musky for about 20 yards on the surface before the hooks ripped a chunk of meat out of her mouth. I had about three huge teeth attached to the meat . It was grusome. I was a newbe at the time pulling a 10 inch hooker bait in Thornapple. I have only hooked one other fish of that size and lost it as well. The second fish hit a downrod with Mono on St Clair. I was using my 30 lb P-LINE with 50 pound big game leaders. The lure was a 5 inch Mordas Minnow straight version. The fish just kept running and flashing just under the surface. I had over 250 yards of line out and had to thumb the spool or lose all my line. I tightened up and she went to head shaking and then the hook pulled loose. I should ahve truned the boat and made up some of the distance but hind sight is 20/20 . But Ill say this everything else worked perfect. The glass rod made her fight it all the way. The Okuma drag worked great. The mono line stretched and didnt break during the initial two hard runs and the rod holder worked like 10. The Hook was slightly bent telling me that even with Mono and 250 yards of it out there I was still bending the hook. I f I would have turned and ran along side of her I would have had a much better chance of boating that fish. But Ill never know. But I do know that I would do it all the same way right up to the point just before I had to thumb that spool. Mike