I have never been in the fall, and typically the fish are bigger and run more than in the spring.
Don't bother with light action winni stuff it is not practical.
My rods and 7' 6" Medium Light Daiwa Heartland Walleye planer board rods. They are a fast action rod with good backbone
My reels are Daiwa Sealine SG27LCA
I have 220 Yards of 20Lb. line on them.
I wouldn't go any lighter than this (yes you can do it as popeye says) but it is not really practical. a 22lber. last week spooled us right off the rigger it took about 20 seconds.
Spoons in the 5" range are the spoon of choice like a Fishlander size 2 or an NK28
with the 20 Lb. line i will run spoons and big dodgers. For flashers i like to tie 30lb. between the release and the flasher.
I run dipsy divers off 10'6" Cabelas heavy duty Dipsy rods with a TWILI TIP with Daiwa SG47LCA reels loaded with ?? yards of 30Lb. Backing and 1000 feet of 30lb test strand wire and albright on about 30 feet of 40lb mono to the diver size 0 with monster ring and a snubber and 8 feet of line to your bait.
On the down riggers we use Okuma classic 8.6 medium 12-25 lbs rods with Okuma Convector CV45 line counter reel. I tried the new Tectan line 44 lbs and a 25 lbs leader. It worked very good. I can fit over 1000 feet in the reels. In 2002 we caught a king (39+lbs) that took almost 1000 feet before turning and running back at the boat. Last year a friend was spooled with 785 feet on his reel. When you get a big fish on you want to be ready. We do run Wire and dipseys. We are using 9'.6" rods, some guys use 10' and we are using 1000 feet of braided wire. This is a very small diamerter line and will fit on your reel, but may cut your hands. It must be crimped to your dipsey diver. If you go ask the locals. The Salmon shop(fall) will help you and in Olcott(spring), the Slippery Sinker will help out alot.
