Buy an Eagle Claw rod and reel from one of the local dealers like AJ's. They have good stock and will help you out with everything so need to know about trolling. Sometimes paying two cents more keeps the local guy afloat and having a place to get live bait and fishing knowledge is priceless.
For downrigger rod and reel I use an okuma magda pro 15 on a diawa kokanee 4-8 lb downrigger rod.This is a great winni set up and the rods are available at Paugus Bay,I think I paid around forty dollers for it.The reels are also in the forty doller range,I beleive A.J. is an okuma dealer.My leadcore set up is kind of pricey,12 ft steelhead noodle rod with Abu Garcia C3-7000 reel it has a very loud clicker for us deaf people lol,rod was about forty bucks if you can find them,mine came from zylas,reel is about one hundred and fifty dollers new I got a few used ones of ebay for around sixty dollers.good luck polebreaker
Reels... I've had great luck with Okuma Magda Pros. I use them here in NH and on the great lakes as my heavy downrigger reels. There's a size for every application. They are well made for the cost.
Rods... Eagle Claw Starfire are almost all I troll with. The Eagle Claw line covers pretty much every size needed. I have rods for specific uses for everything from 4 pound (Winni) to 30 pound (Lake O) downrigger lines to 1 color leadcore (Winni) to 600 foot copper line setups (Lake O). Just match the rod to the line size and target fish... you can't go wrong with the "yellow" rods.
