Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD
This season I’ve been using the new model of Okuma’s Convector reel – dubbed the Convector “B” Model -and I’ve been blown away by it. The original Convector has a faithful following on the Great Lakes and the redesign now makes it even better.
The improvements include larger, stronger gears, enhanced carbon-fiber drags, an updated line counter mechanism and improved handle-knob – large and easy to grip. All of this in the familiar Convector mid-level price range.
I’ve used it as it was intended on every trip I’ve fished this season (which started on March 2nd for me.) I set it most often as a downrigger line, but I “snuck” it in as a planer board reel several times since those lines were getting most of the action and I wanted to get a “feel” for how it performed. I also used it as a braided line diver reel using the standard #1 Dipsy Divers.
I don’t purposely put the gear I test to extreme conditions but this one I did. On my first offshore excursion I forgot one of my “wire-diver” set-ups I use to get laker rigs down to the shoals where lakers are stacked and gobbling up gobies. I grabbed the Convector “B,” on the Diamond Elite downrigger rod to sub for my forgotten wire-diver. I’d filled the Convector with 30# test Sufix 832 Superline. I attached a #3 Magnum Dipsy Diver pulling a dodger and Spin-N-Glow.
I sent it down, down, down, so it was just scuffing along the bottom made up of sand and pea-gravel. The big Dipsy pulled hard and even harder when it touched the bottom. The Diver’s release had to be set tight enough that just skidding along the bottom wouldn’t trip it. The reel’s drag had to be set tight enough to not slip when the diver did hit the bottom. It’s a system that has to be finely tuned.
Then, when a laker slurps onto the Spin-n-Glow, the rod has to have the backbone to allow the tight release to open and at the same time, the reel has to feed out just enough line – pulling against the drag – to keep something from breaking, losing the fish and the expensive gear. The first fish of the day showed the Convector “B” up to the task and several other trout provided several additional tests. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it with wire line as a wire-diver reel.
I had the reel sitting on a Diamond Elite Downrigger rod (DME-DR-862MHA) This is a medium heavy 8 ½ foot long downrigger rod and it functions perfectly using it in conjunction with a downrigger. It’s not a bad planer board rod, either and I would have no problem using it with medium/large planers pulling deep diving crankbaits, lead core line or copper.
I used the Diamond Elite it as a diver rod with #1 Dipsy Diver for cohos and walleye and it handled that size diver very well. It was slightly over-matched using Magnum Divers, but it got the job done.
The Diamon Elite series are all designed as trolling rods and come in sizes for walleye, up to wire-diver sizes with a roller tip line guide, They are a handsome, steel gray color, and the triangular foregrip gives extra gripping power when reeling in strong, Great Lakes fish. Pair the right Diamond Elite rod with the appropriate size of Convector “B” reel and you have a combo that will serve you well for decades.
FISHING TOYS 