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Stick to the braid on Dipsey Divers as a "rookie" It will do most of what you want it to do with very few problems. Wire divers are great for some uses - better than braid, some of the time, but they will also cause you to swear like a drunken sailor quite often and learn how Brillo Pads are manufactured.
Thirty pound mono is a bit overkill for most purposes (except for pulling divers). I moved up to 20 when i turned pro and previously used only 12 and 17.

I agree that braid is an good multipurpose with the exception of inline planar boards - I could never keep the boards from having the line slide through the crimp unless I basically tied it to them. Other than that it works great for most things. I run 50 lbs mono on my riggers with a 20 or 30 lbs leader off of them most times but it is heavy line and may scare some fish away. Someone told me when I started to Salmon fishing "baby steps" buy a little at a time and learn how to use it and see what works and add more through time. Its not a cheap sport and figure you will lose gear to the lake gods each year also, so budget for that as well. Sometimes I think I did better when I only had a few poles and only one or two options of what to run. I still consider myself new to the game so others have much better insight than I do - just my opinions and what I am doing.

I hear you, Ed! I have a great tendency to over think and over supply. Too many rods, options, toys, and whistles. I gotta play with everything but then I never know what made the difference.

J-

BNature, what kind of knot do you use between you braid and leader on your downrigger rods? I'm using uni-uni knot, which I always have for braid to mono or fluorocarbon connections. However, when a fish hits on a free slider, that slider seems to have a tendency to hang up on the knot a little bit. Maybe I just need to trim the tag end of the fluorocarbon a little closer...

The uni/uni isn't that large of a knot so I don't know what the issue would be. I trim the tag ends to less than 1/8th inch. You could experiment with the FG knot which I'm told is as good or better. There are YouTubes of how to tie it. Probably easier than it looks and plenty easy if you are a left handed monkey and can hold the line with your toes.

The uni/uni isn't that large of a knot so I don't know what the issue would be. I trim the tag ends to less than 1/8th inch. You could experiment with the FG knot which I'm told is as good or better. There are YouTubes of how to tie it. Probably easier than it looks and plenty easy if you are a left handed monkey and can hold the line with your toes.

I have a feeling that there's just a little too much tag end left and that's why the snaps on the slider lines were hanging up. Will investigate this weekend.

I pulled the trigger on some SeaKnight classic 4 strand braid to use as replacement backing on my copper reels. I should have used this stuff long ago. It is a slick braid that will be perfect for other trolling applications. I got 550 yards for $12.99 delivered. They have flo red, yellow, blue and some dark colors. I chose 60# as it was smaller in diameter than the 20 pound flouro I was using. I marked the spool level with a sharpie before I stripped the backing and wound up with another 100 ft of backing over the mono when filled back to the marked level on the spool. I am sure 40 or 50 pound would be a good choice also. A few pics.