Storm Soft Plastic Shad Crankbait!

[Hines R]

I just picked up a few different colors in the Storm Wildeye Soft Shad. I'm kind of interested to see if the walleyes on LOTW show a liking to these once it's downrigger time. It's a hardbody holographic inside with the soft plastic body on the outside. I know that baits like this have become popular with the musky guys.<P>I'm going to be using 2 lines this summer with snapweights and planerboards. I'll have 2 downriggers going as well but don't want to add any more holes into the boat just yet, and really don't want to spend the cash on 2 more downriggers.<P>Here is the question though. How much weight do you think it would take, and how much line out to get a shad rap down into the 25 to 30 foot range. I'm just looking to see if anybody has an idea for a starting point. I'll probably go with a heavier weight(?2 oz.) so that I don't have to run so much line out the back of the boat. With as close as you end up to some of the boats I'd hate to have 150 feet of line running out behind me. I think that would turn into a mess pretty quickly.<P>Ryan <P> <P>

[fiskyknut]

My recipes for line-out lengths and amount of weight vary according to which crank and what depth I want it to run. 1, 1.5, and 2 ouncers cover it for me whether its a crank or a spinner I'm fishing. A 1 ounce snapweight 20 foot or so up will usually see the crank run approx 30% deeper on a given line out ammount. If you don't have one already get ahold of the 'precision trolling guide', a must. Most of the cranks I run on the flats work real good with the 1 ouncers.<P>fiskyknut

[Guest]

Leadcore will pull your cranks down...........

[Hines R]

I've got the precision trolling guide, but not the newest one. It gets confusing when you start adding in different size weights though because he only covers the basics. <P>I'm mainly planning on running shad raps in the size 5's and 7's on the boards. I'll figure out what color is working on the downriggers, and then get it down into the range it needs to be at. <P>I'll probably put a 2 ounce or 1 1/2 ounce up 50 feet from the lure and just let line out until I feel it start ticking bottom. I'll then adjust the length up from their. I'm leaning towards having the weight a little higher so that It's a little easier to deal with taking it off and gives more time to fight the fish without anything on. Hopefully, it will make it seem as fun catching the fish when they trip the line off of the downrigger. <P>I'll be interested to see how the fish react to this. I know they aren't supposed to mind the downriggers, but I'm just betting some of the big smart ones slide out to the side and might swim right into an ambush.<P>It's funny how the wive's all prefer livebait fishing compared to crankbait fishing. My brother's wife didn't want to go to Mille Lacs this sunday with us if we we're going to be doing that PlaneBoring fishing. Thank the lord they all love to fish though. <P>Ryan<P>

[Freewheeler]

Hines R<BR>Sounds like you have got the right set up going on your snap weight rig. We used almost the same set up last year out on the flats and did quite well using the two ouncers. We used 10/3 fireline which seemed to get down a little better and marked our lines with flouresent bobber stop string for the snap weights. Plugs were running about 28'. One other method we used was a two ounce bannana sinker 8-10' in front of our plugs. Bannana sinker has a snap swivel on it for twists and did NOT scare away any fish from our plugs as one might think because of the closeness between the two. The only drawback we could tell was the big stretch you had to make to net each fish. Just let her out till you know your tagging and reel up a bit. Fireline seemed to work better for this setup also. The longer the rod the better for this set up. Of course the traditional lead core set up works great too, but you won't have 70yds of line out and can **** near turn on a dime with the shortend version. You can cover some serious water this way. Sometimes you gotta think outside the box.

[curt quesnell]

Good info, thanks Fisky and Freewheeler.<P>I will be running leadcore this summer<BR>and since I will be slowing down I will<BR>dig out the clip weights again. <P>I like riggers for the ease and quickness<BR>but these other methods are very important<BR>to have in the arsenal.<P>Looking forward to it<P><BR><P>------------------<BR>Curt Quesnell<BR>NorthCountry Outdoors Radio