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downrigging

tillie
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tillie Enthusiast

tillie

Posted
Posted

I plan on fishing LOW in a week. Can anyone help me with downrigging? <BR>What bait? Shadrap RS? Spinner rigs? What speed? How from the bottom do I set the weights? Length of line behind the wts? Do I bounce the bottom? Any advice is appreciated.

sledhead Collaborator

sledhead

Posted
Posted

shad raps mostly, I usually put them 2 foot off the bottom, incase of varing depth on the flats. Remember a 21 foot boat got sunk a couple of weeks ago due to catching on the reef.

Reefer Collaborator

Reefer

Posted
Posted

Welcome to the site..<P>I like to run my plugs off the ball 40 or so feet. As far as how deep, keep an eye on the graph and run the plugs thru the fish. Know where your fishing cuz it's no fun hooking bottom!! Good luck.

curt quesnell Grand Master

curt quesnell

Posted
Posted

Tillie,<P>You will get lots of different answers to<BR>your question. Here's mine.<P>Any crankbait will work for rigging, you just<BR>need to set up for them.<P>Shallow divers will dive approx 3 feet at 2 miles an hour with 20 feet of line out. <BR>So if you are trolling at 2 mph, let out<BR>20 feet of line, hook onto the ball and drop<BR>the ball to 4 feet off the bottom and go.<BR>Your crankbait will be a foot or so off the<BR>bottom.<P>Deep diving baits will dive 3 feet at 2 mph<BR>with 10 feet of line out. Soooo, let out<BR>10 feet of line, hook up and run the ball<BR>4 feet off the bottom and you will get the<BR>same result as above.<P>Use your depthfinder to track the rigger balls if you can. The depth counters on the<BR>riggers dont account for the backward swing<BR>of the ball, they only let you know how much<BR>cable you have out. It will tell you that<BR>you have 32 feet of cable out over 36 feet<BR>deep water so you would think you are 4<BR>feet off the bottom. With the water pushing<BR>the ball backwards you may be 7 or 8 feet<BR>off the bottom and that may keep your bait<BR>out of the zone you want to be in. I is <BR>important to know how far off the bottom you<BR>bait is.<P>If you see lots of fish 5 feet off the bottom<BR>and want to pull your bait thru them, raise<BR>the ball to 5 feet above the fish and go.<P>On Lake of the Woods use short lines behind<BR>the balls. Longer lines will result in more<BR>tangles with other lines. The balls don't<BR>seem to bother the fish in the dark stained<BR>water.<P>Like everything else it just takes some<BR>doing to get it to work.<P>Make sure your crankbaits are tracking<BR>straight. Pull the bait thru the water<BR>very quickly and make sure it isnt shooting<BR>to one side or the other. You need to have<BR>the bait running straight at a quick speed<BR>to work properly.<P>Get the book Precision Trolling, the trollers<BR>bible, It explains all of this and more and<BR>tells you how far each crankbait dives with<BR>any amount of line out. It also teaches<BR>clip weights, dipsy divers, jet divers,<BR>long lining and more. Very good stuff for<BR>new and old trollers alike.<P>Good Luck<P><P>------------------<BR>Curt Quesnell<BR>NorthCountry Outdoors Radio

curt quesnell Grand Master

curt quesnell

Posted
Posted

Hi Reefer<P>------------------<BR>Curt Quesnell<BR>NorthCountry Outdoors Radio

Reefer Collaborator

Reefer

Posted
Posted

Hi Curt<P>Sounds like you had as much fun with the waves as we did. We were to 16 on sat with as good of results you could have drifting at 2+ mph. All in all pretty good with 18 kept and released a 28. Very nice mix of decent fish. We rigged for a couple of hours in the late afternoon producing a ton of 12-13"ers. I think they must have been alot faster than the big gals cuz every time we'd check there'd be one on. I'll be hearin' ya tomorrow. (I could say that just about every day and wouldn't be lyin!!)

Curly Collaborator

Curly

Posted
Posted

It was a 23 foot boat and the story of the balls hooking in the rocks is not true.

Freewheeler Contributor

Freewheeler

Posted
Posted

When they pulled it into Long Point Resort they said it didn't have any plug in it. That in itself will make her ride low in the back end once they get set up for riggin. Add a few man sized waves and you've got problems.

Curly Collaborator

Curly

Posted
Posted

No plug? I was standing there when the plug was removed when the boat was loaded on the trailer. Where do all these rumors start?

widetrack Mentor

widetrack

Posted
Posted

Curly:<P>Sounds like you have the real skinny. I'd like to hear what really happened. I was out off Knight island that afternoon. It wasn't too pleasant of a ride back to Warroad, I can vouch for that.<P>Reefer:<BR>Just curious, "every time we'd check there'd be one on." Does that imply that the 12-13 inchers don't set off the release, and you don't know you have a fish on until you check it? I hope that's not the case.

big ugly Newbie

big ugly

Posted
Posted

walker releases are the cats *** , more adjustment for less shakers. but pop em and reset every 15 min just in case and dont be afraid to experiment with depth of ball amount of line, speed and whatever else. just make sure your plugs run true and you will be allright or better yet book a trip on a launch, you might be surprised what you learn<BR><p>[This message has been edited by big ugly (edited 07-27-2004).]

Reefer Collaborator

Reefer

Posted
Posted

Yes Widetrack, that was the case. Before you smear the bulls-eye on my back, we got the right adjustments on the releases after the first couple three fish and things went just fine. I've rigged only a few times and with the same buddy and never had problems.

fivebucks Mentor

fivebucks

Posted
Posted

We had a few times over last weekend that the little ones did not trip the release. There was some adjusting to find the right tension where it released on fish but not on the crank bait. Just in case we made it a point to check the lines every 20-30 minutes and had a fish not tripped maybe 10% of the time. We ate a couple of them that were being dragged too long.

widetrack Mentor

widetrack

Posted
Posted

Fair enough... I was hoping there were adjustments that could be made so the small fish still tripped the releases.

Old Guide Rising Star

Old Guide

Posted
Posted

Tillie, Sounds like everyone's pretty much in the same ball park for the basics. Plug or no plug in when you hook the bottom you'd better take action fast! Purchase a good pair of cutters and leave them in clear view. I've been hung up anumber of times. The first it was real calm..no cutter on board I was able to cut the cable with a plier, from then on I've got a good set of cutters on board! Rigging has been good. Where are you launching at? How big a boat?<P>------------------<BR><B>Old Guide Charters</B><BR>Lake of the Woods<BR><A HREF="http://fishingmn.com/oldguidecharters/" TARGET=_blank>http://fishingminnesota.com/oldguidecharters/</A><BR>Call Toll Free:1-800-952-(9484)

Kaz Experienced

Kaz

Posted
Posted

Hey All: I hooked the bottom last Saturday out southwest of Garden. Two of the four snagged and one broke off just above the release. I didn't have time to cut it, but the other unreeled since the clutch was loose enough. The wave action was 3/5 feet and the boat was hard to control anyhow. Retrieved the other before it ran out of cable. It also messed up a Gimble Mount, but otherewise no damage. It all happens in a flash, especially when it's rough out... I try to always not lock tight the clutch on my Manuel Penn's just for this reason. Somehow the one that broke must of been tighter than we thought... Keep the saftey plan in mind, ALWAYS... Kaz

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      Gitche Gumee Ice?

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      Gitche Gumee Ice?

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