Downrigger fishing on McGregor

[Rick.]

Tried using the down rigger for walleye today. Really didn't work bad at all. Using a small crank that dives about three feet I dropped the ball to 25 feet and fished as close to 30 feet as I could. Trolled at 1 to 1.5 MPH. Actually caught several fish so all and all I would say it was a successful first attempt. Tried jigging and got nothing. Last 1/2 hour I tried targeting pike at about 15 feet and got one which was my best of the year. Going to try again tomorrow.

I'm thinking the commercial fishing might have started there. Saw two huge open aluminum boats going up the lake. Biggest aluminum boats I've ever seen.

Rick.

[mikeo2]

They might have been SRD doing some test netting or electro-fishing to.

[Kokanee9]

Downriggers are not only for fishing deep. I used to run the balls 4-10 ft below the surface for pike at sylvan. I used them to help overcome the drag on the line when trolling small spoons or cranks. The drag on the line when moving through the water would only let the spoon get so deep - no matter how much line was let out.

[cujo1969]

They are commercial fishing mcgregor now seen lots nets on the west side set very shallow. Never tried downriggin on mcgregor gives us a report make it out again.

[Eddy62]

Tried using the down rigger for walleye today. Really didn't work bad at all. Using a small crank that dives about three feet I dropped the ball to 25 feet and fished as close to 30 feet as I could. Trolled at 1 to 1.5 MPH. Actually caught several fish so all and all I would say it was a successful first attempt. Tried jigging and got nothing. Last 1/2 hour I tried targeting pike at about 15 feet and got one which was my best of the year. Going to try again tomorrow.

I'm thinking the commercial fishing might have started there. Saw two huge open aluminum boats going up the lake. Biggest aluminum boats I've ever seen.

Rick.congrats rick on the fish..i bought a small portable down rigger that only takes a 4 lb ball perfect for that situation to bad my brother never tightened it up as now it is at the bottom off the lake,,,thats fishing lol

[Rick.]

Boy am I ever dumb. I saw several floats with sticks right near where I put in. I thought it was ice fisherman marking spots where they want to drill through the ice. They were all set shallow, at least the ones I saw. I would have thought the commercial fishers would be using some kind of drag nets.

One thing about the down rigger, when the bottom comes up fast man does it snag a lot of weed. Very frustrating in the beginning. Later on I hit bottom much less often. Think tomorrow I might launch at Milo and see how it goes around there. What a pleasure cranking a 5 lb. ball. Normally I use 12 and a whole lot deeper. Rick.