down rigger set up question

[mike780]

hey everyone,
i have been doing lots of reading but im curious to see what everyone here does for lakers.
80-120 ft for the lake ill be at
10lb cannon ball

How much line do you let out and attach it to the clip?
How far should the flasher be away from the lure?

and there are rainbows in the lake too... i have herd guys going down 10-15 ft and leaving 100 yards of line out with lure only.

any info would be great.
Thanks, again.

[tight line]

Looking forward to hearing any info as well. I just bought a boat (17.5ft) last year, and going to set it up with electronics and 2 electric Down Riggers! (Im a Laker Junkie) but Have never trolled with down riggers.

[Stally77]

Depending on time of year depths will vary. I usually have good luck with lure 50' behind ball. Flashers for Lakers and Rainbows i find is not necessary. (Have caught more without). I've caught rainbows down at 90' before lakers up at 30' like I said it all depends on time of year. The right lure makes all the difference and finding where they are. Keep varying the depth of your ball till u find em start at 10' then drop 10' every 15 minutes or so. Good luck!

[cube]

Originally Posted by mike780

hey everyone,
i have been doing lots of reading but im curious to see what everyone here does for lakers.
80-120 ft for the lake ill be at
10lb cannon ball

How much line do you let out and attach it to the clip? this will depend some what on depth, the deeper you go the shorter behind the ball you can fish. At 80 feet or more you can get away with 5-10 feet or less. In Shallower water with skiddish fish you might want to go out 50 or more feet, I have run 85-135 feet behind the ball when at 25 foot of depth. Though I generally run 25-35 ft behind the ball which is quite far.

How far should the flasher be away from the lure? This depends on the action you want it to impart. The closer your lure or bait to the flasher the greater the action. I generally run about 5 feet

and there are rainbows in the lake too... i have herd guys going down 10-15 ft and leaving 100 yards of line out with lure only.

any info would be great.
Thanks, again.

`

[EZM]

This answer depends on water clarify, how the fish are (spooky or not) and, of course, what you are running behind the ball for a lure.

You are obviously going to mark fish first, and if you see them down between 60 and 80 feet, you drop your ball 75-95 so you stuff is dragging right through where the fish are.

You can often see your ball, if you tip your transducer back ( I have one transducer level and the other tipped back for this purpose) and switch transducers to check my presentation and it's depth and oscillation.

Generally, you want to be as close to the ball as possible, so that when you load your rod up (with a nice bend) the release will likely set the hook.

The further back from the ball, generally, the more blow out, drag on the line, etc... the less the rod will act as a "spring" for you.

If your ball is down over 100ft - it's pretty hard to load up your rod unless she's a 10 footer. The deeper you go, the more rod length matters.

If I'm down 50 to say 100 feet, I typically, as an example, run my lure anywhere from 20 feet to 40 feet back and typically start at 30 feet.

I go 20 feet back at 100 feet of depth and maybe 30 feet back for 50 feet of depth as a general rule of thumb for me.

I keep shortening the set back as much as possible ......

The other thing is, if you are rigging shallow, say down 20, you need to give it a little extra length to keep the prop wash from spooking fish sometimes.

As far as flashers .......... YES !!!!!!!!!!!! I run a flasher for Grehards and a Dodger for Lakers.

I find they bring fish in. Again, depends on the day and the mood of the fish, but generally, I run a flasher or dodger.

Occasionally, I will run some ford fenders or lake trolls just to see "what's up" down there.

The key is to mix it up until you find whats working and dial it in.

[mike780]

Awesome! thanks for all the info guys! This really helps.... gives me good starting points and like you guys say just dial it in from there.

Mike

[Chewbacca]

Going to do some down rigging for the first time myself this year and really appreciate tips like this.
Thanks guys.

[tight line]

Yes much appreciated as well! What line is best to run on a down rigger set up?

[fish gunner]

Originally Posted by tight line

Yes much appreciated as well! What line is best to run on a down rigger set up?

Ime15-20lb mono or flourocarbon. braids tend to burn thru scotty type pin releases or closepeg style. If you find the steel clip release you can fish lighter line and modern braids . The steel style can be fine tuned to release light. Its a trade off heavy line heavy hook set light line light hook set. With rapalas diving to 30' I use down riggers less and less and never for Gerard 's waste of a good fight imo if you need to down rig for them its not the right time to be draging them in to surface temps .

[tight line]

Originally Posted by fish gunner

Ime15-20lb mono or flourocarbon. braids tend to burn thru scotty type pin releases or closepeg style. If you find the steel clip release you can fish lighter line and modern braids . The steel style can be fine tuned to release light. Its a trade off heavy line heavy hook set light line light hook set. With rapalas diving to 30' I use down riggers less and less and never for Gerard 's waste of a good fight imo if you need to down rig for them its not the right time to be draging them in to surface temps .

Thanks! Ya figured i would have to upsize. I run 8-12 on my spinning rods. Going to set up two rods just for downrigging. Will probably try 15lb flouro.

[Sitkaspruce]

I use the same techniques as I have for salmon all my life.

When I target lakers deeper than 80', I use 12 lbs balls, makes it easier to target the depth.

I use scotty clips with the adjustable tension. Make sure they have at least 6' of heavy mono or other material between the clip and the hali clip that attaches to the DR line. This makes it easier to attach when in the boat and easier when stacking lines.

As for length behind the DR line. I set my clip 5' above the ball and always use 30-35', no matter the depth. This allows the ball to bounce bottom and the gear to stay just above the bottom.

The further your flasher is away from the DR, the slower and bigger the flasher revolves, the closer the faster and smaller it revolves. I like the bigger and slower for lakers. Another thing to think about is your length leader between the flasher and lure and the line test. I usually use 48"-60" for lakers if using a spoon or apex and 30-48" for rainbows. For plugs, forget the flasher or run a dummy flasher off the ball and the plug 10' above the ball.

Experiment with different techniques and don't be afraid to change things up. The fun thing of targeting lakers is that they are pretty easy to catch, so you can play with different lure/flasher combos.

Good luck

Cheers

SS