Fishing

Cannon Uni-Troll

Cannon Accessories

Scotty 1050 Depthmaster

Scotty No. 1040 Snapper Release

Scotty Accessories

Reel: Abu-Garcia Ambassaduer 6500-C3

Reel: Penn International 975

Rod: Berkley Lightning Rod Classic LRCC66IM (fast bend)

Rod: Fenwick Fenglas FT60M (slow bend for kokonee)

Lures Terminal Tackle and Flashers: Acme Products

Owner Super Mutu Circle Hooks.

Who ever invented this really knew what was going on with the fishing scene. The idea with downriggers is to get to the fish much deeper than other applications. Heavy lead balls from 2lbs to 10lbs are dropped down sometimes to 200 feet. The balls are attached to a heavy steel cable wire. The wire is wound on and off a heavy reel spool and the cable line is held away from the boat transom by long heavy steel arms sometimes 5 feet long. Your fishing rod is completely separated from the downrigger but your line is attached to the cable with a release clip. The release clip is clamped to the cable about 5 feet above the ball and your line is placed on the release side of the clip at adjustable pressures. Your line with the lures attached is placed in the clip in a position that allows about 15 feet of line trailing behind the ball.

The ball is dropped to a pre-determined depth taking your lures with it to the location of the suspended fish targets. With the boat trolling slowly ahead, the fish strike your lure and pull free of the cable to be fought free of all restraints. This makes the battle much more sportier than the other deep trolling methods.

The northern salmon fishermen, both commercial and sport use downriggers exclusively. The salmon guys troll small plastic skirted lures behind a variety of flashers and spinners. The downriggers put the lures down from 30 to 70 feet where the salmon lurk. The mako and thresher shark fishermen of Southern California have just recently gotten into downrigger fishing. They send their terminal tackle sometimes 200 feet down to find the sharks. A hot live mackerel is pinned to a hook and sent down to where the targets might be located. Tackle for the shark guys has to be heavy in preparation for enormous sized animals. One angler foul hooked a 300 pound thresher in the tail and fought him all over the ocean for 3 hours before giving up and cutting him loose. Yes, they use nothing less than 50 lb line and very large reels that can handle 400 yards wrapped on the spool. Circle hooks have become very important in shark fishing because you don’t set the hook on a running fish and the hook is almost always stuck in the corner of his mouth for quick release. Of course steel leaders are an absolute “must”.

Rods and reels vary according to what you’re fishing for. Anglers chasing mackinaw trout in Lake Tahoe deploy stiff 6 foot, 15 to 30 pound graphite rods with light saltwater reels. The reels must have clickers to allow the fish to run off when they pull from the release clip. The pros roll on 20 lb test Spiderwire Fusion line because it has zero stretch and the diameter of 12 lb monofilament. Besides, it costs less than the other “super braid” lines. Kokonee fishermen are usually fishing from between 50 and 90 feet down depending on the season of the year. They use flimsy fiberglass rods to handle these fish because they have extremely soft mouths and easily pull off the hooks. Soft bend rods tend to cushion the shock and the hooks remain embedded in the fish rather than pulling out from the stiff pressure of graphite.

I really have learned to enjoy using downriggers for mackinaw trout in Lake Tahoe and shark fishing off the coast. In both applications the line breaks free from the clip and allows you to fight the fish with no restrictions to hamper the fight. You should try the downriggers, you might also enjoy the technique.