06-15-2004, 05:50 AM
For kokanee I only let 15 to 20 feet out. Even if I am only 10 feet down, it doesn't seem to bother the fish. It could help. the rest of the story is that I take the biggest pop gear that I can find and attach it directly to the downrigger ball. I then attach a slightly smaller set of pop gear to the end of the large pop gear. Then a smaller set to that until I have a string of 2 to 4 sets of popgear going back about 15 feet (alot of flash). I use the heaviest ball that I can find for this (13 lbs). I lower the ball with the pop gear down about 4 feet and then attach my line to the cable with a stacker clip. I let just enough line out to put my lure about 5 feet behind the end of the pop gear. This seems to work really well, especially in the searching mode and when the kokanee are spread out. It is very important to lower the ball slowly when you do this.
I did the rubber band thing for awhile and it wasn't too bad. I now use a heavy tension stacker clip with the cable that attaches to the fishing line lengthened. With this setup I can easily see when I have a bite and remove the line from the clip myself by pulling hard on the line. This prevents premature releases, having to reset the downrigger for every little bite, and helps ensure a good hook set on the larger fish.
One of the guides that I salmon fish with on the Oregon Coast has a prop on his trolling motor with holes drilled in it. The prop really stirs up the water and leaves a large trail of bubbles. We put our lines right behind the prop and about 3 feet down. We seem to always get more fish than average. He says that this attracts the salmon to the boat.
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I did the rubber band thing for awhile and it wasn't too bad. I now use a heavy tension stacker clip with the cable that attaches to the fishing line lengthened. With this setup I can easily see when I have a bite and remove the line from the clip myself by pulling hard on the line. This prevents premature releases, having to reset the downrigger for every little bite, and helps ensure a good hook set on the larger fish.
One of the guides that I salmon fish with on the Oregon Coast has a prop on his trolling motor with holes drilled in it. The prop really stirs up the water and leaves a large trail of bubbles. We put our lines right behind the prop and about 3 feet down. We seem to always get more fish than average. He says that this attracts the salmon to the boat.
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