Down rigger versus meat rod

[8x56mn]

This ones for all you trolling experts. I fish in the finger lakes of NY the water is very deep and clear. My problem is that I can catch lake trout without much problem on my meat rods, but using the same lures on my downrigger I can't catch cold. What am I doing wrong. It's nice to get fish for supper, but not much fun just dragging in fish. I run 4-6 lures on the meat rod on one corner of the boat and the DR with one lure on the other corner.<br />I run 2 lbs of weight on the MR and 12 lb. ball on the DR at around 100 ft. Only thing that I can figure is that the MR lures are further away from the boat.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Down rigger versus meat rod

In this time of year,the lakers are much higher up because there is no stratification.<br />Are you using a Seth Green rig on your meat rod?If so you are hitting the entire water column from 20 feet down to a hundred.Probably right now the higher ones are more succesful.Seneca lake lakers are high up right now.I caught 5 of them this weekend of the pier in Geneva.Try and set your down rigger at 30 feet.just remember that in NY you cannot have over 5 hooks per line.

 

[8x56mn]

Re: Down rigger versus meat rod

I went and checked the hook limit and it reads as follows:<br />Angling means taking fish by hook and line. This includes bait and fly fishing, casting, trolling and the use of landing nets to complete the catch. Anglers must be in immediate attendance when their lines are in the water. An angler may operate no more than two lines with or without a rod, and each line is limited to not more than five lures or baits or a combination of both, and in addition, each line shall have not exceeding fifteen hook points in any combination of single, double, or treble hooks, provided the total number of hook points does not exceed fifteen. Snatching, lifting, hooking and the use of tip-ups are not angling.<br />The regs can be confusing. Thanks for the advice I will try trolling shallower with the down rigger.

 

[tomatolord]

Re: Down rigger versus meat rod

We would "stack" the DR to see at what level the fish were actually biting at.<br /><br />Maybe every 10 feet down<br /><br />Dont forget two things with a DR, <br /><br />blowback on the ball, - your line will say 100ft but the ball gets pushed back and up so the ball is at 90ft<br /><br />lure float - at those depths many lures becuase of the air inside them will rise not float, so you can get an extra 5-10 feet up <br /><br />tomatolord

 

[8x56mn]

Re: Down rigger versus meat rod

Thanks for all the advise. One thing I'm thinking of trying next weekend is run my ball at 50' and hook on a Sutton, which seems to be working on the meat rod and then clip on another spoon and let it slide down the line until it reaches the curve limit, should stop around 25-30 ft and see if that works.<br />My meat rods I attach a 10 foot leader bead swivels that are at 10 foot intervals and use 2 pound weight to keep it down and let out about 75-125 of line according to the counter, but who knows how deep the weight is and I always catch the fish on the bottom or next one up every time so far. They seem to be hitting the Suttons very well. It's hard to tell sometimes if you have one on especially if they are small say 15". I could be getting strikes as I let out line, who knows. I was marking occasional fish at 40-50 feet last Saturday however, so I think your right I am running the DR to deep.