Downrigger set up help

[brianvolt7]

Fished my entire life and out of a boat for 20 years. I have a Cannon Easy Troll downrigger that I have never set up nor have I ever used a downrigger. I bought it at a garage sale about 5 years ago for 7 dollars. I am going to purchase the cable and ball for it this weekend.
Here are my questions:
How much line does it hold?
Is 150# stainless steel adequate?
What size weight should I get?
What is the advantage and disadvantage to the different ball weights?
Troll no more than 2.5 MPH

My deepest fishing will be around 110 ? 130 feet in the lakes near my home. Mackinaw, Browns, Rainbow and Kokanee

 

[j.4knee]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Hope this helps

http://fishing.about.com/od/basicfishinginstruction/a/downriggers101.htm

http://store.cannondownriggers.com/products/325068/Easi-Troll

 

[axeman1988]

Re: Downrigger set up help

well if your going to be at 130 i'd buy 200 yards of cable, as far as weights the biggest one for the the ez troll is 10 or 8 pounds. you probably could go bigger also take in mind what kind of fishing you'll be doing if your going for the macks then the usual tactic is to bounce the weight off the bottom called bottom bouncing this is also used for late summer koke's, small fish look alike weights are good but they also do have pancake weights they are less likely to get stuck cause of there thin shape, also if your going to do that look for wire less than 150# just incase of a snag it will break and not tare the downrigger off your boat sounds like you go a good deal if you got a cannon lake troll for 7 bucks, downriggers are a great thing to have in a fishermans arsenal they can catch a lot of fish when you have to fish deep, and its a fun fight do the the fact of being able to use light gear.

 

[LongLine]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Holds more cable than you'll ever be able to use. 200 ft spool should last you a long time.

150# is good. Heavier will give you more blowback (angle away from vertical)

8 or 10 # is good, (10 is better) but try to get a "torpedo" shape or fish shape weight. Cannonballs will give you more blowback the deeper you go. If you go too heavy, your rigg'r won't take it. (not to mention, it's a chore cranking up the heavy weights from way down deep) Pancakes are a pain in the A##. Fins are too easy to bend out of shape and then they sway all over the place.

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[G-Daddy]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Two weeks ago we fished with two fish-shaped 15 lb weights and two torpedo shaped 13 lb seights. My 62 year old back took three days to recover from four days of fishing.

 

[brianvolt7]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Thanks, I am heading to Cabelas in Reno on Saturday. I am going to get set up and take the boat out on Sunday or Monday.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Do you have sonar? I assume you do.

Anyway, 200' should be good, but cranking up a 10# ball on a manual gets old. I am so glad for my two electric Big Jons after a couple of years of cranking...the 200' gives you a little "spare" if you have cable damage. The slightest kink on DR cable can cause a failure.

As far as fishing it: Always be a little above where you are marking fish or right in the middle of a ball of bait. Fish generally are looking "up" so sometimes being right at their depth won't get strikes as often.

Have fun with it.

 

[brianvolt7]

Re: Downrigger set up help

I have a small hummingbird fishfinder.

Does anyone know how to rig up two lines on one downrigger?

 

[axeman1988]

Re: Downrigger set up help

yeah i do its not that hard its called stacking and the thing you need is called a stacker clip, just ask your local fishing shop or cabelas, all it is, is a clamp that clamps on your downrigger cable and stays in place, you run your rig normal with the first line, then when you get it to a depth say your want to fish 80 and 40 feet, once your first line gets to 40 then put the stacker on with the release connected to the stacker, and then hook up the other line and set it down to 80 that way you'll have one at 40 and one at 80 also keep in mind i do believe you are supposed to leave the bottom line longer than the top line, (the distance behind the boat) cause if you get a hit on the bottom it has enough distance that the fish will miss getting tangled in the other line on the way to the surface, cause if it is short the fish will come up into the longer top line and be a mess. and if the top is short the fish won't be able to dive into the bottom. its a little tricky but once you get it figured out it can give you the ability to fish two different species of fish and for you it would be mack's and bows, macks on bottom and bows above. note you may want to purchase a dual rod holder for your rig it makes it a lot easier then trying to have the pole in a holder on the boat keeps em' out of the way especially on a smaller boat,

 

[LongLine]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Theory behind having the bottom line longer is that most fish that don't hit the top lure are ones that just take a quick look at it then sink/duck/swim back down to where they came from. Then whammo - they have the secong one right in their face. I often catch more Lake Ontario salmon on the longer bottom lead than the shorter top one.

Tom B.
(LongLine)

 

[brianvolt7]

Re: Downrigger set up help

I will pick up a stacker today at Cabelas. I will look at the dual rod holder for my downrigger.

 

[brianvolt7]

Re: Downrigger set up help

So I got it set up and took it out fishing. I need to work out the details of how to operate it with the line release, seems like that will be the most challenging. I am using a cannon release. Does anyone have a recommendation as to how to set this for trout in the 12 to 14? range? Do I put the line in the middle or near the edge?

I didn?t catch anything on it but I believe I got two hits. The line popped out of the release. I am not sure if this is the correct way of rigging the release bu I let out about 30 feet before hooking it to the release, I think this may be why I missed the fish. How far back should I fish my flashers from the weight?

 

[sstaz]

Re: Downrigger set up help

The best releases I have found are Blacks. Hands down the easiest to rig and you can set them really light for smaller fish while still getting the rod loaded up tight without them popping.

I usually run about 10 to 15ft behind the ball for trout as the ball is an attractant. Trout are very curious creatures and love some commotion in the water.

A way to run 2 baits on the rigger with one rod is to use a slider. Basically you just make a 6ft flouro leader, attach the leader to your rigger rod line with a snap and attach a spoon to the leader with a snap swivel. The slider will run down the line to the apex which is usually around half the depth of the ball. When a fish hits the slider it will slide down to the release and then pop the rigger rod. watch the rod carefully with a slider. You will notice the rod bouncing as the fish and slider drop to the release. I do this a lot on Lake Erie, run a Walleye bait on the bottom and the slider for Steelhead.

 

[LongLine]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Most guys I know that use the pinchpads place the line in the front 1/3 of the pads. Personally, I use Black's. You have to master the tension setting, but once you have it, you set for quite a while.

Ditto flashers 10-15 ft back. They put a lot of drag on the release. The further your are back, the more they swing & the more drag. If tension isn't right & you make a turn, greater chance they may pop loose.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Stackers are a pain in the neck to me.

I use a cheater on the main line- a fixed cheater 95% of the time, rod-length for salmon, etc. and up to 12' for walleye. One rigger- one rod. That way when a fish releases the line (I use Chamberlain releases cuz they work so well) I just hit the "up" button to retrieve the ball while I fight the fish and nothing else to fuss with, no other lines to clear if you have a good one on.

The right kind of fixed cheater clip-on can hold place for fish, but if the cheater is "empty" can slide down the line and let you keep reeling (albeit with more resistance). Big fish in the cheater do usually slide down the line to the lure or swivel. Not sure how that works for kings and stuff as Champlain and Oneida are my only two "big fish" water bodies.

 

[axeman1988]

Re: Downrigger set up help

well for me and i don't stack my lines i could but don't want to hassle with them, also trout may be curious, but they can be very shy creatures, i'll let a little cat out of my bag of tricks for you, i like to run copper colored flashers off my ball on my rig, note they don't have to be huge, only an inch and 3/4 across so you don't have to have a huge fasher is what i'm saying. then if you going to run some sort of flash behind your ball, don't run your bait 10' to 15' behind your ball , run it like 5-10 feet behind the last flasher on your ball and only about a foot above with a stacker clip run a bait in exact color or pretty close to it, ie a speedy shinner. my theory is that trout being true trout ie char, or salmon kings koke's ect... they are a preadator fish, when they are of size they predominately eat other fish, the bait behind the flashers looks like a weak slow fish trying to keep up with the school, ie easy pickings, i've had grand success using this technique. but like i say experimentation is the only way to really figure your fish out in the lake and its always changing hope this helps personal message me if you have any more quesions and i'll get back to you.

 

[sstaz]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Interesting thought Axeman, I do similar rig with dipsy divers. I run a three way swivel, one leader about 7ft with a deep diving stick bait and the top leader 6ft with a spoon. Kind of the same concept but not as dramatic.

 

[giericd]

Re: Downrigger set up help

I had the cannon easy troll and ended up breaking it. it was greeat and i love to use a down rigger, but manual retrieve was a pain. I had 200' of #150 wire and a 10lb cannon ball at slow speeds it would be straight down with only a few feet of blow back, it worked great untill my ball got stuck in some rocks and snapped the cable. i bought a #6 cannon ball and the blow back was real bad! I switched out the wire with I think it was 150lb Power Pro and the blow back was not as bad. if you want to fish down to 130' and are stacking it is going to cause more drag on the cable and you will have more blow back. In 30' of water at 5mph i had around 60' of cable out with the #6 ball and you could see it ablut 10' below the surface behind the boat. i let out cable untill it bounced bottom and it was around 100' of cable. you might want to switch to Power Pro instead of cable, you can pack more on your spool, and i would say for the speed you are going to be going a #8 ball should work nice, if you are going to stack then a #10. be forwarned a #10 ball on that little down rigger is a lot of weight and is pushing the composit materials it is made of to it's limit. I ended up replacing the #6 with a nother #10 and went through the waves of a large boat, the up, down, up down made the ball "bounce" and it snapped the down rigger at the base of the arm.

 

[ChampionShip]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Do yourself a favor and search for Chamberlain releases- fully adjustable for small fish and you can load the rod down like a Blacks release. Do yourself another favor and get a 10 lb fish weight for reasons mentioned- cannonballs blow back a bunch, pancake weights wander alot with currents, even the new torpedo weights sucked in my opinion even why running a 13 lb it blew back like a mother......Do yourself an easy but often overlooked favor and always pivot your rigger straight back when you are retrieving it- takes alot of strain off the side of the pulleys and makes it easier on you (been running manual and electric riggers for 20 years- trust me on this). Get yourself a cannon weight retriever to make it easier to set and reset. On the Great Lakes lots of us are running downrigger speed/temp probes with coated downrigger cable- helps dial in your trolling speed in relation to currents and temp breaks below the surface......Subtroll, Fishhawk, Depth Raider.....etc. A couple of them are making a handheld unit that does the same.

DO NOT STACK WITH POWERPRO!!! Braided line doesn't warn much when it's about to break as it is- don't need a release clipping to it and chaffing it all up.......lead is expensive!!

 

[M9.9]

Re: Downrigger set up help

Yea I know what you mean giericd. It is a pain to retrieve when your cables' down a bit. I ended up converting my manual to electric after seeing what all the big-wigs charge for an electric downrigger.

Almost finished converting my new Cannon, Lake Troll to electric. Motor is mounted and electrical wiring and switches are soldered and unit tested. Once I let the paint dry, I'll be doing final assembly and posting details on how I made it, here on iBoats.