poor man's downrigger.

  You won't have to worry about fowling your line at Lexington if you stay in the area from the dam to firemans cove ( the cove below the Alma fire station)  The waters at the dam when full, are over 120ft deep.  Avg depth at firemans cove is around 65-70 feet. (main lake )   The bottom starts to rise from Firemans cove,heading south  to about 40 feet.  The section of water from firemans cove back to the where the houses are (and the big tube) there are trees down the middle of the lake that show on FF's  The tops of which are down 25 to 30ft.  I nailed the trout trolling over those trees one season!

Troy

I agree with Mickfish et al: trolling in a handpowered boat (a rowboat in my case) is tough enough with out adding the complication of a downrigger.

Just think, it takes two hands to paddle (or row) effectively, at least one hand to smoothly release line on the drop (assuming you have a decent rodholder) and at least one more to operate the downrigger. How many hands do you guys have?

When I was a kid, we used to troll in Puget Sound with 2 and 3# weights. Seems like the Stone Ages, now. Effective,  but brutal. I much prefer mooching or jigging for the lighter tackle and ease of fishing. Why the (seemingly) big reliance on trolling in Cal?

One of the advantages we have in the Sound is that certain spots, at certain tides, are fish funnels or congregation zones. The tidal flows create a reversible river, and like a river, we fish behind and in front of the obstructions. (Kind of like fishing for stripers around the Gate.) Since we have good fish magnets, we don't have to search as much, I guess.

You Puget Sound folks are just spoiled, my wife and I were up there and I was quietly chomping at the bit the whole time looking at all that clear blue water. I think my cousin near Port Townsend can row his little boat out of his backyard and fish salmon rockies crabs or whatever, what a life you northerners have

I wish it were true,    unfortunately our state management authorities always seem to be way behind the curve, with the miserable result of seriously depleted fish stocks. (The state's focus has been on maximum sustained yield,a misnomer, rather than maximum population.) The best salmon fishing is when the runs return from the open ocean, and then it is a timing game. The resident populations are hammered. (An old story-- when I moved here in '73, all the old timers told me that I had missed the good ole days. Now, I feel that way about the  fishing in the '70s.) The population explosion hasn't helped any. (Californicators, stay home! You're not missing anything! )

I've lived most of the last 20+ years east of the Cascade Mtns., so getting to Puget Sound is about a 4 hour drive. Getting out to the outer coast (Neah Bay or LaPush) with decent fishing, is another 4 hours or so. The wildlife, when you get farther from the pop. centers, is pretty impressive.

 If I had the digi cam that Santa forgot to bring me, I could show you a photo of the 2' of "whitewater" in my yard.   

Pt. Townsend is a sweet spot, with as good fishing as any where else in Puget Sound. Pretty easy run out to the Coast. ( ~100 miles due west up the Straits) If you ever think you'll be visiting your cousin, give a jingle. 

Why do you need a downrigger?

First of all you don't need a downrigger unless you are going deep. Using a  downrigger to go 20 or 40 feet is just a way to
needlessly over complicate your fishing. The idea is you can use a really light rod and really light line and brag how you
caught a salmon on 6lb test with an FM antenna for a fishing rod.

A down rigger is really nice if you want to get down over 100 feet when your are trolling. This is good for Halibut and Salmon, usually early in the fishing season when Salmon tend to be deep, sometimes as deep as 300 feet. Myself, I find I can get down 90 or 100 feet with a planer about 200 pulls out or a 2 1/2 pound weight on a quick release. The fish bites and the weight dropsoff. The reason for this is a heavy weight will cause your line to do funny things and not let you control the fish and the fish will break loose.

The trouble with all this is to get into water deep enough to need a down rigger you will have to paddle at least 2 miles and more like 3 miles offshore. The exception would be Monterey Bay and more likely Carmel Bay.

I went and tried the trout version of this at lexington today cause I had a little unexpected time on my hands.

One rod was 4lb test, UL 2-8lb line rod. that one had a 4" sepps dodger for kokanee and/or trout
and a threaded worm 18" or so behind that.

the other rod had a 10oz torpedo and a cheap sepps downrigger release (basically padded alligator
clip on 12" of wire) on a three way swivel.

worked pretty well, no tangles, no lost gear.

I can believe leaving the downrigger line out could be a hassle if a really big trout is on the line but I'm mostly after
numbers (one would be nice,  ) not too worried about trophies.

basically I let out 15 feet (or whatever) of UL, then attach it to the clip and lower the weight.

the line hangs below the boat pretty well. after clipping the ultralight to
the downrigger rod, you just let out the downrigger and the light drag setting on the UL rod
just pulls the line out and leaves the rod loaded.

no fish landed, but 2 strikes that got my line lose from the clip and made me forget about
the rain.. Maybe I'm being optimistic and they were just snags:  worm gone,  but no fish hooked.

The diver is still not as good in the trout case: you have to fight the 8oz trout with a 3oz diver on the line.

the downrigger allows fighting the trout with 4lb mono, pretty much straight. I think that's the only
way anybody wants an 8oz (or even 3lb) trout on the line. People are willing to have a 20lb salmon on the line with
some considerable weight or let a big hunk of lead be dropped.

the downrigger has one more advantage in the trout case. If the lure/bait in use is more or less neutrally
bouyant, even if you stop trolling, your lure will stay at the same depth. This is good in the case of the
trolled nightcrawler.

The downrigger has the disadvantage that there's a line hanging straight down below your boat
that a trout can get tangled on and probably break off. It also has the disadvantage that it feels
more complicated, you have two rods and reels instead of one.

It was me who originally muddied the trout trolling waters by including salmon in the discussion,
but I quickly tried to restrict to the trout only case. I don't think I have been to successful in
promoting the restriction of the discussion to that case.

My own personal take on this after my experiment today is that the poor man's downrigger, consisting
of an extra rod and reel and an $8 sepps downrigger release clip works pretty well, but for salmon I
will be using a weight on a release.

best,

J

your lure will stay at the same depth. This is good in the case of the
trolled nightcrawler.

Only good if your catching if your not it might be good to sink a little deeper when you slow down, visa versa

Hello jmairey,  And good work on project poor man...

This won't work for salmon, but it will get you down 10-20 ft for trout.  You can replace the rear hook on a deep diving bass plug
with a swivel, and tie on a 2 ft leader with a small spoon (like a 1/12 oz super duper).  I think the deepest diving crankbaits go to
about 25ft.  If you could find "old school chrome" the plug would act as a flasher.   Bonus belly hook is still available for hungry
Bass.  May want to check dfg regs on belly hook but I think its still O.K.

Brgds,
Ron

A 3oz. diver? That's gotta be overkill, especially on 4# mono. 3 oz. of lead on 12-15# mono will hit hit 40-50' with ~4x the line out.

Some possible solutions:

- 1 oz. lead is probably plenty to take 4# mono and lure to the 20-25' range

- Powerpro braid comes in a 8# test that's supposed to be the equivelent of 1# mono, this could knock more weight off, to the 1/2-3/4 oz. range

- Luhr Jensen Jet Diver come in various sizes that take salmon/steelhead lures 10-50' (on much heavier test!). I don't think any of them are close to 3oz.

_ Steelhead fisherman, here in the NW, use diving/wobbling plugs, with the hooks removed, as divers for back trolling rivers for steelhead and salmon. This way, you get diver and flasher/attractor in one, with no need for additional weight!

BTW, I haven't tried it but I've heard of guys tying the dodger behind the downrigger wieght, and putting the release behind the dodger. Then, when the fish pops the release it's just him and your hook(s). I wouldn't try this with a rotating flasher---that would quickly make a huge mess!

More power to you, for trying out different combos. Over my life my fishing has been bicoastal and I would always get funny looks for trying out West Coast lures and techniques on the East Coast, and vice versa. Course, it was often funny for me to see the looks when I succeeded!

Another good reason for using a downrigger, besides hitting extreme depths without heavy weight directly on your line, is to be able to accurately track the bottom 10' of the water column. Some fish (Lakers in Lake Chelan, immature chinook in the Sound) will spend a majority of their time feeding down close to the bottom. If your not down ther with them, you won't catch them. Talk about staying busy though, even on a PB!

If those trout you're chasing in Lexington are recent stockers, they're probably all over the place learning their new home. Fish that have been there for a while will probably have figured out some routine for feeding. Unless the shallows are warmer than the upper 60's, they could very well be there, except for mid-day. Oh, most salmonids feed best in lowlight conditions.

Have fun!

PS    Oooops, i see some one else told you the diver trick while I was distracted!

I only have one diver, a deep six size 1 I have as a backup for salmon trolling weights. It weighs 2 7/8 oz
or something, but you are right that those jet divers are just plastic they don't weigh much of anything.
they also don't go as deep.

Purely on my own craziness, I already did take a diving plug, removed both hooks, put a 12 to 18 inch line on each eye,
the front one with a split shot to disuade them from tangling. front hook had a real-life white grub,
larvae of a scarab beetle, they eat turf roots, and the rear a real-life worm, poorly threaded. The plug was also
selected because it was bright (firetiger) and loud (rattler) as the water is hopelessly muddy right now.

I had a feeling that somebody else was crazier before me, 

It worked okay, at least as far as I could tell (did not lose it, tangle it, and it seemed to be wiggling nicely
under the surface, and probably rattling a ton) but in the future I would leave only the back line on as it
almost got tangled just pulling it out of the water.

It perhaps did not go deep enough (I don't know) and I decided that it was a pretty big plug to
have between me and the little (hypothetical and getting more so every trip) trout.

jptroy and ken kickfish have both caught trout at this reservoir, ken kickfish using mostly the poor man's
downrigger + dodger and worm. I don't know what jptroy used to catch those fish at the submerged treetops at the
south end of the reservoir.

I've hit lexington three times in the last three weeks to try some things out (new kayak). It has been very muddy
and over full, perhaps there is no hope, I haven't seen anybody else catch anything else either,
but I have things I want to test.

perhaps a 3/4 oz egg sinker will get the job done with a rooster tail with hook removed and trailed worm,  .

regarding putting the release aft of the dodger, that also occurred to me, so good to know it's been tried.

thanks for all the insight.

that would work. I have them pointed back, so I needed two long rods.

but on your boat, if you try trout trolling, you could use your two rod holders like that.

front one sawed off rod, line counter reel. back one little ultra light. trout. not salmon,