Descender Weight

Considering what to use for a descender weight.

I do have a 4lb downrigger ball, but it is fin shaped, not round.

I also have several 1lb cannonball weights. Was considering melting a few of those together. Not sure the best way to go about that though. I think 3lbs would be plenty, but could do a 4 or 5 lb.

Or, I could just string them together, and not bother melting anything. 

What is everyone else doing for this?

I was able to safely released this nice Verm with a 2 lbs weight recently.

Having not descended many fish personally, I’m surprised that so much weight is necessary. Will the buoyancy of the fish make descending with, for example, a 12 oz weight too slow, ineffective…

I was able to safely released this nice Verm with a 2 lbs weight recently.

Nice, thanks for a reference. How deep did you go?

Having not descended many fish personally, I’m surprised that so much weight is necessary. Will the buoyancy of the fish make descending with, for example, a 12 oz weight too slow, ineffective…

I've never used a descending device, so don't really have a good reference for how much is needed to safely get them down.  I would say about 95% of my fishing is in less than 70ft, so sending a rockfish down that deep probably isn't quite the challenge as say 200ft or more.

Also, are people using a rod and reel for this, or some other sort of device?

Hi Kevin,

I caught and released this Verm in 130 fow.

I pulled up this 28" yelloweye from 120 ft. I had to keep adding weights to the descender. It took over four pounds of lead to finally descend her. Since then, I pack a 5 lb lead ball with me and it works 100% of the time.

Barotrauma varies with each individual fish. Some come up bloated, others seem to swim back down on their own. Yelloweye seem to suffer barotrauma the most frequently, even when reeled up from 90-100 ft. Reeling them up slowly will not make a difference. Rockfish have a physoclistous swim bladder. The gas exchange occurs via the bloodstream.

Pack a 5 lb lead ball with you, and you'll be set. Pack less at your own/the fish's risk.

I've descended fish with only 8oz, so I think 12oz should work for the majority of fish. After the first 10ft they compress quite a bit. Most of my descended fish were small gophers or Coppers, so not a large volume of gas.  The one 21" yellow eye took awhile to get down. Worst case you could double a 10 or 12oz ball if it's not going down.

It took 4 lbs to descend a Yellow Eye. It wasnt that big, maybe 5 to 6 lbs.  I use 1 lb weights and put the biggest snap on my descender to put all the weights together.

I have a 2.5lb fin weight I'm going to use, it has a snap at the very end of the fin to attach your dr release clip so I'll point it straight down. At the moment I plan on using a hand-line to descend, but I'm more than tempted to use my DR, which seems like it would be easy to control on descent and retrieve.

Last year I had a huge Yellow eye and it laughed at the 1lb ball I had on. Ended up using my whole weight bag to get that biggin down!
Now I have a 2 lb ball and another 2pounder ready to snap on if needed!

Scotty

I pulled up this 28" yelloweye from 120 ft. I had to keep adding weights to the descender. It took over four pounds of lead to finally descend her. Since then, I pack a 5 lb lead ball with me and it works 100% of the time.

Barotrauma varies with each individual fish. Some come up bloated, others seem to swim back down on their own. Yelloweye seem to suffer barotrauma the most frequently, even when reeled up from 90-100 ft. Reeling them up slowly will not make a difference. Rockfish have a physoclistous swim bladder. The gas exchange occurs via the bloodstream.

Pack a 5 lb lead ball with you, and you'll be set. Pack less at your own/the fish's risk.

This.  And, descend all rockfish you are releasing, whether it appears like it needs to or not.  It’s best for ALL fish.

-Allen

Hi Kevin,

I caught and released this Verm in 130 fow.

Good data point, thanks Sonny.

It took 4 lbs to descend a Yellow Eye. It wasnt that big, maybe 5 to 6 lbs.  I use 1 lb weights and put the biggest snap on my descender to put all the weights together.

I like the idea of using a big snap and multiple weights for different fish situations.

I have a 2.5lb fin weight I'm going to use, it has a snap at the very end of the fin to attach your dr release clip so I'll point it straight down. At the moment I plan on using a hand-line to descend, but I'm more than tempted to use my DR, which seems like it would be easy to control on descent and retrieve.

Ah, I forgot about the eye on the fin. Good call using handline - seems simple and easy to carry. I'm thinking about maybe 100ft of paracord should do the trick.

I pulled up this 28" yelloweye from 120 ft. I had to keep adding weights to the descender. It took over four pounds of lead to finally descend her. Since then, I pack a 5 lb lead ball with me and it works 100% of the time.

Barotrauma varies with each individual fish. Some come up bloated, others seem to swim back down on their own. Yelloweye seem to suffer barotrauma the most frequently, even when reeled up from 90-100 ft. Reeling them up slowly will not make a difference. Rockfish have a physoclistous swim bladder. The gas exchange occurs via the bloodstream.

Pack a 5 lb lead ball with you, and you'll be set. Pack less at your own/the fish's risk.

This.  And, descend all rockfish you are releasing, whether it appears like it needs to or not.  It’s best for ALL fish.

-Allen

For sure, just making sure I am prepared.

My DIY descending device. I had some heavy stainless wire leftover from another project. Copied the rough shape of the Shelton device. Will probably find some heavy duty carabiners for the top and bottom to make hooking it up easier.

I'm on the fence about a handline or just a stiff rod to lower it down. Would be nice to have a reel to crank it back up, but I mostly fish less than 100ft, so a few pounds of lead on a handline a couple times per trip isn't a big deal either. Probably easier than pulling hoop nets full of crab, haha. Will think on it for a bit.

My DIY descending device. I had some heavy stainless wire leftover from another project. Copied the rough shape of the Shelton device. Will probably find some heavy duty carabiners for the top and bottom to make hooking it up easier.

I'm on the fence about a handline or just a stiff rod to lower it down. Would be nice to have a reel to crank it back up, but I mostly fish less than 100ft, so a few pounds of lead on a handline a couple times per trip isn't a big deal either. Probably easier than pulling hoop nets full of crab, haha. Will think on it for a bit.

The wire doesn't look stiff enough and probably will give you some issue decending a medium to large yellow or cowcod IMO.