Kayak trolling: how to get deep?

I'm thinking of taking the kayak back out on Lake Almanor tomorrow, and putting a little more effort into catching some trout while trolling.  The water clarity ain't that great right now, so I was thinking of running a small dodger with a nightcrawler or a lure to make it more visible to the fish.

How do you guys troll with such a setup?  I know that dodger is gonna want to ride up in the water column, and I don't have a downrigger.  I was thinking of running a heavier rod with braided line so it'll cut through the water easier, with a rig like this:

couple of big egg sinkers--------swivel------dodger-----bait/lure

Has anyone tried this?  Or is there a better method?  I'm hoping to run this setup about 8 feet down.  If it doesn't work out then no big deal, I'll just drift and jig.  But I'd like to cover water trolling.

i know for salmon I've used the deep six diver (I think that is what they are called). not sure how deep you are looking to get but that may work.

I've thought about this too and the most popular alternative to down riggers seems to be dipsy divers and snap weights.

Snap wieghts:
http://www.offshoretackle.com/weights.htm

Dipsy diver:
http://www.luhrjensen.com/products/uv-bright-lures/dipsy-diver

I have not exp with either. I have been putting barrel weights on to get depth so far.

A simple sliding sinker w/ an ounce or two of weight (cannonball) will get you down 40'+ at about 1-1.5 mph.

Z

I know that the regular trolling banana weights work and keep your lure straight. Ive had to use little rudders or swivels to keep the twist out, depends on what your trolling.  A 1/4 oz kastmaster or rooster tail can get pretty deep, if you let out a LOT of line.  The more line you let out the deeper those things get, I would say in excess of 8' for sure.  But it can get hairy with all that line out and you really have to watch out for other boats and poles.  Those divers are pretty cool, some have different settings to control the depth.  I would say test things out until it works for your application and style.  Good luck

A simple sliding sinker w/ an ounce or two of weight (cannonball) will get you down 40'+ at about 1-1.5 mph.

Z

+1

I do most of my trout trolling with just a 4/O dodger and whatever lure I drag behind it. I catch a lot of trout that way. I also let out a lot of line. Way more than most people think you need. I always tell friends when they think they have enough line out, let out more. When the water gets really warm and the fish go deep, I just use 1-2 bigger bullet weights (plastic worm style) in front of my set up. Gets down pretty darn far. Really need to watch the water depth on you FF when doing that. You'll catch the bottom if your not careful. This ime of year no need to add weight. Fish are usually in the first few feet of water.

These work pretty good you can use rocks if you don't want to drop lead.

http://www.sinker-dropper.com/

before I got my downrigger I used the lower section of a surf rod (with one eye)in the front rod holder and used a 1lb ball... a release clip . then in the back..I d cast out about 50' behind me and then attach the clip and send er down... adjusting drags of course..

Thanks for the suggestions all!  The sinker releases and snap-weights look interesting.  I scrounged up some 1 and 2 oz cannonballs from my saltwater gear, but it's sounding like I won't actually need too much weight to reach 8-10 feet.  I'm bringing the bigger weights with me just in case.  I'll report on how it goes.

 

 You can try lead line?

I use a davis fishseeker diving device
 http://www.davisnet.com/marine/products/marine_product.asp?pnum=00512
about 3 ft in front of a sling blade dodger 3 ft in front of lure of choice.
At least 100 ft. behind boat.
The diver is adjustable so you know how deep you are, using the included depth chart.
Have caught trout and salmon with this set up and less trouble and drag than with a down rigger.
Tad
 
 

I like the looks of that, Tad.  I think I'll try one out.  I've always used Deep-Six and have also had luck with banana weights.  KISS is the preferred mode, so a banana weight with built-in beads tied right to your leader is the easiest to fish with and fun to catch fish on - a $10 flasher/dodger can be thrown in between, but that almost ruins the simplicity and economy of it.  That's all salmon though - I haven't targetted trout deep much.  I did buy a "wedding ring" last summer and want to get it behind a mini-deep-six at Tahoe and maybe Caples.   

Thanks for the suggestions all!  The sinker releases and snap-weights look interesting.  I scrounged up some 1 and 2 oz cannonballs from my saltwater gear, but it's sounding like I won't actually need too much weight to reach 8-10 feet.  I'm bringing the bigger weights with me just in case.  I'll report on how it goes.

If your only looking to hit the 8-10ft range, you probably wont need more than 1/2-3/4oz weight.  I use a bullet weight>bead>swivel>Flashers>Leader combo this way, and can remove the Flashers and cast out powerbait or inflated nightcrawlers for planters.  Want to go deeper?  Use lighter line like 4lb on your UL rod and around 75f of line out and troll S patterns.  Have fun!

Good advice all!  I practiced my kayak trolling along the Prattville shoreline on Lake Almanor yesterday.  Like just about everyone mentioned, I didn't need much weight to get deep.  By midday I only needed a 1/2 oz egg sinker to get down deep with a dodger/worm combo.  Fishing wasn't exactly red-hot, but I did get some action.  Landed a 16 inch rainbow toplining the dodger/worm around 10:30am, and missed a few other bites throughout the day.  Best action was right in front of the Plumas Pines marina, just outside the log boom.

The missed bites were frustrating: my pole would go bendo, I'd have the fish on for a couple seconds, then they'd come off.  I was using a size 6 baitholder hook with a threaded minicrawler.  Perhaps my hook was too small?  There were some big fish rolling and jumping in the area, at least 4-6 pounders, but they weren't cooperative.