Downrigger questions for the pros

What's up, NCKA?

Couple quick questions for any of you who use downriggers on your kayak for salmon trolling.

1) Do you attempt to crank up the ball when you're hooked up on a fish, or ignore the downrigger and concentrate on fighting your fish? Maybe you keep pedaling slowly (if in a Hobie) to keep the fish back behind you and clear of the downrigger cable during the fight?

2) Have you ever lost a fish to a tangle with your downrigger cable? Many people seem to be concerned about this, but I've only read of it happening to yak anglers a couple times.

My thought is that I've got a better chance of success if I don't try to divide my attention between cranking a downrigger and controlling a spastic salmon dangling from a barbless hook.

Here's a link to a similar discussion over at NWKA:
http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=12620.0;nowap

Definitely some mixed opinions and experiences. Curious to hear yours.

What do you think?

Thanks,

~Alex

I always crank up the ball as soon as I have the rod in hand and understand what the fish is gonna do.
Never got the two tangled, probably cause I always bring up the ball.

I don't use DR that much so haven't got any tanglement yet but I usually crank it up after a hook-up especially if it a Salmon.

Interesting. Where do you guys have your downriggers mounted? In front or behind?

I've got mine rigged behind my seat for now (the no $, no holes drilled option), but may explore some other options down the road... Just trying to do some good research before I start drilling holes. I won't even be able to try the DR up front without doing the full install.

I've only run my DR for freshwater fish, and leave the ball down.  If I were to be pulling on a fat salmon in the salt I'd want to have it up and out of the way.

I try to crank up my downrigger ball when I hook up.  It's just extra gear in the water.  but I would never do it at the expense of possible slack line.  I have never had a salmon wrap the cable.  I'm sure given enough opportunities it could happen, but it hasn't happened yet. As a disclaimer, I use 65lbs braid and up to 100lbs fluoro leaders (usually 40 or 80lbs)  for about 90% of my salmon trolling.  So I am capable of controlling fish a lot better than the ultralight sporty types.  I am fishing for food!!!!

I crank mine maybe 2 or 3 cranks to prevent snags on the bottom since I troll the bottom mostly.  Ohterwise, I leave it and I've never had my fish line tangle with my downrigger line.  I fished my DR a lot and use a device to send my line back down without having to haul it all the way back up again every time I trip the release. 

I crank mine maybe 2 or 3 cranks to prevent snags on the bottom since I troll the bottom mostly.  Ohterwise, I leave it and I've never had my fish line tangle with my downrigger line. 

+1

Thanks for the replies. I could see myself cranking the ball up if it's less than 50 feet or so down, but cranking the ball up 100+ feet with a fish hanging sounds like a recipe for heartbreak.

Kardinal - Are you still using the rigger mounted behind your seat like I've seen in your videos? I've seen where you turn around and crank on the DR while fighting a fish, but seems like you're fishing pretty shallow. Do you do the same thing when you're down 50, 60, 100 feet? Also curious if you're fishing barbs or barbless. That'll make a HUGE difference for whether a fish will stay stuck while you crank the DR.

Ski Pro - Are you talking about a Shuttle Hawk? Does it add a lot of drag compared to the downrigger alone?

Yup. Still behind me and I use barbs. If I had barbless I'd just fight the fish. When deeper i side saddle to crank. But yup,I tend to above 30 ft about 75% of the time. My set up is far from ideal. But fortunately it works for me.

I use a Scotty stacker clip set about 4' above my ball.  When that line trips, I then reconnect using a cannon ball snap over the DR wire.  It's a loose fit over the wire and the tackle slides down the cable to the stacker clip that is still on there, 4 feet above my ball. 

My rig works like this; a fish-style weight with a rudder on it curved to make the weight go out sideways away from the kayak a bit when under power.  I hook through the nose of the fish weight so the weight is tipped up and doesn't snag on the bottom very easily; it skips over most stuff if it gets too close to the bottom.

Off the tail of the fish weight, I put a set of flasher blades.  4 blades I think...

Then my stacker clip 4' up the cable from the nose of the fish weight. 

My fishing line has a set of willow blades followed by a dodger and a lure behind the dodger that is 4X the length of the dodger. 

I set this to trail 6' from the first blade so it's back quite a ways.  Reason is; at trolling speed; 1.3mph, the tackle sags down.  With the right speed and height setting above the fish weight, my tackle falls just behind the blades that are attached to the tail of the fish weight.  That puts the fixed blades that are on the fish weight's tail in line with my fishing tackle. 

With my line attached 6' up from my tackle, my lure is now 10' behind the DR wire and falls just behind the fixed blades on the fish weight. 

Here is a sketch of what I'm talking about;
(click on sketch for a larger view)

I use a Scotty stacker clip set about 4' above my ball.  When that line trips, I then reconnect using a cannon ball snap over the DR wire.  It's a loose fit over the wire and the tackle slides down the cable to the stacker clip that is still on there, 4 feet above my ball. 

My rig works like this; a fish-style weight with a rudder on it curved to make the weight go out sideways away from the kayak a bit when under power.  I hook through the nose of the fish weight so the weight is tipped up and doesn't snag on the bottom very easily; it skips over most stuff if it gets too close to the bottom.

Off the tail of the fish weight, I put a set of flasher blades.  4 blades I think...

Then my stacker clip 4' up the cable from the nose of the fish weight. 

My fishing line has a set of willow blades followed by a dodger and a lure behind the dodger that is 4X the length of the dodger. 

I set this to trail 6' from the first blade so it's back quite a ways.  Reason is; at trolling speed; 1.3mph, the tackle sags down.  With the right speed and height setting above the fish weight, my tackle falls just behind the blades that are attached to the tail of the fish weight.  That puts the fixed blades that are on the fish weight's tail in line with my fishing tackle. 

With my line attached 6' up from my tackle, my lure is now 10' behind the DR wire and falls just behind the fixed blades on the fish weight. 

Here is a sketch of what I'm talking about;
(click on sketch for a larger view)

Interesting. I assume you're talking about trout or Kokanee fishing? I wonder if a similar technique minus all the bladed flashers could work for salmon? I need to be able to troll up to about 100 feet down at speeds up to 3+ knots (usually about 2.5), and need to be able to really load up the rod for a good hookset when the line releases. Seems like your gear would slide back up the wire if you tried to load up the rod?

. . . I need to be able to troll up to about 100 feet down at speeds up to 3+ knots (usually about 2.5), and need to be able to really load up the rod for a good hookset when the line releases. . . .

Just curious as to what DR model you use. I use the Scotty Depthmaster, which takes up 1' of line with each turn of the handle. The Scotty Depthking takes up 2 feet with every turn of the crank. It might be a little trickier to mount the Depthking on a kayak, but it seems like it would be a real advantage when fishing deep.

I also have the Scotty Depthmaster. I thought about getting the DepthKing, but it looks pretty bulky. It'd be tricky to mount in a location where I wouldn't bash my knuckles while cranking.

For now the rigger is attached to the lid of a customized milk crate that sits behind the seat of my Outback. I haven't actually had a chance to test it in this position, but hopefully I can make it out for a trout fishing trial run soon.

Is there a good install tut on this site for installing downriggers? Do you have any pictures of your install AlexB?