Downrigger for Prowler 15

I am soooooooooo looking forward to dispelling the " can't reel in a salmon with a downrigger deployed" myth.
For the toddler....When CHUB was 2 yearts old I put a car seat in a float tube and pulled him while I was in my float tube. Where there is a will there is a way.
Try a car seat facing you but secured towards the front of the footwell. Definitely do not strap the little one in. Just make them comfy and have plenty of floatation on them and even a make shift submersion suit just in case. Take them out when it is calm. The fact that they are looking at you while you are paddling should keep them at ease.
Start them young and as they grow it will become second nature.
It is very cool being out with your kid and knowing they are comfortable and capable.

John,

A lot of the downrigger discussion was conjecture made without empirical evidence. So yes, this may be a completely stupid idea to go after Salmon with a downrigger on a kayak, but at least we'll have real live data and experience to back this up. Even if the Salmon experiment is a failure, I can use the downrigger on the yak or on my pontoon boat for chasing kokes up in Donner.

Brian, I'll be using my Daiwa reel that's equiped with a clicker. I can put it in freespool when dropping the ball and not have to worry about messing with the drag. It's the Sealine SG27LCA. Cheap and has a line counter so it too can take care of measuring how deep the lure is running.

Scott

Do you guys think something like THIS will work as well as a down rigger?

CHEERS!

Yes... they work.  I have that exact same diver.  You need to keep the little chart that comes with it so you know which combinations of holes and how much line out equals a given depth. 

They flip over when a fish is hooked and plane toward the surface so there is no release mechanism to deal with. 

They work OK, but IMO they create an opportunity for slack line, which equals lost fish more times than not when your dealing with barbless hooks.  The ideal would still be a total release mechanism such as downrigger so you have nothing betwen you and the fish but your line.

I plan to try my downrigger for salmon this year as well.  There may be issues with having the ball down, but a long rod may help to mitigate that to some extent, and being able to do the "around the back" maneuver would probably be helpful too. 

EK

When I downrigger fish with my PB buddies we land fish all of the time with the cables still out...its no biggie.  On the PB I use a 8'6" noodle with an Abu.  The long rod is good at sucking up the intial slack you always get on a downrigger.  Just make sure your hooks a re SHARP, not a lot of hook setting mojo in this combo.

scott, I did try the downrigger experiment (well, with a second rod as the downrigger) at lexington.

bsteves, I carry some lead, but I have a deep six for when they run out.

and when you are 5 miles out and sinking, you can send me a wise-guy email about flotation... 

EK, what is the "around the back" manuever?

I ask because in the New york times was a most-emailed article about this guy that lands
trout with his fly rod by putting the rod across his neck, then levering the fish close enough
to be netted.  was kind of interesting, maybe it would help net a fish on the kayak with
a long rod, I don't know.

J

Nice setup Mike.  Look forward to seeing how it works in the Ocean.  Spectra IMO seems to be a good choice. 

John

Reasons to not use Spectra:
Line sensitivity and detecting bites is not an issue
The downrigger will reduce line drag and angle
Mono will give you room for error when dealing with soft mouths, poor hook ups, directional changes, the rod pop up/put paddle down/grab rod period.
Possible entanglements wil downrigger cable would be a nightmare
I've heard complaints that smaller diameter spectra pops prematurely from clothespin style releases but I guess that depends on what you're dragging at the business end

 
Thats just me though.  One a side note, last season we ran through a submerged kelp paddy drifting unattahched with the current.  If the drags on the downrigger hadn't been on the loose side it would have ripped the whole thing off the boat.  Keep a cutting device handy. 

 

Reasons to not use Spectra:
Line sensitivity and detecting bites is not an issue
The downrigger will reduce line drag and angle
Mono will give you room for error when dealing with soft mouths, poor hook ups, directional changes, the rod pop up/put paddle down/grab rod period.
Possible entanglements wil downrigger cable would be a nightmare
I've heard complaints that smaller diameter spectra pops prematurely from clothespin style releases but I guess that depends on what you're dragging at the business end

 
Thats just me though.  One a side note, last season we ran through a submerged kelp paddy drifting unattahched with the current.  If the drags on the downrigger hadn't been on the loose side it would have ripped the whole thing off the boat.  Keep a cutting device handy. 

 

The Spectra is in lieu of the cable on the downrigger.

Reasons to not use Spectra:
Line sensitivity and detecting bites is not an issue
The downrigger will reduce line drag and angle
Mono will give you room for error when dealing with soft mouths, poor hook ups, directional changes, the rod pop up/put paddle down/grab rod period.
Possible entanglements wil downrigger cable would be a nightmare
I've heard complaints that smaller diameter spectra pops prematurely from clothespin style releases but I guess that depends on what you're dragging at the business end

 
Thats just me though.  One a side note, last season we ran through a submerged kelp paddy drifting unattahched with the current.  If the drags on the downrigger hadn't been on the loose side it would have ripped the whole thing off the boat.  Keep a cutting device handy. 

 

The Spectra is in lieu of the cable on the downrigger.

Right on, was thinking of going spectra over cable myself but wasn't sure if the stackers were gonna move up and down the spectra.

I don't necessarily see any advantage to going with Spectra if you are in a powerboat. Unless you are buying into the whole electric charge phenomenon.

For kayakers, I believe that spectra is going to be able to be cut a lot faster in an emergency than cable. I wound on a 150 yard spool of  50 lb Tuf-Line. So theoreticially even a couple emergency cutoffs wouldn't stop me fishing for the day.

Scott

Cable will humm, jump off the spool or kink just as quick on a pb than a kayak.