Learn How To Fish Downriggers
Expeienced anglers know that downrigging the most accurate way to assure the bait is at the right depth-short of dropping anchor of coarse. Ideally, of course, you want to be able to keep your lure in the depth range where you want it-at the depth where your fish finder is indicating the fish are located-at any given point in time. It will take a little trial and error, patience, and a bit of record keeping, but you can become adept at doing this.
I preferr.I have used other brands but was never satisfied with thier performance or durability. They generally fell apart too soon or rusted long before they should have, and I didn’t feel I got a real value for my money.
But Cannon produces some really great downrigging systems. They have more complex systems, but I like to work with something a little simpler, like the Mag 10TS, for example. Experienced boaters and fishermen trust the Magnum because it has been proven to be extremely durable and dependable. It offers a speedy retrieval rate of 250 feet per minute, includes a short-stop feature to protect their boat so that a swinging weight won’t put a hole in the side, and it is really tough and can handle a lot. In particular, the Mag 10TS has a spool constructed of stainless steel that can deal with the “super lines” popular these days or monofilament.It has a stylish appearance with a nice white finish and includes Positive Ion Control which creates an electronic field around the ball making your boat a fish finding machine.
To start, you need to determine how deep you want to be and how fast you plan to troll.When trolling faster or going deeper, more weight will be needed. This is because you must compensate for the drag of the water that increases with your trolling speed. As an example, many Great Lakes fishermen who are trying to catch salmon troll at 1.5 up to 3 miles per hour and shoot for a depth of 15 to 30 feet down, there they don’t have a lot of drag and can use a 5lb ball.However deep sea anglers fishing for grouper-which often are at 60 feet deep or even deeper-troll at around 5 knots.There is a lot moe drag with deep water and higher speeds. So they probably need to use a 20lb weight.
Once you have an idea of the size of weight you want to use, you’ll still need to experiment a bit to be sure you’re on track.Go out on the water to the same depth range that you plan to fish. Adjust your boat speed to troll at the rate you plan to use based on the kind of fish you plan to catch.Now lower the ball all the way to the bottom were you will notice the cable becoming slack. Then quickly stop it and retrieve a bit of cable to tighten it back up.Now check the line counter on your downrigger. Here’s where the record keeping comes in.Record that depth, your speed, ball weight and the depth of the water.
Then try changing a bit.Each time you adjust your speed make a note of the information aquired. Adjust the cable depth at the various speeds and take note of that.What you want to determine is how many feet of cable to let out for a particular depth and speed to get to the fish you are trying to catch. Using a percentage of the total length of cable required to reach the bottom-or some simple subtraction-you should then be able to calculate how much cable to let out if you want to run at 20 feet from the bottom-or 10 feet or 5 feet above or wherever you want to be.
My personal prefference is to stay about 10′ above the bottom. For starters, I know bottom fish will still take the right bait from that distance. They’ll come up to get it.I also don’t care for the idea of getting hung up on something on the bottom and being forced to cut loose my cable.
Another recommendation is to keep your lead line at 10′ or less from the ball to your bait so that you get the benifit of the negative Ion field that surrouds the ball.It has to be that close to use it. If you’ve got too much lead line in between there, it won’t work.
Beside the Cannon Mag 10TS there are some other basic needs to get started. With a nice sturdy 7′ rod, a conventional reel and line based on what you’re planning to catch, a good line released hooked to your ball, the perfect bait, and a nice boat, you’ll soon be in business.Downrigger fishing is a fun and enjoyable method of fihing and one that easy to master.
You can get more information about all of the Cannon downriggers plus accessories-and all kinds of other fishing and boating electroncs-at the eFishBox.com website.
In addition, you’ll find lots of great fishing articles and advice at MyTackleSpace. There are also forums and blogs to help generate lots of ideas and great fishing discussions! Check it out.
No related posts.