The Importance And The Benefits Of Having Downriggers

[jewgaffer]

Hi Everybody.

I thought I would start a new topic on using Downriggers and the importance and the benefits of owning same.

In regard to mounting, it is far better to mount downriggers close to the rear corners angled out from the rear sides of the gunnels to keep the hardware away from the motor, and also to keep the stern area free so that you can have a trolling rod weighted to suit and fish directly behind the stern if you wish....... For instance you can slacken off line freely on that rod weighted to get sufficient enough sink rate to cover intermediate depths while slow speed trolling with the downriggers out at a set depth or to be able to jig etc straight out the back of the boat between your downriggers.........

It's better to have downriggers angled out to the sides of the gunnels to keep the cable and the ball and importantly the downrigger lines right away from the motor especially if you run into a school of bigger kingfish, and also in order to keep the lines as far apart as you can when doing all the turns necessary to properly cover the chosen area ...... The angle you chose should be between 45 and 90 degree off the rear of the side gunnels, dependent on the length of the downrigger booms I.E Long booms need 45 degrees and 90 degrees is suitable for shorter booms to widen the separation angle......

A good trolling method is one I call catherine wheel trolling which gives good overlapping coverage when fish are in the vicinity or in case of takes.... when trolling live squid for example the takes on some days may only be territorial at best....... Start trolling out well wide of the mark like mowing a lawn paddock in circles and finishing off in the centre as the circles get smaller...... No need to start too close to the school if you have sounded same..... good things can happen on the edge of a school particularly when you start your troll a couple of meters off the bottom, allowing for foul ups of course with the downrigger bomb and its cable around wrecks and rocky structure etc ........ I.E. It pays to start off wide of a school, or a wreck or a marker for instance, and keep trolling in circles until you reach the end of your selected trolling area which will finish up as a small strip in the centre...... If you judge the area right, it might finish up being covered by a moored boat that is say old, delapidated, in need of attention or a moored boat which took your fancy when chosing the particular trolling area.

It's a known fact that larger size kingfish are on the fringe of and under schools of smaller kingfish where the majority are undersized, the size having been pre determined in the minimum size findings..... You will find that the hook up location as well as the conditions on the day suit both large and small kingfish to be..... Schools of smaller kingfish tend to sit high up in the water column more often than larger kingish....... Larger kingfish are more often caught where the water shelves down deeper such as those shelves around from Botany Heads etc.... yet kingfish generally do not seem to feed off the bottom which is particularly noticable when bottom bashing at anchor....and there are many other fish that are known bottom feeders to compete with... Hence, like the necessity to fish for trout in deepwater, it is a must to fish or troll down deep with those species in certain conditions...... Thus there is a definate need to use downriggers for the best results for trout as well as when fishing for other species like pelagics on down riggers as it is to use outriggers when necessary. I.E. species that have similiar water column needs to one another are best fished for at varying depths on downriggers...... A pair of downriggers can also be very handy to keep a couple of baits up off the bottom when fishing deepwater holes at anchor.

I've had a lot of fun fishing for kingfish in my time..... What we used to do was use a form of burleying around moored boats, above reefs and wide of markers etc.... and the method used is similiar to cubing...... We would do two spots at a time before working them...... We would drive the boat backwards and forwards all around the area of the first spot we chose to stir up the water as much as we could........ and then move along to the second spot and do the same...... We would then return to fish the first spot after giving it enough time to settle....... We would keep more burley going when we returned but would throw our burley out into a constant flow of water coming out of a hose which hung over the back of the boat...... Saltwater was flowing out steadily from the hose into the burley trail with the aid of a pump system which had the effect of a steady waterfall when using a high pressure flow similiar to what is used to hose out a boat on the water...... This particular method is worth trying out for yourself..... The flowing water does attract kingfish, similiar fish and general species as well..... and if you try it with an extended live bait tank hose, you'll find you'll be able to see for yourself.

Hope this helps

I hope everyone enjoys the Christmas goodies and the festive food I am going off to join my family and give and receive my Christmas presents later this afternoon.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited December 25, 2008 by jewgaffer

[choad]

thanks byron,

I am about to install a penn dr on my transom. it says i can do either side or straight back mounting. i think i'll go for the side option as you suggested.

cheers.

[King slayer]

Thanks Jewgaffer for yet more great info for all of us to digest and try out.

There have been a few threads lately with frustrated raiders trying to get the best out of their down riggers and having some trouble, so this will help a lot.

I have a question to anyone out there, as I m fairly new to this technique as well. I have been told to use rubber bands when running braid on the down rigger clips, but after having a few issues with breaking bands etc, I just clip it on and no worries. Am i risking abrasion or are there other reasons for using rubber bands? Anyone know?

Dave

[Guest Aussie007]

I have a question to anyone out there, as I m fairly new to this technique as well. I have been told to use rubber bands when running braid on the down rigger clips, but after having a few issues with breaking bands etc, I just clip it on and no worries. Am i risking abrasion or are there other reasons for using rubber bands? Anyone know

i red somewhere that the bait fish will swim more natural with rubber bands

[Robbielites]

I just run the braid straight through the clip, you won't have any issues with abrasion.

[jewgaffer]

I just run the braid straight through the clip, you won't have any issues with abrasion.

Yes Robbie, I always thought that using elastic bands puts you one up when trying to make improvements but I don't think using them or not makes all that much difference, after market clips these days are designed well enough...... I've persevered with different lengths of elastic bands thinking the spring back effect might assist the hook set in the split second before the elastic band breaks... As you say Robbie says there's no abrasion issue with braid, a good clip does the job... like other things with fishing you tend to think perfection and overdo it.... The other thing I chop and change with is baiting up live bait as I always use two hooks.... swimming squid head forward and sometimes rigging up live bait so that the fish faces away from the boat and also when drifting giving it more line in stops and starts to let it swim a bit and have the bait further away from the boat after casting to the side....I think where using two hooks makes a difference on live bait is when you run into tailor they have a bite at the tail first to disable the fish..... but if you are using an elastic band, small tailor can tangle the line in the cable if the elastic band doesn't break... I still use an elastic band sometimes....I think the elastic band is an American idea because they use downriggers for big fish over there.... I carry a supply of elastic bands in my spectacle case underneath my polaroids and often use them for holding the second hook against the tail of a livie when fishing at anchor or drfting medium size livies in the shallows.

Cheers

jewgaffer