Downriggers

[Ray R]

Hi Raiders, while sitting here sipping on a Baileys and ice I wondered if there are other uses for downriggers,

for example could you downrig a soft plastic at 3 meters for a flattie or suspend a live prawn in a channel

at 5 meteres or whatever, or are they just good for kings..

Just a thought , maybe some downrigging guru's could shed some light on this question..

[jewgaffer]

Hi Raiders, while sitting here sipping on a Baileys and ice I wondered if there are other uses for downriggers,

for example could you downrig a soft plastic at 3 meters for a flattie or suspend a live prawn in a channel

at 5 meteres or whatever, or are they just good for kings..

Just a thought , maybe some downrigging guru's could shed some light on this question..

Hi Ray Doing as as you suggest is just about it in a nutshell mate... for instance when drifting along slowly and perhaps suspending a self working lure to suit if you wish, or use live prawns if you have them or a nice size peeled prawn will do for that matter... An 8 pound bomb would be ok say continually sounding for foul ups going back over flint and steel in slightly wider or narrower sequences after you start up the motor again, but still make up a leader long enough to have the bait about 10 to 15 metres away from the back of the boat .....You can also use a downrigger at anchor and run long squid strips etc a couple of metres above the bottom and keep increasing the height as a speculator bait, and it's always good to be able to fish some of the bait/s off the bottom particularly if there are mainly small pickers or eels around that have been baiting you too quickly or undersize bream tearing the eyes out of your straddled up livies

Hope this helps Ray, and remember some species are more attracted to a moving bait when you do a bit of say stop start trolling by going into neutral every now and then slowly reverse up a bit but mindfull of the bomb and just hold there for a few seconds hoping to strike that invisible fish that might just happen to be there and also if you let line out and pause the bait occasionally while your drifting ..

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited December 18, 2009 by jewgaffer

[framedtrash]

G'day Ray

Jews bream snapper and flattys will take a bait or lure on the dr

even the old Sargent baker will have a go

bibless lures work best along with sluggos

check your PM I'll send u a great write up on catching other species

[Day's Fishin]

I use one to get under feeding tailor with good sucess for kings & salmon & the odd grinner. Prawns,squid,strip bait etc all work of down riggers.

Regards Jeff

[olitay]

I Used to down rig Rapala red and white lures for kings when i couldnt get live yakkas... worked a treat. I have even trolled a chrissy lure about 3 Mtres deep for dollies.

I havent tried sluggos or gulp, but i recon it would work fine.

[GregL]

Marlin and tuna fishing they would be handy whilst on the troll.

[Berleyguts]

The downrigger arms should point backwards, shouldn't they. My boat came with two Cannon downriggers. After reading this thread, I thought I'd pop them in the mounts to see how they looked and maybe give them a go at setting a bait down deep and off the bottom in one of the big holes in the Wisemans area. They would only slide in to lock in place point over the sides of the boat, i.e. at 90 degrees. I s'pose for bait fishing when anchored across current that would be OK but for trolling, I'd have to refit the mounts at 90 deg, right?

Off to Wisemans shortly , sans downriggers.

Thanks,

Baz

[arpie]

You could even tie on a burley bag to the bomb, to encourage the fish to find your bait/sp??

Roberta

[Ray R]

Thanks for the info Raiders, greatly appreciated , some good info received..

Thanks again..

[Blood Knot]

The downrigger arms should point backwards, shouldn't they. My boat came with two Cannon downriggers. After reading this thread, I thought I'd pop them in the mounts to see how they looked and maybe give them a go at setting a bait down deep and off the bottom in one of the big holes in the Wisemans area. They would only slide in to lock in place point over the sides of the boat, i.e. at 90 degrees. I s'pose for bait fishing when anchored across current that would be OK but for trolling, I'd have to refit the mounts at 90 deg, right?

Off to Wisemans shortly , sans downriggers.

Thanks,

Baz

Hi Baz

Mate I would leave them where they are unless they prove difficult to operate or you have some other good reason to move them.

Mine points out the side of the boat, it has a swivelling pulley on the end, and so creates no poblem with the cable doing a 90 degree change in direction.

Most critically I think its wise to have as much distance as you can between the steel cable of the down rigger and the spinning prop of your boat. So pointing out the side is good from my point of view.

Cheers

John

[myocard]

Is the distance between downrigger and rod critical? For example, could I run a downrigger from near the helm in a runabout, with the rod set in a holder in the rear right corner of the stern - about 3 metres to the rear of the downrigger. Sounds like an awseome tangle waiting to happen, but it could be a very useful setup.

[Blood Knot]

Mate - I think the further foward you go with the mounting position the more probs you might have.

Cheers John