Fishing With Downriggers

[REKLESS]

Gidday guys,just wondering if there is any ideas on how to improve my hook up rate using bridled yakkas on a downrigger.

I put up a piece on my efforts last saturday when fishing with my brother and we had three fish up to the boat for 15 hooked in total.Not all those three were landed either!!. .

It is early days yet and this is the first time that it has worked for us using a downrigger ,we were using smallish yakkas and were bridling them up with 7/0 suicide hooks with rubber bands through the sockets.We were also fishing with the drag set to prevent line being pulled off the reel from water pressure.Short of sitting there with the thumb on the spool waiting for the bump does any one have any ideas?.I am going to change the hook style to some 9175 mustads in a larger size but some observations from those of you who successfully use these things would be appreciated.

The realease clip is one that looks like a clothes peg with rubber clamps.

Simon

[pogo]

My two bobs worth would be,

Fish with the reels set with strike drag, 1/3 lines breaking strain and load the rods so they are bent with the weight of the bomb

give the downrigger releases the flick and use rubber bands instead

And the real sneaky one use a sliding snell on the front hook and run a treble as a stinger

for slow trolling (dead idle) I dont worry about bridling, Yakkas seem to last pretty well just hooked up through from underneath the jaw and out through the top of the nose and place one hook of the treble just under the skin beside the vent. For smallish yakkas Im using a Mustad hoodlum in 5/0 ( which is actually quite a small hook for a 5/0 ) as the tow hook and No 2 Chem sharp trebles, the red one from gamatsu I think. Important that the tow hook doesnt have an offset cause that seems to make the bait more likely to spin

You'll find most kingies hooked on the treble, I think they hit the yakkas amidships which is why when you troll with a bridle you miss a lot of hits, they get the yakka in thier mouth but dont hook up, and its suprising how long they'll play tug of war up until the bridle snaps

regards pogo

Edited December 12, 2005 by pogo

[djmac]

dont troll as fast and use non offset hooks

[phild]

i agree with a lot of the sentiments of pogo but where I differ is I dont like to have the line tight to the bomb with live baits, prefering to have a "bow" between cable and line, different when using lures where I keep the line tight to the bomb. IMO this gives a nice bit of slack in the line giving the fish enough time to get a livebait down and swallowed. I also use a long drop back of around 10m or more if the fish are really shy for similar reasons. Like i said "Just My opinion"

Edited December 14, 2005 by phild

[REKLESS]

I like pogos idea of the stinger,it makes sense as the take it appears from the average king is from the side .This also reminds me of something I had forgotten from a professional line fisho who rigged his yakkas/slimeys for kings.The hook he used was severley modified so you could troll with the hook point coming out next to the vent,with the eye in its mouth.

Both phil and pogo agree that the way to go is piss off the clip and use bands.I will try out both techniques on sunday and see if I can get a better rate.

DJ ,the engine is a 25 on idle and the hooks are 92554 mustads that are straightened.(ex strip baiting hooks actually),I will be swapping them for some 9175's anyway.