Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3814 June 21- July 5 2019 | Page 12

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HOW TO...
June 21 - July 5, 2019
VOL.38 • ISS. 14
The Down Low On Downriggers
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When
downrigger
trolling for
king salmon
and kokanee
you can
run your
baits from
30 to 40
feet off your
downrigger
ball. When
trout are
the target
a longer
set back is
advised.
presents
Tips, Tricks & Advice For
Downrigger Trolling
T
he basics of downrigger trolling boat it is possible to use three or more
for trout and landlocked salmon stackers on each downrigger, trolling a
line off each of them. As a general rule
are pretty simple and straight forward.
Set up a rod with a lure, perhaps teamed the stackers should be placed no closer
than 10 feet apart and the lines trolled
with a dodger, spool the rig out behind
off them should be no more
the boat, attach your line
than 25 feet long. Obviously,
to a downrigger clip and
stacking is most useful when
lower the rig to the desired
the fish are holding in deep
depth.
water. In the extreme you could
For trout, you’ll want
cover a 60-foot span of the
to run your offering from
water column by spreading out
50 to 200 feet behind
a total of six lines using two
the downrigger weight
downriggers.
depending on the depth you
Now while you might think
are fishing. The deeper you
that
fishing six lines is sure to
fish the shorter your line
result
in tangles when a trout
can be.
or
salmon
strikes that is usually
When kokanee and kings
not
the
case.
You see, when a
are the target you can
by Cal Kellogg
trout
grabs
a
lure, gets hooked
shorten your lines consid-
and
pulls
the
line
from
its release the
erably. Generally, for salmon you’ll
fish
tends
to
fall
straight
back initially
want your offering working from 10 to
because
of
the
forward
momentum
of
50 feet behind the weight.
the
boat.
Many new trollers don’t realize
Provided you keep your lines short,
more than one line can be trolled off a
a
hooked trout will quickly swing out
downrigger using a method known as
behind
and above the other lines. The
“stacking”, as in stacking multiple lines
biggest
drawback to using wire stackers
on a single downrigger cable.
is
that
they
must be removed one at a
On the other hand, some veteran
time
when
you
bring the downrigger up
trollers are aware of the stacking
and
attached
one
at a time on the way
approach, but don’t incorporate it into
down.
This
can
be
a lot of work in situa-
their repertoire because they view it as
tions
where
you
need
to raise and lower
complicated and fear tangled lines. With
the
downrigger
often.
a little practice stacking can be a simple
For anglers that won’t be using more
and efficient way to hook more fish.
than
two rods per downrigger there is
There are a couple different
a
nifty
device on the market that make
approaches to stacking lines. One way
stacking
a snap. Mack’s Lure offers the
is to use wire clips, known as stackers.
Shuttle
Hawk.
It’s basically a plainer
These clips are teamed with releases and
board
that
runs
up and down the down-
connected to the downrigger cable at
rigger
cable.
various points as it is lowered into the
The Shuttle Hawk works like this. You
water.
attach
your first fishing line to a clip near
Most anglers fish no more than two
the
downrigger
ball and send it down.
fishing lines off a single cable, but
CONTINUED ON PG 21
if you have multiple people on your
FISH SNIFFER
HOW – TO
^

For stacking multiple lines
on a single downrigger you can
utilize stacking clips like these
for running lines at various
depths.
>

For a cheater
leader, small low drag
lures work best. Wedding
Rings like these are
a great choice as are
small spoons and Wiggle
Hoochies. Cheaters are a
great way to catch extra
fish thought the season.
^
A Shuttle Hawk like this
is basically a plainer that
moves your downrigger release
clip up and down the downrigger
cable allowing you to position
your bait without raising and
lowering your downrigger.