New to Downriggers

[Canuknucklehead]

New to Downriggers

I live in Fonthill about 20 minutes north of Port Colborne, Ontario, my boat is docked at Sugarloaf Marina in Port Colborne. I've been fishing for 67 years and consider myself a fairly decent fisherman when casting, trolling or jigging for walleye on small lakes and rivers. Last August my wife and I sold our cottage on Rice Lake, after an 18 year layoff I've returned to fishing Lake Erie. I must be doing something wrong because I'm not having much success with downriggers. My boat has 2 cannon downriggers, I usually have one set 10 - 15 feet from the bottom and the other at the halfway mark with worm harnesses on both. I usually fish within a mile or two of the weather buoy. My boat came equipped with a Hummingbird 175, it's next to useless, it rarely picks up fish in deep water. I'll probably upgrade to a better unit during the winter. I've been trailing my worm harness about 50 -60 feet behind my cannonball. I also changed to Walker releases because I was dragging fish around using the Cannon releases. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Captain Crabbie]

Get some Chamberlain's lite bite releases. perfect releases for Walleye. Then up grade to a Garmin 7608

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[Canuknucklehead]

Thanks, I have a Garmin GPS.

[Puking Dog]

Try Chamberlain releases.  They have a separate adjustment for small fish and light hitting walleye, but can be set to have a heavy load to the rod. Work just as good on Lake Ontario for big hard hittin fish. I've used Roemers and  Blacks in my past and Chamberlains are the best. They make a stacker version also. I have one to try but normally don't stack rods because of 3 rod limit per man.  Down riggers are working great this time of year. 

[Captain Crabbie]

Thanks, I have a Garmin GPS.

I started with a 740 s still use it for mapping and plotting

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[Canuknucklehead]

I have a 421.

 

[Captain Crabbie]

Time to catch up. lol

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[Captain Crabbie]

The new touch screen are very user friendly. Even an old bird like me can use them.

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[robalo180]

Just for kicks, try popping your lines when you're over fish,it's been working really good for us the past few weeks. Just a little more work than usual is all,but fun!

[Canuknucklehead]

Thanks, I will.

[Pale Rider 1]

Chamberlain releases are the best, get them adjusted and you don't end up dragging any small fish.

[Two Fingers]

One thing you have to remember is that if your downrigger is set at whatever depth you're fishing at, you're probably nowhere near the bottom. For example, if your downrigger is 70 feet down, but you're trolling with the cable at a 45 degree angle, then you're probably only in 50 feet of depth. This August, fish have been hugging the bottom in 70 feet of water, I'll set my downrigger at 85 feet and still not be touching bottom. It seems like most hits are coming by popping the release and allowing the bait to flutter up. I use Dubro releases, I can't get any of the pinch-pad types to work. 

 

[Canuknucklehead]

Thanks, that was really good advice, I'll be going out tomorrow morning to fish in the vicinity of the weather buoy. I've never heard of Dubro releases, I'm going to look into them right away.

[Puking Dog]

Chamberlain release !!!!!!!!!

[Puking Dog]

Dubro is exactly the same as Blacks.  They can't hold a candle to a Chamberlain. Yes they cost more, but ask yourself how valuable is your time. Buy one Dubro and one Chamberlain. The Dubro will soon be unused in your tackle box and you will have just wasted 1/2 the cost of your second Chamberlain. I have 2 Blacks and 3 Roemerers which I never use anymore.

[Canuknucklehead]

Thanks.

[J. Sparrow]

Chamberlains are the way to go.....

As for weights and cable blowback, 12lb weights or heavier, and torpedo design have worked well.

 

[Puking Dog]

I had 12 lb torpedos on my big jon electrics and they were so slow on retrieve that I sold them and went to 10 pound pancakes. So if you have manuals or newer cannons, 12's will work great. If you have electric down riggers, you need to have big enough motors to lift them. Initially with my pancakes I had cables crossing a couple times due to currents. Then I bent the tails to get the pancakes to run away from the boat and problem solved but you need to make sure you attach the correct pancake to the correct down rigger. I have one painted green and one painted black so I don't mix them up. Bought mine at Cabelas. I also run a  su b troll temp and speed sensor on one rigger which will increase blow back on that side and may have contributed to cables crossing.

[Canuknucklehead]

I use 10 lb cannonballs, and have 2 manual downriggers, went out this morning by the weather buoy, caught one lost one. A couple of times I released only to find a fist full of zebra muscles on my worm harness. 

[Pale Rider 1]

I run a fish hawk and try to keep my speed at 2.0 mph on the 10 lb round downrigger ball. At this speed when the downrigger counter is at 63 feet the fish hawk is running at 58 feet.