[fishing bear]

How far behind the boat do you run your rig when trolling for trout and kokanee with a downrigger and how much drop below the ball do you figure for your rig for a 1mph. troll.

 

[seatrout slayer]

I run mine anywhere from 20 - 30 ft back from the clip and troll about 1.9 - 2 mph , I don't know what you mean about the drop ? Pat

 

[fishing bear]

By drop I mean how much deeper do you figure that your lure is below your downrigger ball.

 

[MAD.CAM.AL]

For Kokes, I pull out at least 50' before clipping on. My thought is, keep the ball and lure separated as much as possible. I just have black coated 6# weights that don't act as an attractor. I would guess that with a 0000 dodger and fly or wedding ring your not going to get more than a couple of feet drop because of the dodger action and light weight.

 

[seatrout slayer]

I clip my line about 2' above my downrigger ball and never thought about about if my lure was below the ball ,at 2 mph I would think it would be somewhere just above the ball , with a slow troll of 1 mph I would think it would be somewhere around 5-6' ? just a guess Pat

 

[Kokanee Kid]

I only go back about 20' behind the ball. And I think I know where you are going with this. let' see if I am right.

If you mark fish at 30', and put your ball at 30', are you then fishing below the fish? I say yes, I also believe it is better to be above fish than below. They can't see down. In this situation I would start at 28', see what happens and go from there.

 

[Kenaifun]

Still working on lake stevens. Not even marking fish. Is it still to cold? Been using 3 or 4 differant set ups. Help!

 

[Keysrob]

Lake Stevens is probably still too cold. I think it was Howard that said the temps were still low to mid 40's. When the surface temp is above 50 then it'll probably be close to time to fish.

As for the first question - I tend to run about 40' to 50' of line out before I clip in. My clip is about 18" above an 11 lb pancake weight. I have scalelite flash decals on my weights for attraction and occassionally I'll even run hot wings or pop gear off the weight for added attraction (depends on weather and boat traffic.)

In my experience the distance behind the downrigger ball isn't all that crucial. Rule #1 is find the fish. Everything else is meaningless until you've satisfied rule #1.

I also believe that Kokanee Kid is correct in his point. I try to run the downrigger ball at a point 5' - 10' above fish that I mark on the fishfinder. An old salt taught me this and to this day it is probably one of the most valuable lessons I've ever been given.

 

[fishing bear]

Thanks for the information.

 

[olygreen]

i am trying to figure out why u would even put 20 pr 30 ft of line between the ball and lure??? are u fishing lake cushman where u have 50 ft of water vis??? i would assume not and would also assume most lakes in west wa dont have more then 10 ft so putting 20-50ft of line behind the ball would see useless

 

[SeaWalker]

i am trying to figure out why u would even put 20 pr 30 ft of line between the ball and lure??? are u fishing lake cushman where u have 50 ft of water vis??? i would assume not and would also assume most lakes in west wa dont have more then 10 ft so putting 20-50ft of line behind the ball would see useless

Depending on how deep you are fishing the need to get the lure(s) behind the boat/wake/trolling motor is one reason I would clip them back that far or farther.

 

[epidemic]

i am trying to figure out why u would even put 20 pr 30 ft of line between the ball and lure??? are u fishing lake cushman where u have 50 ft of water vis??? i would assume not and would also assume most lakes in west wa dont have more then 10 ft so putting 20-50ft of line behind the ball would see useless

Try fishing for Cutthroat like that. You'll wonder why you keep marking fish but can't get any to bite. Some fish you can get away with it that close to the ball, some you can't.

 

[Kokanee King]

I will be any where from 20 feet back to 220back it can all depend