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Picture Of The Month



SD2OR with a trophy fall walleye
 

Topic: Best plans of mice and men...  (Read 1272 times)

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redfish85

  • Lingcod
  • *****
  • sunrise OK Prowler T13
  • Location: Seattle, wa
  • Date Registered: Jun 2007
  • Posts: 234
Where to begin, well last night I spent a good two hours getting ready for my adventure today, had some herring soaking in some fire brine, tied half a dozen leaders for said herring, got all my tackle and gear ready so I only had to do a couple of things this morning. Wake up this morning later than I wanted to, grabbed the last few things I needed, almost forgot the bait. Finally get down to Edmonds around 6:45 great things are looking good so far, famous last thought I know.

Get all rigged up and in the water, that's where it all went downhill. Got out to find that even though I had a sweet tide today the light wind had turned the sound into a rollercoaster. I tried to deal with it but ended up going in to get a couple of things ready, get back out and it's calmed down a bit. Cool I think, so I get my hooks on my flasher and try to choke a couple of herring finally get one secured, get my line in the release and drop it down. I find out in quick order that I'm not ready for a DR on my yak, well at least not for the first time using one, should have seen that coming.

Starts to get rough again so I head to the beach, went on like this for awhile longer and on my fourth trip to the beach I throw in the towel, definitely one of those days I start to wonder why I even went out... Also found that I've 'outgrown' my yak since I was riding pretty low in the water lol ( need something that'll carry more weight since I'm so 'fluffy' or lose the weight, but that's not working to well for me either) well hopefully others have had more luck than I did today...


sumpNZ

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Sedro-Woolley, WA
  • Date Registered: Nov 2011
  • Posts: 2304
That reminds me that I need to get out and practice with my downrigger on a calm lake before trying to fish for real with it.
2012 ORC 5th Place



Trident 13

  • Salmon
  • ******
  • Location: Kent
  • Date Registered: Jul 2016
  • Posts: 791
Sadly, that makes me feel a little better I couldn't make it up today.  I wondered when I listened to the marine air pushing in on the news.  VERY good idea to test the DR in some calm water before heading into the sound.  Lots of things to pay attention to and using one for the first time really complicates things and can be frustrating.  It's a good idea to have a diver rig with you so that if you have DR trouble and still want to get down you have an option to fall back to.  Wind in that area can be a challenge...don't give up, just get ready.


pmmpete

  • Sturgeon
  • *******
  • Location: Missoula, Montana
  • Date Registered: Jul 2013
  • Posts: 1989
A good way to learn to use a downrigger in safe conditions is by fishing for kokanee.  Kokanee are usually found in small schools suspended in the middle of the water column, such as 30 feet down in 60 feet of water, so your downrigger weight won't be anywhere near the bottom.  These schools provide nice targets when learning to downrigger troll.  For example, if you have been seeing schools of kokanee 30 feet down, and are trolling with your weight 30 feet down, if you see a nice school at 45 feet down, you can immediately drop your weight down to 45 feet, or 43 feet, or whatever you prefer, and then use the GPS features of your fish finder to troll through the school in figure 8 or cloverleaf patterns.  Then if you see a school at 35 feet down, you can raise your weight to 35 feet.  And so on.

Once you have developed some skill at downrigger trolling while fishing for kokanee, you can try more challenging targets. For example, you can try downrigger trolling for lake trout, which tend to hang out right on the bottom. In order to downrigger troll right above the bottom, you'll need to constantly adjust the depth of your weight to keep from running it into the bottom and possibly snagging it.  You'll need to learn your options when you encounter an underwater ridge which sticks out from the shore. Should you raise your weight, go over the ridge, and then lower your weight on the other side?  Or should you turn out towards deeper water and contour around the end of the ridge?  You'll learn that when you're trolling over a sloping bottom, there may be quite a few feet of water below the bottom which you see on your fish finder.

Other things you can learn: (a) the advantages and disadvantages of setting your lure a short distance such as 10 feet behind your weight, versus setting your lure a long distance such as 80 feet behind your weight, in different fishing situations, (b) how to adjust your downrigger release for rods of different stiffness and different sizes off target fish, and (c) how to avoid getting your fishing line tangled in your rudder when letting out line, before you clip your line into your downrigger release (turn your kayak so your line is away from the stern of your kayak, and if there is a cross wind which might blow your kayak over your fishing line, change directions to the wind will blow you away from your line).

So get out there and try to hook on to some kokanee!
« Last Edit: July 20, 2018, 08:40:37 AM by pmmpete »