Down-rigger fishing and sidekicks

The Black's release is cranked down tight, with a rubber band between the release and the mono top shot. The rubber band breaks when a fish is hooked. It acts as a shock absorber and I lose less bait on short strikes and get better hook sets.

Great ideas low sky. I'm not sure if I understand the part of your post shown above. It seems to make the release redundant, I may be reading it wrong. Any photos of the rubber band set up?

Thanks,

I use a seps yellow release.the offshore style.

Thanks Cowboy. Lots of good releases out there, Cannon releases not so much.

I set my downrigger release tight enough that fish usually need to jerk on the fishing line a couple of times before the line releases, because that sets the hook.  I find that if I set the release so light that the line releases as soon as a fish nips my lure, the hook often doesn't get set well, and the fish can throw the hook before I can get tension on the line.  But kokanee have soft mouths, so if you set the release so hard that they can jerk against the weight for quite a while without popping the fishing line out of the release, a kokanee may be able to free itself from the hook by jerking against the weight.

When kokanee fishing, for most of the summer I set my flasher or dodger and lure about 30 feet back from the release and downrigger weight.  My theory is that if the weight scares away the kokes when it goes by, there is enough time before the flasher or dodger and lure come by for them to come back.  And thirty feet is a short enough setback to allow me to turn fairly sharply as I maneuver to go back through schools of kokanee.  In the spring, when the kokanee tend to be high in the water, I set back my flasher or dodger and lure quite a bit more, because my kayak is likely to scare off the kokes as I go over them.  As a result, I can't maneuver as quickly.

I've seen underwater video footage taken from a camera mounted in a downrigger weight which shows kokanee following closely behind the weight and biting at the lure.  But to really figure out if and how a downrigger weight affects kokanee, you'd need to mount a camera above and in front of the downrigger weight, looking down at the area in front of the weight, to see if kokanee scatter away from the weight as it approaches.

Good points as always pmmpete. I especially like the 30ft setback.

The Black's release is cranked down tight, with a rubber band between the release and the mono top shot. The rubber band breaks when a fish is hooked. It acts as a shock absorber and I lose less bait on short strikes and get better hook sets.

Great ideas low sky. I'm not sure if I understand the part of your post shown above. It seems to make the release redundant, I may be reading it wrong. Any photos of the rubber band set up?

Thanks,

The release is a means of attaching the rubber band to the downrigger line. You are correct, the release doesn't release anything when the system works as intended.

Edit to add: when I pull my gear, the release normally lets go before the band breaks, so I don't have to use a new rubber band for bait checks. This isn't an original idea, so you should be able to find some details with a Google search (I'm replying via Tapatalk, otherwise I'd go find you a link myself)


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The Black's release is cranked down tight, with a rubber band between the release and the mono top shot. The rubber band breaks when a fish is hooked. It acts as a shock absorber and I lose less bait on short strikes and get better hook sets.

Great ideas low sky. I'm not sure if I understand the part of your post shown above. It seems to make the release redundant, I may be reading it wrong. Any photos of the rubber band set up?

Thanks,

The release is a means of attaching the rubber band to the downrigger line. You are correct, the release doesn't release anything when the system works as intended.

Edit to add: when I pull my gear, the release normally lets go before the band breaks, so I don't have to use a new rubber band for bait checks. This isn't an original idea, so you should be able to find some details with a Google search (I'm replying via Tapatalk, otherwise I'd go find you a link myself)


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Ok low sky, I get it now. The brain fog went away. Duh. i was thinking why not put the rubber band on the spectra. But this way you can still get a clean release when you need to check gear etc. Boy do I feel sheepish!!!
http://www.michigansportsman.com/2011/Jan_Feb_Mar/2011_Tackle/2_Bands_No_Tilt.jpg
Thanks for your patience.

The Black's release is cranked down tight, with a rubber band between the release and the mono top shot. The rubber band breaks when a fish is hooked. It acts as a shock absorber and I lose less bait on short strikes and get better hook sets.

Great ideas low sky. I'm not sure if I understand the part of your post shown above. It seems to make the release redundant, I may be reading it wrong. Any photos of the rubber band set up?

Thanks,

The release is a means of attaching the rubber band to the downrigger line. You are correct, the release doesn't release anything when the system works as intended.

Edit to add: when I pull my gear, the release normally lets go before the band breaks, so I don't have to use a new rubber band for bait checks. This isn't an original idea, so you should be able to find some details with a Google search (I'm replying via Tapatalk, otherwise I'd go find you a link myself)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok low sky, I get it now. The brain fog went away. Duh. i was thinking why not put the rubber band on the spectra. But this way you can still get a clean release when you need to check gear etc. Boy do I feel sheepish!!!
http://www.michigansportsman.com/2011/Jan_Feb_Mar/2011_Tackle/2_Bands_No_Tilt.jpg
Thanks for your patience.

No worries, bud! It's a slick rig, my hookups got a lot better after I started using it. When the band breaks the hook is already set. It's pretty much fool proof.


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The Black's release is cranked down tight, with a rubber band between the release and the mono top shot. The rubber band breaks when a fish is hooked. It acts as a shock absorber and I lose less bait on short strikes and get better hook sets.

Great ideas low sky. I'm not sure if I understand the part of your post shown above. It seems to make the release redundant, I may be reading it wrong. Any photos of the rubber band set up?

Thanks,

The release is a means of attaching the rubber band to the downrigger line. You are correct, the release doesn't release anything when the system works as intended.

Edit to add: when I pull my gear, the release normally lets go before the band breaks, so I don't have to use a new rubber band for bait checks. This isn't an original idea, so you should be able to find some details with a Google search (I'm replying via Tapatalk, otherwise I'd go find you a link myself)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok low sky, I get it now. The brain fog went away. Duh. i was thinking why not put the rubber band on the spectra. But this way you can still get a clean release when you need to check gear etc. Boy do I feel sheepish!!!
http://www.michigansportsman.com/2011/Jan_Feb_Mar/2011_Tackle/2_Bands_No_Tilt.jpg
Thanks for your patience.

No worries, bud! It's a slick rig, my hookups got a lot better after I started using it. When the band breaks the hook is already set. It's pretty much fool proof.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks again.
I was planning on using a weight snubber. Would that still work with your idea?

The Black's release is cranked down tight, with a rubber band between the release and the mono top shot. The rubber band breaks when a fish is hooked. It acts as a shock absorber and I lose less bait on short strikes and get better hook sets.

Great ideas low sky. I'm not sure if I understand the part of your post shown above. It seems to make the release redundant, I may be reading it wrong. Any photos of the rubber band set up?

Thanks,

The release is a means of attaching the rubber band to the downrigger line. You are correct, the release doesn't release anything when the system works as intended.

Edit to add: when I pull my gear, the release normally lets go before the band breaks, so I don't have to use a new rubber band for bait checks. This isn't an original idea, so you should be able to find some details with a Google search (I'm replying via Tapatalk, otherwise I'd go find you a link myself)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok low sky, I get it now. The brain fog went away. Duh. i was thinking why not put the rubber band on the spectra. But this way you can still get a clean release when you need to check gear etc. Boy do I feel sheepish!!!
http://www.michigansportsman.com/2011/Jan_Feb_Mar/2011_Tackle/2_Bands_No_Tilt.jpg
Thanks for your patience.

No worries, bud! It's a slick rig, my hookups got a lot better after I started using it. When the band breaks the hook is already set. It's pretty much fool proof.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks again.
I was planning on using a weight snubber. Would that still work with your idea?

I found the blue Scotty DR ball snubber to be too heavy to give any snubbing action for my 8# ball.  Two in-line trolling snubbers in parallel could handle the weight, but produced enough drag that the blow back was unacceptable to me. I fish without a snubber. If the seas are so rough that I really need a snubber, it's too rough to troll.


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