down rigger

working on setting up a down rigger for the yak. (have never used one) What is the max dept you troll at and what size ball do I need?

THIS IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE, PMMPETE!

working on setting up a down rigger for the yak. (have never used one) What is the max dept you troll at and what size ball do I need?

I'd say 100ft is as deep as I fish it.  For big flashers and the gear we use up here, I;d say minimum is 6 pounds.  I use 8lbs.  Considering stepping up to 10.  I don't carry a calculator on the water so it makes the math sort of easier when the angles are steeper. 

There are some really cool set ups like pmpetes.

I love my downriggers, but am starting to use it les and less, not beacsue it doesn't catch fish...but because I m lazy. 

I posted some general thoughts about how to mount a downrigger on a kayak, and some specific suggestions about how to mount a Cannon Lake-Troll downrigger on a 13' Revolution, at http://www.yakfisher.net/smffiles/index.php?topic=9918.0 . It's a spiffed-up version of a posting I made earlier on this forum.

I'm a big fan of downrigger trolling, because it permits me to run lures very precisely past suspended fish or fish hanging out on the bottom.  I routinely troll at depths around 150 feet with an 8 pound weight.  I use Scotty 175 pound test braided Spectra downrigger line because it has less drag and way less hum than steel cable.

Check out my post from NCKA, if you're interested:

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=66085.0

I use a 6-lb ball on 85-lb Power Pro, and have trolled down to about 150'. The deeper you go, the more "blowback" you'll have. This means a little mental math or estimation might be involved. Trolling slower or using smaller flashers (or no flasher) will get you deeper with less blowback, but isn't always the way to go.

Great info guys, will have to go back to the drawing board. The ideas I had are not going to work.

What kind of kayak do you have?  In general, it's way easier to mount a downrigger on a pedal kayak because you don't need to keep the downrigger out of the way of your paddle stroke, and it's way easier to use a downrigger on a pedal kayak because you have both hands free to mess around with fishing gear.

Native slayer Propel

Paging CopperJon, Paging CopperJon.

(He's got a DR mounted on that same yak)

Check out my post from NCKA, if you're interested:
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=66085.0

AlexB, that's a nice video showing how to use a downrigger.  I appear to be the only kayak angler in North America who doesn't have a couple of video cameras mounted on my kayak, so I've never made such a video.  Post a video showing what you do when you get a strike!

We have some minor differences in technique and equipment.  You hold your rod in your hand when running out fishing line, clipping the line into your downrigger release, and lowering your downrigger weight, and keep fishing line from running out too fast by putting your thumb on your reel.  You don't put your rod in its holder until you've lowered your weight to the desired depth.  I put my rod in my rod holder for the entire process.  After I put my rod in my rod holder, I run out fishing line, clip the line into my downrigger release, engage the clicker on my reel to keep fishing line from running out too fast, and then start lowering my downrigger weight.  When my weight reaches the depth I want, all I need to do is reel in some fishing line to put my rod under tension.  You use a pinch-style downrigger release; I use a Black's clip-style downrigger release mounted on top of my weight, which I think works better with braided line than a pinch-style release.

I like the way you have your downrigger set up.  Post pictures showing how you mounted your downrigger on your Outback.

Thanks, Pete. There are some photos and mounting descriptions in the thread I link to in the video post. I'm on my iPhone and don't have those photos handy.

I'm still dialing in my technique, but the way I did it in that video seemed to work great. I use mono (25-lb P-Line CXX) for salmon trolling, so the "pinch" style clip seems to work fine. Leaving the rod in the holder would work fine, too.

Native slayer Propel

Any progress? I'm thinking about doing the same thing.

For DR weight is anyone using a pancake with success to decrease cannon ball weight?

For DR weight is anyone using a pancake with success to decrease cannon ball weight?

I successfully used a scotty laketroller DR mounted on my scotty rod holder which is positioned in my forward port mesh pocket on my Hobie Revo11.  I was using a 4 pound ball for kokanee down to a depth of 90' or so.  Worked great...got me some kokes on a really hot summer day trolling down deep.  I have a second MacGuyver style downrigger that is just a stiff butt section of a flounder rod with a line counter reel on it.  I used that thing in my scotty rod holder as a downrigger, and that did the trick too.  Pretty excited to have two Downrigger solutions!