trolling questions.

I never use a downrigger for kokanee. Using leaded line and/or adding weight is all I've found to be necessary.

Agreed. I don't use a downrigger for any of my fishing. Leadcore works quite well for kokes.

I think that downrigger trolling has several advantages over leaded line trolling:

1. Precision.  When you're trolling with a downrigger, if you see a school of kokanee at 30 feet, you can run your weight and lures right above, or right through, the school.  A flasher and lure setup will run at the same depth as your downrigger weight, and you can see your downrigger weight on your fish finder, so you can present your lure very accurately to the kokanee.  With leaded line, you have only an approximate idea of how deep your lure is running, and the depth will be affected by the speed you are going, the drag of the flasher/dodger/lure setup you are using, and whether you are turning or going straight.  Because I'm used to downrigger trolling, fishing with leaded line seems unacceptably uncertain, unpredictable, and random.

2.  Ability to maneuver quickly.  I typically run my lures about 30 feet behind my downrigger weight when fishing for kokanee.  If I see a school of kokanee on my fish finder, I can turn fairly quickly and go back through the same area repeatedly in a figure 8 or cloverleaf pattern, with the help of the GPS features of my fish finder.  When fishing with leaded line, you have so much line out that you have to turn much more slowly, so it takes a lot longer to get back to a concentration of kokanee.

3. Ability to change depth quickly.  If I'm trolling at 30 feet with a downrigger, and I see a school of kokanee at 40 feet or 20 feet, I can quickly change the depth of my weight to run my lure right over the fish.  I often can get a hit on the first pass, and don't need to turn and go back over the school of fish.

I'm not here to debate other than to say I catch a lot of fish and I never use a downrigger. It's overrated and so are a lot of gadgets people put on their kayaks. I believe too many folks spend more time justifying new gadgets for their kayak rather than understanding how to find and catch fish. I stack up kokes no problem just like I circle 30,000 dollar bass boats catching just as many fish as they do.

30 minute limits time after time.

Ray - Is that Roosevelt?  Those are some nice fish.

I agree that many kayaks seem overloaded with stuff.  But for me the precision argument and my ability to go as deep as I need to is what makes me fond of the downrigger.  I too only run 25-30 pulls behind my downrigger ball.  My transducer is in the front of my kayak, so if I spot a school I can drop down or come up to run my gear through it. That is a flexibility that I really like and take advantage of often.  In addition I fish small lakes and sometimes crowded lakes.  Having over 100' + of line behind me would not work well.  In addition, I stack my downrigger and can fish two poles at the same time allowing me to fish multiple depths.  Of course you could do that with leaded line as well, but if you were fishing at 30' and 35 feet, you would have one heck of a lot of line behind you.   I also like the fight I get on just the mono and fish.

With that said, early season when the fish are in less than 20 feet of water, leaded line might be less complicated.  And depending on the design of your kayak might be much safer than a downrigger.

Great to explore all the options out there.