American Lake 3/4/17

When you have a hookup and plan on bringing the cannon ball up, a good first move is to kick the rudder to put the fish on the opposite side of the rigger.  When you do that the center of balance is more favorable as you avoid leaning/pulling and cranking on the same side. Also, in addition to the braided line being thinner and allowing less weight, it's less likely to cut the line  if you decide not to pull the ball up and the fish makes an under the yak run when in close.  Knowing that makes you less likely to make that infamous sudden move. 
Wonder how many people on shore saw that, lol.

Skip the downrigger.  Switch over to 18 lb leadcore line and a kokanee rod.  You'll be much happier.  The line will get your down 30 feet and you don't have to crank a ball in http://kayakfishingwashington.com/cutthroat-trout-fishing/

I think I will be okay, it more boosted my confidence in my suit than anything else.  I have spent a lot of time surfing and SUPing in Hawaii so I am use to the in and out thing.  I really just wanted to get the fish back in the water.  My phone teather  was kinda wrapped around some stuff and I didn't want to pull it out of the dry pouch after the dunk.

Glad to hear that.


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Congrats on your first yak fish!
I just replaced my steel cable with braid. I went to sportco thinking I'd buy 80# line but the guys there recommended no less than 150# only because they said the thinner line tends to bury into the line already on the spool and will tangle. I took their word for it. The 150 worked fine. I ran the line through a 6" long piece of oxygen tubing just above the ball so that I can grab the line and pull the ball in without cutting my hand. It also keeps you from reeling the ball all the way up to the boom. Worked great and was free. Also, I've fished with both pancake style and cannon ball style weights, I liked the ball better.
Hope to see you out there one of these days.
 BTW...what suit did you end up getting?

I got the Kokatat Tropos Super Nova Paddling Duit.  It is cheaper than their higher end dry suits as it a only two layers.  It also has a different warranty, only 2 years.  I am hoping to get stationed in Hawaii again after this duty station and so I went a little cheaper.  Not to mention I just bought my kayak and all fishing gear starting from scratch, needless to say I spent a small fortune

Same here except I got it in the hydros3. The neck is so much more comfortable than a dry suit. Hawaii sounds really nice bout now.☀️

I agree about the neck, I keep mine pretty loose and it didn't leak any water when I got dumped.  Other than the initial splash the PDF keeps your neck above water.

The steel cable which comes with downriggers has an irritating hum, so I replace it with Scotty Spectra 175-pound low-drag downrigger line.  It works great, and doesn't have any hum. 

The advantage of using a heavier downrigger weight is that you'll have less blowback, i.e. the weight will stay more nearly below you as you're trolling.  A heavier weight will allow you to troll much deeper before the weight gets blown back out of the cone of your sonar, and you can no longer see the weight on your fish finder.  I routinely downrigger troll from 170-200 feet deep with an eight pound weight.  With a Cannon Lake-Troll or other similar-size downrigger it isn't much more work to crank up an 8 pound weight than it is a 6 or 4 pound weight, so I use an eight pound weight even if I'm only trolling at 30-40 feet.

I have never felt that a downrigger made my kayak less stable, or made my kayak more likely to flip towards the side on which the downrigger is mounted.  However, I am careful to keep my weight solidly centered in my kayak when clipping my fishing line into my downrigger release and when taking my rod out of its holder.  If you reach and lean out to the side of your kayak when doing those things, you'll unbalance the kayak and risk flipping it.  I suspect that Smitty's flip was operator error, and wasn't caused by the downrigger.

A tip if you flip your kayak when you have fishing line and a downrigger out, and various items of gear on leashes: to avoid wrapping those lines and leashes around your kayak when you right it, creating an unholy mess, right it back in the direction it tipped over.  For example, if you tip over towards the right side of your kayak (clockwise as viewed from the stern), flip the kayak back upright counterclockwise.  Thus, push the near side of the kayak up and over to right it.  If you reach over the bottom of the kayak and pull it towards you to right it, you'll wrap any lines which are out around the kayak.

I did reach over the bottom to right the kayak, however, I swam around to the other side first to keep from wrapping my downrigger line around my kayak.  I am quite sure it was operator error.  The downrigger does cause the kayak to list to the side deployed and while it would likely not flip the kayak of its own right, it does decrease the amount of error the operator has to make prior to getting wet.

A few thoughts about whether to pull up your downrigger weight as soon as you get a strike.  You will get away with leaving the weight down in most cases.  However, sometimes when you get a fish up to your kayak, it will dart around and wind your fishing line around your downrigger cable.  Kokanee are particularly fond of doing this.  Then you will need to grab your fishing line and pull in the fish hand over hand.  Which is not easy if the fish is a 30 inch lake trout.  Don't ask me how I know.  This kind of thing sold me on the merit of pulling up my downrigger weight before I start playing in a fish.

So, when downrigger trolling, as soon as I get a strike, I start pedaling forward vigorously, and get tension on the fish.  Then I keep pedaling forward to keep tension on the fishing line and to keep the fish behind my kayak, and I crank up the downrigger weight with one hand while keeping tension on the fishing rod with the other hand.  Periodically I need to stop cranking up the downrigger weight for a couple of seconds to reel in some fishing line or adjust the drag on my reel.  When I get the downrigger weight out of the water, I stop pedaling, turn my kayak so the fishing line is approaching my kayak at right angles, and start playing in the fish.   

That sounds like some sound advice.  I hope to get in a bit of practice doing this with rainbows and kokanee before the salmon start biting.  I can only imagine the difference in pull between the trout and a king when seated in the kayak, not to mention the added obstacle of waves/wake.

Skip the downrigger.  Switch over to 18 lb leadcore line and a kokanee rod.  You'll be much happier.  The line will get your down 30 feet and you don't have to crank a ball in http://kayakfishingwashington.com/cutthroat-trout-fishing/

Brad, how many times do I have to tell you - Never give out free advice, the wiseman doesn't need it and the fools won't heed it.

Happy cranking boyz

Skip the downrigger.  Switch over to 18 lb leadcore line and a kokanee rod.  You'll be much happier.  The line will get your down 30 feet and you don't have to crank a ball in http://kayakfishingwashington.com/cutthroat-trout-fishing/

Brad, how many times do I have to tell you - Never give out free advice, the wiseman doesn't need it and the fools won't heed it.

Happy cranking boyz

IMO lead core certainly has its place and works quite well, but fishing for trout is not nearly as fun with leadcore line as it is with light line with no weight and using a downrigger.

Also look into the Shasta tackle shuttlehawk, it removes the need to crank the DR ball up after each hit.

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IMO lead core certainly has its place and works quite well, but fishing for trout is not nearly as fun with leadcore line as it is with light line with no weight and using a downrigger.

I like downrigger trolling because it allows me to place my lures very precisely at the level of fish I see on my fish finder, it allows me to quickly change that level when I see fish at a different level, and it allows me to fish right above the bottom as the bottom goes up and down.  Leaded line, sinkers, and diving devices seem unacceptably random, as you really don't know what level your lure is running at.

Skip the downrigger.  Switch over to 18 lb leadcore line and a kokanee rod.  You'll be much happier.  The line will get your down 30 feet and you don't have to crank a ball in http://kayakfishingwashington.com/cutthroat-trout-fishing/

Brad, how many times do I have to tell you - Never give out free advice, the wiseman doesn't need it and the fools won't heed it.

Happy cranking boyz

IMO lead core certainly has its place and works quite well, but fishing for trout is not nearly as fun with leadcore line as it is with light line with no weight and using a downrigger.

Also look into the Shasta tackle shuttlehawk, it removes the need to crank the DR ball up after each hit.

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To each his own.

I tried leadcore, truly hated the stuff, got a downrigger and never looked back. The shuttlehawk is amazing, no cranking needed unless depth changes and at the end of the day.

 At the end of the day if you are catching fish what does it matter what method you use. There are pros and cons of each...