Trolling for Salmon with Downrigger

I knew that I would be doing a lot of trolling for Salmon, so I outfitted my kayak largely around trolling with a downrigger.

I mounted a barrel-type flush pole holder behind me on the starboard side, where I carry my net. (One of the Charter boat captains was giving me flack about my net when I was fishing Point Lawrence, saying it would be worthless in landing a big fish.  My net is on the small side, but I figure I’m not going to be stabbing the water like you need to on bigger boats…we’ll see, he may be right.  He also stated his thought that the maximum salmon one could catch on a kayak was 25#, and we’ve seen that that is not true…anyway, it will be a learning experience!!)

On the port side, I installed a Scotty Flush mounted base.  I went with the flush mount verse the standard mount to keep everything as low as possible.  (I don’t particularly like the fact that it’s a substantial hole in the boat, blocked only by a rubber flap or the downrigger.)

I have a Scotty Lake Troller, which seems like it was made for my kayak.  It comes loaded with 100’ of SS cable with a max-recommended weight of 3#.

I mounted a standard Scotty base in the center of the kayak forward of the cockpit.  I purchased an extension for my pole-holder otherwise it was difficult to get a pole in as the butt hit the deck.  Elevating the pole-holder also improved the range of positions I could position my pole.

Everything works pretty much like I thought it would.  It took a little while to dial things in.  Handling the weight, how and where to clip release onto line (I ended up reaching back and clipping right above the downrigger), how to keep things from fouling, (lure around dodger, rotation of release clip cable causing the line to wrap around the clip. BAD,) especially when I was working against a current and/or wind! 

I would like to improve my ability to fish close to the bottom.  When the weight hangs directly below I can see the weight on the fish finder.  As soon as I begin paddling the weight leaves the sonar’s view…I mean real quickly!!  Any ideas on how to estimate the depth that the lure ends up when trolling?

I don’t think increasing the weight is the solution.  Without reinforcing the areas around where the pole-holder and downrigger mount, I think it would stress the deck too much.  It’s not that much plastic there…

I was thinking that changing my line, downrigger and pole, to spectra might reduce the drag.  Any thoughts?  I have heard some people say that the hum SS cable produce attracts fish and others say it scares fish.  Regardless of this potential benefit, if drag can be reduced that seems more important. 

After trying both flashers and dodgers, I think I want to primarily use dodgers to reduce drag as well as it seems like they are more appropriate for kayak fishing with our ability to troll slowly and vary speed.  Any thoughts?

I’ve spoken to a few people here’s a summary:

General (Chinook, Coho,..)
Dodger/flasher color:
-   White
-   Green (seems like mainly for flashers..?)
-   Red (also seems like flashers?)
-   ?? Any ideas on types of dodgers??

Hoochies/Squid
-   Green..Green (spotted back, dark and light shades)
-   Blue
-   White (haven’t heard much, but I remembered since white worked well in the Monterey Bay.)
-   Pink (some are really small, but I guess Humpies like them..!)

Spoons and other Junk
-   Coyote in Green and White
-   Coho Killer in Green
-   Buzz-bombs – casting to humpies

Any thoughts, suggestions, additions,..??

Does anyone use Cuttlefish type hoochies?  I haven’t seen them in the tackle store?  They really worked well off Santa Cruz.

Any thoughts on scents and other attractants?  I’ve never used them before, but it seems like people are in to them around here…are the fish?

I love to learn, so please share any tidbits that might be interesting.  I would love to go fishing with someone with experienced in these waters, I learn best from watching and practicing. 

Cheers!!

Hey Espiga, looks like you're serious about landing a salmon too! You've got most of the same info that I've picked up as well. I haven't messed with downriggers but some on the ncka site have them set up. Most of them do get rid of the cable and replace w/ spectra just because there's so much to risk if it gets snagged. At least w/ spectra, if you keep a knife handy, you can get out of a tough situation. Safety is a real concern when using a downrigger since we're so succeptable to anything w/ our low weight.

personally, I've been using a Pink Lady (poor man's downrigger) and it gets me down to about 50 or so feet. I've tried all different combinations of lures, flashers etc. but the one that's actually gotten me hits is cut plug herring. I did the whole brine thing straight from salmonuniversity.com, plug cut them and slowly mooched them while drifting. I actually got a few hits on them for sure while with the others they could have been all snags. I've gone out after salmon now about 6 times and now that I've gone through all the various ways I'm going back to what gave me results the herring.

Check out salmon university if you haven't yet. They have a lot of really valuable information. Lookin forward to hearing and seeing results (take photos ).

Let's get some salmon!!!

Z

Yea...I've got it pretty bad right now!

I have been thinking of trying the cut herring.  I have not cut and cured bait like described on SalmonU, but it looks pretty interesting.  I have had success with bait, both anchovies and herring, fishing out of Santa Cruz.  I'm stoked to see all the precise directions for cutting, curing and hooking cut herring. 

Though mooching works well when there are lots of active fish, but when things are spread out trolling seems to work better. 

I'm down for trying either or both sometime this week.

Thank you for the thoughts about the safety factor of spectra verse cable...I hadn't thought about that aspect!

I need to get a waterproof camera, since the times that I have caught fish, mainly releasing, my camera has been buried. 

Here salmon..salmon...salmon 

 Spectra works really well for getting deeper with less weight. I'm actually using 100# kevlar because thats what I had laying around. I have a scotty lake troller, but I use a mooching reel mounted on a piece of pvc (cheap man's downrigger) and that works great.

http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=338.0

 I like the shorter boom and I use it as an anchor line reel as well. The short boom has a smaller moment and is less prone to tipping my canoe (kayak) as the weight is alot closer to the centerline.   I use the 4# weight and I can ususlly see it on the FF to about 3 kts. but I have been using it really shallow (<30'). I bought a scotty fly reel mount for the downrigger. But that entails poking another hole in my boat to mount the FF and the spot I like best (on the deck between my legs) is really close to the water line and really needs to be watertight. Stay tuned,,,,

 Reinforcing your base from the inside is a very good idea as the downrigger puts a fairly big torque on your deck (another good reason for a short boom). If nothing else, you can use the biggest fender washers you can find with a foam tile washer under the fender washer to spread the contact area.  Also you can plug the flush mount with a bit of pool noodle and goop (yak fisherman's duct tape). But lately I have been making grommets and plugs out of that same black foam tile material.


 For waterproof cameras I really like the Pentax Optio WP series. Good to about 10' deep and you can find it on ebay for <$150.  HOWEVER, they are not terribly shockproof as mine croaked from a fall from my pocket to the concrete. I'd read that was fairly common in a number of reviews and repair cost is more than replacement and its not covered by the factory (even new). Still,  even at that replacement price, I have not quite reached the cost of anything similar thats new.

and Yall are really starting to make it sound like a trip to the north is in order.. hmmm, seems I'm due a day (or two) pass out of the house.....

Thank you for the info.

I'm going to check out Spectra tomorrow.  I'm also going to look at backing the hull at the downrigger and pole holder mounts. 

I like your downrigger design.  I went with the lake troller because I didn't have a real laying around.  Where I have the downrigger located, I'm not sure how I could get the resistance closer to center line.  I like where the downrigger is located for and aft. It seems like it would pull my bow or stern around more if it were located differently.  I hope I get a chance to see your rig.

I'll watch ebay to see if I can find that camera.  Sounds like a good deal.

Let me know your thoughts on a possible trip.

-Jesse

Maximum size for a kayak caught fish is 25lb.? Negatory to that. The fish in my avatar was a shade under 40lbs., I've C&Red bigger ones than that and I know guys that C&Red fish that were more than twice that size.
I'm thinking about a kayak trolling setup myself, but mostly for the Columbia River. I've used Dipsey Divers to fish for walleye and steelhead that were down 70-80'. Maybe an 8.5' rod with 40-50lb. test and a 20-30lb leader from the Dipsey. Not only does the Dipsey take the lure, usually a spoon, down, but it takes it off to the side of the boat. You can figure the depth by how many revolutions of the reel spool you let out.