OPINIONS ON DOWN RIGGERS - please

[roz]

Just a quickie.

I am thinking of adding down riggers to my V-Sea, I do a lot of mack trolling when up north & have been for a lot of years.
Sadly I am finding the spanish population is not what it used to be, so I am looking for ways to improve my catch rate.

I have never used a down rigger before so there is a bit of a learning curve (I thought I knew everything), I see the pros using them so that is a good indicator.

I tow pre frozen baits that I catch off Coffs H., when I get the chance to get out. I then take them up to Agnes & fish around outer rock which is located off Bustard H.

Info on reliable brands and methods of attachment would be greatly appreciated...& any other advice.

Many thanx

Cheers Roz :)

[Spaniard_King]

Forget the down rigger, bought one used it for a while then sold it for a better method!!!

we now use snapper leads and heavy tackle rubber bands

pull 8-10m of line off with your bait. then put the rubber band on the snapper lead of choice (current pending) we use up t0 16oz then wrap the band 5-6 times around the line and put the lead back through the loop of the band. Try varying heights. Engine just in gear we usually run one 20ft off the bottom one mid water and one on the surface
we get back 9 out of 10 sinkers, just break the band when the fish is close to the boat.

You can spend a lot on sinkers and bands before you get to the cost of a downrigger. Also price what a downrigger bomb and re attachment kit will cost as you WILL loose a few bombs

[Noelm]

Down riggers are very common down this way, just like the Spanish up north, the Kingfish down here are pretty scarce now (well, big ones anyway) a down rigger will get you fish when everyone else is going home empty handed. They work extremely well with live baits, don't use trolled dead baits down this way much. Scotty seems to be the best brand, but plenty use the cheaper ones too.

[honda900]

Last september, no down rigger, hard bodies.. we dropped a least another 5 or so, the two other boats (including rebait) beside us towing baits did not do as well as we did, not all on the table were ours but 6 were.

We mixed up the depth that the hard bodies were on so running 10m, 6m and 2m in the water column.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l269/honda900_uw/20150915_160116_zpscuh2w7z2.jpg (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/honda900_uw/media/20150915_160116_zpscuh2w7z2.jpg.html)

Regards
Honda

[scottar]

Like any bit of fishing apparatus, sometimes they are hot - sometimes not. I have two cannons. One manual, one electric. We do predominantly troll live baits but I see no reason they wouldn't work with deadbaits - you may simply need a bigger bomb for the higher boat speed. They also open up other fishing opportunities - try trolling hard bodies in 60 metres for snapper without one. This is something we have done on occasion when the fish have been shutdown to other methods.

The manual is obviously a cheaper option but the electric is so convenient - one button and the bomb is back at the surface. We tend to troll the livies a couple of metres from the bottom so it is not uncommon for other species to get in on the act

[gofishin]

Interested in what you use on the d/rigger Scottar, wire or braid? I believe a lot of people use braid these days. Strength & type of braid?

We used d/riggers extensively in PNG, with mostly dead baits (livies would mostly just result in sharks), but also with Rapalas and big bibless minnows.

Macks loved them, but also the doggies and plenty others. Most often, with 1 rod on the d/r and 3 - 4 up top, the d/r would still catch the most kg's of Macks, and nearly always the first.

I still have my Penn Fathom Master (from 1986, still nearly as good as new despite a lot of use in PNG :) ), and have mounted the bracket on my current boat, but have only used it once :( .

Roz, I see these are available pretty cheap on eBay, so might be an option?

Have often thought how they would go trolling lures for snaps offshore, sounds like it works ok Scottar?
Cheers
Brendon

[scottar]

Just running the standard wire Brendan. Mainly due to chasing toothie critters with it and the chance of getting the bomb cut off if I am a bit slow (interpreted as lazy) with the manual one getting the bomb up. Certainly hasn't seemed to put the fish off. I would say on some trips the baits on the downriggers account for 80% of the strikes (have had 100% days but only one or two fish for the day doesn't really count in my book for those sort of statistics).

The snaps offshore is still a work in progress but the few times we have tried it have resulted in fish every time - not necessarily lots or of any great size but they have turned absolute shut down or high current days into days we actually managed to catch something.

As for mounts, I coudn't bring myself to drill holes in the gunwales of the Victory so I use rod holder inserts - also makes the manual easily portable if I want to use it elsewhere.

Regards

Scott

[odes20]

I have a Cannon Mag electric with auto stop.
its awesome and it has to have cable for the auto stop to work

[BeastMaster]

Hi Roz , long time no talk ,I usually troll dead baits on the surface early in the morning , as the sun gets higher in the sky I usually deploy a downrigger on each side . I use Scotty downriggers , they have a digital counter with a feet read out. Ive replaced the wire with 300lb braid(the wire will rust out eventually and you will loose more balls due to rusted wire than being hung up on reef. )The area you mentioned has a couple of pinnacles that come up to about 5m by memory, so the depth gauge comes in handy to set your depth, this will save your ball from being hungup but not necessily your baits.Depending on how much money you wish to spend the skys the limit, you can get electric models that can be linked to sounders , these can be programmed to automatically lift and lower balls to track the bottom .The cheapest option is A large barrel sinker 10m up your line with a slip stopper knot -when a fish is hooked, the knot slips out and the sinker slides down to the fish, unfortunately you cannt set a trolled sinker at a in your face depth but it is very effective at getting your baits down.
Regards
Neil

[PROS]

Forget the down rigger, bought one used it for a while then sold it for a better method!!!

we now use snapper leads and heavy tackle rubber bands

pull 8-10m of line off with your bait. then put the rubber band on the snapper lead of choice (current pending) we use up t0 16oz then wrap the band 5-6 times around the line and put the lead back through the loop of the band. Try varying heights. Engine just in gear we usually run one 20ft off the bottom one mid water and one on the surface
we get back 9 out of 10 sinkers, just break the band when the fish is close to the boat.

You can spend a lot on sinkers and bands before you get to the cost of a downrigger. Also price what a downrigger bomb and re attachment kit will cost as you WILL loose a few bombs

Any reason why not using a swivel (where you attach the rubber band normally) and sliding weight set up above the swivel either inline or attached via small clip?

Max

[PROS]

The cheapest option is A large barrel sinker 10m up your line with a slip stopper knot -when a fish is hooked, the knot slips out and the sinker slides down to the fish, unfortunately you cannt set a trolled sinker at a in your face depth but it is very effective at getting your baits down.
Regards
Neil

great info Neil, I will try this for sure
http://www.animatedknots.com/slip/#ScrollPoint

[Spaniard_King]

Any reason why not using a swivel (where you attach the rubber band normally) and sliding weight set up above the swivel either inline or attached via small clip?

Max

If you chase mackerel enough you will loose a lot because of the friction of the swivel on the main line wen the fish runs

[Noelm]

Sinkers and stuff might be OK when using a down rigger in shallow water, but once it gets deep, you need the "bomb" to keep the bait down, a couple of big snapper leads, or a barrel sinker is useless in more than about 20m of water, even a tiny bit of current at very slow trolling speeds will see a bait up near the surface in no time.

[Harmytage]

I bought a down rigger from this guy about 2 years ago, while i haven't had a great deal of success, mainly by catch and grinners i think this is more operator error than the fault of the equipment, i also bought a 10 pound bomb of ebay as the smaller bombs were not heavy enough in deeper water with current running.
Anyway you can never have too many boating or fishing accessories in my opinion!
Good luck
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiv3pj8uJ7MAhUGkZQKHbdfDKEQFggbMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.downriggershop.com.au%2F&usg=AFQjCNFjibxy9xT-GuuvxngSTnV_V5KwMg&bvm=bv.119745492,d.dGo

[joffo81]

I have a downrigger but havnt actually used it yet! How much line would you recommend to put out behind the bomb? Will it depend on depth or species or both? For example Scottar, are the snapper more shy than the macks so let more line out behind the bomb??
Joffo

[Triple]

Anyone tried the zwing type instead of bombs?

http://zwingdownrigger.com/blog/downrigger-fishing/

[BLOOEY]

I like the look of those Triple!

[scottar]

I have a downrigger but havnt actually used it yet! How much line would you recommend to put out behind the bomb? Will it depend on depth or species or both? For example Scottar, are the snapper more shy than the macks so let more line out behind the bomb??
Joffo

There have been some good articles written by journos - Lee Rainer being one of them, in relation to downrigging snapper. Thus far I have just followed his lead using a lure that dives a bit and trying to keep the ball out of the school of fish. They are certainly not shy in the way they attack the lure with it fairly commonly being half way down their throat. The most success has come from lures with a chrome finish thus far. Typically I would run a 20-30 metre setback. The macks are a different thing due to using live baits and the water being a lot shallower - 10 to 15 metres as against 60. Setbacks would vary from 10 to 20 metres and my personal belief is that most times if spaniards are in an area and a live slimie (more so than a yakka) gets dragged in front of their nose they simply can't help themselves. I am usually pretty confident that if I drag a spread of slimies through an area 2 or three times without a strike that it is time to go somewhere different.

[joffo81]

Thanks for your input Scottar. That's all I need to get started! cheers.

[pubic1]

If you're looking for a bomb that can run at higher speed as well as slower speeds, have a look at the Livey Vibe.

They are 5 lb and because of their narrow profile work in the same currents/depth as a 10 lb lead bomb.

Livey vibes vibrate as you tow them and attract fish like a blade / vibe lure does.

They are made of stainless and reflect/flash the suns light over their fish scale polished pattern, drawing in even more attention.

The beauty of them is that as they vibrate, they give your dead bait some action for when the fish are picky.

112894

[roz]

That sounds like an interesting option, I will investigate further.
thanks heaps.
r. :)

[roz]

didn't add in my opening section of this post, that I cannot tow livies, this is due to my motor being unable to run at the slower speed, TRUST ME IT HAS BEEN CHECKED OUT MANY TIMES BY A LOT OF OUT-BOARD MECHANICS, it is just the style of motor, also, I bought that motor brand new out of the box, the only way to run slow ...ish is to tilt up the leg, but that compromised steering, no big deal, my next motor will be a four stroke.

I have gone off track a bit, but want to explain why I can't tow live baits, if & when I get a down rigger or any of the other options I would still tow baits the same distance behind my boat, I have always found one shorter than the other, less problems if I am lucky to get a double hook-up. Anyway the pros out fish me on macks and they all use some type of down rigger, I am also restricted with a bag limit.

thanks r. :)

[roz]

will look into that.
r. :)

[roz]

There have been some good articles written by journos - Lee Rainer being one of them, in relation to downrigging snapper. Thus far I have just followed his lead using a lure that dives a bit and trying to keep the ball out of the school of fish. They are certainly not shy in the way they attack the lure with it fairly commonly being half way down their throat. The most success has come from lures with a chrome finish thus far. Typically I would run a 20-30 metre setback. The macks are a different thing due to using live baits and the water being a lot shallower - 10 to 15 metres as against 60. Setbacks would vary from 10 to 20 metres and my personal belief is that most times if spaniards are in an area and a live slimie (more so than a yakka) gets dragged in front of their nose they simply can't help themselves. I am usually pretty confident that if I drag a spread of slimies through an area 2 or three times without a strike that it is time to go somewhere different.



I've never towed for snaps, only for spanish, I catch heaps of snaps down here (when I get out) but usually give them to the neighbours, I simply go out to catch big slimmies & pike, use plenty of burly from a burly cage lowered down around 4 metres depth when fishing in around 17ish metres of water using floating baits-pillies on ganged 5 or 6/0s, saves fuel, we only get spanish/macks down here when the warm water makes its way south, but it is not unusual to get 9 kilo spotties or 20kg + macks, I think it's because the bigger fish can migrate further, I could be wrong, just my opinion. Must add the floating baits are for the snaps & occasional mack, I fish for baits using a baited jig.

thanx R. :)

[roz]

where did you get those? you can message me with more detail if you want, I am not on line that often (work) so don't think I am ignoring your message please.
r. :)

[roz]

p.s. will get back to more responses over the next week or so.

thanks guys.
r. :)

[banksmister]

112904
112905




Anyone used a plastic paravane.
Got one but keep forgetting to try it.

[gofishin]

Can't see your pics banks.

Anyone used a plastic paravane...Yep, but not for a looong time. Used to work quite well, & liked the plastic ones in red or yellow, as they seemed to help attract the fish. Blue & green not so good 'for attracting' fish (IMO).

Depending on lure type & size, need to adjust the tow point (normally come with multiple tow point options, else they don't stay down & can create havoc messing other lines up.

I would mostly use them on 4-6kg line (game fishing) with a short breakaway tether tied to the trace swivel. Worked well. Heavier lines, with bigger lures, not so well (but I guess depends on the size of the vane).

In the very old days my old man would use them on heavy hand lines with Smiths Jigs, or spoons, as lures. Worked great too :) .
Cheers
Brendon

[Triple]

didn't add in my opening section of this post, that I cannot tow livies, this is due to my motor being unable to run at the slower speed.

thanks r. :)

Have you tried towing a bucket?

plenty of people using trolling bags or use your drogue if you have one.. Smallest drogue you can buy from most chandlery for $20 or so will work nicely.

[Dignity]

Have you tried towing a bucket?

plenty of people using trolling bags or use your drogue if you have one.. Smallest drogue you can buy from most chandlery for $20 or so will work nicely.
or the other option is to Bunny Hop, put the motor in and out of gear, even some pros do this.

[gofishin]

Slightly off topic, but with the aim to achieve a similar effect - i.e. more depth ...

Has anyone seen these in their travels or internet surfing??

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160430/1427cb1512e905c0fc69bc3dafd0d496.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160430/bec3aa4a19987957672ab11a40f82b2e.jpg


They are (were!) called 'down sinkers'. Used them in the late 70's & 80's in PNG when trolling baits to get a few extra meters of depth.

Have surfed the net a few times over the years without any joy.
Cheers
Brendon

[BigE]

WoW
haven't seen a down sinker in years ..... work really well on spotties towing pillies in pink squids.
where did you get them?

BigE

[gofishin]

Still got a few of them from my PNG days Ian... so these are, hnmmm ... maybe 30yrs or more old! Would like some more though :) .
Cheers
Brendon

[scottar]

You might have to bite the bullet and get someone with a CNC machine to knock up a mold for you.

[gofishin]

Yeah maybe Scotty.

Where did you get yours from Ian, & how long ago?

[chillout]

Hi Roz
I've got a home made Alvey reef master downrigger that I run stainless wire on. When I'm mac fishing it's always the first rod set. I have run hardbodies, deadbaits and livies on it and all have been successful on all 3. I probably catch 80% of my mackeral on the downrigger. I run a large fish shape bomb from wellsys tackle on the bottom, about a foot above that I have a large ball bearing snap swivel crimped in position. I run the bait out the desired length wrap a rubber band around it and clip it into the snap swivel on the rigger, lower the rigger down to the desired depth(wire is marked every 5m) and put the reel in gear.
Cheers,
Keith

[myusernam]

i haven't used mine much at all (just a test run when i bought it years ago, bu t i mainly spearfish) but when i put it on my transducer side i can see the line and the ball. good to see it on the sounder and not just rely on the counter

[BigE]

Hi Go Fishin
got mine years ago at some markets up north (Bowen) would be over 10 years ago.

BigE