going light

[steeliebob]

On the last trip out of St Ignace in September we rigged up 9 foot noodle rods with open bail reels loaded with 8 pound test line to the downriggers and trolled with green dolphin spoons. It wasn't too long and we had an 8 pound steelhead jumping 200 feet behind the boat, what a battle it was. I am considering using these rods next year on my stackers or mabey using steelhead rods and open bail reels on all of the rod holders. Does anyone else fish like this? Can you give me some pro's and cons or tips. I really think that with the lighter line and poles I will get more fish in the boat. I am also guessing that if I use smaller spoons mabey shad raps at about 25 feet on stackers I can put more steelhead in the boat.

[1mainiac]

I keep 2 10ft Steelhead rods on my boat all the time did not use em this year but used em several times last season. They are my favorite setup bar none but I don't use em as much as I would like. The reason is you lose fish and gear and need to be able to use the boat to fish kinda like marlin fishing you can't stop much of any big fish so you use the boat to wear em out. So I only use em once in a while for Steelhead and usually when I am down to my last couple of fish for a limit as you can't have a lot of gear out when doing this.

[steeliebob]

I was thinking about hooking them up on the stackers and running them about 25 feet down about 100 feet in back of the boat with directional divers attached to pull them away from the boat. It should work but you are right about the big fish they can peel you in a hurry. My main concern is other boats, there are a couple of guys out there who wish I had a bumper hitch on my boat. There are days too that you just cannot get far enough away from the other boats.

[1mainiac]

One of my setups is a 10ft Steelhead rod with a 60 series spinning reel spooled with close to 500 yds of 15 lb Power Pro. A 15 lb King spooled me twice last year before we got him under control and we we backing into 4ft waves to save the fish. It was one of the coolest fish I ever caught but requires the right crew to pull off. I started doing it years ago on my 18ft boat which I could drive and fight the fish but in my 26ft boat it is a differant world which is why I did not try it this year. However I now have a pretty good core crew so will give it a shot again next season on occassion. My best approach was running behind my big boards with snap weights for Steelhead.

[mattmishler]

we have a diwia 27 on a 9 food noodle with 12 pound mono and that is the most productive rod on bright sunny days and there kinda fun to fight them on i mean muliply 100'+ runs can get any better

[Just Hook'n]

Back in the day with my dad we used to fish mitchel 300's with nothing more than 15lb mono on downriggers. It was a riot. I tried this a couple times this year and we had a ball. Not a typical thing I do, but fun if you get a chance.