Stealth Downrigger

[beargus]

Was planning on replacing the cable on one of my downriggers with 250# Powerpro this season, however I never got it done.

The obvious benefit is silence...or quieter presentation. Are there other benefits?

What are the drawbacks?

[ALLEYES]

Drawback...higher chance of loosing your balls.

[EdB]

It would be an issue when spiny water fleas are heavy.

[Nailer]

Yes, both of the above. Stick with wire.

[SUPERTRAMP]

I have experienced Power pro rigger setups, and the Spiny Water fleas are a huge problem, I ran for 1 trip with the power pro 3 years ago and came in and replaced the power pro with 150# cable. The power pro 200# will work great until the fleas show up, then forget about it.

[Priority1]

Silence isn't necessarily golden. I believe that the harmonics of the wire can attract fish to the spread. I know I'm not alone in this theory. Everything has it's pros and cons. At one point in time I knew fishermen that were removing wire from the riggers for stealth and spooling wire on their Dipsy rigs. Personally I believe that the harmonics on the riggers as well as the Dipsys is beneficial MOST of the time. Certain conditions require different presentations. Some times wire Dipsys will out shine the braid and other times not.

[Line Dancin]

I would stay with cable eveything said above about fleas and loosing balls is right on. If you want a stealth presentation run a two or three color off your riggers. It will get you away and deeper than your wire and ball. You will see this and hear this refered to a SWR secret weapon rig.

[Cork Dust]

I'll play devil's advocate and ask what evidence do you have that fish are avoiding your 'rigger rods because of wire downrigger cables? Salmon and trout are excellent boat avoiders. I strongly suspect that this gets erroneously extrapolated into the assumption that its the vibration signature of the 'rigger cables

[fishy1]

This arguement could go on forever whether the noise from downriggers and wire dipseys either attract or repel the fish if we knew the answer for sure we would be able to fill the boat everyday. As in all fishing you are fishing different techniques some days one method produces better than another thats why we run different techniques. I believe we sometimes try to over think these things.

[mattmishler]

I really like the power pro on the riggers of the killin time. No hum, the water fleas are a pain sometimes. Don't have to worry about the wire kinking. It's about 75/25 wire vs power pro on the boat that I work on from grand haven to Manistee/

[Pioneer]

Personaly I look at it this way. The charter guys I know that are getting 20-30 fish per trip when I am getting 10-20 a trip are telling me it is getting on fish and getting your spread to look right underwater that is the big deal. I believe the better you get at the fundamentals of a good spread and getting on active fish have a HUGE part to your success. I am sure power pro has it's day but until I am good enough to see the difference in a day in and day out situation I will stick with wire for now. There is so much more for me to learn......

[pentwater bite me]

if you have back stop down riggers(stop at the surface) they will not stop