Cannon Balls and colors

[mriversinco]

I just thought I'd share my experience from this past year fishing. I bought a new boat and got better riggers with it. At first I used some newer balls I had because of running more than 2 riggers my older balls were bent to run out a little and they didn't track very well with my new stuff I was running.

So, the new balls were painted white and I couldn't buy a hit on the 3 riggers I was running. In fact, I started only running 1 or 2 because it became a pain for no gain. Thinking about it, I decided to spray paint 2 of the balls black and whammo, the fish started hitting right away. They weren't my hottest setups but I definitely caught way more fish than before and was kind of surprised how much the color changed the success.

Thought I'd share.....

[mattmishler]

Thanks for the thought, i wondered the same thing. One day in august i ran a morning trip on the Killin' Time, we have black round 14 pounders, they were producing fish all morning. For the Night i help on the riverside, three yellow stinger weights on his riggers and they took fish.

[EdB]

Interesting thought, no complaints here on my lead colored(no paint) balls.

[The Salmon Slayer]

I’ve pondered thoughts on if the downrigger weight color has any impact on fish caught too, because here on the Western shore of Lake Michigan the water is pretty much gin clear, you can usually see your weights 25’ down. One of my fishing buddies had an old torpedo shaped metal weight that was chrome plated, when he used it water deeper than 50’ it always produced more fish than weights that were orange.

I have had great success on plain lead 10# cannon balls at any depth. I painted a few fish 8# shaped pearl white and found that my catch rate went down. So I repainted them a flat black and saw some improvements in catches. I still use 10# fished weights in white for fishing deeper than 75’ and have success on the white colored weights.

I tried silver prism tape on a weight that I ran and saw the catch rate drop until I removed the prism tape.

In conclusion I’d say straight lead grey is the best color followed by flat black. Weights that are chrome brite or white work deep.

One other important piece of information here is lead length. On my shallow riggers I usually run leads of about 100'. My deep rigger leads are usually 15' to 30'. Short leads just don't seem to be productive in the clear water when run at depths of 20' to 50'.

[Nailer]

I like mine Black.

[IRon]

Same here, black. I used to fish on my cousins boat years ago. He had some gaudy bright yellow and flo. green weights. All he would fish with was 4 down riggers and spoons. Nothing else! No dipseys (he hated those), no planer boards (hated those too), flasher/flies (those too). I finally quit going with him because I'd always chip in on gas and we wouldn't catch crap. The last time I saw him fishing was at Port Sheldon. We had separate boats and my buddy and I were hammering them in my boat. We limited out and he was actually following us around trying to connect. We finally loaded up and went home with a cooler full. He got blanked, not a fish. Obviously he had other issues and the ball color wasn't the only reason for his lack of success I'm sure. But he sold his boat the following year.

[Priority1]

I have run glow balls with glow spoons and plugs on short leads with good results. Most of the time the Kings are not shy or spooky.

[Leafybug]

Ya know, I've been wondering the same thing. Does color matter? I'm kinda thinking it does. I set up a new spread this past spring do I decided to run new balls too. I went with a local guy down in brighton (I think), cool guy, nice product, and in my opinion a bad color. I've never been blanked so often with downriggers! These were blue 10#ers with prism tape. Tape came off and catch rates slightly improved. Blue balls were replaced with black and hook ups went back to normal. Now night fishing didn't seem to be affected as much by ball color. Also longer leads caught more fish for me last year on the riggers too, which only went hand in hand with all the screwy currents I always seemed to find last year. Just my 2 cents

[Nailer]

Just my opinion here. I believe it's more about the way a spread is presented than the color of an individual component.

Your spread should change as the season progresses.

[Fsnrod]

Just my opinion here. I believe it's more about the way a spread is presented than the color of an individual component.

Your spread should change as the season progresses.

How would you change your spread as the progresses what would you change?

[Turfwrench]

It really makes one wonder if cannonball color really matters or if it is just a personal feeling that certain colors don't work. I run only black balls and black dipsys. That is my personal preference with the thought that black is fairly neutral as far as an attractant and the fish will put their eye on my lure instead of the divers or balls. But is this logical thinking or my own superstition. Looking at it another way, big paddles and spinnies of assorted colors approximately 2 feet from our fly or bait and we are also successful. Does the color of that big flasher differ in attraction from the color of the ball????? Does the fish key in on the ball, the flasher, the bait, or all the above. A good question indeed.

[willfishforfood]

I have 2 black and 2 orange and only use them for Kokanee here in the west and found that color didn't make much different's. I do sometimes run a cowbell off the rigger weight and the release on it.

[Nailer]

How would you change your spread as the progresses what would you change?

My spread generally consist of All spoons in the spring/early summer (or cold water).

Summer it will have ; Paddles/flies on riggers, and inside divers, Spin doctors on out divers, and spoons, or plugs on long lines (copper/core)

When the fish are extra deep (over 100') we use flashers/flies).

My spring/early summer spread is set up in a V pattern, with the riggers deepest, and closest to the boat, divers up and back next, then long lines higher, and back farther.

In warm water if the fish are in only one zone, we target that zone with everything.

Welcome to the site Rod.