Thoughts on how attractor flies behave with different setbacks

[capt ace]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ace-Charters/134117926659711 Sorry I had to put this on my facebook page but my webmaster has taken ill.Scroll down to Rambling thoughts on lake Ontario fishing.

Rambling thoughts on Lake Ontario Fishing

By

Capt. Jimmy Samia

As the title suggests, I was looking for a way to put down some of what I think about when I’m thinking about fishing. Recently a few things have been popping into my head over and over again, but they’re not about just one topic. I’ve been rambling! Anyways here’s one for you!

The first thought that keeps happening over and over again has to do with lead lengths off of downriggers and how attractors respond to it. It has been commonly proposed by a few leading experts that the farther you let out an attractor from the downrigger (lead length), the larger the diameter of the circle the attractor will rotate around and thus, the slower it will rotate. Hours and hours of watching attractors such a dodgers, pro trolls, slashers, and spindoctors have suggested otherwise. Believe it or not, the exact opposite is true!

We used to spend a lot of time running the Walker Strike vision underwater camera. When the camera was run suspended in the water column the apparatus run behind it could only be run about six to eight feet back so that camera could focus on it, pick it up and display it on the TV screen. One day when I wasn’t paying attention to the depth of water I was in I inadvertently ran into shallower water. Guess what happened? The closer I got to the bottom with the camera, the more I could see back with it. I mean I could really see far back with it, like at least fifty to one-hundred feet or so. The camera was picking up the light refection off of the substrate on the lake floor and illuminating everything around it. I could see both of my downriggers and the dodgers that were on them. The dodger with the longer stretch was rotating faster and in a tighter circle than the dodger that was tighter to the ball. How on earth could this be? The general consensus on the internet and leading magazine articles that addressed this issue were saying the exact opposite was true!

To make sure that I wasn’t seeing an anomaly, I messed around with the stretches more and more to make sure I was really “seeing what I was seeing”. I ran pro trolls, slashers, spindoctors and the like. Low and behold I was “seeing what I thought I was seeing”. The longer the lead, the faster and tighter the spin the attractor displays. I started to ask myself why the attractors would act this way. After thinking about it I came to the conclusion that the length of the fishing line in front of the attractor was offering resistance as it was being pulled through the water in a circular fashion. The longer the distance between the attractor and the release clip, the more drag the line offers to being rotated around its axis. In other words, the more line that is in front of the attractor, the harder it is for the attractor to move that line in a circular fashion farther from its(the line’s) axis which results in the attractor rotating in a tighter and tighter spin the farther away it is from the downrigger. Plain and simple; longer leads tighter spin!

If you would like you can read more of my articles at http://www.acecharters.com/informational_articles.html

I just received word from Attomik manufacturing that they now have available a new aftermarket half keel set-up at a very reasonable price to fit Otter boats. As many of you may know we have been using double keel set-ups on our Otter Boats for several years since their acceptance. The double keels offer several advantages over a single (factory) keel especially when pulling long lines such as coppers and lead cores. You can contact Attomik at http://www.atommiktrollingflies.com/ for more information. I only wish this had happened sooner as it would have saved me quite a few bucks!

Edited February 21, 2013 by Nailer

[Sea-Mac]

You don't say, interesting read....Welp! guess I will be the first to admit i did NOT know this and had always been told and had thought the opposite of your findings was true. Never thought to look myself that's to much work.

However I have always believed in leader lengths to be a big part of presentation. Which is why I have swim noodles with doubles some triples of pre made leaders in one foot increments from 3 to 10 ft. and in three different lb. tests. (15,20,30) and I will experiment and change this up if things are not going like I feel they should be. Some find this a bit excessive and over the top but it gives me piece of mind.

I let the fish tell me what leader length/lb. test they prefer that day (most days I cant go wrong with anything under 10 ft., but some deys they do get a little more picky).

I have a new imagination on how they (flasher/flys) are running on long line set ups like lead core and copper now. If they are hitting good on those kind of set ups then that would give good reason to lengthen the flasher/fly leaders on my dipsey and riggers if they weren't popping like the long line flasher /fly set ups.

Also maybe good reason to speed up if using spoons to no good avail. while long leader flasher fly set ups are killin em cause they are on a faster more aggressive bite?

[mriversinco]

The physics of your leader providing more resistance makes sense. How come we never thought of that?