DownRigging

[Abes]

Come July I'm usually downrigging on Lake Superior for Salmon, my comment is this, I usually run two downriggers and nothing else. I have planner boards, dipsy's, snap weights etc but I prefer having only the two lines in the water. My reason for this is that I believe that more hardware you have in the water the more problems you can run into, plus more work when you get a fish on. I personally like stopping the boat to fight the fish rather than fighting the speed of the boat at the same time. Do you hardcore salmon guy's think that i'm missing out on more action because of this? Fishing out of Thunder Bay is not as productive as say Michigan or Toronto nor is the salmon here as large as these places. In my experience our chinooks are on average around 6lbs and a big salmon is over 10lbs. Our rivers can produce some over 20lbs but catching one around 20lbs in the big lake doesn't happen very often. Do many of you guy's use J Plugs while downrigging? I've never tried them...I always use spoons...

[Empty Hook]

two riggers is fine if thats what your comfortable with. I down sized about 4 years ago to 3 rigger set up and catch as many if not more doing it. I run the east end of ontario where meat rigs have ruled for summer kings. i will run the 2 outside riggers with meat rigs 20-30 feet from the ball and the middle rigger will be the tailgun rigger. Ill run this 50- 100 feet back 10 feet below the deepest meat. salmon will come into the meat rigs thumpping and will sometimes vere off and back where they meet up with the trailing j-plug deeper and back all by its lonsome and fish on. j plugs are a awsome bait for kings we run them all summer. staging kings hammer them with the action they have. glow green ladder back with low light conditions and silver bulletts with the red head, watermelon are good light condition all around colors. we run the dodger/ flasher/ fly sets the same way or you can run spoons down the middle or j with a stacked spoon. we top this off with wire dipseys off the sides with echips and flies. 2 yrs ago we started running the echips both 8 and 11 inch and they are very impressive. its all we run now. 11 inchers for the cutbait and 8 for the flies. good luck

[stuwest]

I've been off the lake for about 15 years now and am just coming back.

A few questions:

1) a "meat rig" is a cut bait rig??

2) what are you running for cut bait and how?

I share your appreciation for J plugs. They are quite impressive.

[Empty Hook]

yes a meat rig is cut bait. we run ryes davis head and herring strips. place hte strip in the bait head and hold it in with tooth picks. run this as a good starting point 60 inches in back of your flasher with 40 pound seagur florucarbon leader. theres the prerigged twinkie rig this is nothing but a head with 3 flies on the leader spaced out evenly. great rig. last year we ran clean with no twinkies with the echips . if just starting use this KISS method and just run them clean for a while before getting fancy. you want the bait head to run 1-1.5 turns a second in the water. you can adjust this by bending the fin on the bait head, the more bend the faster the roll. you want a corkscrew type roll not a big wide roll. you want the hook a no.1 or 1.0 treble hook so the bottom is jut above the tip of the tail of the herring. for colors go with 2 simple ones to start glow green with a glow green head and a glow white with glow white head or a glow green head. other good ones are glow blue and glow purple. sorry if this sounds difficult or confusing but it is easy once you get the hang of it. its easier to show then to explain.

[Empty Hook]

i forgot speeds start around 2.2 mph. we run as slow as 1.7 and as fast as 2.7. the fish will tell you what they want.

[stuwest]

Wow! Thanks Cut Bait 101 without even asking!!! Truly a gift. Thank you!

We use dead alewives here sewn on a hook so they 'loop' spin and they are quite effective. I'll have to try some cut bait.

What do you use for the fresh meat??

[GLF]

I would continue the troll if you had a fish on. If you hook one fish, there is a good chance that there are more in the area. If you stop the boat, you are missing opportunities. I would also fish with more lines in the water. I am not saying you need to have a dozen lines in the water, but I would run a minimum of 6. What it all boils down to is what you feel comfortable with.

A nice spread for a small boat would be 2 riggers, 2 dipsey's(Wire, superline, or mono), and 2 lead core on inline planers. The depth you are targeting will determine what line's and core you need to be running. On the riggers, I would add stackers around 10' above the ball. This would give you 2 baits on each rigger rod.

More lines in the water will improve your odds of success.

You can run 12 rods off a 17' boat if it is set up correctly and not worry about tangles.

I am not familiar with salmon in Lake Superior or the forage base. If there are 20lb fish in the rivers, then you would think there are bigger fish than your average size in the lake.

Mike

[stuwest]

I guided on MIchigan and Superior for four summers and I would have to say that I basically agree with GLF.

The more lines in the water, the better your odds are.

When we were trolling Superior, we ran two boards out the side and put two lines on each.

Add two down riggers with stackers and you are up to eight lures.

Add two dipsies and now you are 10.

Superior is unique because it is SOOOOOO cold. So I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to go too deep, but a couple at 30-45' never hurt, especialy with salmon.

The boards were rigged for coho and were very productive.

On the riggers, I would run Js down deep and spoons on stackers. Mix it up with dodger/flys and you should be able to find the fish.