quote:Originally posted by inlander
as the name suggests, I am from the flats of the prairies. Have had the priviledge of fishing the Charlottes for a few years now. Started power mooching with cutplug herring, and have graduated to vessels with downriggers. My bro and I are DIY people and have never had a guide, but are seeking advice.
1. Stacking Downriggers. Does it matter which line you run longer? Top or bottom. Separation bt. lines?
2. Have bought some spoons and plugs to try. Have read on the site that for really big springs, maybe cutplug herring is best. Any thoughts?
3. Any input about flashers/dodgers.
4. Hootchies. Are they used up there with success?
Any info/opinions would be greatly appreciated. I have spent the last 3hrs reading the forum, great info. Thanx
OK, I guess I might as well throw my 2 cents worth in here...
1. Not real sure about this one, but I tend to run my top lines longer to get the gear past the line arcing down to the bottom clip. Less likely to tangle if it is only line to line and not flasher/hook to line. I put my bottom lines out the side in the downrigger arm rod holders, and the top lines I put straight out the stern just slightly off the center. This helps to keep the lines apart - most days.
Seperation depends on what I am running for gear. If flashers are involved, I put more space between them where possible. If I am fishing deep water off-shore (100' - 300') then what I like to do is seperate the lines on each side by 20'.
I will run one rigger at 100' which sets my top line at 80' - the other downrigger will be set up the same way, but put at either 110' or 90' depending on if I want to be deeper or shallower. This way, I have a spread of gear in a 40' stack that is 10' apart in depth. If you really want to get fancy, put a false-flasher on the bottom and move everything up about 5' - This works good for Sockeye.
The big question about running stacked downriggers is why and when. I have been in situations where having one downrigger and line was more than enough to handle. Where I fish in Tahsis, in-shore fishing is shallow, less than 50' mostly less than 40' I run two lines, one off of each rigger land sometimes will run a center surface line if Coho are around. Unless you have a well trained crew to handle getting rods and downriggers out of the way, stick with one line per rigger. If fishing is real slow, such as pre-season scouting trips where you know the Salmon will show up "any day now", then that is a good time to run 2 lines from each rigger.
2. I like running plugs and spoons. We all have our favorites that we depend on. Tomic 602, 500 and many others work well in most places - check the Tomic website for more details.
http://www.tomiclures.com/ Try getting a solid gold spoon - they are worth a few bucks more, but work really well for me. Check my website for a photo of the spoon:
www.JimsFishing.com
3. Plastic HotSpot style Flashers are a must for summer fishing. I like the ones with lots of flash tape on them. Stick with shades of green. I don't know anyone who is still using Dodgers.
4. Hoochies work well at times. Check with local tackle shops where you fish for popular colors and patterns. I'm afraid that I'm not good at remembering color numbers, I just know which ones work for me and occasionally I buy a new color based on the tackle shop reccomendation. Nice thing about a Flasher/Hoochy combo is that you can throw it in the water quickly and get it fishing. No need to play with bait for 5 minutes to get it hooked up and working right.
Tie your hoochies yourself. Use 60# Triplefish mono line (availabe in 100 yard coils). Use the big single hooks that the commercial guys use, along with a swivel at the hook and at the line end, and you will be in great shape.
Well, that should be enough to get you started. Good luck with your fishing trip to BC! [8D]