I'm feeling the need to troll deep

[Breakin"even]

I've never trolled deeper than 100 on the rigger but after talking to fellow anglers.
They said I was probably missing out on alot of salmon. So I tried deeper, 120-160
off the Fingers in Nanaimo. The drag streched the lines out and I tangled twice
in 2 hours. Today I was told that a heavyier ball will help, I'm using 15 now and lifting one line up before
a turn will also help. Does anyone have some advice for a strugling nubie to deeper trolling.

 

[Corey_lax]

How much line do you let out between the clip and the flasher?

 

[Breakin"even]

Probably to much, 30 to 40 feet

 

[trophy fisher]

Are you using round canon balls or finned?

 

[MadJigga]

Go no flasher and fish plugs both sides. 20 lb balls

 

[Breakin"even]

I'm using round coated 15# with a fin, not pancake, I bought a 18 pound round today, I should have bought the 20. Does 30 to 40 feet back from the the ball seem like an ok distance?
Flashers probabley add to the problem as they roll. I've been hesitant to removing the flasher
but untangling lines is frustrating, I've heared some guy's run a dummy flasher and a lure 10' back and 10' up
from the dummy flasher.

 

[RiverBoy]

we picked up two fish today both at 265’ of wire in 400’ of water. my wife caught one last season at 330’ of wire. they are simply going deeper and deeper. global warming? following the feed?i dunno

 

[michael_reiber]

I'd say 30-40 feet is pretty far back. How wides the boat? pretty narrow beam? I fish about 10feet from flasher to clip maximum, sometimes as close as 3 feet. Now I know most guys probably don't fish that close to the clip but thats just the way I do it and it works and I cant remember the last time I got tangled. Now that I say that with my luck I will probably tangle next time out!

 

[Original]

Here’s what the great Stizzla taught me. Shorter tag 10-15ft, wider turns, watch out for currents. Man we had some nasty tangles but we learned from it.

 

[MadJigga]

I've never trolled deeper than 100 on the rigger but after talking to fellow anglers.
They said I was probably missing out on alot of salmon. So I tried deeper, 120-160
off the Fingers in Nanaimo. The drag streched the lines out and I tangled twice
in 2 hours. Today I was told that a heavyier ball will help, I'm using 15 now and lifting one line up before
a turn will also help. Does anyone have some advice for a strugling nubie to deeper trolling.

Are you fishing both sides at the same depth??
And 15’ should do from clip. 30-40’ seems extreme to me. Never done it so I don’t know I guess

 

[Brett83]

I think 30-40 feet is a bit far. I use 30 inch clips and clip roughly 12 to 18 ft back. We use 15#balls, my riggers struggle with anything bigger. Don't turn to slow, wide turns, keep the lines tight.

 

[Devmah]

I stack about 20’ apart and about 15-25’ of line out from the clip up to 150’ of depth. Making sure you stagger your depths by 15’ from one side to the other.
My boat has a 9’ beam and i use the Scotty extended booms out about 5’ .
Running 20 lb finned balls
if I go deeper I don’t stack, I just use 1 rod per rigger.
Slow wide turns is the best.

 

[Breakin"even]

I usually offset depth by 20 to 40 feet and if I find something that works
I will stick with it while it's working. I'm in a small boat for now with a narrow beam 6',
shorter leader of the clip makes alot of sence, mabey 15' to start with, I do
try for wide turns but I'm alone in the boat and wind and other factors can come into play making things interesting. I have not extended the boom but that make sence and I will do that.
I've been watching the current efect on lines. I was trolling the other day in one direction
and the lines where back and off on an angle to one side. I thought if i pulled one line in
and then reset it down it might cross over the line thats down because of the currents effect
on the line already down and of the speedy decent of the new line
or will the current safely lay the new line at the right angle?

 

[Devmah]

It is best to set and reset your lines with them point back, it is also best to troll into current and zig zag back when you are with the current, this will allow the fish to see the lure and flasher and covers more water.

 

[tubber]

Tangles can happen on the turns of course, but probably more often when you set one down into the other, before things are lined up for a clean setting of the gear. It's tricky to fish two deep lines alone on a windy day.

 

[ab1752]

With the amount of water I've been covering I'm starting to believe the same, fish be deeper this year although all the fish I've bonked have been in the 69 to 90 range.

I'm gonna test my theory tomorrow and have no plans to run longer to the clip that typical, I will separate the cannon balls 25' for separation. See how it goes...

 

[Trophy]

All good advise above. Speed! As you make your wide turn, keep the same 45 degree angle on the down riggers. Depending on the current and wind you may have to speed up or slow down. Keep an extra eye on the outside line, it will quite often get a hit as it naturally speeds up. Same idea on zig zags.

 

[acrowe]

I had a lot of trouble when I ran slightly different cannonballs one side to the other, one was obviously more susceptible to current or something. Now I use identical 15# and have less trouble on a small boat
I have a friend who figures that natural selection had selected for salmon that run deeper as we have taken many more that ran and fed shallow out of the population

 

[Fisherman Rob]

I use 12lb cannon balls with fins and can get down to 140' without issue, but usually I'm fishing 70 to 110. Beyond that depth the wire goes past 45 at the surface, and the clips start to release on me. Generally I take turns very slowly and keep the depth staggered by 20'. 15' max from clip to flasher.

 

[Birdman]

When you're fishing off Nanaimo a lot of the time you're going to want to be down at least 200 feet. Sometimes much deeper.

You need to:

1. keep your lead from down rigger clip to flasher to 15 feet or less to lessen the chances of lines crossing over and tangling (which also helps when a fish does a "pop up" type of hit down deep instead of a hit and run as there is less slack line to deal with). In my opinion 30 to 40 feet is waaaay too far back unless you are trolling only plugs on a shallow line (like we used to do out offshore in the pilchard days on the west coast) without a lot of other boats in the area.

2. ensure you are trolling with your boat "in line" with the current, i.e. so one of your rigger cables isn't cutting under the boat on an angle. Also if you are trolling with your cables on a ****-eyed angle, your two flashers are going to be rotating differently and likely 1 side will not fish as well as the other. This is a very common mistake.

3. pull your outside rod and rigger up when you make a turn, then if you want to turn sharp you can and you are guaranteed not to tangle, and I find a lot of the time popping a sharp turn on that inside rod drastically changes the action resulting in an immediate hit. If I am trolling "deep" (180 plus) or in significant current I very rarely turn with 2 rods down, even on a gradual basis. This is also a good excuse to check your lines. Nanaimo always has tons of shakers, and often lots of weeds in the water.

4. if tangles remain really bad, consider running a big plug or spoon with no flasher on at least one side, potentially both sides.

5. strongly consider getting extended booms on your down riggers. Harbour Chandler set these up for me many moons ago. Once I did that and went to 15 pound balls, my number of tangles declined dramatically on a boat with an 8'6 beam.

6. listen to experienced guys from Campbell River on this topic, nowhere else on the coast do people consistently fish in extreme tides, really deep, as the guys who focus on the south end of Quadra. Most of my experience with this issue is west coast offshore or Nanaimo area, both of which can have strong currents and a lot of deep fishing, but frankly nothing like what'd I've seen at south Quadra the modest number of times I've fished that area. If you can learn from an expert in that area you will gain a lot.

What you're going through is all part of the normal learning curve for deep fishing. Hope this helps.