Tangled lines....

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee

Active Member
Question for the group -

Fishing out in front of Nanaimo this year, getting line tangles behind the down rigger which I have never before with same set up. 12 lb finned pancake style cannonballs, steel cable on electric Scottys. Been using flasher with 4 to 5 ft leader and spoons.

Tried the following to correct -

Lowered gear slowly
Put lines a bit further behind boat
Fished different depths on each side

Is it just that area? Should I run 15 lb balls there?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thx

BL
 
is your gear tangling on to the down rigger? or is it both set ups getting tangled together?

I find if the current are bad I keep the gear closer to the boat not further. The longer the gear is back from boat the more "swing" it has and can tangle more.
Secondly, how different are the depths? and how deep are you fishing? If fishing deep(200+) and more then 30ish feet in seperation you need to really take your time turning and the ball that is deeper will swing out a lot further. If the deeper ball is in on the side of the turn it it pretty easy to tangle the ball that is shorter as the longer one is straight up and down. The solution is to make sure the depths of each side are pretty close before turning.

Lastly, With pancakes, if the fin is bent the wrong way they can track into each other. But I assume you know that one.
 
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If you get a big jelly fish on the pancake weight it can turn the fin and actually steer it over to the other side. In really bad cases I've actually had the rigger lines cross. That is a nightmare if your on a bigger boat with a Stern drive and the riggers mounted right at the Stern. Gettting the rigger lines uncrossed can be very difficult. After I had that happen a few times I stopped using pancake weights. They are great until you experience the riggers crossing, once that happens you may rethink using them as well.
 
I like to turn with the deep side on the inside of the turn.

I try to avoid turning to the port side with the wind on my port side because my kicker is on the port side and the boat just drifts sideways for the kicker just doesn't have the leverage on that side for that kind of turn.
 
I think two things. 12lbs is just too light to effectively fish our strong currents. 15 of even 18lbs are better. Then there is the issue of the pancake weights. They are great when tracking directly into or away from the current, but as soon as you are tracking across the current the pancakes fail. Way more surface area which causes increased drag. PNT sells 18lbers, when you replace your next balls, go check them out...
 
You might be turning too sharply. In a ripping tide I take the inside line up before I make the turn and don't put it back until the other line is angling more or less straight back behind the boat again.
 
get rid of the pancakes and use cannonballs. just a suggestion.
 
Lastly, With pancakes, if the fin is bent the wrong way they can track into each other. But I assume you know that one.

that's likely the problem, bend fins so they both track away from the boat
 
Thanks for all the great responses!

I had a hunch the lighter pancake style lead may be the problem.....will get some 15s and see if that does the trick. I also like the idea of bending the fins as SC suggested, we did have the rigger lines cross a couple weeks ago, cleared when I stopped the boat....thankfully.
 
If you use high res. florescent main line in different colors for your various rods, it makes it a lot easier to untangle them in the event you do get them tangled up.
 
Rockfish said:
If you use high res. florescent main line in different colors for your various rods, it makes it a lot easier to untangle them in the event you do get them tangled up.
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lol If all else fails.... That was funny.
 
Pancake weights have caused me nothing but problems. I doubt they even reduce drag compared to a round ball - a round ball should have a better surface area to mass ratio.
 
You understand that tuneable pancake and disk rigger weights were never intended to reduce drag and in fact add drag. They are for special purpose applications and are essentially a combination of rigger weight and side planer and when properly tuned convert the forward movement of the boat into separation of your cables and lines by pushing your side rigger cables out away from the boat when under power. This reduces the possibility of conflicts and tangles between riggers, especially if you have a smaller not particularly beamy boat and are running a third center rigger off the transom and need to add separation to prevent problems. If it were me I would run a ball on the center rigger as even a very small bend in the stainless tuning fin is going to push the disk weight one way or the other resulting in less separation with one of the side riggers. As an incidental benefit they also allow you to cover more water area which in some circumstances can increase hookups. If you need them and know how to use them they are a useful tool.

Once tuned they are also side specific so if you were to reverse them and put the matched pair on the opposite side of the boat for which they were tuned by mistake, rather than push the disk weights out away from the boat adding separation, they would now be pushed together under the boat often resulting in an opportunity to practice you favorite expletives. By the way, 0nce tuned, dropping them, putting other weights on top of them or stepping on them can change the tuning (bend), often not in a good way.

In my view they are useful when fishing shallow and medium depths in circumstances where you would benefit from added separation of your side riggers. I have them but almost never use them as I have a good size boat and don't run a center rigger so its balls for me. As others have pointed out the disks can be tricky and have their downside, so why use them unless you need them.
 
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The two worst snag ups I've ever encountered while down rigging was using pancake weights. One I already mentioned, the dreaded crossover with both weights tangled together underneath the boat. The other times was bottom bouncing the Fraser mouth for springs. I hooked abandoned commercial traps twice while using pancake weights. The first time I just gave up on it and cut the cable. The next week the same thing happened. I was pissed and wasn't about to cut the cable again. That time I wrapped the cable around the beating stick and slowly hand lined it to the surface. Those traps weigh a ton and no telling how long it was down there. Made out of rebar and all rusted to hell, and about 5 feet across. I think the round balls tend to bounce or pull off stuff like that way easier because I've never had that happen with round balls. I think the shape/size of the pancake weights leads to way more bottom snag ups. As I've never had that happen again since I went back to round balls.

Aside from that, some places want $85-100 for one pancake weight. Hardly worth all the extra headaches they can create for the price.
 
Only ever had one tangle with 12 lb pancakes. I'd put them on with the fins bent the wrong way and had to retrieve and switch sides.

Never a problem after that. And now I double check before they go over the wall..... ;)
 
Bent-Tip said:
Only ever had one tangle with 12 lb pancakes. I'd put them on with the fins bent the wrong way and had to retrieve and switch sides.

Never a problem after that. And now I double check before they go over the wall..... ;)
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I have run 12 lb pancakes for years with no issues. slight bend and run the tag line off fin on the pancake. if you don't like them I will take them off your hands.
 
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