Sk8man

Just make sure everything is fastened to the boat real well. When the weight is suspended or even when up in the air there is a lot of torque at the base from the weight dangling not to mention if the weight should get hung upon bottom. If you plan on using dipsey divers the rod holders will also have to be fastened down real well for the same reason as the downriggers -torque. I'd practice a bit with the downriggers to get used to them If going out on Lake O you will have to choose your days (wind and waves etc.) and Stay relatively close to shore. In the Spring the browns and other fish will be close to shore so you'll be fine and you might want to start out with a combination of stickbaits and medium sized flutter spoons run 30-60 ft back behind the downriggers and experiment with the distance of the leads (shorter and longer). If you have Yellowbirds or small inline planer boards and relatively stiff action rods the boards can be run right along the shoreline with floating stickbaits (floating to keep from hanging up on bottom and rocks etc.). Sometimes the fish especially browns will be hugging the shore in very shallow water especially in the early morning before things get too bright and when there is a chop on the water. Productive areas include river or stream mouths especially where here is a mud line....fish the edge of it where the color line is. go back and forth in it with your lines. Troll in "s" curves and vary your speed up and down intermittently. Other folks may have additional suggestions or different ways of doing it but this is some basic stuff to start. Good luck with it. Have a great season.

First of all welcome to LOU. A couple questions to start - what kind of pole holders and how sturdy are they? and...what specific downriggers and releases?

That is a real bargain....they still work well when used right and sometimes even when Spinny's and Flashers aren't doing it....glad I held on to mine from the 70's and 80's

Also known as Seth Green rig....wow I guess I am getting old

I've been using 7 strand wire for well over thirty five years so I'm somewhat familiar with keeping the reels in the right position but I also fish a lot alone and between controlling the boat and netting fish and boards pulling etc. s**t happens The interesting thing is on all my other wire and thermocline rods the side rails are hardened so never a problem like this. The really good roller tips are about a hundred bucks or more so I'll stick with this set up for now. I've had some twillis for years but I'm not crazy about them....rather deal with the rollers. I just wanted to give a "heads up" as far as periodic checking of equipment now that we are (hopefully) heading into the real fishing season

Yeah he had a similar bunch a couple days before ....you might want to keep some of your secrets in jigging to yourself (i.e. from your girlfriend) too because she may end up out jigging you like my kid does to me

My kid fished it today too by himself for 5 hrs. and here's what he ended up with....makes me kinda wish I'd been there too

Sorry to hear it Mike but real good thing you discovered now in the downtime and before something happened. Good luck with things bud. Les

Mine are Shakespeare salt water rods.

I know most guys use twilli tips for their stranded wire rigs and that apparently the 19 strand Torpedo wire is reputed to be less abrasive to rod tips and guides but in checking over my (7 strand wire) stuff today and re-tying all terminal knots and connections I was a bit surprised when I inspected the ROLLER TIP of my rod (after one season with them). I had figured that I would be OK with less expensive roller tips because the really good saltwater stuff is VERY pricey. I never had any actual problems this season despite a lot of heavy action with them from salmon etc. The attached pic is what I found.....the stainless wheel part of the roller is fine but the damage occurred to the support side pieces which are a softer metal. The rod eyes were fine. I also had a nearly invisible kink in the 30 lb wire a few inches from the tip so it was pretty lucky I checked things out...just a FYI in the way of disaster prevention