Down-riggers your thoughts???

[Lake Ontario Lure Washer]

Hi Guys, I am using 2 down-riggers and using 2 poles on each. My question is leader lengths and distances between the two lines.

Thanks for the help!

Ken

[skipper19]

Not sure what you mean by "leader lengths". If you are refering to using a leader off of a braid super line, then I would suggest two rod lengths of flourocarbon like Seaguar 100% floro. If you are refering to lead off your ball, then it depends on the setup and the situation. Run plain spoons any lead 10ft up to 60 feet is what I do depending on the shyness of the fish and the depth of the water. shallow water under 20 ft run longer leads to keep the lure away from boat disturbance, especially for browns in early season. Shorter leads allow you to turn quicker if you need to stay in a hot pod of biters.Sometimes the ball will actually attract salmon actively feeding, so the ball is not really a big scary thing.

As for line separation on one rigger that is stacked it depends on a thermocline depth or a particular type of setup we refer to as a "Mup rig". If targeting salmon in the thermocline I like to keep one lure in that zone and one just above it on a stacker release maybe running10- 15 feet above the ball when fishing for deep water holding fish when the thermocline sets up below 50 feet. Most times though if I'm alone and do not have the luxury of running more than two rods I will run mup rigs and they are deadly and allow 4 lures to be run on two rods.

Mup rigs are useing two of the same pattern spoons in different sizes on one rigger and rod. The target spoon being the smaller one on the ball release, and the attractor spoon being the larger one running on a floro leader of 6 feet to 8 feet off the cable on rubber band half hitched on the wire and a swivel hooked around the rubber band from your leader and your main line from the rod. I run a lead off the ball 10 feet and and then the attractor lure is on a leader of 8 feet. Run the attractor off the cable 5 to 7 feet above the ball. If a fish strikes the top lure on the leader, the rubber band breaks and the swivel slides down to the ball release and releases the bottom lure. The swivel around the main line then slides to the bottom lure and stops. Remember to never use a leader longer than you can reach above the water and as far as your net will reach.

Hope this helps

Mark

[rail bird]

I never had much luck running two rods on the same rigger. Too many tangles and tougher to reset the rigs. I prefer free sliders. If I was going back to that way I would keep the bottom rig less than 10 feet behind the ball. The top rig would be 15 to 20 feet higher and less than 20 back.

[Lake Ontario Lure Washer]

Thanks for the info.