Outriggers for fresh water use.

[AustinWilliams]

Does anybody have any experience using outriggers for great lakes/fresh water use. I know they are extremely popular in saltwater as an alternative to planer boards for use in getting a bigger spread. I know they are quite a bit more expensive than the mast but I think that they mast last quite a bit longer. I was just thinking of getting a set of the 15' Taco Tele-outriggers. I'd be running dipseys and lead core off of them.

http://tacomarine.com/item--Tele-Outrig ... ggers.html

[skipper19]

I have the exact outriggers you are looking at on the T top of my center console. 15 foot telescoping, multi position vertical and horizontal.

They work well for early brown season in shallow water and for towing a dipsey or copper lines. I like the ability to abruptly change speeds of lures when fishing browns in shallow by turning the boat right then left as I'm trolling. The ability to fish two lines by yourself is easier too if you don't have the hassle of the planner board in the water to deal with. That becomes very evident when you have the misfortune of hooking bottom and need to turn around and retrieve your lure.

As for using them with dipsies I have had good luck with them but you have to experiment with the release setting on the rigging to get the clip to hold tight enough to hold the pull. The poles are definitely rugged enough for the dipsey duty.

The best way to get the dipsy out to the end of the rigger is to play out the line on your rod with the dipsy hanging from the rigger release above the water so don't loop the line around the clip but just run it over the clip instead, then drop the dipsy in the water at the end of the rigger. Otherwise the dipsy puts too much pressure on the rigging to get it to "clothesline" out to the end of the rigger pole.

As for running copper or even lead core, I have run the copper all the way out, knot to the waterline and looped the backing around the release clip. I can run the copper up and back a little with the riggers enough to put dipseys out under them from the sides of the boat as well. They are a very useful tool if you get a number of fishermen on the boat and you want to get a little extra spread or a couple extra lines out. They are expensive, but worth the money for a little more flexibility in fishing presentation. Then when you get that first hit on one, you will be hooked on the excitement of the "twang" of the release going off, specially on the dipsey pull Be sure to have some solid rod holders on the boat for that use, as the hit from a king taking the slack up from the rigger can be quite vicious, specially on copper or braid. I almost lost a pole off the boat from using a titelok on the bowrail.

Mark

[AustinWilliams]

Haha, that's awesome. How do you have your riggers mounted? I have a hardtop on my boat, and I think the gunnel mounts would be best. Most, if not all of the mounts I've seen so far for the riggers are big, big bucks. I'd like to leave them folded in and extended while traveling to/from port and from fishing spots. Would you say these are tough enough for running with?

I think I'm pretty much convinced, just needed to know if they would work well with dipseys and the equipment I'm looking to use.

[Shade]

Austin,

I used a pair of Big John rod holders. I took the holders and got 2 sizes of PVC pipe and made bushings to fit binside the holders. I drilled and tapped set screws through the holders and the pushings to hold the outriggers. This allows you to raise and lower the outriggers and remove them if you need to. The boat is stored now or I would send you pics. You can use just about any style holder you want to its just a matter of the bushings.

Shade

[skipper19]

Austin,

These pics show how they are mounted on my boat. They use the Grand Slam mounts which are about 800 to 900 bucks a pair. They adjust from under the top by pulling down on the lever and unlocks the pivot so you can position them forward or back. The way you adjust the height of the poles in this case is by climbing on the gunnels of the boat to get access to them and raise them to get them up out of the way or run higher in the troll.

Planning is necessary to get the rigging anchored in a place that is easy to clip the release on your fishing line. Sometimes you will want to have a couple of different anchor points for the rigging and then I use an adjustable bungee to keep proper tension on the rigging.

To travel on the trailer port to port I just shrink the poles down one section and store the slack rigging on the rocket launchers. I have no trouble with that but if you leave them all the way extended then they are a bit boingy and I always fear backing them into something due to they extend behind the outboards a bit.

10 seconds and you can have them off the boat by the use of the spring loaded pin that locates a hole in the base of the poles. great for if you want to use a cover on the boat for storage.

Hope this helps!

Mark

[AustinWilliams]

@Shade - I haven't considered that option, but it does seem like a good alternative. I use the Big Jons on my boat for my planer boards and dipseys and I love them. This seems like a good idea.

@skipper - That's exactly what I needed to see. Unfortunately I'm not sure I want to sink that much money into just the mounts. I may see if I can get my local welding shop to fabricate something for less. However, quick release is exactly what I need. My boat stays in a slip all year and I'm concerned about having to leave them out when I'm not there. I really don't trust anything anymore, I don't even keep my nets out if I'm gone for more than a day. This is why I'm leaning more towards the telescopic ones (easier storage). If not, I may end up using something cheaper such as gunnel mounts. By the way, that is a beauty boat for sure. That thing looks sharp!

[stan]

Mark how do you get out of the weather on that boat of yours. Right now while you guys are under snow and Ice,

where fishing out west here Keep on trucking

[skipper19]

Stan, I run like a raped ape for the Black North....and that is a place that contains a mahogany ridge and bar maids

[Fish Stixx]

Here are our Fish Stixx Outriggers that are available through West Marine. West Marine part number: 12763421 You will have to go to West Marine and ask them to look them up in their system if they don't have a set in stock.

Please let us know what you think.