Downrigging stick baits for browns

[idn713]

Hey guys I was wondering if this technique would work in the summer when the browns are hugging bottom in around 70-80ft of water. Basically I am gonna run some nice natural colored stick baits off the ball just above the bottom and then stack some nice natural color NK spoons above those. I figure that the stickbaits are far more bait like than a spoon and I already know how effective sticks are in the spring, so it just seems reasonable that they would be dynamite off the ball in the summer. Plus then you got the spoons around 8 ft above as back up. Any insight as to whether this would work?

[Tim Bromund]

Nope, doesn't work at all, don't even bother trying, waste of time, total waste of time

Yes it absolutely works, IMO the limiting factor is sticks generally need to be trolled slower than most spoons to run properly, certainly slower than the effective range of NK's. You can run spoons like evil eyes, michigan stingers, R&R's etc. that run effectively at slower speeds in the same spread with sticks, but NK's will just hang there lifeless at stickbait speeds.

Tim

[idn713]

Beautiful cause I have some nice, light, smaller, walleye candy spoons that I can run over the top

[Mickey Finn]

Jr Thundersticks if tuned properly will run pretty fast. We run them at or above 3.0MPH a lot, succesfully I might add. Actually when fishing for browns in the summer with NK's, I'm more apt to be trolling 2.5 or so. Properly tuned Jr's will have no problem with this speed.

[idn713]

Yep thats what I am fishing is the thunderstick and thunderstick jr.s. Cant beat the action for the price

[rolmops]

Nope, doesn't work at all, don't even bother trying, waste of time, total waste of time

Yes it absolutely works, IMO the limiting factor is sticks generally need to be trolled slower than most spoons to run properly, certainly slower than the effective range of NK's. You can run spoons like evil eyes, michigan stingers, R&R's etc. that run effectively at slower speeds in the same spread with sticks, but NK's will just hang there lifeless at stickbait speeds.

Tim

Does that mean that stick baits are a better lure for lakers, since usually we troll at a slower speed for lakers?

[Tim Bromund]

I'm not talking about laker speeds really, more like 1.8-2.2, which is really a little too slow for NK's. They need to be moving at a pretty good speed to get good action. It's almost impossible to run an NK too fast, but you definitely can run em too slow.

I was just saying there are other spoons that run just fine at those slower, more typical stickbait speeds if you want to run a mixed stick/spoon program.

Tim