Fishing Copper down the chute???

[MarkNY]

ive read talk in this forum of guys fishing copper down the chute and letting out whatever length they need to reach a certain depth. obviously that cant be done with planer boards. but, do you reel in all that copper each time you hook a fish on another rod? or is there a way to work around that? i just worry about tangles with the copper. thanks, mark

[GAMBLER]

Mark,

Some guys run a large foam ball (pike bobber) with a release on it. You can let it out behind the boat until the fish is clear. Once the fish is clear, you can reel it back up. Hopefully Tbromund will chim in and add the picture he has posted in the past.

[Mower]

I run copper down the chute most of the summer, I generally put the rod in the arch to free up space or I'll put it in a rod holder that is puts the rod parallel to water straight off the side of the boat. I do on occasion wrap around it but a quick response generally results with the fish in the net and the rod moved to another rod holder.

[ray koziatek]

many do reel it in in the smaller boats .....just look at their right arm it should look like this

[MarkNY]

thanks guys, i am in a small boat so i think i would need to reel it in to make room. i think ill stick with my 300' rig on the boards for now. best, mark

[rshubuck]

As it was pointed out to me it is better to run your copper on the boards. When it is on the boards any slight turn will greatly effect the action of the copper. When you run it down the chute the copper travels at the exact same speed as the boat. I ran my copper last year down the chute and did well but it was always in the way. Now I have them on the boards and I am loving it.

[Tim Bromund]

Here is the pike ball setup that Brian mentioned

that is a 4" float from a Musky bait rig. I've since replaced the big offshore rigger release with the OR16 snap weight release clip, it has a pin in the middle of the pad that will prevent the release from popping on you.

it helps if you have a rocket launcher to get the line up and out of the way, but will work in a regular rod holder as well. Quite a few of us that used to run copper on boards have seen a noticeable increase in hits running copper down the chute on the ball. It is easy to just flip the lever and let it free spool out on the clicker to get it behind an active fish on another rod that swings behind the boat. Then you can just reel it back into position after the fish is under control/boated.

Tim

[Mickey Finn]

So the float stays on the line all the time? Is it normally right behind the boat? Then you just let it out further when you get a fish on another rod?

[Tim Bromund]

yes, you take it off when it gets to the boat, same as you would an inline board set not to release. It doesn't have the drag of an inline and absolutely wont dive on you It will swing out to the side on turns but is generally right behind the boat. I usually run it 200' back or so, that is usually enough to keep it out of the fish that swing behind the boat.

Obviously, not a rig to run in traffic

[Mickey Finn]

OK, so you put out your copper, then attach the float and let the float back 200 feet and thats where it stays?

[Tim Bromund]

yes, attach the float to the backing and send it back a couple hundred feet unless a real beast gets back behind the boat and you have to freespool more out to get the float/copper behind it temporarily.

we originally started using the same float rig years ago to run a chute rod when fishing in tight for browns, to pick off the fish that moved off to the side as the boat goes overhead and have moved back behind the boat after it passes. let a stick out 30-40 feet clip on the float and send it back 200-300 feet without worrying about a flatline that far back catching bottom.

A couple years ago, some of the guys started using it for copper as well.