Four Riggers

[Big Water]

This year will be the first time I'll be running four downriggers from my boat. Because of the layout and a rear motor platform, the rearmost riggers will likely need to be placed at a 45 degree angle. The rear riggers will have an adjustable 2-4' boom and the forward riggers will have an adjustable 5' boom. Do you guys have any recommendations for keeping the lines and cables separated and not ending up with an ugly mess. Things I've considered were pancake weights on the foremost riggers for cable separation and running small dipseys off of the forward riggers to get line separation. Should the rear riggers be run deeper to make use of more blowback? Also, I know that turning the boat too quickly will be bad news.

Thanks,

Doug

[thompsm7]

Get wingers for the outside riggers... You'll hardly ever have tangles. Run the middle riggers deep and the outside riggers with wingers shallower. We figure that at 100 feet down, the wingers run about 15 feet shallower than the riggers without wingers. You lose around 10 feet of depth on blow back, and probably another 15 with the wingers. I simply subtract 20-25 feet on the wingers and that's where I estimate the weights are actually running in the water column.

The only time you'll need to be careful is when/if you try to run all four riggers with paddles and flies. Keep your leads short (10 feet) and you should be fine. I was trying to run mine with long leads and getting tangles. I shortened them up, and ended up catching more fish and having little to no tangles.

[Mickey Finn]

Get wingers for the outside riggers... You'll hardly ever have tangles. Run the middle riggers deep and the outside riggers with wingers shallower. We figure that at 100 feet down, the wingers run about 15 feet shallower than the riggers without wingers. You lose around 10 feet of depth on blow back, and probably another 15 with the wingers. I simply subtract 20-25 feet on the wingers and that's where I estimate the weights are actually running in the water column.

The only time you'll need to be careful is when/if you try to run all four riggers with paddles and flies. Keep your leads short (10 feet) and you should be fine. I was trying to run mine with long leads and getting tangles. I shortened them up, and ended up catching more fish and having little to no tangles.

Just about exactly what I was going to say. My boat is 8 feet wide. I run my back riggers on an angle so that they are right at the corners with 8 feet of seperation. Then I run my outside riggers fully extended with wingers. I might run a little lighter weights than some of these guys but it works fine for me. Here is what I'm running: I put a 12 pound ball on my deepest rigger which is my port center rigger. On the other center rigger I have a 13 pound torpedo under my probe. When fishing deeper than say 100 feet, I run 13 pound torpedoes on my side riggers under the wingers. To get more seperation when running shallow, I put 10 pound torpedoes on the wingers instead of the 13's. I do usually run the center ones deeper. For a "V" up pattern, I'll set the outside riggers at the same depth as the center rigger next to it or maybe 5 or 10 feet above it depending on depth, remembering that the wingers will make them run higher anyway. I do sometimes run the wingers below the center riggers and I don't worry about tangles because of the extra spread created by the wingers when you push them down deeper. Sometimes this works well if the fish seem a little spooky by giving me more seperation between my two deepest rigs. Oh yes, and make sure you use crimpless terminators. The added stress caused by the wingers will cause cables to break in the crimps which is big bucks!

[Big Water]

Thanks Guys. I ordered the Wingers from Great Lakes Planers today. Cheaper than I thought they'd be and nice people to deal with. Picked up some other things from their site while I was there. Lots of good trolling hardware. A good site to bookmark.

Doug

[Raaven]

Do you guys have any recommendations for keeping the lines and cables separated and not ending up with an ugly mess.

Thanks,

Doug

Yeah...RUN THREE !

You can always stack and slide if you want more items down there.

[thompsm7]

Great call on the Wingers.... You'll find they spread things out and ultimately catch more fish. Did you get a color on the ladder back? I have glow, but was curious if others had more luck with different colors.