Braid for downrigger

[Pj Weber]

I am thinking about changing over from steel cable to braid for my downrigger cables, Anyone have pros and cons??

PJ 

[Missdemeanor]

Don't do it......fleas will stick to it wicked

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[antney1]

I switched over one rod as a test but did that late in the season and didn't get a chance to use it. Reason being I lost too much equipment from wire breaking due to kinks. I had one charter captain friend of mine tell me that the wire puts out a vibration in the water that attracts fish. He said I'd catch fish on braid but just not as many as wire. As far as the fleas are concerned, a couple slaps on the water and they come off so I don't know how concerned I am about that...... next year we shall see

[Gill-T]

The flea/braid issue is not that big of a deal. I just flick the line as it is coming in on the rigger and/or run the line thru my fingers. I have converted. I would agree that fish might be attracted to the hum of cables. I replaced one rigger with braid to try it and that rigger was always silent. The outdown next to it with steel cable caught fish 10:1. But after listening to the underwater acoustics of the wire cable hum on Capt. John King's website, you realize how obnoxious and loud the hum is in the water. What if older/bigger fish have learned to avoid the noise....esp. in ports that are pounded regularly? So this year I went all-in with braid and noticed now my center rigger started producing again and my fish were bigger. Experiment still in progress. If you are going to do it, replace all the rigger cables to braid IMO.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Gill-T

[BrokeOff]

no autostop with braid

[howmany]

I have been using braid for 2 years now and this fall I went back to wire.i lost at least 8 balls with the braid.i even tried different brands with no luck.when I went back to wire I did it one rigger at a time and the braid riggers only had half the hits as wire.so im back to wire and im happy not to be losing costly balls and catching more salmon.

[Sk8man]

One of the things I've been considering is shifting to some 90 lb seven strand instead of the 150 lb I now have on to help cut the blow back. I think  barring a major hangup  on bottom it would be strong enough (I only use10 lb max.weights) and yet cut through the water better and you can buy it in 1000 ft spools so you could probably put 500 ft. on each downrigger. I know this would be quite risky using the lighter wire with heavier weights. The one concern I do have however is whether the wire might be more prone to slipping over the edge of the pully wheel at the end of the boom. Anyone have any actual experience with this approach?

[on the lam]

no autostop with braid

Not true. I use scotty bead stops (red) made for braid.

You will in fact have an issue with fleas but imo it outweighs the advantage the silent braid offers. Especially in early season shallow water browns.

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[Gill-T]

I have been using braid for 2 years now and this fall I went back to wire.i lost at least 8 balls with the braid.

I would have to say after losing 2 or 3 balls, you might have considered you might have been doing something wrong with your termination???? I tie a trilene knot to a termination swivel....no break-offs. If Tom Burke is using something....I tend to pay attention.

[on the lam]

I would have to say after losing 2 or 3 balls, you might have considered you might have been doing something wrong with your termination???? I tie a trilene knot to a termination swivel....no break-offs. If Tom Burke is using something....I tend to pay attention.

Aaaaaa yea!

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[NickR]

Got 2 braid and 2 wire. I'm going all 4 wire next year

I like how forgiving the braid is but the fleas are horrible.

[Tim Bromund]

I'd be lost without that wonderful musical, magical cable hum.

Tim

[Yankee Troller]

Use a palamar or wire knot to the swivel holding your cannon ball. If your using anything bigger than 150lb braid your not gaining anything. Fleas suck for 2-3 weeks, and then they aren't an issue. You can flick them off. 

[ifishy]

will a romer stick on the braid if you wanna do a double stack or will it slide up if you try to tighten the rod down?  i will say i switched to 150lb power pro for my boards this year and I like it way better than the 300lb dacron i was using made me start to think about the riggers

[RD9]

I switched to braid and love it. Do mostly erie walleye and caught more fish with riggers this year then years past. One thing I like is if you loose a ball which I did I just tie on another swivel and I am ready to go. It's just so much easier to handle. As far as walleye I would prefer as least resistance/ turbulence in the water as possible.

[orangediablo]

I switched to braid and love it. Do mostly erie walleye and caught more fish with riggers this year then years past. One thing I like is if you loose a ball which I did I just tie on another swivel and I am ready to go. It's just so much easier to handle. As far as walleye I would prefer as least resistance/ turbulence in the water as possible.

 

Not to discredit your experience this year on Erie for 'eyes, but it was like last year for Kings on LO.  It was stupid good this end of the lake.  Anything in the water was getting hit...and often.  Plus if you lost a ball on rigger (running cable), just tie the same wire not you use on your wire dipsies.