Cheater line

[Larson 1750]

What is this "cheater line" I'm hearing of? Is it just a spoon? Spoon and dodger? Any help would be great!

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[Trouthunter]

its a line usually the length of your rod that you clip to your main line that takes a extra lure about half the distance up from your downrigger

[Larson 1750]

What's on the end of the line? A spoon? A fly? Flasher/dodger/spoon combo?

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[Richard]

It is usually a spoon, though I guess you could use a piece of bait in a head. I usually only do this on a slow day. It just allows another spoon in the water to catch the fish that are higher up in the water column.

[Sean Youngblood]

You can also use a rubber band or a Yankee Clipper and do a fixed cheater to keep it at a certain depth.I normally just use a free slider or aka cheater and have only used spoons.Your hookup ratio usually isn't as good as a fixed line but has put many fish in my boat especially Rainbows because they are usually higher in the water column.     

[Lund SSS]

What is this "cheater line" I'm hearing of? Is it just a spoon? Spoon and dodger? Any help would be great!

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take a 6' piece of fluoro and tie a swivel on one end and a snap on the other end, attach spoon to the swivel. Deploy your spoon and lower 10'-15' take a small rubber band and half hitch it to your main line, close the snap around main line and the rubber band. Effectively "fixing" another spoon to the rod and lower to desired depth. You will catch additional fish but remember to reel hard if you get a release because there more slack and the cheater has to work all the way to the spoon before you can drive the hook home. 

Aside .... keep it simple and run spoons there's way to much movement with spindocs/ flies

[Mortigan]

Always fun...

Edited June 9, 2014 by Mortigan

[Nautitroller]

Yup doubles are cool!

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[Larson 1750]

Doubles??? What??? Just hooking one would be nice!!!

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[crumcake1223]

we have also used off shore planer releases (for browns) and passed the cheater line through one of the holes so it may slide freely. saves on rubber bands ( more for the dipsy's ) and u dont have to worry about the rubber band stoping the incomming traffic  to the boat. also had very god luck running the cheater 6-10 ft over the ball. yes i know that if the line breaks u could lose the release but at that point you have already lost at least 1 if not 2 spoons and probably a 25-30lb fish whats alittle more fuel to the fire ? on the bright side of things you are able to adjust how much force it takes to trigger the cheater to fire just the same as u are able to do the same with your main line off your rigger. ( again saves more rubber bands form going into the big o and can go on my wire!!!) words from experience make sure u clip ur cheater line to your main line before you clip the release/ rubber band. hate to see that rod give a good jerk but never go off the ball only to bring it up to check every thing and find something missing   

[Shelby Lynn]

I tried it last fall, uses a fixed cheater about 8' about a flasher/fly combo using a fly the same as the one with the flasher, worked a couple of times but I didn't do it enough to see if it was more hookups on the cheated fly or the bottom one.

[Dublin Up]

Ran my first cheater line off the rigger the other day while fishing walleye in erie, picked up two fish on it, I'll be trying this more often. It was just a free sliding line. In theory you could also run free sliding cheaters on dipsy rigs too right?

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[FISHIN AGAIN?]

That was a slider. No to cheaters on dipsey rigs.

[TOP SECRET]

There are "free sliding" and "fixed" cheaters.

A fixed cheater is done the same way but with either a rubber band or alberta clipper or something to hold it in place on the main line so it doesnt slide up and down.