Trolling a hair jig off riggers.

[Xxx]

What ounce jig should I use to run off the riggers at 2mph so it doesn't fall lower or raise above the ball? I watched a charter come to our local lake and he trolled a Spro hair jig with a 5 to 6 inch chartreuse swim bait about 50ft behind the ball and he was doing rather well with this theory. he was running 4 lines at 10ft increments so they had to track rather strait off the balls. What's your take on the weight of the hair jigs? Thanks for any info. Want to give this a shot before I put her away for the winter! PAP.

[ifishy]

i would think the size of the swim bait might have just as much effect on the drop behind the ball as that produces the majority of the drag.  I have thrown and trolled a lot of swim baits for pike and they tend to run at a constant depth for me. its more a matter of how long they drop before you start the retreive or  the slack to troll so with rigger I would think there would not be a ton of drop.  to be on the safe side if you run the same size  on all your rods they will all have the same drop so should keep the seperation you set on the riggers.  from there you can vary the color if you want to try differnt sizes change all the rods at once that way you can systematiclly try the different sizes at different depths.  I find they are very good at locating fish quickly as the thump of the tail will pull active fish from a distance and help you to quickly key in on an area or a pattern.  i have had some luck for trout casting them off the pier as well but never made the connection to put them off a rigger. i may have to try that this spring

[Xxx]

i would think the size of the swim bait might have just as much effect on the drop behind the ball as that produces the majority of the drag.  I have thrown and trolled a lot of swim baits for pike and they tend to run at a constant depth for me. its more a matter of how long they drop before you start the retreive or  the slack to troll so with rigger I would think there would not be a ton of drop.  to be on the safe side if you run the same size  on all your rods they will all have the same drop so should keep the seperation you set on the riggers.  from there you can vary the color if you want to try differnt sizes change all the rods at once that way you can systematiclly try the different sizes at different depths.  I find they are very good at locating fish quickly as the thump of the tail will pull active fish from a distance and help you to quickly key in on an area or a pattern.  i have had some luck for trout casting them off the pier as well but never made the connection to put them off a rigger. i may have to try that this spring

Thanks a ton Ifishy, I watched the video and it was on a local channel. The guy is from Scranton Pa. Which kind of puzzled me as he is way closer to Lake Wallenpawpack which is supposed Have a way population of stripers then our little

[gdalmaso]

I've been up to that lake the last 7 weekends.  Had one on back in Sept.  Lost it due to my line breaking at the release.  Don't know why that happened.  Of course I can't find a replacement for the lure I lost.  X4 Flatfish green.  20 ft down.   Buddy of mine sent me the link to the program you were talking about.  That guy was using a 3/4 oz. bucktail jig with a 4" tail.  Green with sparkles.  Went out to Cabela's and matched it the best I could.  The next Sat., which was Oct 31., I picked up a 28"er after 3 hrs of trolling.  51 ft of cable out @ 2 mph.  10 lb ball.    I found that the jig started to bounce the bottom about the same time the ball started to bounce when it got shallow.  Fished about 40 ft of line out from the release.

 

It's a tough fishery.  Went up 2 X last week and got nothing.  There were more boats on the late Wed. compared to Sat.

[Xxx]

Yea that's because everyones on the striper kick, give it a week or two it will be back to normal. That lake is 3 miles from my driveway and yes it's a tough lake to fish, there's so much bait fish there's no need for them to seek out food. Boils down to being at the right place at the right time.