Video - Fishing With Seth Green Rigs

[Hosworld]

My question is how do you know your actual depth, easy to know how much line you let out, by many methods... but depth could be way different based on line blowback, how stiff your rod is, how heavy your weight is, what your speed is, etc etc etc and if you change any one of those... it should change your depth right?? My only ideas are either one of those depth finders you can hook to your weight (but then you only know where you were at once you pull it in) or using the bottom bouncing but then you risk losing your weight... any insight into this? This has been my biggest struggle as I’m pretty sure I’m never as deep as I think I am based on how much line I let out.


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[Pete Collin]

I deliberately bounce bottom and rarely snag. If you want your bottom leader to be, say, 100 feet down, you troll at your target speed in 100 feet of water. Let out enough line to bounce bottom. Mark your wire with the yarn like I show in the video. Then drive out in the middle and troll the thermocline. 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Pete Collin

[Hosworld]

Simple and wise. Pretty cool to get a solid online forum on this going. Thank you!


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[Mako]

The most accurate thing I have found is the Fish Hawk TD.

You clip it onto Anything, you rigger, dippsy diver, leadcore, copper, etc.

It requires that you let it to where you want and reel it back in.

It tells you the exact Depth and Temp at 5' increments.

Check it out on line form more and better description, cost $150 but is completely self contained and very small.

Hope this helps.

[Sk8man]

Seth Green or "thermocline" fishing is comprised of many different strategies and approaches e.g. bottom oriented vs. suspended and the setups vary greatly with each. With downrigger fishing the specific temp range can be crucial for setting lines but with rig fishing you basically "straddle" the thermocline layer such that you cover above within and below it. The thermocline itself can vary throughout the lake snaking up and down and with say a Fishhawk X4 series you can note specifics and adjust lines accordingly on downriggers to try to stay at the part of it you are interested in according to the species targeted.  A Fishhawk TD can be used before you set Seth Green lines to get an estimate of temp profiles and to determine where to concentrate your lines  according to species sought starting out  but as you troll down the lake the thermocline layer may be quite different in parts of the lake or at shallower vs. deeper water. A Seth Green rig if set properly can pretty much straddle it continuously throughout the troll as a usual setup covers the first 100 ft or so where the entire thermocline on the Fingers usually appears encompassed within that range during most of the season when rigs are used. Fine tuning can be done to concentrate leaders within a specific range on the rig line if the rig line is set up with flexibility built in (e.g. number of bead chains and intervals etc.) so you can more precisely target a given species e.g. rainbows vs. lakers. The Seth Green approach in general is sort of like a shotgun vs. .22

Edited October 11, 2019 by Sk8man

[Pete Collin]

The thing about using stuff like a FishHawk is that it isn't in the spirit of this low-tech, 19th century way of fishing!

[stinger]

1 hour ago, Pete Collin said:

The thing about using stuff like a FishHawk is that it isn't in the spirit of this low-tech, 19th century way of fishing!

 

 

so does that mean that a fishfinder/sonar should be left at home also? 

Edited October 11, 2019 by stinger

[Pete Collin]

3 minutes ago, stinger said:

 

 

so does that mean that a fishfinder/sonar should be left at home also? 

Ok, you got me!  And for the record I don't row across the lake either. 

[Sk8man]

Yeah Pete is a "purist" ....but not that pure

[Lewis863]

To illustrate his point on temp variations I ran the hawk east side last weekend north of plant water temp at surface 62 water at 80 ft 61 water at 90 ft 59 water at 100 55...

Move to east side water at 80 was 55 directly across the lake

Move north of sheldrake temp at 45 feet was 55 ....

Mad variations


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[bluetop]

I'm an old-time (age 79) rig fisherman.  I just use my inexpensive fish finder to locate fish and bait.  It only indicates surface temperature.  I do very well without needing sub-surface temps.  I don't use speed indicators either.  When trolling, I maintain the same line angle from rod to water that has proven itself best with my specific rig and weight, except for tactics such as speeding up, slowing down, or making turns in order to induce strikes.