DOWN RIGGER CABLE

[cjc]

Who do you think makes the best stainless steal down rigger cable and what thickness. Also least kinks, breakage, and other problems.

Edited October 7, 2020 by cjc
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[jimski2]

I tried the braid line with no bad comments.

[cjc]

if you use braid you lose the + icon or charge to attract fish

[jimski2]

The cannon ball shows up. That is all.

[Sk8man]

Accustrand (Cablestrand Corporation) or Torpedo brand have served me well

[cjc]

With the cannon, steel cable throws off a + charge to draw fish so what steel cable would be best.

[Sk8man]

It is the downrigger not the cable that uses the positive ion charge so it probably doesn't make any difference  as long as it is steel cable

Edited October 8, 2020 by Sk8man

[cjc]

so who makes the best steel cable

[UNREEL]

3 hours ago, Sk8man said:

Accustrand (Cablestrand Corporation) or Torpedo brand have served me well

As stated above by Sk8man.   

[cjc]

what is the thickness of the cable 0.8 , 0.7 etc

[Yankee Troller]

We've kicked a lot of boats a**es fishing right next to us with braid. I hope you don't buy into it as much as it sounds like you do.

[justtracytrolling]

5 hours ago, Yankee Troller said:

We've kicked a lot of boats a**es fishing right next to us with braid. I hope you don't buy into it as much as it sounds like you do.

Have you tried the riggers with braid on walleye?  I've been meaning to throw some on mine to test it.  I run core off em so I only need 25' of braid on each rigger to test it....might try it tomorrow

[ifishy]

Yankee do you run braid on all your riggers been thinking of trying it for the blowback reduction

Sent from my XT1080 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Yankee Troller]

1 hour ago, justtracytrolling said:

Have you tried the riggers with braid on walleye?  I've been meaning to throw some on mine to test it.  I run core off em so I only need 25' of braid on each rigger to test it....might try it tomorrow

 

I don't fish walleye enough to have an opinion, and when I do I generally don't run Downriggers.

 

1 hour ago, ifishy said:

Yankee do you run braid on all your riggers been thinking of trying it for the blowback reduction

Sent from my XT1080 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

 

2/3. One has coated cable for my Mood. That might go away soon as I get used to the Fish Hawk.

[justtracytrolling]

A lot of guys don't run riggers on eyes and I can't imagine not.  Short cores with long leaders off a rigger has produced 8 of my 10 biggest eyes this year and they take no work to keep clean and running.  I have noticed if I put 2 or 3 riggers down I don't get the big fish I do when I put 1 so I know the cable hum etc has a negative effect.  I put braid on my center rigger for tomorrow. If it gets hot I'll do the others on the water or perhaps in the morning early.  

[stoneam2006]

A lot of guys don't run riggers on eyes and I can't imagine not.  Short cores with long leaders off a rigger has produced 8 of my 10 biggest eyes this year and they take no work to keep clean and running.  I have noticed if I put 2 or 3 riggers down I don't get the big fish I do when I put 1 so I know the cable hum etc has a negative effect.  I put braid on my center rigger for tomorrow. If it gets hot I'll do the others on the water or perhaps in the morning early.  

I've been running a 4 color off my rigger on Erie this summer been very productive rod...altho fishing has been slower for us. That rod has always been a go to

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[dry net]

20 hours ago, Yankee Troller said:

 

I don't fish walleye enough to have an opinion, and when I do I generally don't run Downriggers.

 

 

2/3. One has coated cable for my Mood. That might go away soon as I get used to the Fish Hawk.

The braid on your riggers must screw up the counters. I haven't bought the X4D yet.

[Yankee Troller]

21 minutes ago, dry net said:

The braid on your riggers must screw up the counters. I haven't bought the X4D yet.

 

Nope, On the new Optimums there is a braid algorithm. On the old DT's you could adjust amount of line on spool to dial them in.

[dry net]

1 hour ago, Yankee Troller said:

 

Nope, On the new Optimums there is a braid algorithm. On the old DT's you could adjust amount of line on spool to dial them in.

Thank you for the reply

 

[justtracytrolling]

Rigger never budged till I put a second rigger down without braid.  Test continues tomorrow

[Gill-T]

Justin, if you test the bite between steel vs braid, it should be all or nothing.  The reason to go to braid is ease of use/termination knots, easier on the hands, no cable hum (stealth).  If you put one rigger down with steel and one with braid, you are not truly testing the stealth of the braid as it will be "loud" down there.  I made that mistake when I first started using the braid.  I started by adding braid to one rigger, and ran the other two with steel.  The braid never got bit.  IMO, fish are definitely attracted to the vibration of steel.  However, what about the larger/older fish that may have been stung by hooks from a bait presented off a rigger with steel cable (and downrigger hum)?Why is it when you see underwater footage of salmon do so many come flying into the bait, then turn away?  My theory is that vibration initially attracts those fish until they get close to the bait (and boat, and downrigger cable) and it becomes a loud detracting force that gives the fish pause.  I am not sure if it matters on walleye, so I would be interested to hear the results.  I will say that I have the same set up as Rick ie. braid on riggers with coated cable for a moor subtroll (waiting for the unit to puke before going to Fishhawk).  My catch rates and size has gone up since the switch to braid but so has my experience and quality of presentations so it is difficult to draw a definitive conclusion on steel vs braid.  I will say definitvely I am not going back to steel cable.

[justtracytrolling]

I know how to test it.  I hear nothing but opinion and "ideas" everyday and I trust my process and until someone else can come close to my results here I only trust my process.  I completely understand why you use the braid.  I've used the braid before more than once, but It has never shown any immediate positive results, and I can't just run something with customers.  I have to get past feasibility at a minimum for it to even get tested with customers.  Constantly taking the braid off for customers is too much work.  I have to at least catch a fish on it somewhat regularly on my own time first.  It's actually quite simple to draw a definite conclusion, but you just need data.  No matter what I will have to keep testing for the different water clarities because the light penetration goes from near 100% like Ontario in spring to dark 24/7 in summer with the algae bloom and slowly back to near 100% by winter.  I would bet the steel helps during the bloom if I was the guessing type.  Unlike recreational anglers I do 70-80 hours a week lines in....I will get feel for it as time goes on assuming I catch a fish tomorrow otherwise it's off till next summer minimum.  Today, the braid rigger was down all by itself and never took a shot for hours while I was catching on the boards.  As soon as I dropped a second rigger which I kept way above and way behind the braid rigger the braid rigger got bites.  Then went back to just the braid and bites stopped.  Added the steel with the identical setup and both took shots.  Easily could be coincidence or an anomaly.  It's up to the fish to decide not me... they will...and then I will have my answer.  If anybody was catching like I am they wouldn't change anything, but they would never catch like that here without constantly evolving.   My rigger program is already setup to catch the mature bigger fish.  There is no quantity of better fish in the lake to catch than I'm catching now, but now I can only get those fish regularly with 1 and only 1 rigger in the water.  Solo once a week I out fish the other 6 days when it comes to quality and quantity  If I could put 2 in and get both going or even 3 I'd have something ridiculous.  That 1 rigger averages 7-8 lb walleye and pulled almost all the 9-11 lb walleye I've caught all season on it....Over a dozen.  So it has to produce tomorrow or it's done for now. 

[Gill-T]

Yep, happy customers trumps all. 

[kempie]

what about the braid loading up with fleas?

[Yankee Troller]

On 10/10/2020 at 12:35 PM, kempie said:

what about the braid loading up with fleas?

 

It's not horrible, and typically it's only a few weeks that it's an issue.