downriggers, need advice

[caver101]

I have never used a downrigger before. Always had good success trolling our umbrella rigs for stripe, but I want to get a little more exact with our depths and thought a simple downrigger would work. I don't plan on going any deeper than 70-80 feet.

I am looking at the Connon Mini Troll. I simple clamp on style is all I need. Going on a 1648 weldbuilt.
https://www.cannondownriggers.com/products/manual/detail.asp?pg=minitroll

This unit will handle a 4lb weight, my boat will troll very slow. Will the 4lb weight be enough to keep one umbrella rig or maybe two live bait rigs at depth when trolling?

Anybody got any advice on fishing with downriggers?

 

[Salmon_Slayer_2008_Lund]

I almost fish salmon exclusively on the great lakes with Big Jon downriggers. I run 13lb pancake weights with a slight offset on the keel so it veers slightly away from boat. I troll about 3-3.25mph on GPS so a heavier weight is nessesary. How fast do you troll first of all?

 

[caver101]

I have not verified with GPS, but I would say "around" 2mph.

90% of my trolling will be 25-35 feet deep in the rivers around here with a ~3 oz weighted umbrella rig running 80lb braided line with five 3/8oz to 1/2oz bucktails.

 

[Salmon_Slayer_2008_Lund]

I think you would get away with using a 4lb weight. I downrig for salmon between 60-150ft down.

 

[Crankworm]

I had to look online to find out what the umbrella rig is, it looks a little bulky. you might get a lot of blowback with a 4lb ball if you try to fish to deep with it.Seems like it should be ok at 25-35 feet down I use 12lb pancake balls with the Cannon UniTroll 10 but I don't really use them above 50-60 ft. I usually troll salmon 2.5-3.8 mph. I don't think they would work with umbrella rigs but of you wanted to get lures down for cheap you may want to look at an inline diving planer like Dipsy Diver or Slide Diver.

 

[caver101]

I saw those diving planer boards and wondered if they would work well. They certainly are cheap. Anybody use them?

 

[Salmon_Slayer_2008_Lund]

I had to look online to find out what the umbrella rig is, it looks a little bulky. you might get a lot of blowback with a 4lb ball if you try to fish to deep with it.Seems like it should be ok at 25-35 feet down I use 12lb pancake balls with the Cannon UniTroll 10 but I don't really use them above 50-60 ft. I usually troll salmon 2.5-3.8 mph. I don't think they would work with umbrella rigs but of you wanted to get lures down for cheap you may want to look at an inline diving planer like Dipsy Diver or Slide Diver.

I agree with you. A dipsy diver would probably be wise. But if you want to get near 100% precision then you would need a line counter reel with some braided line. Add an "O" ring to dive even deeper. You also can set what direction you want to go with levels of 0-1-2-3 either left or right. To get it down to your depth would probably run about 170ft back. (Info used with 100lb power pro, Its what I use)

Edit - My mistake. I am still thinking in Salmon mode. For your presentation you can get away with a mid size diver and less line because of speed it should go down easier. For salmon I have a 4 rod spread. 2 rigger, 2 dipsy or 2 leadcore or 1 dipsy and 1 leadcore. Anyways I have the divers always set to 2.5 to go away from boat and troll 3.2mph on gps with 170ft going 35-40ft deep. I have hit 80ft with a dipsy letting out 275-290ft. 100lb powerpro is as thick as 20lb mono but I feel its abit more thicker.

 

[drjkl1]

Give a report if you try the mintroller w/an umbrella rig. I plan to try the same set up & also wondered if it would work with an umbrella rig. I think the minitroller can use a 5# weight. Anxious to hear if it works for you. I was planning to try just the bucktail jigs or swim baits at first with a stacker release to have 2 lines off the down rigger, but man those umbrella rigs sure put a lot of motion and comotion in the water.

 

[caver101]

I am still on the fence about the mini troll.

We have a lot of success trolling umbrella rigs over just a single bucktail. But it does get expensive when you lose one of them full of jigs

I may try one of those diving planers first. They are dirt cheap.