Downriggers!

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bakerjw
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Downriggers!

Post by bakerjw »

Finally got a pair of downriggers for lake trout fishing on Watauga! Run a pair of downriggers and a pair of Dipsy Divers and we'll see what happens.
July 5th, 2016. The day that we moved from a soft tyranny to a hard tyranny.
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bakerjw
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Re: Downriggers!

Post by bakerjw »

Finally got the lake trout figured out. Boated 8 on Sunday afternoon. It was really quite easy.
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doubloon
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Re: Downriggers!

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But did you catch anything?
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bakerjw
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Re: Downriggers!

Post by bakerjw »

bakerjw wrote:Boated 8 on Sunday afternoon.
That would be an affirmative. The limit is 2 lakers per person. The funny thing was, things slowed down and we decided to head up the lake and look at some property that I was considering purchasing. I pulled in one of the Dipsey Diver rigs as my son brought in one of the downriggers. I had a small laker on the Dipsey and the downrigger was empty. I released the fish and pulled on the other Dipsey to get it to release. Dipsey Divers are a planing board that pulls the lure deep when you troll. They have a release catch that when tripped allows the Dipsey to come in flat like a frisbee. Anyway, I gave the line a firm tug and felt the catch release and started reeling it in. I go no more than 5 feet in and felt a fish hit it. I got it up to the boat and it was another decent laker. My son then popped the last line from the quick release on downrigger and started to bring it up and another laker hit that lure. So we caught 3 fish as we were finishing up for the day.

Now from what I've seen and been reading, open water fish like lake trout and salmon will follow baits for quite a while without hitting them. It's only when the lure does something erratic tat they will finally strike. Based on our observation, I'd say that this was the case. Another thing that I need to take into account is trolling speed. I was trolling with an electric only which wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked.

Another tactic that I will try the next time out is to vertically jig rat-l-traps and spoons over the schools of baitfish. If you can get the attention of the predator fish, you can trigger the strike reflex by reeling to the surface quickly. Or so I've heard.
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doubloon
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Re: Downriggers!

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Oops :oops: I missed the "8" and read "boated sunday afternoon"

Sounds like a good run. Maybe rattle that pole between (root)beers to add some erratic action once in a while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtd2jNIwAU MUSAFAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI This is Water DavidW
Complete Form 1s http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=79895
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