down rigger tips/ tricks

[giericd]

hey guys, looking for some tips/tricks with down riggers. here's the deal i had the cannon mini troll and it was working great untill i was trolling along and the ball caught some structure and snapped the mini troll right where the arm meets the mounting base. i took the reel off of the mini troll and the pully at the end of the arm and made a new down rigger using a penn international trolling rod that broke about a foot from the tip from a dumb a** buddy high sticking a shark boat side. the "new" down rigger is pretty sweet and super strong. the area i will be fishing is flat limestone bottom 32' deep with live growth on it. i catch tons of grouper there jigging and pick up a few here and there using streatch 30's. what i'm looking to do is troll at idle speed with smaller baits like spoons, 3"-6" GULP jigs, soft plastics, 4-6" live finger mullet, and would like to keep the baits about 1' off the bottom and keep minimal blow back from the ball. i would love to get it to stay straight down. i have a 8lb cannonball wich blows way back even at slow speeds, and i just got a 15lb fish shaped weight that i think might be a little too much weight for the rigger cable. what tips/tricks can you guys help me with that pertains to the above situation? you know those lead melter things, I have one to pour my own small weights but if the pot is full and i let it harden it makes a 6lb lead hockey puck I could all ways make the puck weigh less,could one of those pucks be added to the bottom of the round 8lb cannon ball to get the desired weight or would it do all kinds of funky things?
thanks for the help

 

[capt sam]

Re: down rigger tips/ tricks

I don't see any way to add enough weight to a heavy rod to keep the bait in place without destroying the rod, the speed of the current will make an 8lb ball prolly weigh at least twice that. Dang I had a couple of downriggers laying around here but I gave them to a buddy, I'll look and see if I still have one. I don't troll much here and if I do we usually just use the stretch jigs.

 

[giericd]

Re: down rigger tips/ tricks

Thanks, we probably fish the same spots since we are both from Naples! The area I'll be fishing is out Gordon pass turn 270 ad go until you hit 32' of water. Thats sorta the area. You ever head out there. Early summer it's not hard to catch over 50 short redgrouper a day, I got tired of dropping bait or jig let it hit bottom and instant strike of a short. Sounds like a dream action wise but after a few hours it gets boring! I've left fish to find fish. I want to do the trolling not to cover ground to find fish since I know where they are but to slow things down a bit have the change of at least moving/ slight breeze and there is something about that pop of a downrigger on a strike that makes my heart skip a beat! Please let me know if you do have a rigger laying around I'm sure we could work something out! Thanks!

 

[capt sam]

Re: down rigger tips/ tricks

if I have one, you can have it, I never use them here anymore, I'll check today.

 

[giericd]

Re: down rigger tips/ tricks

Man that would be such a life saver! Thank you, that is very generous of you!