with all the talk this time of the year about trolling with lead core, and virtually none about using down riggers, does anyone have any reports on using downriggers or do they just not work as well on mille lacs?
I have not used them on mille lacs. I think they would work ok. I know a few guys do use them. I think the cable and weight going through the water may spook the fish if you don't have the lures back real far from the cable. So using lead is probably more effective unless the fish are really on. On a lake like lake of the woods with darker water they probably work a lot better.
One of the reasons they are used by, for the most part, launches/locals who also have bigger boats on LOW, is that those boats can't slow down enough to fish small cranks on lead core in 25-35 ft. of water. Here at Lake Mille Lacs, most boats trolling are capable of the 2.0 to 2.4 mph. speed that the fish will hit at. The smaller boats at LOW catch as many if not more at those slower speeds on lead core too. Also--the LOW launches need to have more lines out and the big balls allow them to stagger lines to keep them from tangles. Here, at Lake Mille Lacs, a lot of the trolling is on the edges of structure. Running the big balls into a bank is not a good thing either and is tough to keep from doing when fishing the lower side of a drop-off. At LOW, the down-rigging is done further away from the structure/reefs or over the Traverse Bay basin.
Will they work here? Probably. But the lead core is more versatile, relative to the Lake Mille lacs scene.
Thanks, what about the clarity of the water, do you think that really matters, as far as the fish seeing the ball and cable, and getting spoked?
ANYTHING ahead of the bait has potentail of spooking fish. In Lake Mille Lacs water, I would guess the down rigger ball/cable etc. would surely hurt the fishing--compared to the LOW water and the like.
ALL presentations are a sequence of events as a fish is caught. One part of that sequence of events is the sinker/line/swivels etc. have to pass by the fish first--before the bait gets to the fish......and after that takes place, the effects of that event have to insure the fish will still be within the strike zone as the bait passes the fish.
Lead core produces fine (2 limits of keepers and a few too big and samll in 2 hrs. this morning). I ain't changin' anytime soon.....
-- Edited by Steve Fellegy on Saturday 27th of August 2011 03:05:39 PM
-- Edited by Steve Fellegy on Saturday 27th of August 2011 04:36:34 PM
-- Edited by Steve Fellegy on Saturday 27th of August 2011 04:38:09 PM
