Outdoors

Savvy fishermen know downrigging is one of the best ways to control the depth of their fishing lure-short of dropping anchor.  Ideally, of course, you want to be able to keep your lure in the depth range where you want it-at the depth where your fish finder is indicating the fish are located-at any given point in time.  It will take a little trial and error, patience, and a bit of record keeping, but you can become adept at doing this.

I like to use the the best.I have used other brands but was never satisfied with thier performance or durability.  They generally fell apart too soon or rusted long before they should have, and I didn’t feel I got a real value for my money.

However, some really great downrigging system are made by Cannon.There are more sufisticated systems, but I like to work with something a little simpler, like the Mag 10TS, for example.  Experienced boaters and fishermen trust the Magnum because it has been proven to be extremely durable and dependable.  It offers a speedy retrieval rate of 250 feet per minute, includes a short-stop feature to protect their boat so that a swinging weight won’t put a hole in the side, and it is really tough and can handle a lot.The Mag 10ST has a stainless stell spool constructed to withstand the rigors of the new super lines now popular.  It looks stylish with an attractive metallic white finish, and it features Positive Ion Control designed to make your boat a fish-finding magnet by creating an electrical field fish are drawn into.

To begin you want to decide how deep you want to be and at what speed you will troll.When trolling faster or going deeper, more weight will be needed.The reason is that you have to compensate for the extra drag produced by the water as you speed increases.One example is most Great Lakes fishermen trolling for salmon set a speed of 1.5 up to 3 miles per hour and aim for a depth of 15 to 30 feet down, so they don’t have a significant drag and can use a 5lb ball.  But deep sea fishermen trying to catch grouper-which often run at 60 feet below the surface or even deeper-troll at around 5 knots.  With that kind of depth and speed, they get quite a bit of drag.  So they probably need to use a 20lb weight.

Once you have an idea of the size of weight you want to use, you’ll still need to experiment a bit to be sure you’re on track.  Head out on the water to a depth similar to the depth at which you plan to fish.  Adjust your boat speed to troll at the rate you plan to use based on the kind of fish you plan to catch.  Now drop the ball all the way to the bottom at which point you will you see the cable start to slack up.  Then quickly stop it and retrieve a bit of cable to tighten it back up.Now check the line counter on your downrigger.This is were keeping records begins.Record that depth, your speed, ball weight and the depth of the water.

Now try experimenting a bit.Each time you adjust your speed make a note of the information aquired.Adjust the cable depth at the various speeds and make a note of that.  Essentially you want to determine how much cable is ideal to let out at each particular depth and speed for the fish you are trying to catch.By using some simple math like a percentage of cable needed to reach a certain depth or bottom you will be able to calculate how much cable to let out to be in the depth you desire.

Personally, I like to stay right around 10 feet above the bottom.  For starters, I know bottom fish will still take the right bait from that distance.They will swim up for it.I also don’t care for the idea of getting hung up on something on the bottom and being forced to cut loose my cable.

I also recommend keeping the lead line at ten feet or less-from the ball to the lure or bait you’re using-so you can get the advantage of the negative Ion field that surrounds the ball itself.  You need to be this close to utilize that.  If you’ve got too much lead line in between there, it won’t work.

Beside the Cannon Mag 10TS there are some other basic needs to get started.Using a good sturdy 7′ rod with a conventioal reel attached and the proper strenght line for the fish you are targeting, a well made line release attached to your ball, the right bait and a decent boat, you’llsoon be downrigging like a pro.Downrigger fishing is a fun and enjoyable method of fihing and one that easy to master.

You can get more information about all of the Cannon downriggers plus accessories-and all kinds of other fishing and boating electroncs-at the eFishBox.com website.

In addition, you’ll find lots of great fishing articles and advice at MyTackleSpace.There are some blogs and discussion forums on fishing and equipment ideas!Have a look.