1) yes

2) I use at least 1 rigger everytime out for lorain east. I have my rigger
rods spooled with braid. I use the cannon pinch pad release on a 3' wire
leader. When a small fish hits the rod will dance in the holder. No stretch
braid makes it easier to tell when fish are on. With mono sometimes
you cant tell if theres a fish on. Theres another release that you can set
the tension on but when lakes rough I like to pinch the pad, insert the
line, and drop it down. With salmon its a different story. No lite hits
there.
3) I would rather run a slider than a stacker. Its kinda of a hassle when
stacking
4) I like running my baits off riggers back at least 85-115 ft. I know that
seems a bit far but every time I try shortening them I dont seem to pick
near as many fish. If your running dipseys way back, run your riggers
shorter. The same principals apply to running riggers as do inlines and
dipseys

 

Mono with Walker down rigger releases.

 

Mono with Blacks releases very easy to adjust tension even for those light biting non-fighting eyes.

 

Sorry to revive an old thread but after my attempts at using the down rigger for something different last weekend I'm looking for a different release and found this thread. I wanted to try a spinning rod with a spoon or harness or smaller crank etc off the downrigger and it did catch a few sheephead but I only knew they were there after I popped the release myself to check the bait. I even set the Cannon releases to the lightest setting and cranked down the rod but it didn't seem to matter. The fish weren't even overly small at that so something is obviously wrong. I was using 12 pound mono if that matters, perhaps a switch to braid would solve the problem?

I looked up the Blacks release but to be honest I don't really like that style as it looks like I'd have to lean over to reach out and grab the release every time instead of just pulling the weight up, maybe I'm wrong though. As for Walker they have several types of releases. Which do you use?

 

Walker adjustable or pinch pad and cable type. As said earlier the pinch pad and cable release shows hits better.

 

1. Not sure, check the dive curves in the trolling bible and go from there.

2. Switch to mono with a flurocarbon leader.

3. No rubber bands with mono. Just put the line to the back of the pinch pad.

4. You can do that or you can run a slider. All you do for the slider is let out you lure to your desired lead and clip it on the ball. Then hook another lure with a 7 ft leader to the main line coming from your pole using a dual lock snap. Then let down the ball (while holding onto the 2nd lure with the leader) about a third of the way and then toss it out. The slider will slide to the middle of the line half way between the ball and the boat. If a fish hits the slider you have to get there fast and make up all the slack as fast as possible. We run sliders because they are easier to run and dont require a second rod. :T

P.S. The stacker your talking about using 10 ft up will complicate things because every time you bring up the ball you will have to unclip it from the main line.

 

Mono with Blacks releases very easy to adjust tension even for those light biting non-fighting eyes.

Right on! Black's are the way to go, extremely versatile. Except, I'm a bigger fan of about 100' of Fluorocarbon tied off to mono backing for my riggers. Just a little more stealth with the translucent fluoro, that's why we use it for diver and jet leaders as well.

Sliders (pegged or free) are alright, but not a big fan if there are silver fish around. Stacks are great if its a "rigger" bite kind of day, but I hate to dedicate two rods to each rigger if I don't need to.

You can run body baits behind your riggers, but I'm a much bigger fan of spoons. Spoons will also tend to hook up more silver fish when they are around, and dropping your ball deep will tend to be where you will find them. A shallow diving plug will typically go another 3 to 5 feet down from where you are "parking" it, but the variable is your speed and how much "blow back" you are getting at the ball. Fishing DEEEEEEP riggers on Ontario we will occassionally get as much as 20' of blow back (with 12# weights) at 100 feet on the counter due to higher trolling speeds and the goofy currents of Lake Ontario.

 

I looked up the Blacks release but to be honest I don't really like that style as it looks like I'd have to lean over to reach out and grab the release every time instead of just pulling the weight up, maybe I'm wrong though. As for Walker they have several types of releases. Which do you use?

If you use a weight (ball) retriever on the rigger this should not be a problem. It'll bring the weight to the base of the rigger for easy reloading.