|
More
stealth = More fish
By: Russell Gahagan
During
the past ten years the Great Lakes have gone through many changes. The
most prolific change is the continuation of the clearing water. The clearing
water has slowly altered the way top tournament anglers and charter captains
fish the great lakes for salmon and trout. Anglers are still enjoying
success with the staple equipment they have been using since the 80's
like downriggers and dipsy divers. In this article we will discuss how
to get the most out of your downriggers and introducing copper, leadcore
and slide divers to your spread to get stealthier.
Downriggers
have been used to catch salmon and trout on the great lakes for many years.
Clearing water has decreased many salmon anglers success rate with downriggers.
Downriggers
are still a favorite of many top tournament anglers and charter captains.
Long leads have become a standard for me day in and day out. Seventy to
one hundred foot leads have become standard leads on our tournament boat
and many charter captains' boats. On clear calm days we may even extend
those leads to one hundred and fifty feet behind the ball. The longer
leads will generate more bites on your downrigger rods but may also generate
more tangles if you are not careful. One change that almost all tournament
anglers and charter captains have made is utilizing the three rigger spread.
This involves a middle downrigger and two boom (side) riggers. The advantage
of this downrigger spread is it allows you to get enough separation between
your downriggers to eliminate most tangles. With the evolution of the
downrigger durability and speed fishing three downriggers like Big Jon's
Brute ES correctly can be just as effective as downriggers were ten years
ago. The secret weapon rig has been around for a few years now but is
a very over looked addition to a downrigger rod that produces. A secret
weapon rig consists of a small segment of leadcore (two or three colors)
inserted into your mono downrigger line. The length and weight of the
Leadcore line will get your downrigger setup away from and below the downrigger
cable and weight. This setup is deadly on calm days when the fishing becomes
slow and it takes something a little different to get the salmon to bite.
Five seasons ago my tournament team introduced both copper and leadcore
rigs into our spread. Since then copper has become my single most productive
rig throughout the season. I feel being able to get your rods down to
the fish but away from the boat is the biggest reason why both copper
and leadcore are so deadly. The difference between copper and leadcore
is weight. Copper is heavier and has a greater variance is depth achieved
by your trolling speed. Both copper and leadcore depths are shown in The
Precision Trolling Big Water book. There are a few key equipment details
to keep in mind when setting up a new copper or leadcore rig. Rod choice
is very important for use with copper or leadcore. I prefer a rod with
the titanium inserted guides like the new Okuma Classic Pro copper/leadcore
rod. The titanium guides will help prevent the copper or leadcore line
from cutting a groove into the guide which will eventually cause loss
of equipment and worse maybe a big fish. Reel choice is important as well
you will need a reel with two key features; a quality drag and a large
spool to be able to handle the bulky copper and leadcore. I use the Pen
330 gti and 340 gti reels with confidence. Like many anglers I use the
Church walleye boards to tow my copper and leadcore setups. While fishing
copper and leadcore can look intimidating it truly isn't. Letting these
rig out slowly is the first key to successful copper and leadcore fishing.
Steady reeling and not pumping the rod is another key while fighting fish.
I fish spoons, flashers and plugs on copper and leadcore with great success.
When fishing flashers I recommend trying a non-fin flasher like Pro-Troll's
Hotchip flasher to decrease the amount of drag from the flasher. This
will make reeling in a big fish on copper or leadcore much easier. One
of many anglers' complaints about copper and leadcore has been the need
to carry too many variations of these rigs. For instance many anglers
will carry three, five, seven, eight and ten color leadcore. With the
introduction of Michigan Stinger's Dive Bomb we are now able to transform
a five color into a seven or a ten color with the addition of a dive bomb.
The dive bomb is also a featured item in the new Big Water edition of
The Precision Trolling guide.
One
of my top weapons throughout the fishing season is a slide diver. The
slide diver is an exact example of the changing water conditions. With
clearer conditions today than ten years ago anglers were finding their
success with their standard divers decreasing. With the ability to adjust
your lead behind the diver to an unlimited amount without affecting your
netting ability the slide diver has become the most popular diver on my
boat. When the season starts in shallow water chasing brown trout I utilize
the slide diver with standard Michigan Stinger spoons to target these
browns. This has been a very productive set-up for me for many years.
Then I move offshore in May and June looking for steelhead and kings were
the slide diver will again be deadly with long leads to a spoon. Fall
is soon to come were I will be trolling the pier heads for staging kings
and will enjoy my best success with the slide diver. Here I will be using
Silverhorde plugs with thirty to fifty foot leads behind the slide diver
to trick the hard mouth staging kings into biting.
This
season add more stealth options to your spread and you will add more fish
to your cooler.
|
