Gill-T

Having a pulley on the downrigger ball would not work the way we fish. You would be relegated to using a pinch-pad style of release off the tail to the rigger ball. The doubling of the rigger cable and the extra pulley above the weight would cause blow-back to be much worse. Thanks for the input.

So my Cannon HS downriggers were touted to handle 15 lb weights have blown mother-boards twice in 3 years. This is getting old. Cannon reps have said I should really be using 12 lb weights. So it got me thinking about mechanical advantage and how pulleys and block systems work to lessen the load. Perhaps I could use two double pulley blocks instead of two single pulleys and gain some mechanical advantage that would translate to less power load on the downrigger system. What I don't know is how the direction of the force that the motor pulls vs the 90 degree angle the load is pulled from negates the mechanical advantage of adding additional pulleys? Would I just be adding more friction and therefore more strain to the motor? Picture the two pulleys on a Big Jon downrigger. Now picture the two pulleys replaced by double pulleys with the downrigger cable going over pulley 1 to pulley 2, over and back to pulley 1, over and back to pulley 2 then over and down to the downrigger weight.

The UV yellow tuxedo stingray and UV mixed veggies stingray have worked good for suspended Lakers in the spring. Lakers love fruity colors!

With paddles I have caught nothing on straight UV. When I added glow slick or glow crush they start hitting. UV is not new as I believe the crush overlay on the glow crush tape that has killed more kings on the great lakes than any other pattern is a UV material designed to protect the glow tape underneath from the harmful effects of UV degradation from the sun (someone can correct me if I am wrong). A lot of good fly patterns have "little boy blue" strands in them so you may have been using UV stuff longer than you think. Anglers Avenue offers a UV-glow tape for echips or spin doggies that looks great and will see time off the back of my boat. Mostly, I think the UV catches fishermen. We are all guilty of looking for the "magic bait" that no fish can resist. To me UV is an accent.....nothing more.

In high school me and the boys would head down to Lime Lake (Machias) for a little "poor-man's salmon" fishing at night on the docks. Throw out a little corn to chum, rods go out with hooks loaded with Blue Boy or Delmonte (we would let the fish tell us what they preferred) sit back and enjoy the summer evening temps while enjoying an under-age Old Mill-swuaky can of beer. This evening in particular I decided to dispense with the usual light spinning gear and trade the drag burning run for a battle royal with my Diawa Sealine-rigger rod combo with 20 lb test. Well the bite was slow to start so perhaps a few to many beers dulled the senses a little. Upon resetting my line I must have forgot to keep the reel on free-spool because I hear a noise and turn to watch my rod go straight into the water at break neck speed. There was a slight pause where my brother and I just looked at each other before I actually reacted to my cherished new trolling combo (which I had earned cutting lawns) was speeding across the water. I sprung to my feet and launched myself full-out extension in the direction the rod was last seen. While over the water the full moon revealed the chrome reel parts moving just under the surface to me and I landed with a perfect catch of the rod handle as I splashed down with a perfect belly flop. The ruckus of the large splash and my brother laughing loudly brought a bunch of cottage owners out to see what was going on at 11:00 pm at night. The carp was landed ( only 8 lbs) and a legend was born ( in my own mind).

Diawa Accudepth line-counter reels are inexpensive and sized right for browns. I spool up with 15 lb mono and leader down to 12 lb mono. Fishermen east of Olcott usually run Fluorocarbon leaders because of clearer waters. The 7' one piece light-action ugly stick rod is a perfect match. You could always use spinning reels or bass baitcasters you may own if you don't want to buy anymore tackle. Your salmon reels spooled with 30 lb mono work good when you want to pound the shoreline with your boards. The heavy line keeps your baits running high so not to snag bottom (just add a leader of lighter line and set the drag lighter- for the leader material)

From our foray out deep Saturday morning, I would say the baby kings are doing ok. There appeared to be some surface bait to keep them growing over the winter.

I am pissed! I have a picture of the fish on my phone that Vince sent me. I was hoping to catch the first King in the lake tomorrow. Oh well. Beautiful specimen.

I use bobbers and worms mostly......will one of those work for that application?

Almost always a flasher and fly

From footage I have seen, big Kings in particular will follow and swipe at a rigger bait and turn and drift downward about 10'. I want to know where my rigs are because I want a second chance at those fish by having at least one dipsy below my deepest rigger if possible.

Count me in for one who wants to know how deep my gear is running for reproducibility. There are sometimes "hot zones" that fish are biting in that I want to match. For example, If I pop a fish on a rigger down 20'.......I will make sure I have a dipsy and/or a leadcore out to cover the same depth away from the boat.

:yes:

Some boats use outriggers to move dipsys out wider using Aftco roller releases. During roll-overs when the fish are up high or trolling J-plugs off piers in the fall they can come in handy. I have no use for them.

I think I have the wheels turning in the brains of a few people.

So I am sort of getting back into duck/goose hunting after a long hiatus (25 years). I have noticed ducks and more-so Geese will circle just out of range of a spread. Question....would it be legal to find a tree and use a climber to get up off the ground to close the gap?......might be fun.