Sk8man

But.....not all herring are alewives

You are right Gill I guess I read it too fast.....and I didn't have my reading glasses on....big mistake Thanks.

A note for newbies - You'll notice these responses differ considerably but they do have something in common - the weights they are using reflects the way they are being used and perhaps even the particular boats that they are fishing from. The weight needs to be enough to get you down to where you wish or need to be. On a small boat you can sometimes get away with less weight than on larger boats because there is less weight drag (hull design can also be a factor). The main problem is when you want to fish deep and/or at faster trolling speeds. The specific type of weight you are using is also a significant factor (e.g. the design or shape of it torpedo style or some shark-like fish shaped have less blowback and water resistance). The less hydrodynamic the weight is because of its shape the more drag in the water and the more it forces the cable to go back (and your lure upward) often referred to as "blowback". The less weight it has at depth the more blowback. Trolling speed is also directly related to blowback because of the increased water resistance pushing the weight and cable. Another important factor is the current underwater and the direction trolled because this affects both blowback and even the side to side movement of the weight in the water and the shape of the weight makes a difference. There are also some limitations of downriggers as some like the older ones may be 10 pounds maximum or so because of the strain on motors which can be substantial when raising the weights up from depth. You also may want to really think it over if using manual downriggers as you will be cranking them up and down a lot and with a 16-20 lb weight it is a guarantee of Popeye arms. A lot of the fishing I do is for silver fish on the Finger Lakes and most of the time I am running riggers at or above 85 ft or so trying to avoid lakers and my boat is 18 1/2 ft with little surface in the water so it doesn't have a lot of drag and 10 lb shark fish type weights work just fine. In the Spring 8 lb weights work well in the shallow water trolling applications. Fishing Lake Ontario is a bit of a different matter in terms of weights and especially because of the strong underwater currents encountered (often only indirectly detected by the changing angle of the downrigger cable or line). If you mainly intend to fish there and especially 100 ft or more depths)you should consider the heavier weights suggested in line with maximums of what your specific downriggers can handle. More weight usually equals reduced blowback given the particular boat at the same speed with the same lure (not factoring changing currents under the water) and this gives you a closer approximation of where your lure is actually running at depth.

I remember seeing a chart of the tensile strength for various brands of 7 strand wire and I believe that the AFW wire had the lowest or close to it breaking strength of any of the tested wires and I think it was at about 23lbs or so that has been my only concern and I stayed away from it but if Rick hasn't had trouble with it in his application I have to wonder if that data was screwed up because he gives it a lot more use than the average fisherman.

x2 only 40 lb Big Game and I tie my own flies with 50lb Big Game after having commercial ones with fluoro break. Reason: it has some stretch to it to withstand very hard strikes (as in Kings) Fluoro on the other hand has very little stretch and is less forgiving. I use 20 lb fluoro for spoons.

Brad - I'm not sure about the accuracy of the impeller type speed sensors at LOW speed but I know mine always read very high at upper speed on my boat compared with anything and at that range was often up to 10 mph faster at top speed (e.g 56 instead of 46). Could be the case at lower end as well? The other thing is that the resistance of the probe in the water is different than that of the free wheeling impeller and that could account for the difference.

12 lb Segaur for the Fingers and 20 lb Segaur for Lake O

Lesson #1 She might have done it on purpose Nick

You won't be sorry they do a great job and the reels come back like new with a good turn around time and fair pricing. Kind of rare servicing for these days.and they are great!

I know a lot of guys do it but a while back I tried it with one of my reels and ended up sending it to Andy to complete as a bag of parts

X2

Best of luck to all you folks fishing it and thanks to all involved. Your deciision to hold off with that weather report was the right one too Nick

Sweet! Some great eating there....

Short section of fluoro (6-8 ft long) solid ring ball bearing swivel at each end of it. Lower your main line and lure about 15 or 20 ft and then hook the empty end swivel to the main line and fasten and let it slide downthen let down while carefully lowering the downrigger weight to where you want the main lure to be. The slider will usually ride up or down and locate itself in the belly of the line above the main lure. usually works best with lightweight spoons and not usually stickbaits because of the tangle potential.

I use Todd in NY 's method