| Sounds like you must have had a big john release that is
included with the downrigger. There's a set screw at the end
of it to adjust tension with. You need a small allen head wrench
(I think my big johns came with it) to do it. I like the stacker
type of release myself. These are what you use to get more then
one line on a rigger. One end clips to the cable and the other
end connects to the line. You attach the first one near the ball,
let out your line and clip the line into the release. Then you lower
the ball to lets say 30 ft. Then you connect the next stacker, let
out another line and clip it into the release. Then drop the ball
to the desired depth, let's say 80 ft. You now have one lure at
80 and the other at 50, great if you want a chance at both salmon
and lakers in the summer months. As far as your luck on Winni
goes i would think the fish would be up top again. I'm not sure
what the water temp is, but it's highly possible the salmon are
in the top 15 ft of water. Planer boards might have yielded more
results then the downrigger...oh well, better luck next time :-)
Marty
|
| 1260.1 has a good point. Prior to the last day, I remember taking
salmon on fly rods with sinking line (level sinking salmon line)
and streamers. At a slow troll, that probably put the streamer
at 10 - 15' down with 30 yds of fly line out to the backer. I also
took them with lead core at about 3.5 colors with a les davis cowbell
rig and a nightcrawler about 4' off the end of the rig. The
nightcrawler has to be parallel with hook, so that all the crawler
is stretched on the long shank of the hook. I would usually break
off the tails at the end of the shank. In this way, if the head
of the nightcrawler was run to the end of the shank near the leader
knot, and the tail broken off before the shank bends to the gap
and barb, the nightcrawler tracks straight in the water without
spinning around (just the way a streamer should track in the water).
Another good late season spot is off Center Harbor about 1/8 mile
out straight from the town ramp. While I caught the most fish off
Rattlesnake, I beleive the best salmon I have caught at Winni was
from Center Harbor. The best laker spot I found though was off
Diamond. Good luck next season. Maybe I'll quit salting and go
back to the smiling water sometime.
Carlo
|
| You can use a 3 point swivel up about 18 inches from the bottom
release, the leader should be no longer than the pole.
You can also use what they call a cheater line. Once you set the
depth on the downrigger, run a leader (again no longer than the
pole!) with the lure on one end and a swivel on the other. Attach
the swivel to the mono on the downrigger, throw the lure over and
the cheater line will slide down about half the depth of the
downrigger setting.
Good luck
Mike
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