BlueCollarOutdoors

On lake michigan we catch a few on dipseys if we keep them higher in the column but not alot. If your specifically fishing for steelhead and can fit it in your spread I would run the extra set of boards with leadcore or snapweights instead of the dipseys. We have caught 2 or 3 rainbows off of the dipseys this year, 2 of flasher fly and 1 on a spoon with a 14 foot leader. They were all 9 to 10 pounds. For some reason the ones that were aggressive enough to hit a dipsey were all pigs. We have also caught a decent amount on free sliders and green pro kings off the riggers this year, thats new to me but its paid off with some nice fish. Typically i would say run alot of orange of bows, but this year, we have done well on black/silver or anything that looks natural like an alewive and still have so silver for flash in the sun.

Nice video guys, seems like your always on the fish. And not afraid to share whats working, thanks. (edit) just got to watch is closer now that work is done, the net coming unglued was classic to get on film. Always though I should carry a small backup, even if its a foot long with a deep bag like you get in canada. Good fishin.

Thanks, and thanks for the offer to fish the other day. One of these days it will work out. I plan on fishing later into the season this year, and not forgetting I own a boat once the archery season start.

Kyle is the nbk I michigan stinger or a dreamweaver with the red eye on it. You talk about that one too much for me to not own it!

Just let out some slack, and bring the rod into a safe place. Then hook the line on and toss it off to one side, it will swing around and behind the mainline. Then put the rod back in the holder and suck up the slack, sure it takes 20 seconds but if your in the right state thats a free line, and if you can only run so many lines thats an easy way to add a line easily with no extra tackle, rod holders, etc.

Very good point, recently some friends got that idea and put there old penn reels on the downriggers, and moved some higher speed reels with counters into leadcore duty. Few things learned: You can eyeball the lead from the ball of 10, 50, 80 feet etc. A 2 color swr just gets set out the same everytime, I dont need a counter. The high speed retrieve is great for leadcore. Core on the old penns doesnt need a counter either, just let it out. Cranking in a 7 color on that slow retrieve to change baits gets old quick. I do like having board and rigges rods be interchangeable, then if i want to stack one day and the high in the colum bite is dead all I need is a stacker release. I use okuma 30ds and cheap 15 dollar fleet farm downrigger rods, no idea on the name, works fine for me.

I run 20 pound big game on everything and never break anything. I use it for leaders on core about 20 feet and they seem to catch plenty of fish. I have some 30 pound flouro that I will be trying for sliders, and dipsey leaders for spoons. Time will tell. But 20 pound big game is awesome in my book. Use your drag, no reason to land a fish in 5 minutes.

I have done the snapweight trick and it worked fine. This was on my deepest rigger and I only had 140 feet of cable and fish were deep nad I was deep, I added a 4 oz snapweight 50 feet from the spoon then let out another 50 feet or so. so maybe I got an extra 20 feet deep, it got me in the zone. Gotta tighten up your releases though or it doesnt take much to pull it out with the extra pull from the weight. Copper would work the same, but again, more expensive, 2 colors of lead on the deeper rigger with a moonshine spoon has taken 3 of my last 7 bites since I put it back into play. All big fish too. Meanwhile the 11 inch flasher next to it is 50/50 on big kings and shakers, not sure why they run at that big flasher.

Hey baby, green easter egg, and the mauler happy meal are good all day.

Nice rainbow off a high diver and a spoon that was out of the package for about 2 minutes. First fish in the boat for the 2011 offshore tournament. We went from 80 to 315 feet of water before we got some action. Long day, good times. CEJ2Gn1GFRQ

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My short cores are on Okuma magda pro 30s. Fleet farm specials, or any sporting goods store. Heres the specs. MA-30DX 2BB 510/15, 420/20, 310/25 4.0:1 24" 17-lbs 17.3 oz. 49.99 ( I find them every year for 35 bucks, i think there 42 regular at fleet farms in WI They hold my 2, 5, and 7 colors just fine and plenty of backing with 20 pound mono.

Agreed with kyle, anything in the chute an accident waiting to happen. Why not swing it out on a board? And no need to spend 300 bucks on a leadcore setup, my board rods are 25 dollar 8 foot shimanos, reels are 35 dollar okumas and a full core is what 15 to 20 bucks. http://www.coldwatertackle.com/sufix-performance-lead-core-fishing-line Heres the price on suffix full core. i dont run a full, if I need more depth I add a snapweights, I dont want to reel anymore than I have to when resetting.

I see, based on good reports I bought one, but mine is yellow. Only took one rip on it full moon fishing last year at 11 pm, I was waiting to stack and heard the cable go "boing" down 15 feet and it was there and gone in a second.

Nice stuff kyle, whats the nkb look like?

On the wisconsin side, black and silver with alot of shine has been great for us in the top 40 feet. The steelies have been packed with alewives. Got 5 on on in about 2 hours last weekend, and they didnt hit the orange or bright color spoons, but sure went after the black,silver and grey.

If your going to run a slide above the swr, use a big swivel so it will not hang out on your leadcore to mono know when sliding down the line. Yes the fish will have to slide a long ways before being all the way back to the main cannonball lure, reel fast! I run long leads and yes sometimes you loose one while the lure slide, but at lease you have a chance. I would like to think its more about if they hooked up to start with, than the sliding factor.

If yours dont have counters, on mine 1 crank was 2 feet down. But I got sick of that right way and got 2 counters to add on. Otherwise I couldnt remember what I had them set at after 10 minutes. Good luck. you will find running your own rig and catch 3 to be more exciting that riding on someone elses and catching 10.

I used to run double dipseys but that was before I got the riggers. Stick with 2 riggers and 2 dipseys, it will save you some headaches and you wont have to drive so straight to avoid headaches. You really dont need to run double dipsys if you have the riggers. Good luck and let us know how it goes, Check out some of my videos at bluecollaroutdoors1 on youtube to see how i do it.

I run a 16 ft with a 6 rod spread, and it is very easy to run out of my boat. Ask anything you might need. You will not want more rigges on that boat. Are you saying you only have 2 rod holders period? 2 riggers, 2 dipseys, and 2 leacores or snapweights would be your easiest way to run a nice spread. If the guys are only telling you to fish 50 feet of water you could scrap the dipseys and run 4 boards. If there are steelhead around run an orange spoon in the top 10 feet of water, then the next board inside of that run a 5 color leadcore. On the other side the farthest board away from the boat run a 4 color, with a 7 to 10 inside of that. Run the riggers down a little deeper than the board lines and you should be all set. Run sliders or fixed sliders, or get 2 more rod holders and stack 2 more poles on top of the main lines. Good luck, ask if you have any questions.

K7Fh-Hh6y9Y Some nice fish from the beginning of the month, including one just under 24 pounds that was way too dark for July 3rd. Why did I hand off that rod? 6 for 12 for the day if i remember right. Couldnt get em to stick but had some nice early action and our first lake of the year. Oil Can Boyd!

Got a couple new ones in the mix to look for this week.

http://www.team-fishigan.com/FT/fixed_slid/fx.htm This is how I run a fixed slider. Hook it up in your yard if your dont get it and mess with it all hooked up just like it would be on the water. Make the the offshore release is just like in the diagram or it wont trip right away.

Its not my original drawing so I dont want to take credit for that, I used sixshooters original write up on downriggers and just edited a bit for this application. In wisconsin sliders are another pole. But if you enough people and your out of poles, or dont want anymore tackle in the boat etc throw them out there. I believe that in michigan they are not an extra pole/line. And in minnestoa well geez 1 pole? I hate that law. For me for instance in a small boat, sliders are great becuase if I have 3 people and 9 lines to deal with in a 16 footer that alot going on. I can a deep board line/torpedo, big snap weigh on the deeper dipsey side, and put on 2 sliders and I am then running my max 9 lines with not much more hassle.

Spin are recommened to be run a little tighter to the ball for the unique action, but if the cannonballs are scaring the crap out of spooky fish, they will never even look at your flashers action. Alot of guys will tell you to run spin drs 8 to 20 feet back off the ball, or they really like them off of divers. I have a love hate relationsihp with spinnies, but last week I took a fish just 12 to 15 feet off the ball, when we hadnt got hit all morning. In this sport, there are no cut and dried answers. Keep a log. Record what works, weather, sun, waves, direction of travel, and speed when hit, what color your dipsey was, how long was the lead, what lures/rods where closest to it in your spread. Where you turning when it hit, does it glow, was your partner eating a sandwhich at the time of the hit. It can only help you find patterns and at the least make your confident in what you are putting out, not just guessing. Theres a reason some guys swear by certain lures and they stink for others, the guy running it all day has the confidence to catch fish on it, so it stays in the drink, not in the box. Good luck buddy.