BlueCollarOutdoors

Great, thought that might help out some of the guys that didnt understand what we were talking about.

Alright I thought they were fine at home, maybe they just dont show up at work. As long as you guys can see them its all good.

I have no idea why those pictures dont show up, they showed up in the preview mode and i swear they were there last night. Ill fix that when i get home tonight.

All good advice so far. Longer leads is a key. The only dipsey bite we had the other day in the sun was on a 15 foot leader, not always possible but, we made it work. Also pulling dipseys out of the water could help. Replace them will long coppers or a torpedos in there place. On my small boat running the torpedos in the dipsey slots is still a little nervwracking as far as tangling, so i will run them out 15 feet on boards, and hten have shorter cores on the outside. So 2 riggers, one swr with a spoon deep, flasher fly on the other with a longer lead like 75 feet and 20 feet higher than the other rigger. 2 torpedos or a long leadcore, copper, pumphandle, then a 2 color up high for bows, and a 5 to 10 color on hte other side. Ps ive run leads up to 200 feet in the bright sun.

Last weeks last morning bite, 19, 15 and 10 pound kings after not getting a bite til 730 yTLQLrv3HKE

For fixed I wouldnt go closer than 10 feet but thats just my opinion, easier on tangles and hte lure is a little further away from the ball. I know some guys will go as tight as 5 feet above the cannonball though. Dagwood heres the free slider in action. Yes its a 5 foot piece of mono that you attach with a swivel on your mainline. Set the mainlineand drop it down to the depth you want, grab your rod tip, attach a swivel and throw the spoon in the water. Take the slack out and relax. The line will slide down just under half way to the cannonball. When a fish hits it will have to pull out the slack or get pulled down to the release, so you might see a hit and reel alot more before you get the line tight. If you see a light hit, crank like a madman. Heres a before, during and after of the setup. (Ps i edited your pictures six shooter hope thats ok) Anything you see in redish color is the slide line, usually about 4 to 6 feet of 20 to 30 lb mono or flouro with swivels on both ends and a spoon. Right after putting it in the water.... Trolling... Hooked up!

Free sliders are tough to get a consisten hook up on. For that or if you want that spoon at a positive depth go with the fixed slider. Rubberband or offshore release is the way to go. Not saying that they will save the day, but if they get you a bonus fish, I say put them out. If i run them free, lower the ball to set depth, example 100 feet then clip on the slider, onto the mainline, throw the lure in the water and i like to move the rod over one way until i see the slider swing around behind the mainline. Now its tight, untangled and should stay that way as It works its way down the line to the 60 percetn depth, so 60 feet here. If it wasnt an extra pole in wisconsin i would run them all the time, unless we were so hot it didnt matter.

Didnt see that you were asking about a knot. Willis, or a tiny swivel has held up for me for 2 seasons. Also tighten up your downrigger releases a bit with an swr, its gonna drag a bit more, and I found myself resetting on false releases the first few times.

Let out all the core til your get to your backing. Run this as your lowest downrigger in the spread, and usually with a spoon. Some guys will run it with a flasher, but the spoon will keep that rise and fall effect leadcore has. Thats its, just make sure your driving straight when you drop it down becuase its a long stretch from the ball and has a little more chance to get into a dipsey if your off centered. It will weight a bit more with the lead, so you might have to tighten your release a touch, if you use a blacks etc>

The slider will wrap around the flasher but you can usally just grab them both and one will spin free from the other, no big deal. If using mono the line will get some memory after awhile, flourocarbon is not so bad on the memory.

Dipsey diver blast 10 seconds in....imgNiS0zTLA

1VwRusfcN1o These videos are great, I wish I had a camera on every rod, to just see the hits. Heres my favorite downrigger blast from last year. Pushing 20 seconds before we catc it and lets just say that 20 lb test must have pushed to the max. Check the 2:20 mark if you dont want to see the other fish.

2.5 sog on the gps, I don't have a rigger probe.

2.5 or 3 times the flasher is a good starting point for flasher leads, use heavy line 40 to 60 lb test, or better yet flourocarbon. We talk light line and stealth all the time but you need that whip to get the fly moving. 2.2 is the sweetspot on my boat, but 2.5 is pretty typical for most. If its not working change it a bit. Also changed your direction of troll if your not getting bit.

Back to the original topic, I dont really have a go to flasher or fly, grene on green is always good, 8 inch white protroll with aqua fly is good for me off a dipsey all year long. On the riggers I alwasy run an 11 inch paddle deep with about a 30 inch fly, that big paddle with a somewhat short lead is my best producer for big kings. If you run spin drs 8 inch variety mt dew is a good one with a power blue fly, and keep it between 21 and 24 inches. The spin drs work good on a short lead, or on the dipseys for some reason. Otherwise I like ot get my rigger baits away from the ball a little, 50 to 75 or longer in high sunlight. If there hitting the dipseys, tighten them up. Also stagger the leads on riggers. If the bait comes buy at 60 down and they dont take it, maybe the rigger at 70 with a longer lead will get them.

The offshore release works well, if you get a fish on the mainlure at the ball you will have to unclip the release and throw it in the water to slide down to the fish, or take it off right away. Hopefully the lure is 10 feet at least above the ball and depending on how far back you had for a lead is say 20 then you have a fish 30 feet from the transom and still have to get the slider off. For that reason I would recommend 20 up and at least a 20 foot lead to give yourself some room to unhook the offshore release. Sometimes in the fight the release will come off and slide down already, sometimes its off in a heartbeat, but every once in awhile it will tangle up and you need a second to spin it loose. I dont use sliders if were fishing shallow. Usually only when dropping riggers past about 75 feet or more. Otherwise you have a lure right under the boat with almost no lead and thats gonna take a pretty aggressive king to come get it. If you run long leads at the ball like 50 to 100 feet, you will have alot of slack to reel up, so if you see a hit and dont think they fish is there....keep reeling! Also sometimes the hits look funny, If the ball is at 120 and the slider is at 70 feet, you will sometimes see the rod jolt, then nothing, then jolt again. The fish hit, slide the line down, then took it off the ball release and now its free. This all might sound like a pain, just run then if you got room for an extra line and you will pick up some fish on them, with minimal issues. keep them under 6 feet, it doesnt really make a difference how long they are, and there easier to net and work with.

To follow up on the changing baits every 15 minutes, Saturday morning I we got out in sun up and didnt get a bite til 730. We were both on little to no sleep so that plan was to quit at 7. Well im stubborn so I started changing things everywhere, ended up catching 3 kings 19, 15 and 10 pounds on 3 lures of mine that had not even hit the water yet this year. So keep changing, keep changing speeds, keep trying a new direction to troll. Eventually we got a bite, then a pattern. And new baits that we have confidence in.

http://www.team-fishigan.com/FT/fixed_slid/fx.htm This works for me, 2 swivels, and an offshore release. Simple, you know the depth, and good hook sets.

I like your advice on changing every 15, dont drive around and sulk, work on it. Thanks

rEPyh1jP_98 Funny tangle from sunday on kewaunee. Took a minute for the lightbulb to come on as to what we did. Got the downrigger line and fish, into our dipsey and was a mess to free, but we did it.

ijRlPSZxShY And a big late morning deep deep deep king on a rediculously long lead from saturday morning while pulling lines.

LQXWSjteKaQ Last sunday 5 for 5 with some big kings including 17 and 20 pounders. We got runners at the boat, lost hair and close up butt shots. Didnt have a camera mount on my friends boat and it was all doubles, so the footage is a little different. Enjoy.

I run them, get the clear ones if you do, but you can probably get away without them.

4gMr0zpqkhQ Maiden voyage on friends new to him boat for this season. Bite wasnt fast and furious but we did put the net to 8 lb salmon flasher fly off a deep rigger 5 lb rainbow flasher fly off a medium rigger 4 lb rainbow on a 2 color core and orange spoon(that we dragged around in rough seas forever) 8/9 pound king off a rigger down 80 feet. Water was roughly 53 degrees. Enjoy.

I used a 209 and maybe a 309 for my leadcore reels. Worsk great, dont need a counter just put out the lead and your set. They were free and still a repeatable process when you get one.