Savvy fishermen know downrigging is one of the best ways to control the depth of their fishing lure-short of dropping anchor.  Ideally, of course, you want to be able to keep your lure in the depth range where you want it-at the depth where your fish finder is indicating the fish are located-at any given point in time.  It will take a little trial and error, patience, and a bit of record keeping, but you can become adept at doing this.

I like to use the the best.  I’ve tried some other brands but have never really been satisfied with them.  They generally fell apart too soon or rusted long before they should have, and I didn’t feel I got a real value for my money.

However, some really great downrigging system are made by Cannon.  They have more complex systems, but I like to work with something a little simpler, like the Mag 10TS, for example.The Magmun has long been trusted by experienced fishermen and boaters because it has proven to be dependable and durable.It includes a fast retreival rate of 250 feet per minute, also has a short stop feature to stop the motor after the ball leaves the water so as to not hit the boat and can handle the work load of a deep sea fisherman.The Mag 10ST has a stainless stell spool constructed to withstand the rigors of the new super lines now popular.It has a stylish appearance with a nice white finish and includes Positive Ion Control which creates an electronic field around the ball making your boat a fish finding machine.

To begin you want to decide how deep you want to be and at what speed you will troll.When trolling faster or going deeper, more weight will be needed.  This is because you must compensate for the drag of the water that increases with your trolling speed.  As an example, many Great Lakes fishermen who are trying to catch salmon troll at 1.5 up to 3 miles per hour and aim for a depth of 15 to 30 feet down, there they don’t have a significant drag and can use a 5lb ball.But deep sea anglers fishing for grouper-which often are at 60 feet below the surface or even deeper-troll at around 5 knots.With water depth like that and a higher speed you get a lot more drag.  So they probably need to use a 20lb weight.

After you have determined the weight ball you need you will still need to experiment some to be sure you’re on track.Go out on the water to the same depth range that you plan to fish.  Adjust your boat speed to troll at the rate you plan to use based on the kind of fish you plan to catch.Now lower the ball all the way to the bottom were you will notice the cable becoming slack.  Then quickly stop it and retrieve a bit of cable to tighten it back up.  Now take a look at the depth gauge on your downrigger.  Here’s where the record keeping comes in.  Write down that depth along with your trolling speed, the ball weight, and the water depth.

Now try experimenting a bit.Each time you adjust your speed make a note of the information aquired.  Adjust the cable depth at the various speeds and take note of that.What you want to determine is how many feet of cable to let out for a particular depth and speed to get to the fish you are trying to catch.  Using a percentage of the total length of cable required to reach the bottom-or some simple subtraction-you should then be able to calculate how much cable to let out if you want to run at 20 feet from the bottom-or 10 feet or 5 feet above or wherever you want to be.

My personal prefference is to stay about 10′ above the bottom.  For starters, I know bottom fish will still take the right bait from that distance.  They’ll come up to get it.I also don’t care for the idea of getting hung up on something on the bottom and being forced to cut loose my cable.

I also recommend keeping the lead line at ten feet or less-from the ball to the lure or bait you’re using-so you can get the advantage of the negative Ion field that surrounds the ball itself.  You need to be this close to utilize that.  If you’ve got too much lead line in between there, it won’t work.

Beside the Cannon Mag 10TS there are some other basic needs to get started.  With a nice sturdy 7′ rod, a conventional reel and line based on what you’re planning to catch, a good line released hooked to your ball, the perfect bait, and a nice boat, you’ll soon be in business.Downrigger fishing is a fun and enjoyable method of fihing and one that easy to master.

You can get more information about all of the Cannon downriggers plus accessories-and all kinds of other fishing and boating electroncs-at the eFishBox.com website.

You will find great fishing and boating articles at MyTackleSpace as well as advise from your peers.  There are also forums and blogs to help generate lots of ideas and great fishing discussions!Have a look.

Tags: cannon downrigger parts, cannon downriggers, downrigger weight, electric downriggers, fishing downrigger

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