Northwest Fishing Reports

Anyone use any of these before?

Spring is almost here. For those slow days where I just want to put around the lake with the rod in the holder. But dont want to bother with down-rigging equipments.

On paper, it they look to be a nice product. Just don't know if they work as advertised or not.

they work just fine but you won't feel a small trout on the line with one.

Ditto for Bodofish. They work, and quite well, but ................. not much play in the fish either.

I would suggest that perhaps downriggers still work better, but of course are expensive.

Also, perhaps the following:

http://www.anglers-experience.com/ and at WWW.budsdiver.com.

I have not tried Buds Divers, but I know Seth pretty well and if he endorses it, it is usally worth the money.

Divers are great for getting down and putting meat in the boat if you don't want to use downriggers. They have a lot of drag so you'll need a heavier rod, stouter reel, heavier test line (preferably braid for its no stretch performance), and solidly mounted rod holders to hold the rod. Set the planer release fairly light so any strike will trigger the release so it will be easier to deal with on the retrieve. Use a fairly soft stretchy leader material to absorb the fishes thrashing about so it doesn't tear out the hook from its mouth. Often folks use a light rubber snubber between the planer and the leader to help absorb the stress. If you're also going to include a flasher/attractor in the setup the snubber is attached to the rear of the flasher.
For trout fishing I prefer using lead core trolling line to divers. Your mileage may vary.

Have you ever tried Snap Weights? They work great and are easy to use. Very little drag. Great for Kokanee.

http://www.offshoretackle.com/weights.htm

For lake fishing I would just use banana weights or the snap weights like jackonbrown said. Another thing to try would be leadcore line, I like leaded line it get your gear out there a ways behind the boat away from the noise from the motor and it doesn't ad any extra weight between you and the fish and you actually get to feel the fight.

I'll add my endorsement of the snap weights. I have the OR-20 set and have used them to put a fair number of fish in the boat. You don't really need to buy the sytem, just get the clips and use your own weights. They are really great for working the entire water column by changing speeds and/or occasionally popping your motor in and out of gear.

Anglinarcher wrote:Also, perhaps the following:

http://www.anglers-experience.com/ and at WWW.budsdiver.com.

I have not tried Buds Divers, but I know Seth pretty well and if he endorses it, it us usally worth the money.

I haven't tried them either, but can attest to your comment about Seth's endorsement.

We will sometimes use bottom bouncers to troll deep since we don't have downriggers yet. We seem to catch fish this way and its easy for the kids to do.

You can get a little more fun out of Jet Divers if you rig them as a slider. Tie a short dropper to the rod end of the diver, and then tie a snap on the end of the dropper. Simply snap the dropper onto your mainline. You'll have to have a large bead ahead of your swivel on the mainline so that the snap won't slide down.

Tie your regular leader to the mainline swivel and not the diver. When you hook a fish, the diver becomes unstable and kind of flops around. Since it's not on the line per se, it doesn't offer as much resistance when you're reeling in. There is still resistance, but it's not as much.

I got my downriggers (manual scottys) on craigslist for a decent price (I paid about half of the best retail price I found online).

A trip to the hardware store and a couple hours later I had them mounted to my boat, and the've been great.

Everyonce in a while I see a really good deal popping up on craigslist for downriggers, both manual & electric. So if you are patient and dilligent you could do pretty well.

Still costs more than divers or various forms of lead, but it elminates some of the guess work of how deep your gear is - plus you have the ability to quickly change depth w/o bringing in your stuff.

I also think that if you want to run more than a couple lines off your boat that DRs are very helpful in reducing tangles - especially when fighting a fish in.