Slidder on Downrigger

[bobco]

A post earlier this week talked about a slidder on a downrigger rod. The technique goes like this run 1 rod out on the ball, attach a second slidder onto the line with a snap swivel at whatever depth you want a second lure. My question is the second line is attached by a rubber band, do you just half hitch the rubber band around the swivel and line? I am concidering doing this for kokonee and would be using 8lb line, do you think it is to lite for this ? What size of rubber bands are you using?
I really think it is a great idea, I hate stacking because it gets to busy. I try to run 2 lead cores out the sides then the 2 downriggers , this stacking would get 2 extra lures in the water which would be get for kokonee.

[SeaCat]

LAST EDITED ON Mar-24-01 AT 05:15PM (CST)[p]First, half hitch the rubberband around the main line at whatever point you want the "slider" line to be -- ususally 10-20' above the cannon ball. Then, use the snap swivel around the main line and through the remaining end of the rubberband. While trolling the rubberband holds it at that position in the water collumn but when a fish hits it will slide down to the main lure.

I use what I would consider "regular" size rubberbands -- maybe two inches long. Could go smaller/lighter rubberband with lighter line -- I usually use 12# line on my downriggers at a minimum. If you have used 8# with the riggers and had sucess in the past, I don't see why it will not work with the fixed slider too. I would make sure my downrigger release is set right. Most of the time with the fixed sliders, a fish hitting the extra lure will pop the rigger release, but smaller fish will just cause the rod tip to bounce.

You might also try using a free slider. Although both work, I often get more hits with the free slider setup. A free slider will move up and down as you change direction and speeds and can sometimes generate more hits. The down side is that your hookup ratio will ususally be lower as the fish does not have a stationary point to set the hooks against. Steelhead and coho love free sliders but are so active that the poor hook sets lets alot get away.

Common belief is that the free sliders are working about 50-60% of the depth of the main line -- ie: a main line set at 60' should have the slider at 30-40' down. Recently though, a report I read says that actually the free slider works its way down to about 5-10' above the main lure. They were using one of the Walker Vision Strike cameras last season. If this is true, I would definately opt for using the fixed slider setup.

Ryan

[Chairman]

There is a diagram for fixed ad-a-line techniqlue in the Off Shore Release paper. Go to the Off Shore logo on the mainpage and send your address for a copy.

[bobco]

thanks for the information, how do you attach a "free slider", . Let me see if I have this clear on the fixed slider, the fish doesn't break the rubber band it slides it down to the main lure or trips the releases? I use the offshore walleye release, the or4 I believe, they do a great job releasing with the smaller kokonee.

[bobco]

thanks , I went there and did that, I started using their releases last year and have been very happy with the light releases. I was using cannon rubber band releases but had a hard time with rubber band strength, some would break the line, lost allot of lures and fish before I gave up on them.

[Getreel]

Dont attach your line directly to the rubber band! You wont loose lures if you clip the slider directly to mail line and looped through the rubber band just to keep it from running up or down the main line.

[SeaCat]

The slider/add a line is just a 5-8' length of line with a snap swivel at both ends. To one end you attach the lure. The other snap swivel goes around the main line. The difference between the fixed and free slider is that the free slider has no rubberband to hold it at a fixed spot on the main line.

In the fixed slider, I have never had the rubberband break. The fish hitting will either pull line out of the rigger release or you will have to do it for the fish. In either case, the sider line will travel/slide down to the main lure. With a free slider there is no resistance from the rubberband, so you have to reel like the dickens to take up the slack line until the snap swivel hits the main lure. With the fixed sider, you have a little more control, but still have to reel fast until you feel the fish on the line.

The real fun starts when you get a fish on both the main lure and the slider - talk about a weird (but good :-)) problem.

Had it happen twice in 30 years now. Last summer was fishing by myself on Lk Mich with one downrigger line out with a slider and a dipsy diver rod. The diver got a hit and about 30 seconds into the fight I saw the rigger rod bounce/bend and a steelhead jump off the stern. The dipsy was a 20# king so I ignored the steelie hoping it would wait for me and not break off. 4-5 minutes later though, the rigger rod popped and doubled over. I figured that the steelie just managed to pop off the rigger release but since it really had a bend in the rod I loosened the drag a little. Landed the king on the dipsy and started fighting the fish on the other rod. Fight seemed weird though and after 15 minutes finally saw the problem -- a 15# king on the main lure being trailed by a 12# steelhead on the slider. Fortunately had two big nets on board and managed to land both after 4 or 5 scoops. The steelhead was released since it would have been my 6th fish total and 4th steelhead (5 fish total allowed with 3 of any one species). Sure was a nice trip in though.

Ryan