Downrigger?

[mike]

New to walleye fishing on Lake Erie and curious if anyone uses a downrigger to fish with. My father inlaw uses stictly dipsy divers and am thinking of trying a downrigger but have never used one?

[Gilligan]

I run them on the east basin where we cant reach some fish with dipsies. My experience has been that if you arent running 75' or deeper you will need long leads. I generaly run anywhere from 40' to 100' leads above that depth.

[rodbuster]

Save your money.Yes you can catch fish with them but there are better ways to catch eyes on erie.Get your self some divers and some planers.Watch this board you'll get some ideas on how go get these fish..

[Sluggo / NY]

Mike..Being an eastern basin troller like Gilligan, I've got to agree with him on this. We both use all the gadgetry like the rest..divers, boards, snap-weights, etc., but there are times on our "deeper" end of the pond that nothing works as well as the downriggers! If you stictly fish the shallower water, you may not need them, but I always run them on "our" end. Good Fishing, Sluggo

[mike]

Let me make sure I understand this correctly, the downrigger is used for deeper depths +50 feet and use dispy divers for shallower depths?? The other question I have is doesn't a downrigger give you more/better depth control? Thanks for the help. Mike

[byron]

I have used downriggers at 5' to 100'. Downriggers allow you to run your lines at an exact depth. No other technique can match this precision. BUT, make sure you know the depth of your lures before attaching them to the downrigger. Precision trolling will help with that.

If you fish depths of under 30-40'mostly are hardly go deeper, than leadcore or snap weight might be the way to go. Cheaper, and sometimes easier to use but again you lose some precision.

[John Ellis]

Dipseys get their share of fish, but it really helps knowing exactly where the baits are and especially when the fish are
deep. Nothing can touch downriggers for getting precisely the depth you want, whether shallow or deep.

[Sparky]

I only run two of my four riggers when walleye fishing. I do cathc fish with them but, it depends on how many people are in the boat with me. I don't normally trade 2 boards for 2 riggers. I run the riggers to maximize lines in the water. Every once in a while walleyes like them and I'll keep it up. I vary the leads anywhere from 10 to 100 feet. I've tried spoons, harnesses, and body baits. They all work at different times. Vary your presentation and the fish will tell you what they want.

Sparky