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View Full Version : Line setback on downriggers



Full_Monte
01-27-2009, 11:12 AM
This is related to the downrigger thread, but I didn't want to hijack that thread with this topic. How far back to you set your lure behind your downriggers?

This quote from HiTechKoke was on the downrigger thread:

"Unless you have the lake to yourself you won't be too popular using lead core... for better or worse as the Kokanee fishing guys run around cutting back and forth like drunk sailors . Yes.. I'm guilty of that.

In reality we are narrowing down on the schools and with our relatively short setbacks we can turn the boat and criss-cross with too much fear of running over the longer lines of those using lead core. The majority of the Koke fishing in California dictates going deeper beyond the lead core range except maybe in spring or the high mountain lakes where the waters stay cooler."

Does this imply that during Koke tournaments, boats are running shorter setbacks to avoid the lines of all the other boats?

Kokanee Wizard
01-27-2009, 01:16 PM
I have my setbacks about 10' especially when fishing deeper than 40' Kokanee are not ball shy so I take advantage of that. The shorter setbacks allow me to circle a school of kokes and increase the catch rate before they move on. I run shorter setbacks most of the time. If the bite is slow I will try slightly longer setbacks, but not much past 24'

KokeDealer
01-27-2009, 01:30 PM
200+ feet from 5' to the surface
150+ feet at 10'
100 feet at 20'
30-50 feet at 30'

10-20 feet when deeper than 30'

I like having some seperation in setback length in addition to depth seperation

Moknots
01-27-2009, 06:01 PM
I run cannonball trolls on one side and bare ball on the other. I start with 2-3' of setback from the cannonball troll and 25 feet (more or less) on the bare ball side. Most days the short setback gets more fish, but not always. Easy to adust to the mood of the day. The landing rate is higher on the shorter setback (direction of pull on the hook is more directed into the roof of the mouth -- you loose more fish, in my experience, when they get the chance to thrash with their mouths open and the direction of pull leading OUT of their mouth, as is the case when retreiving a fish from a long setback hookup).

SilverBullets
01-27-2009, 09:34 PM
I run cannonball trolls on one side and bare ball on the other. I start with 2-3' of setback from the cannonball troll and 25 feet (more or less) on the bare ball side. Most days the short setback gets more fish, but not always. Easy to adjust to the mood of the day. The landing rate is higher on the shorter setback (direction of pull on the hook is more directed into the roof of the mouth -- you loose more fish, in my experience, when they get the chance to thrash with their mouths open and the direction of pull leading OUT of their mouth, as is the case when retrieving a fish from a long setback hookup).

Mike, great to see you here!!thumbsup Looking foward to your posts and reports as always! I have also found like Moknots that on the shorter setbacks, the landing ratio is higher. Part of this in my opinion is due to not having the fish on as long (with more line out) and it seems they don't have as much of a chance to go ballistic on the surface. I use ball trolls on one side of the boat also, until we find out what rod gets more hits. Also, in my experience, after a hot bite shuts down when useing the short setback, fishing farther back will get a few more in the boat. Generally I fish with a setback where my clip is attached 4' above the ball, and the dodger is 2' in back of the trolls. In my opinion, your presentation is at a more precise depth with the shorter setback, and you can give alot more action to your lure when doing s-turns in addition to taking advantage of the black box range. Early season my setback is longer due to fishing closer to the surface.

HiTechKoke
01-27-2009, 10:36 PM
Good thread Monte. I play by the general settings that KokeDealer posted and since we end up fishing deeper most of the year it allows for plenty of boat maneuverability in a crowd, derbies included. I like the angle that the fish have less room to play as well, except when in the Gorge where the fish will peel your line out so far anyway and you need to cool them off before getting them near the boat! The bigger California fish peel some line as well just not as much.

The one thing I was farced to do with my video setup was to run 18-36 inch setbacks in order to see them on video. That forced me to find out how they are not line / cable shy as everyone says.. I'd like to run them a bit farther back but the video wouldn't pick them up so for that downrigger setup it was extremely short.

Kevin

vvBob
01-28-2009, 12:04 PM
I run 8-10' in back of my Sharks....
Many times I can see fish "shadowing" the shark weights, so I know the flash is bring them in...

FishHunter
01-28-2009, 07:37 PM
I keep my setbacks at 20 to 30 feet most of the time. If I go deeper than 35 feet, I will bring that in to 8 to 10 feet. This is another thing I will mix up when the bite slows down.

oldguysrule
01-28-2009, 08:08 PM
I use a very short setback 6" in any water 30' or deeper especially at the gorge with all the boats. Only when the sun is getting high do i change mine to a 20' to 30'.

Fallriverguy
01-30-2009, 01:06 PM
I like shorter set backs, but if the fishing is slow I'll start running them further back to see if that makes a difference.