Originally Posted by
kokanee64
I think you're likely to get a wide variety of recommendations regarding drop or setback from the release to the lure. All of it is good advice in that it is based on hard earned experience about what works well for each of the people responding. In the spring when my weights are around 20 ft, I drop back 30 to 40 ft based on the theory that the boat and motor will scare the fish away, especially when the fish are shallow. I'm not sure that theory always holds water, as I've caught several nice kokanees this summer with my weight paused at 7 ft while I stack a second line on the cable above the weight. But as one of my old professors used to say, "nothing is more practical than a good theory." Right now I'm catching fish at around 50 ft and I'm using only a 12 foot drop, the length of mono leader tied to braided line. This seems to be working well for me. I wonder if so many boats go over these fish all day long that they don't care that much, especially when the fish are deeper. I suspect that's where the 100 ft rule comes from (lots of guys use it because it works) and it makes sense to me. The deeper the fish, the less drop you need. Anyone who fishes much knows fish can be easily spooked, so why take the risk?
But here is something to think about. When squaring up building foundation forms, wall, etc., lots of construction guys use the 3-4-5 rule. For a 90 degree triangle with legs of 3 ft and 4 ft, the length of the hypotenuse is 5 ft. The formula is (3*3) + (4*4) = 25 = (5*5). The square root of 25 is 5. You can scale this up or down. That means that if you set the lure back 40 ft and drop the weight 30 ft, the distance from the water right behind your transom directly to the fish is 50 ft. You have 70 ft (30ft + 40ft) of line out and as soon as you pop the release, the fish is only 50 ft away and you suddenly have 20 ft of line slack. The general formula for this is the Pythagorean Theorem: the hypotenuse length is the square root of the sum of the square of the legs of a right triangle. If I am fishing at 50 ft deep and drop my lure back 50 ft, I have 29 ft of line slack when I pop the release. If I am fishing at 50ft and have a 12ft drop, I have 11 ft of line slack when I pop the release. If I'm fishing 30 ft deep with a 70 ft drop, I'll have 24 ft of slack versus with a 30ft of drop I'll have 18 ft of slack. In general, you'll have more line slack when the two legs (drop and depth) are roughly equal length and less line slack if you have one loooong leg and one shorter leg. For example, when I fish at 50 ft with a 12 ft drop, the distance from the water at the back of the transom to the fish is only 51 ft and I have (50 + 12) 62 ft of line out.
In all cases, when a fish is on I reel down as far as I can, pop the release with a quick snap, reel like crazy, extend the rod as high over my head as I can, and sometimes take a couple of steps back. I want that slack out right now. Experiment and see to what extent your fish are boat and motor shy. For me, as long as I'm getting plenty of bites with a shorter drop, I'll use it to keep the amount of line slack more manageable. I also think maybe there are so many kokes where I fish that I can get away with some pretty lame fishing techniques.
Tight Lines.
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