Going Deep

[ULTRAlite]

As we get into summer and the fish start to move out of the shallows and into the deep stuff, it becomes more important to get the lure down to the fish. Short of using a down rigger system, what other products are out there to aid in getting lures down?

An in-line diver like a Pink Lady works awesome for getting really deep: 100+ feet. For walleye and pike, a three-way swivel rig does the trick to 30+ feet. I fish a three-way swivel rig with a four ounce weight on steel line a fair bit for fish to 50 feet. That stuff cuts through the water like a knife. Lots of ways to get down there.

[FisherPotch]

Sheeps three way swivle technique has worked well for me. Weights designed for bouncing on the bottom without getting tangled i find work best. Attatching a sinker to the line a distance from the lure works well too.

Hey sheep whats a pink lady?

It's a plastic diver that is tied in-line about six feet ahead of your lure. It trips when a fish bites so you don't have the pull of the diver to contend with aswell as fighting the fish. Pretty cool way to fish 100+ feet of water. It's made by Luhr Jensen.



Snap weights are another good method, especially when fishing cranks and spoons.

[ULTRAlite]

Anyone use these before?
DEEP SIX

A few years ago I tried the pink lady and from what I remember, it was hard to disengage when retrieving with no fish on the end (ie. checking for weeds).

Also, does anyone use a line counter to try and determine depth?

I like the Pink Lady better because you can reengage it if it bumps bottom where with the Deep Six you need to reel it all the way in to reset it. Same thing if a fish hits but doesn't hook up.

You pretty well need a line counter reel to accurately get the depth you want out of a diver or a crankbait for that matter.

[ULTRAlite]

Awesome - thanks for the info. Not sure what happened to the pink lady I had before, but I'll have to try her again. I'll also give the 3 way swivel and weight system a shot.

Sounds like it's gonna be a good weekend to try out some new tactics.

SHeep, what is this steel line your talking about, for on a downrigger?

[Ayr]

The lead-core fly line works well for me, it's colour coded every ten yards so you can get a pretty good idea of how much line to let out. I think it comes in 100 yard pkg's or ten colours. I usually use only five colours which allows me to fish to 50 feet comfortably. If you are fishing 50-100 feet I would spool all ten colours on. It was killer on Shuswap Lake last week, I fished the shoreline at 50 feet and in 100 feet of water at 50 feet down. Lots of fish in that lake, I was surprised.

Ayr.

No bigbore...sorry NDN just doesn't suit you.....there is super fine steel line made for use on commen everyday level wind reels. The weight of the line doesn't take you down, you still need to add weight but because its so fine, it slices through the water effortlessly and gets much deeper with less weight than mono or braids. And because it has zero stretch, it's ideal for detecting strikes in deepwater situations. I typically use it in conjuction with a three way rig. I learned this method long before the super lines hit the scene and for running spinners in 30+ feet of water it was the ticket but for water that shallow, the super lines do a pretty good job now. But run some spoons down to 50+ feet for lakers and wire still shines.

Ayr...leadcore is super speed sensitive and most people think they are fishing way deeper than they are. With 90 feet of 18 pound leadcore and a 50 foot mono leader, youd be running 17 feet deep at one mile per hour.

Originally Posted by sheephunter

No bigbore...sorry NDN just doesn't suit you......

how about F.B.I. ? F'n Big Indian ha ha








thanks for the info on the steel line. Never seen the stuff. sounds like a good deal for cold lake

Naw...still prefer Bigbore.

http://www.landbigfish.com/tacklesto...e.cfm?PID=1867

[TreeGuy]

Sheep, how is this line connected to the swivel? Is it with those little crimps that are usually associated with cable?

Tree

Nope, there are a number of knots specifically for wire line and you can also just twist it over itself.

[muzzy]

steel line really doesn't need weights It will take it down if you let enough out I finda 4 to one ratio out Used it lots in territories and northern manitoba when fishing the deep holes for lake trout down to 90 ft you can get it in most stores stores lighter weight faster it goes down I used 12 pound Just let it out slow It kinks easy and that really weakens it and u feel every bump

Muzzy

It really depends what you are fishing behind it whether weight is required. Crankbait do reach a maximum depth they can dive so weight is required to take them deeper and for flutter spoons and spinners, weight is definitely required to get them down with a practical amount of line out.

[SakoAlberta]

We've found that , for Lakers, we can get down to 100 feet easily with 'Buzz Bombs' and the lakers really go for them. The biggest size we use is 5" and, even on a windy day, they will get down there easily.

[Unregistered user]

If you don't have a line counter on your level wind reel, just count "Pulls" it's an old west coast way of fishing with centre pin reels.