Downrigger Fishing

[apb]

another question if you don't mind. how far back from the ball, is a good distance for the bait. if I'm trolling with my big motor. the fish I've been seeing on laurel are about 30ft deep, will the big motor spook them?

For stripers, I put the jigs back 100 feet behind the ball. Other species can be different. I know salmon fishermen keep them pretty close. For stripers or hybrids, the downrigger releases work real well. You'll also have to keep in mind that the jigs will drop some below the cannonball. As a rough estimate, at 2 mph, 20# mono, a 1/2 oz bucktail will drop around 10 feet. A 3/8 oz around 7-8 feet. The cannonball will also rise some as you move through the water. The deeper you drop them, or the faster you go, the more fall back on the cannonball. If you have a decent depth finder you should be able to see the cannonball. It will show up as a roughly solid line across the graph. Takes a little getting used to figuring out exactly where the baits are, but once you get it down you start producing a lot more consistantly.

Andrew