Fishing Forum

Usually 50 feet works well for me and as close as 35 feet back still produces. Once a couple years ago as a test I ran 3 feet behind my downrigger ball set at 5 feet deep, to my great surprise I hooked and landed nice 20” koke, it almost jumped in the boat as it hit and released! That shocked me and I’m
Sure was a bit of a fluke! That fish was basically in the prop wash of the boat! So much for boat spooking them? Just goes to show you that anything can happen when fishing !
I have played with very short setbacks when deeper but seems like my std setup up 50 feet works well for me. Contrary to what I hear many guys do, when I stack I run the shallow one back 10 feet less than the deeper line. I usually run 4 rods off 2 riggers and stack releases.
So if a fish hits the bottom line when it comes up it is usually behind the shallow line and I get less tangles. It works well for me. I usually catch my fair share of kokes. This year not being a typical one for me has been slower for the few trips I’ve been out.

(08-04-2023, 04:51 AM)Mildog Wrote: [ -> ]Usually 50 feet works well for me and as close as 35 feet back still produces. Once a couple years ago as a test I ran 3 feet behind my downrigger ball set at 5 feet deep, to my great surprise I hooked and landed nice 20” koke, it almost jumped in the boat as it hit and released! That shocked me and I’m
Sure was a bit of a fluke! That fish was basically in the prop wash of the boat! So much for boat spooking them? Just goes to show you that anything can happen when fishing !
I have played with very short setbacks when deeper but seems like my std setup up 50 feet works well for me. Contrary to what I hear many guys do, when I stack I run the shallow one back 10 feet less than the deeper line. I usually run 4 rods off 2 riggers and stack releases.
So if a fish hits the bottom line when it comes up it is usually behind the shallow line and I get less tangles. It works well for me. I usually catch my fair share of kokes. This year not being a typical one for me has been slower for the few trips I’ve been out.

That seems like a good even number, 50 ft, so when you stack, the one above would be 40 ft? I've always thought that makes sense, with the top line being shorter. For me, my second line is always lead core line or snap weights on mono, I've had good luck using those methods. I think for most of us it's been a tough year for the kokes. I've been kokes on Roberts Live scope dive as the boat approaches, so in most cases I believe the motor does spook them, when they are shallow but it sounds like from your experiense that is not always the case.