Fishing Forum

It's almost time for rainbows and kokes and I thought I would share some things that have worked great for me. The first one is something I have talked about before but I made a photo so you guys can see what I'm talking about. I tie on a size 11 taildancer deep (dives to 30 feet), the I clip a 36" to 48" leader to the split ring on the back hook. Then I tie a serpent or needlefish or whatever you like. I sometimes run a 1 or 2 oz. snap weight 40' in front of the lure. This rig set back 120' will reach 35 to 40 feet at 1.8 mph. That means you are in the "Koke Zone" with your mai-tai serpent without leadcore or downriggers. The Taildancer acts as an atractor and fish will nail the spoon behind it.Plus it is way behind your downrigger lines so you seldom get tangled. This rig really works !!
The second thing is what we called on Lake Ontario a cheater or stinger. You clip a 6 to 8 foot leader ( snaps on both ends) with usulay a small spoon 6 to 10 feet above your downrigger ball. Then you tie a small rubber band around the snap so it wont move. I know some guys just run a line down thier setup and the swivel will stop when it hits a belly in the line, but that might be 20 higher than the fish. If you tie it 6 feet up you have 2 lures on one downrigger line in the fish zone...once again, deadly for Kokes !! It does sometimes become a mess when you put a fish in the net with an extra leader and lure but with practice you can avoid this. The pics should show what the 2 methods look like.

Good Luck and if anybody has anything else, please share..JL
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[cool][#0000ff]Back where it should be. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Let me know if you have any other problems.[/#0000ff]
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Thank you for sharing. Have you ever had a double hook up like this? I would not be surprised if the lakers or bows hit the bigger lure, or if more than one fish is chasing them, maybe they hook up at both lures. I know that sometimes people rig up similar presentations on bottom bouncers, and more than one fish is common at certain times.
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I have not had a double hook up, but I have taken fish on the plug. The great thing about this set-up is there is not much drag on your rod like when using dipseys. It is really easy to take the snap weight off the line when hooked up. We call it the cuthroat killer on Jackson lake because we catch a lot of cuts on it even in mid summer. I only used it once at the Gorge and we landed our biggest Koke, a 23" 4 lb beauty last fall.
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It really would not surprise me if you head to the Gorge this year and hook up some nice browns or bows and lakers. Sometimes the bigger fish see a good movement or flash from a distance, come to investigate, and the big lure does not look appealing to them. When, with your setup, they see the second one, that is more than enough to convince them. I will put my money on you, and say that this way, you will be taking out some nice fish, when the ice melts on the Gorge in a week or two.
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Those are a couple of really good trolling tips. I'm one of the guys that has just dropped a swivel to the "belly" of the line as an extra line. Like you said, this usually means that the extra line is too high. You have to choose which rig to put in the strike zone. Because of this I have chosen to just stack a second rod when I feel like getting something extra down there. But, I'm going to try your rubber band trick. That is so simple!

I've seen the diving rap rig before but I've never tried it. I usually have so many lines out that I don't have room for another. But, if it really does stay back behind the other rigs I may have to give it a shot. I have a rod holder right in the back that rarely gets used.

Again, thanks for taking the time to provide a couple of trolling tips. The pics really help as well!
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I have done well with the plug rig. I removed the belly hook and tied in the trailer lure. I ran the line shorter to give the koke lure more action. With some lures a swivel will help prevent line twist. I have also caught wipers at Willard using a plug that dived 20 feet and a chrome Kastmaster running 12 to 20 inches behind it. It can be a little too snaggy that close to the bottom but it worked at catching some of the bigger fish I have taken.
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