02-17-2002, 06:05 PM
Let me tell you two stories about a downrigger, the story that really got me off on the fishing method and a success incident. The success incident was the trip we had on Lake Tahoe with Mackinaw trout. I wrote a review about the story. It's in the archives of my column in Georges Corner. But what really got me excited came by pure accident last summer fishing for mako sharks. One past fall (2000) I caught a large trout in Convict Lake and won a downrigger. I carried the rigger in a box on my boat and didn't open it for a year. Last summer we were on the Avalon Bank after the makos. We had caught and released one pup in a two hour stretch. There were many boats in the area and although there was lots of rumors about hook-ups we didn't see any boat catching them. Long story-short, I fired up the archived down rigger, placed a seductive mackerel filet on it and dropped it to 100 feet where we drifted in the wind dragging the filet at about 3 knots. I didn't get the rod in the holder when a 100 pound mako pulled it off, swam up and jumped 5 feet in the air before I could get the reel in gear. I caught 5 fish in sucession and never got the rod in the holder. Not one other boat was hooked up at any time while I caught and released 4 of them. I'm really excited about this application of presenting tackle to trout where I frequently see them at depths too deep to use with conventional stuff. Especially, when I know I can use running line devoid of any weight. George <br><br>George Van Zant<br><A HREF="http:// www.bigfishtackle.com/georgescorner.htm " target="_new">http:// www.bigfishtackle.com/georgescorner.htm </A><br>