06-12-2014, 04:43 AM
I thought I'd follow up with an opinion of why I run my riggers like I do. I have only fished the gorge for six years, but in those six years I've fished it a lot. I started out as a total newb in the rigger world and it took me a while to fish with them like I do now. I used to play around with the clips, I think I've used about every color made, I thought they should pop off there like I saw on YouTube. My goal now is to use clips I can simply push with one hand all day long (easily and quickly, when you get in a school, every second with a line out of the water will cost you) and will hold the line at any depth or speed with the tackle I use (universal) and will easily come off the ball when I or whoever on the boat wants to remove it. There is a couple benefits I've found.
One is, I have found that the hook is pretty much set when I get the line off the ball and there is minimal slack in the line (I don't use snubbers, I do use monofilament).
Another benefit is, In conjunction with Shimano Talora rods, (I know they are expensive, but my family fishes a lot, they have increased my success astronomically, more than doubled), because I know if a Kokanee has hit my line, I know immediately, even when they pick it up and swim with it, I can get it off of the rigger and fish on. Without the sensitive rods and clips holding them with the tension they are set at, I would not know this fish was ever on there, if you are using ugly sticks or like rods, in my opinion, you are missing half or more of the strikes, Kokanee don't nail it every time (if they do, it may come off of the clip, but not my preference), many times they barely hit it, if you have your riggers set to come off at the light strikes I catch Kokes on, you'll be doing a lot of reeling up a ball to drop your line back down.
Another benefit, I find schools of Kokanee from 25 ft to 45 ft (depths varied the other day from 10 ft - 35 ft, caught Kokes at both depths, even dropped down to 115 ft for a little Mac last Friday) often within a couple of hours, there is an adjustment your going to need to make to have your clips set up perfectly so they come off when a fish hits it, you will likely spend valuable fishing time screwing around with clip tensions and resetting lines when I troll past with lines in the water. I fish like I do as I've caught significantly more fish now then I did six years ago. With that being said, I've got a lot to learn still, and am thankful for the thread to read others experiences.
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One is, I have found that the hook is pretty much set when I get the line off the ball and there is minimal slack in the line (I don't use snubbers, I do use monofilament).
Another benefit is, In conjunction with Shimano Talora rods, (I know they are expensive, but my family fishes a lot, they have increased my success astronomically, more than doubled), because I know if a Kokanee has hit my line, I know immediately, even when they pick it up and swim with it, I can get it off of the rigger and fish on. Without the sensitive rods and clips holding them with the tension they are set at, I would not know this fish was ever on there, if you are using ugly sticks or like rods, in my opinion, you are missing half or more of the strikes, Kokanee don't nail it every time (if they do, it may come off of the clip, but not my preference), many times they barely hit it, if you have your riggers set to come off at the light strikes I catch Kokes on, you'll be doing a lot of reeling up a ball to drop your line back down.
Another benefit, I find schools of Kokanee from 25 ft to 45 ft (depths varied the other day from 10 ft - 35 ft, caught Kokes at both depths, even dropped down to 115 ft for a little Mac last Friday) often within a couple of hours, there is an adjustment your going to need to make to have your clips set up perfectly so they come off when a fish hits it, you will likely spend valuable fishing time screwing around with clip tensions and resetting lines when I troll past with lines in the water. I fish like I do as I've caught significantly more fish now then I did six years ago. With that being said, I've got a lot to learn still, and am thankful for the thread to read others experiences.
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