Took some friends out for their first stripers, my dad and teammate Jacob out. Started normal time 7:30 fished til later than normal 11:00. We lost more than we caught which was odd. Early into the night my dad had asked me if the wire was tied into the downrigger. Told him as far as I knew yes because I had let all but one spool out prior too and I could see the wire going into the middle of the spool and no issue. Yea, I was wrong. Went to drop down from 80’-95’ on the ball and slip, there goes the entire ball, cable etc. Dang it. Later on Jacob asked if I had any line on the boat. I didn’t think I did because I left the tackle box at home knowing I needed nothing it was all on the boat. Found my 3000 yard spool of 30# momoi diamond so I went ahead and put 400’ on it. Used 2 big 32oz weights tied together and set up a new rig. The 4# of weight didn’t do much justice. No bites on it, line was way too far back to know how deep it was. Came home and ordered 2 400’ spools and gear and another Cannon flash 8# balls. Finished with 5, 2 of them being fat 27" fish.
Has anyone figured out how to post pics yet? Striperskiff?!?!
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Mike Martinez
“Team Hookers Dream”
2016 Sea Hunt 25 Gamefish twin Yamaha 150’s “Wet Dream”
1994 Ken Craft 175CC 1998 Yamaha 115 “Dream Machine”
Inserting an image is working fine for me on my phone.
Was out there too. Fish seemed to be a good avg size with only maybe 2 of our 10 being “short”.
I’ve never fished for stripers with downriggers. Only time I’ve ever used a downrigger was for Kings and Wahoo off shore. But I like the idea of the down rigger better than leadcore personally. With leadcore, in the lakes I primarily fish (Clarks Hill and Hartwell) you absolutely have to keep the boat in gear when you hook a fish or the leadcore will sink down and get in the trees. But keeping the boat in gear kills the fight of the fish which is what I enjoy. I assume with down riggers when you get a hit you can take the boat out of gear and fight the fish on reasonable size tackle because the line just pops out of a clip so it doesn’t matter what size rod or line you use. And I assume you can take the boat out of gear to fight the fish and not worry about the other line getting fouled as long as you are using a floating plug on it like a Rapala or Yozouri. Are my assumptions correct?
quote:
Originally posted by 91tiger
I’ve never fished for stripers with downriggers. Only time I’ve ever used a downrigger was for Kings and Wahoo off shore. But I like the idea of the down rigger better than leadcore personally. With leadcore, in the lakes I primarily fish (Clarks Hill and Hartwell) you absolutely have to keep the boat in gear when you hook a fish or the leadcore will sink down and get in the trees. But keeping the boat in gear kills the fight of the fish which is what I enjoy. I assume with down riggers when you get a hit you can take the boat out of gear and fight the fish on reasonable size tackle because the line just pops out of a clip so it doesn’t matter what size rod or line you use. And I assume you can take the boat out of gear to fight the fish and not worry about the other line getting fouled as long as you are using a floating plug on it like a Rapala or Yozouri. Are my assumptions correct?
For the most part your statements are correct …with downriggers the only thing you really have to adjust for is the blowback …
If you are using cannonball weights instead of pancake weights and/or are using too light of a weight then as your moving along the weights/lures will drift back and up … So if you’re using say a 6# weight going 2.5 mph and your DR says you have 55’ of line out, then your ball/lure is typically running at the 40-45’ area … so if you stop you’ll have to account for that drop back down to 55’ …
Typically this is not a problem, unless you’re trying to run the lures at a particular depth over structure … in most cases that structure would be trees and you want to run your gear just over the tops of the trees then when you stop you’ll want to be clear of the trees otherwise your gear will drop down into them and get hung … Does that make sens
Yes, thanks Law Crusher that makes a lot of sense. That would have been my rookie mistake first time out too if you hadn’t mentioned it. Stop the boat and enjoy catching the fish then realized all my gear had sunk down in the trees. Sounds exactly like what I did the first time I fished with leadcore, which was really stupid. I trolled for 5 minutes and had a nice striper double one of the rods and I am by myself so I take the boat out of gear with out thinking at all and fight the fish because that’s what Daddy and I always did when we would troll long bill Rebel’s back in the day…but they float. I’m all happy about the nice fish I caught till it hits me what I had done. Broke off 6 colors of leadcore the first 5 minutes I used it.
That’s where the remote electric one shine! Don’t have them myself ,but have a buddy at the coast swears by them!
We don’t stop the boat and it’s a really good fight with the 7# + fish. That being said, who’s all fishing Saturday in the unsanctioned event? Striperskiff, which boat were you? Obviously I’m noticeable in the 5 Gamefish with the back spreaders are and the blue overhead and underwater lights.
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Mike Martinez
“Team Hookers Dream”
2016 Sea Hunt 25 Gamefish twin Yamaha 150’s “Wet Dream”
1994 Ken Craft 175CC 1998 Yamaha 115 “Dream Machine”
We were in my skiff trolling in the big pool
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
DF90 Suzuki
Did we pass each other a half dozen times? I saw a skiff with a Bimini top
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Mike Martinez
“Team Hookers Dream”
2016 Sea Hunt 25 Gamefish twin Yamaha 150’s “Wet Dream”
1994 Ken Craft 175CC 1998 Yamaha 115 “Dream Machine”
I really didn’t pay attention to other boats out there, but it was probably someone else. I didn’t have my Bimini top with me.
Probably give it a try a couple of hours this evening.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
DF90 Suzuki
I saw a Jon boat looking boat with a big tall light in the middle of the boat too.
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Mike Martinez
“Team Hookers Dream”
2016 Sea Hunt 25 Gamefish twin Yamaha 150’s “Wet Dream”
1994 Ken Craft 175CC 1998 Yamaha 115 “Dream Machine”
quote:
Originally posted by FLORIDA_BOY2
I saw a Jon boat looking boat with a big tall light in the middle of the boat too.
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Mike Martinez
“Team Hookers Dream”
2016 Sea Hunt 25 Gamefish twin Yamaha 150’s “Wet Dream”
1994 Ken Craft 175CC 1998 Yamaha 115 “Dream Machine”
Yea, I do have one above the CC.
The bite was real good tonight 50-60’
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
DF90 Suzuki