#1. Try the 100 foot Rule for your downriggers. If your ball is down 10 feet put the lure 90 feet behind the ball. If the ball is down 60 feet put the lure 40 feet behind the ball. This rule doesn't work if you are running flashers/attractors. Then you only want to be 5-10 feet behind the attractors.

#2. I usually run 8 or 10 lb test on my downrigger rods. 10 lb seems to take the abuse better. I like to run a small swivel to about 10 feet of 6 or 8 lb. flourocarbon leader. I usually just run Trilene regular line for my main line.

#3. I personally do not use the flashers a whole lot but a lot of people do and I would like to start using them more. A lot of people like the vertical flashers. See AJ's for some of them. As far as hooking them up they usually go between the wire and the ball (vertical) or off the end of the ball (horizontal).

#4. Chamberlin releases are great!

Good luck with your new toys. One other piece of advice is to go out with someone else that has them on their boat to learn how they operate.

I agree with everything that fishRman said... those are great tips to help you get started.

- Early spring when the fish are high make sure your line is further back than normal... this has served me well. I have however on occasion, had strikes dropping line out or bringing it in right in the prop wash. Another tip that I have lived by is, I never drop my riggers deeper than 20' in the first 2 months of fishing... I just haven't found it necessary yet.

As for line 8-10 lb main line mono with a 4-6-8 lb floro leader. I use 8 in Champlain and 4-6 on Winni.

With the flashers, I run horizontal and vertical sometimes, sometimes nothing, for me it depends on the day...

Just what has worked for me!

Hope everyone had a good winter! So close to April 1st I can smell it!

- Cody

buy this book if you havent already
Angling in the Smile of the Great Spirit

near the surface i put the lure way back.

20 feet and deeper i put the lure 6 to 20 feet back from the release abot 2 feet over a davis rig attached to the ball.

search g2jigger, great product.

Two great tips from Fishlessman, like he says check out G2 Jigger products and Jim's Rod Pumpers, they keep your streamer or spoon jigging and increase your bites. G2 Jigger web site www.cut2spec.com, dont know Jim's web site offhand but his number is 413-773-5043. Both these great fishing tools can get pricey, but worth every cent, well worth it.

Big John

In addition to all the other info come to the gathering March 27th for a wealth knowledge and all round good time!!!
BARRY

Thanks for the info guy's! It is appreciated!

Dan

www.jimslures.com

Jim's rod pumper is 'great' and he stands behind it.
Also Jim's umbrella rigs, both vertical/horizontal, are a designed for trolling.

I run 8# mono to a small swivel to 8-12 feet of 6# Seagar floro leader. It made a huge difference for me over just 8# mono all the way to the lure.

I only use flashers as I go deeper after the first 2 months of the season. I do use them with my chamberlain release but had to get creative. I run my DR cable to the top of the chamberlain then have a 2-3 feet section of light chain that connects the bottom of my chamberlain to my DR ball and the flasher off the ball. The chain gives me the seperation I need from the flasher to the lure. When using vertical flashers, I can use this in place of the chain.

I like that 100 foot rule mentioned above. I have always just put my lure back 85-105 feet when not using flashers.

I also agree that you should stay with the leadcore. Over the years, leadcore has outfished DRs 5-1. Since you have oversized rods, you can use the Offshore inline planer boards to pull the LC rigs out from the boat and cover more water. Plus the planer boards give even more action to your bait. It does take some experience to pick up light strikes on the boards though. I am thinking of going to a mast this year though just for the convenience and so I can run 4 LC setups or 2 LCs and 2 fly rods off the planers.