sounds like you did good, we caught a lot of small fish and a couple of good ones this weekend. never caught this many runts though, maybe a good sign for next year. tried a new spot this weekend were we were seeing those new smelt on top. actually seen 2 layers of fish and assume the lower layer was the larger smelt and the upper layer in much warmer water was the YOY. not sure why but fishing the upper layer produced much smaller fish. 2.2 and faster seems to be the way to go and drop it down occasionally just to mix the speed up. almost never catch those lakers going 2.2 and over and almost never catch a salmon below 2 mph here. sebago has been noted as being too slow and no fish for so long now that most of the salmon fisherman fish elsewhere, some mornings im the only boat out there, peaceful. dads side of the boat produced the most fish this weekend, my side seemed broken

Nice to hear, Was that a good location where we were fishing??????? Funny you mention the smelt the one that my Daughter caught spit up 3 smelt that were about 3-4" long, We marked a pretty steady line of fish at anywhere's from 100 - 115' over about 190' of water were these lakers? How about the depth was that about right? Sorry for all the questions but the lake was new to us LOL What station do you run on your VHF? Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines LOL Dave From up North P.S. Thanks for sharing Info!!!!!!!!

in the spring thats the best location, later on between the muddy and the northwest river. right now seems like anywhere there is deep water with a shallow shoal nearby. probably has something to do with the YOY rising to the surface. did you see any birds, gulls or mergansers, diving. seen large schools right on the surface with smelt near .75 inches long. the depth you were at is what we fished most of the weekend, havent caught a fish on a rigger less than 42 feet on sebago, dont know if its the lake or that my boat makes too much noise, but any shallower than 42 feet down needs lead and or planers to catch fish on my boat. the radio went down on the boat, will have to replace an antennea before spring

Thanks for the info I greatly appreciate it, and by the way You have a Beautiful lake there!!!!!!! Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines LOL Dave From up North

Just an FYI 99 percent of the fish I have caught on Sebago have been 34'down on the riggers. Sebago has been GREAT this year. Hope to get up there one more time this year.

Bunkee
how far back from the ball are you setting the lure back. ive only been setting the lure back around 6 feet, but dad was fishing about 40 feet back and having more luck this week and last. just curious if that has something to do with catching them at 34 feet down verse deeper. tons of new smelt this weekend on top over deep water near the pasture

Fishlessman, we were running our's about 20'-25' behind the ball and i wasn't using attractors on the ball this time Do you use the attractors? any hot lure combinations you've been catching them on lately? Tryed some fly's yesterday but nothing Thanks!!!! Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines LOL Dave From up North

tried flies saterday, nothing would bite them. orange and copper and orange and brass (gold) acme warblers 1-6 ounce, greyghost topgun, and orange with black dot acme db's have been working the last few weeks. we were having a lot of luck with purple earlier this year, but it stopped working lately. earlier this year we couldnt catch anything with orange unless it was the purple orange top gun, but all three of those lures i mentioned have bright orange and are working now

I run the lure 100 to 150 feet back, I have run the lure 8 feet back but only when I am bottom fishing for Lakers.

Bunkee
thanks, looks like i need to get the lure farther back when fishing closer to the boat.

It was a trick YO ADREIN put me onto in the spring last year, he said " put out alot of line". Not sure if he meant just for spring fishing (up top) but if something works... well you know :)

I think I have heard quite a few guys say when your fishing shallow, to put em way back 30 to 50 feet minimum. Travis says he allways keeps line way back, regardless the deph.

John S.

With 2 riggers you can do a lot of experimenting. Believe it or not, the fish will tell you what they want. I usually set one line (minimum)50 feet and one short. If you are using some sore of flasher off the downrigger ball you usually can snub it up close but I have not done well at less that 10 feet. Most of the time here in northern Maine (for me anyway) 50 to 75 feet with no attractor is good.

Friends of mine use the rule of 100 with good success.

pretty much thru the summer i was running 4 feet of cowbells attached to the ball with the lures attached to a cable clip up 1.5 to 2 feet above and behind the last cowbell. this worked well up til about 2 weeks ago from 42 feet on down. i liked the 6 feet because i could spin ther boat occasionally in complete circles without getting tangled. im thinkinking now that the new smelt are coming up, that there is so much feed that the salmon dont need to come near the boat to chase the smelt and just stay far away even when fishing deeper. definately going to drop the lines way back next week to see what happens. it also seemed with the shorter line to the ball, i needed lighter line or the catchrate dropped. with the longer line my dad was using last weekend he was getting away with 8 pound test. definatly going to change things up this weekend coming

Great discussion...I've been such a knucklehead that I've (stubbornly) been keeping my lures / presentations pretty tight to the ball becauase I'm using the vertical flashers on the ball. I'd read that fish could "miss" your lure if its too far back from the flashers... But I've been wondering the same thing about the fish getting spooked near the boat, so I too will start experimenting with dropping my lures back a good bit further...If this is what Travis does...we could do worse.

If you are using attractors on the ball you don't necessarily want to run a lure way back yonder. There are days when attractors near the ball works and works well, there are days when way back works.

Experimenting and experience will tell you.

Jay - I'm short on the experience so I need to start experimenting!! I have a little success with something and I don't want to change...even when its not working. I've got to open up new doors...

The best time to experiment is when what you normally do IS working. It adds to your bag of tricks quickly.

Good idea

What is rule of 100 ?

If your rigger ball is down 30 put your lure back 70... If your rigger is down 50 put your lure back 50. Good rule of thumb for how far behind the ball to run. Obviously, its just an idea to start with and work from there. It does seem to work, though.

Sounds good to me...

Slip, never heard of that and I thank you for sharing! I will be trying it soon. Thanks again Doc

Sorry, missed your question.

Slipknot is 100% correct. Its a starting point.