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.