Fishing the surface

[Ground Tackle]

Haven't posted on this site in over a year, impressed with some of Admin's upgrades to it! I am starting to think about this summer's fishing plans already, going from a sport fishing boat to a cruiser and this summer will be season 1. At this point I am thinking that we most likely won't be installing downriggers on this boat but still want to do some fishing off of it. We have surfaced fished previously with running a third line out and had some success on spoons with a light weight but mostly always fished with our downriggers. Do any of you do any bucktailing? Any good advice for fishing without the downriggers, obviously aside from jigging, would be appreciated. I expect that this boat will get down to a fast trolling speed.

Thanks and happy to be back.

 

[RiverBoy]

planer boards can get you down enough to have fun with coho and maybe the odd chinook.
deep sixes and an erratic swimming spoon like an AP

 

[islandboy]

I was fairly successful last year using slip weights and varying speeds. I would often stop to let the gear drop close to the bottom before resuming trolling. Easy to do while rowing, not sure the effect on your motor.

 

[Dogbreath]

It's easy to drag a big Chrome Apex behind a Deep Six as someone posted a while back it's an old old method that still produces.

Plus almost every collection of old tackle has a couple in the bottom of the tackle box cheap-clean the used Deep Six up well and it'll be good as new.

 

[John Ingram]

instead of a Deep Six why not try and find some Jensen release clips and
use a bio-degradable bag of beach rocks. This way you won't have to hand line a fish
in the last twenty feet.

Fished this way for many years from the old Oak Bay rental boats

 

[Sharphooks]

It’s tough to beat these things....they’ll go down to 35 - 40 feet and stay there which is sometimes the happy hunting ground for big springs.

I’ve always fished them with a cut plug but no doubt a small spoon with some action like a Skinny G will produce

 

[mgreen5228]

I am making a similar move. I bought a Camano Troll 31 and am putting the aluminum pilothouse fishing machine up for sale.
I am in the process of making real nice removable wooden top plates for the stainless cockpit rails so I can use my downriggers. It looks like my troll speed will be around 3 knots so I am going to 18 lb balls and plan on seeing if I can be successful it this approach.
The high freeboard will be a challenge. Do you believe the downriggers will be too much trouble or is it visual or other reasons to not try them first?
I hope I am not fighting an uphill battle.

 

[John Ingram]

It’s tough to beat these things....they’ll go down to 35 - 40 feet and stay there which is sometimes the happy hunting ground for big springs.

I’ve always fished them with a cut plug but no doubt a small spoon with some action like a Skinny G will produce

View attachment 88187

With the Deep Six you still have to hand line in the last 15-20 feet. Not to good if it's not under the bend of a rod.

 

[Ground Tackle]

I am making a similar move. I bought a Camano Troll 31 and am putting the aluminum pilothouse fishing machine up for sale.
I am in the process of making real nice removable wooden top plates for the stainless cockpit rails so I can use my downriggers. It looks like my troll speed will be around 3 knots so I am going to 18 lb balls and plan on seeing if I can be successful it this approach.
The high freeboard will be a challenge. Do you believe the downriggers will be too much trouble or is it visual or other reasons to not try them first?
I hope I am not fighting an uphill battle.

Thanks everyone for this info - guess my husband will be adding to his already pile of fishing gear! Yes, I admit it - its stictly a visual thing for me with this particular boat, I know a bunch of you will roll your eyes on that comment......I at least want to go this route first and we can just put rod holders on the back stanchions and see if we can pick stuff up that route - if we end up getting nothing the look of the downriggers on the back I may start to come around to as I am not the most patient person when the lines aren't dancing after too long. And yes, the freeboard may be a bit of a challenge, but we do have a long handled net that should help. But technically it is a full walkaround, LOL!

 

[mbowers]

I ran 5ft past planer to spoon and it worked fine on offshore coho so no need to handline.

Another option is a quick release planer so it gets out of the way

Quick release planer

Also can run a big planer on 150lb mono off a cleat that stays in the water like a downrigger and use rubber bands with snap swivels or shower curtain clips and Scotty clips for the releases. After you've used 6 releases or whatever you pull the planer in and start over.

Go for braided line with a 10-25ft top shot of mono with any kind of planer to get deeper.

Metered braid like powerpro depth hunter or a line counter reel is very helpful to get back to the same depth.

 

[Stizzla]

I don’t understand why you Don’t want to have downriggers? Even just manual ones. Nice to fish where you need to and I don’t see the harm in having a pad on your gunnel and a downrigger or two in storage.

 

[sly_karma]

There's been a lot of developments in the field of slow pitch jigging. Centre weighted metal jigs and rods designed to exploit them have turned jigging into a very productive way to fish salmon, not just bottom fish. If you haven't thought about jigging recently, take a second look. These aren't just the old Buzz Bombs and Point Wilsons anymore. And of course there is the time honored method of mooching live bait. Two good ways to fish in BC coastal waters without installing downriggers.

 

[pescador]

Put on A 6-8 oz peetz slip weight. Before downriggers everybody used these and we all caught fish. Pull out 50 -80 pulls Of line. I’ve got 3 downriggers on the boat but still put out a middle line with this set up if things are slow.

 

[Ground Tackle]

I don’t understand why you Don’t want to have downriggers? Even just manual ones. Nice to fish where you need to and I don’t see the harm in having a pad on your gunnel and a downrigger or two in storage.

I hear what you are saying, but the cap rails on this boat are so nice (and I am determined as its now new owner to maintain them as is) I don't want anything drilled into them. Husband suggested having custom stainless brackets for downriggers made to put on the actual transom which would be a compromise and may be what we will end up doing. But he used to fish all of the time as a kid with his parents before downriggers were on the scene and they always caught stuff, so I wanted to get some insight from all of you on this and this is why I love this forum - the wealth of knowledge is fantastic. Stizzla, I have attached a photo showing the cap rails and condition - I really love the look of this boat and it took us a long time to find it, so don't want to start mucking around a lot with the outside of it too much, at least to start with.......I am still totally in the honeymoon period with it!

 

[Stizzla]

I hear what you are saying, but the cap rails on this boat are so nice (and I am determined as its now new owner to maintain them as is) I don't want anything drilled into them. Husband suggested having custom stainless brackets for downriggers made to put on the actual transom which would be a compromise and may be what we will end up doing. But he used to fish all of the time as a kid with his parents before downriggers were on the scene and they always caught stuff, so I wanted to get some insight from all of you on this and this is why I love this forum - the wealth of knowledge is fantastic. Stizzla, I have attached a photo showing the cap rails and condition - I really love the look of this boat and it took us a long time to find it, so don't want to start mucking around a lot with the outside of it too much, at least to start with.......I am still totally in the honeymoon period with it!

That’s lovely indeed! I see the that rails may interfere with downrigger usage. What would you do about rod holders? To fish, you must drill something

 

[Ground Tackle]

That’s lovely indeed! I see the that rails may interfere with downrigger usage. What would you do about rod holders? To fish, you must drill something

Ok, now you are asking the wrong person - he has some ideas of what he wants to do with the rod holders. I didn't get into the nitty gritty with him, I just said don't drill a damn thing into my boat without talking to me first, LOL!!! I just wanted ideas of what I can throw into the water without using a downrigger and catch a salmon

 

[Ground Tackle]

Ok, now you are asking the wrong person - he has some ideas of what he wants to do with the rod holders. I didn't get into the nitty gritty with him, I just said don't drill a damn thing into my boat without talking to me first, LOL!!! I just wanted ideas of what I can throw into the water without using a downrigger and catch a salmon

Notice - its my boat when I like the boat - and what previous boats we have owned that I really didn't like that much were automatically his boats!

 

[Tightlines22]

I think you could fabricate a base that could clamp over the rails any time you want to use a downrigger. Put some rubber in between so no damage to rails

 

[Ground Tackle]

I think you could fabricate a base that could clamp over the rails any time you want to use a downrigger. Put some rubber in between so no damage to rails

That's a good idea - we will see, I just want to get some different gear and set ups to try first without downriggers having to be put on. I just don't want one way of doing it and see if it works - the more different things I can try first I want to and hopefully we get success and something produces for us. At least going to give it my best shot and if then no luck I will fall to defeat and put downriggers on it.

 

[Dogbreath]

With the Deep Six you still have to hand line in the last 15-20 feet.

Sounds like you've never used a Deep Six-I have for decades and never fished a lure more than 6' back there's no handlining involved at all.

Even a a flasher only needs to be 4' back and a hootchie only adds another 32" or so.