Downrigger Question?

I just picked up a Cannon manual downrigger from the walleye.com store.

Mounted it to the back of my boat and watched a few videos on how to use it. I tried trolling with it twice yesterday. First using a Rapala Husky Jerk, then later using a purple Reef Runner.

I was in 65 ft of water and had tons of fish marking from 55 ft to 65ft. Put out 50ft of line then lowered the ball to 50ft. I could see exactly where the ball was on my sonar.

My question is that the downrigger makes a "whirring" noise as it trolls through the water. Seemed like the fish cleared off my sonar whenever it was running too... I would only do this 15-20 minutes then lack of fish made me pull it out.

Am I doing something wrong or is this normal?

Thanks!

Is the humming coming from your rigger or the cable? I can't really think of anything that would make a manual rigger hum. Now the cable is a different story. The cable hums all the time. Depending on how fast you're trolling.

I thing the fact that the fish "disappeared" off your screen may have been a coincidence. You may have trolled thru & out of a school of fish. But you didn't leave the rigger down long enough to test the theory.

Give it another try. You should be fine.

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Originally Posted by RIPNLIP

Is the humming coming from your rigger or the cable? I can't really think of anything that would make a manual rigger hum. Now the cable is a different story. The cable hums all the time. Depending on how fast you're trolling.

I thing the fact that the fish "disappeared" off your screen may have been a coincidence. You may have trolled thru & out of a school of fish. But you didn't leave the rigger down long enough to test the theory.

Give it another try. You should be fine.

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I'll give it another shot. The noise was from the cable. I just wasn't expecting that noise and when the fish disappeared after lowering and then reappeared after I pulled it, I was concerned I did something wrong...
I did see some marks that looked like fish coming up to look at the ball....

Give it another try. We use riggers alot for salmon and they have cable noise depending on speed,current,etc. They also give off a disturbance trail cutting thru the water. Depending on the fish species and attitude for the day you may have them hitting a 5' lead or 75'. If they are coming to the ball try getting close with the bait so they have something to eat. I have had great success with the chamberlian releases (stacker type) I can put them on the cable where I want them and they adjust both for down pressure and bait pressure so they trip on the light hits (can still use bands if you want). Keeps you from dragging fish. I like the riggers in deep water to give a different bait presentation and I can run deep without snagging bottom. This gives me a chance to run divers and boards until I get a pattern and depth.
I still believe big fish find the bottom an attractive place to hang out during the day. Good luck! I will be on the water Sun & Mon if you need help Pm me.

Capt. Craig

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Originally Posted by Crooked Eye

Give it another try. We use riggers alot for salmon and they have cable noise depending on speed,current,etc. They also give off a disturbance trail cutting thru the water. Depending on the fish species and attitude for the day you may have them hitting a 5' lead or 75'. If they are coming to the ball try getting close with the bait so they have something to eat. I have had great success with the chamberlian releases (stacker type) I can put them on the cable where I want them and they adjust both for down pressure and bait pressure so they trip on the light hits (can still use bands if you want). Keeps you from dragging fish. I like the riggers in deep water to give a different bait presentation and I can run deep without snagging bottom. This gives me a chance to run divers and boards until I get a pattern and depth.
I still believe big fish find the bottom an attractive place to hang out during the day. Good luck! I will be on the water Sun & Mon if you need help Pm me.

Capt. Craig

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Thanks for the advice! I'll be out on Erie Sunday so I'll give it another shot.
Maybe get really close to the bottom with a crawler harness?

I use riggers for walleye on erie all the time and some days they really catch fish. I use worm harnesses and about a 18' to 20' lead off the rigger. you had the right depth for fish at that depth. you just never gave them a good chance.

I like using the chamberlain release on my riggers. they have 2 adjustments 1 for rod tension and 1 for lure tension. just set the rod tension as tight as you want so you can crank the rod down. then set the lure tension as loose as you can without getting a lot of false releases. it take a little work to get the lure tension just right. but once you get them dialed in even a white perch will usually trip the release.

I've found that they work much better without using rubber bands. just twist your line about 7 or 8 timed then put the loop in the release. they make 2 releases I for the ball and a stacker release that attaches to the cable if you want to stack more lines on 1 rigger.