Trolling with downriggers

[Spider]

If the only thing you have changed is your boat and you are using all of the same fishing methods that have produced catching walleye in the past, then it could be your new boat! Maybe it's giving off some kind of electronic charge that you can not detect!

Just an amateur's guess or opinion! I have read some articles before about downriggers and electricity!

[PRD]

I truly appreciate the comments, based on what everyone is saying, YouTube videos and such, it is the boat, sort of, but only because my other boat had trouble getting slower trolling speeds, this boat is easier to slow down and I have not paid attention to my speed as I should. My my main conclusions are that I am trolling to slow and I am trolling/presenting lures and such at the depth I mark fish not above them like I should.

Live and learn and may the fish chase and bite your lines.

[centerpoint]

I truly appreciate the comments, based on what everyone is saying, YouTube videos and such, it is the boat, sort of, but only because my other boat had trouble getting slower trolling speeds, this boat is easier to slow down and I have not paid attention to my speed as I should. My my main conclusions are that I am trolling to slow and I am trolling/presenting lures and such at the depth I mark fish not above them like I should.

Live and learn and may the fish chase and bite your lines.

what i have learned is if you let the down rigger down to 30 ft your set back will be 15 ft always 1/2 of what you let the down rigger down works good for a starting point

[sherman51]

what i have learned is if you let the down rigger down to 30 ft your set back will be 15 ft always 1/2 of what you let the down rigger down works good for a starting point

you may be right but with a heavy weight or a dredge weight, I just don't believe you lose 50% of depth. I used 8# dredge weights on Erie down 50' and 55' and had minimal blowback. but I just bought 2 10# dredge weights to get even less blowback. I believe if I allowed for a diving crank of say 10' I would need to set my riggers at no more than 20'. at 20' or even 30', my riggers would be almost straight down. the deeper you run your riggers the more blowback you're going to get. if you lose 15' at 30' it would be a lot more at 50'. so if I'm fishing at 50' down my weight would only be down at the most 25' using your figures. when we're targeting fish near the bottom at 70' deep we catch fish with the riggers set at 50' and 55'. I figure I may be losing maybe 10' but the deep diving bandit will easily make up that 10 loss.

I first started using riggers for salmon on lake Michigan in 1976 and used them for yrs there and when we moved to Erie in the late 80,s I brought the riggers with me. with the transducer, we could track the balls down to about 40' and we only lost a few feet between the rigger count and on our fish finder at that depth. but we never even came close to losing 50%. if we use the rigger counter on Erie and were catching fish then were doing something right.

but this is just my thinking on the matter. I would never dispute what you're saying, I just have a different perspective on depth lost.