I gave the new downrigger a spin on Sunday at Balmoral, but found that there is more to it than is immediately evident (to me at least). Any input from more experienced exponents would be most welcome.
Firstly, I was surprised how much hum came from the wire - probably amplified by the yak. Even at very low speeds there was a distinct buzz and a visible bubble trail from the wire, if I was a fish I'd have swum a mile. I've bought some heavy braid to replace the wire and hopefully that will sort that one out.
I had problems getting the line to stay in the supplied clip (Scotty mini Powergrip). My trolling setup has 14lb fireline as the mainline (fine and slippery), so I tried adding a longer leader (15kg mono) and fixing the clip to that but still had issues getting it to hold. The clip has a plastic slide which doubles the release force, but I still couldn't get a reliable fixing. Am I missing something here? I spoke to JT and it sounded like he was having issues getting the clip to hold as well.
Presuming that I get the clip to hold, how far behind the bomb should I run the bait (or lure)?
Has anyone tried painting the bomb a fish-pleasing colour (?), or using reflective tape on it?
As an aside, I did a search on Fishnet to see I could find any answers without much luck, but did see a suggestion that when not trolling you can use the downrigger to take a berley cage to the bottom - sounds like that could be worth a try.
