Finding Consistent Action After the Spawn

Now it’s time to move to a high-percentage area you’ve researched in advance and watch your sonar as you motor around the area. Look for bait and gamefish consistently showing at the same depth range. This could be on or within feet of bottom, or in a narrow, suspended band off bottom, especially if a summer thermocline has set up.

With your boat in gear and moving slowly forward, cast your lure out or strip out by hand between 30 to 50 feet of line. I typically troll more quickly (2.75 to 3 mph) when searching for bait and gamefish, and then slow down my outboard as much as possible once concentrations of fish are found (2 to 2.5 mph). Now, engage your reel so it’s no longer in freespool, then loosen the drag so that the line freely plays out without birdnesting, with just a light pull by hand. Reach out and grab your fishing line beyond the rod tip with one hand as you hold your rod with the other hand. Place the butt into the downrigger’s rodholder while maintaining your grasp on the line.

Next, insert your line into the release clip, making sure that the clip and line are on the side of the downrigger boom opposite your direction of travel (between your downrigger boom arm and your outboard). Lower the weight to the depth that fish are showing on sonar. Stay within 1 to 2 feet above these sonar signals, never below them.

Your loosened drag lets line pay out while preventing the release from tripping. Once the weight is at the desired depth, tighten the reel’s drag to “fighting” tension. Reel in any slack that was inadvertently released so your line is parallel to your downrigger cable.

Once the fishing line is taut, continue to slowly feed line into the reel by hand, a few inches at a time, with one hand while reeling with the other, until the rod is bent nearly double with its tip pointing down at the water. Inspect the reel spool to make sure the drag is not releasing as you troll. Lastly, look at your sonar to be sure your weight is still being tracked.

As you troll, manually adjust the depth of your downrigger weights to match the depths where sonar targets are showing. When you raise a weight, make sure you take the resulting bow out of the line by again slowly feeding line into the reel as you reel in. When you need to lower the weight, first strip out the amount of line equal to the depth change you are about to make, and then lower the weight. This avoids a false release caused by pulling the line out of the release as the weight falls, and saves the hassle of loosening and retightening the drag every time you adjust depth.

When you see fish on sonar and have the weight appropriately adjusted, remember that the lure is several seconds behind it. Maintain a straight course to make sure it tracks directly past those fish you just saw on sonar.