Downrigger testing 4/28

After all the encouraging words from Salsipuedes on how to fish the downriggers, I had to get out and see how it would work with my boat.

I knew I would need an extra pair of hands to help work with all the extra gear so I recruited Glenn. Glenn was the perfect choice to bring along. He has some experience with the downriggers from his salmon days and he's always up for a long boring boat ride.

We picked Torrey Pines as the testing grounds. There's very little traffic up that way for us to dodge and very few witnesses to laugh at us if things didn't go well. We started out with the boat in gear at 700 RPM to get our base speed(2.7 knots). I dropped the big chute out the back on a 20' bridle and the boat almost stopped when it opened. I bumped the RPM up to 800 to bring the speed up to 1.5 knots.

I didn't have time this week to get by Squid Co and pick up the 2 pound lead balls so we went with the smallest downrigger weights I has (7 pounds). At 1.5 knot these things tracked straight down. We worked up the beach targeting 30' and picked up 1 small sandbass that had no problem popping the line out of the pinch clip. We made the swing south and worked our way back down testing out the 40' depth.

After 2 hours of testing and metering tons of bait we went back to the old school method of drifting. After two lengthy drift though the scattered bait, we hadn't put a scratch on one of our baits.

The downrigger equipment worked as advertised and was much easier to handle at the low speed that I though it would be. The only thing we were lacking was some fish in the area.

We finished off the day with a few more drifts off Scripps, PB and back into Mission bay to dump the bait tank. We each pined on one last bait as we straightened up the boat and cleaned out the bait tank. No sooner did we toss the last bait out and Glenn gets bit with the right kind. Just a little bit short but we did finally catch a halibut to end the day on a good note.

Thanks again Glenn and we'll hook up and work the riggers off the Hotel Del when the fish stack up there in mid summer.

Mike