I have now used leadcore line for a little more than a year. It certainly helps get the line down, but the amount of line out in the water that has to be brought in, whew, everytime you get hooked up, need to check lines, snag ......
I am wondering, for those of you who have or had downriggers, are they worth the expense? Have you rigged them on a pontoon boat? Any words of wisdom regards models? Thanks again for sharing.

Bushboat1, I have 4 electric cannons on one of boats and 2 on the other little boat. In the past I would only fish with lead core but had to make the change years ago. The good part about downriggers is you can keep the baits right at the depth the fish are running. I never knew if I had the lead core at the right depth.I still pull 2 lead cores and 4 downriggers. As far as what kind of downrigger to get it really does not matter. Penn and Cannon are the ones most fishermen up here use. All you are doing is putting your baits at a certain level. Cannons are a little cheaper than Penn.
As far as using them on a pontoon boat , I have seen people make a stand and mount it to the floor and the side rail. Seems to work real good. Good luck fishing. Hope this will help a little. Fireball

You can pick up used downriggers for about $100.00

I have also used both leadcore and downriggers. There are days when 1 will out produce the other fishing the same baits at the same depth and there are days when it doesn't matter. Downriggers are very easy to use and I have been on friends boats who fish 4 downriggers. His were cannon electrics. I have fished with all styles of cannons and my recomendation would be at least get the uni-trol models (manual). They are a little bigger than the econo or sport troll models and in my opinion are more sturdy. I wouldn't go out and get electrics until I was sure that I liked downrigger fishing.

Jason

What do you all think of the smaller manual types that just bolt on when you need them and you can take them off when you are done? I have seen them in some stores and they seem to be much cheaper but with everything you get what you pay for. I am mostly a catman but I am trying to get more on the stripers. Coming down this weekend to do some troll'n, just got a 5hp kicker motor to try out and I was wondering about the downriggers as well. Thanks.....Bluejay

BUSHBOAT1,

I TROLL WITH 4 CANNON AND USUALLY 2 AND SOMETIMES 4 LEADCORE. TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HOW I KEEP THEM APART, I STAGGER THEM. EXAMPLE, 1ST DOWNRIGGER I RUN AT 20 FEET WITH THE BAIT 20 FEET BEHIND THE BALL. 2ND DOWNRIGGER I RUN AT 25 FEET 2ITH THE BAIT 25 FEET BEHIND THE BALL AND SO ON. WITH THE LEAD CORE, I'LL START THE FIRST ROD WITH 4 COLORS, 2ND ROD 5 COLORS, 3RD ROD AT 6 COLORS AND SO ON. BY DOING THIS I'M HUNTING. WHEN YOU LOCATE THE FISH YOU CAN RE-AJUST YOUR PATTERN. IN THE SUMMER TIME, I PULL MOSTLY DOUBLE BUCKTAILS. AFTER YOU TROLL FOR A WHILE YOU WILL LEARN HOW DEEP YOUR BAITS ARE RUNNING AND WHAT DEPTH YOU NEED TO PUT YOUR DOWNRIGGER BALLS. I USE 8 POUND BALLS. WHEN YOU GET IN SHALLOW WATER, YOU CAN SPEED UP A LITTLE TO KEEP FROM LOSING BAITS. YOU CAN SLOW UP WHEN YOU MARK FISH DEEPER THAN YOUR BAITS ARE RUNNING. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE ASK AND I'LL BE GLAD TO TRY AND ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS.
SETTER

well i guess everyone has there own thoughts well heres mine i hate lead core line just for the fact that i hate the action on the reel i love monofilament line and i love my downriggers i have 2 easy troll with 18 inch booms and there great.the price is very reasonable .

setter i would like to go fishing with you one time just to see how you run all them lines.

BuschBoat1 and SETTER.Exact same IP address.You need to do some practicing on your "TROLLING". BUSTED.

BUGGSMAN,
MY NAME IS WALLY DAVENPORT, I LIVE IN WENDELL,NC, ON THE WATER I'M KNOWN AS SETTER. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. WHEN BUSCHBOAT1 ASK FOR INFORMATION ABOUT DOWNRIGGERS AND LEADCORE, I RESPONDED BECAUSE THAT'S THE WAY I FISH 99% OF THE TIME. SETTER

Unless you are emailing from an office computer with a fixed IP address, your computer will change IP addresses all the time depending on where your ISP's server assigns you each time you connect to it. The IP address shown will be one of a series assigned to the server itself, so yes, two people using the same ISP can have the same IP address sequentially, and an individual's should change between emails. (DHCP connections).

That is why it is so hard to ban someone from a website, you can never figure out where they are coming from unless the ISP helps you track them down (which AOL and probably most of the big ones will since you would be violating their terms of service if you are being insulting or stirring up trouble).

Anyway, don't believe you know who someone is just because you have an IP address and a tracking site.

Probably a lot of the repeated IPs are AOL, Road Runner, or one of other popular local ISPs.

My thanks to all of you who responded with fishing information. As for IP addresses, the previous post is correct, you cannot ID someone from an IP address as they are more often than not, not fixed addresses. Let's see what my address looks like this morning from the lake (Clarksville) on a Verizon CDMA card.
BTW, went bass fishing this morning, 6 - 8A, caught four all on crankbaits. Fish are slashing at it, so if you have a short strike let if fall and then start retrieve again, you will pick up a few extras.

Is it just me or does Buggsman ever have anything good or positive to say? Does he just sit at his computer thinking of mean pointless things to do and say? One thing is for sure someone who is that much of a jerk must be a DEMOCRAT.

GEO

Thanks to you GEO, I most recently was attacked by Buggsman on a Post I submitted.

I'm sure he is harmless.
Maybe he just needs a friend.

Downrigger question: The Guy I just bought my boat from told me of a kind of Downrigger that sets in the Trolling Rod Holder on the boat.
He said they worked great he uses them at his place at the beach and no mounting required, you can easily take them off when not in use.I guess you have to have the verticle rod holders already on your boat to use these.
Has anyone used this kind?

Why not just use the 3oz slip sinkers on down rod?
Doesn't this get you to the right depth?
This is the way a Striper guide showed me.
Thank you for your response.....

The Bucket