Diver or Downrigger

[Gobble Doc]

Is it worth using a diver until I can get a downrigger set up?  Or, is it not a good use of time and better to just bypass the deep six and spend the time and effort focused on a downrigger.  I'm thinking of coho during the next month.  Thoughts? 

[h20hunter]

Divers are much harder to control depth. Also...for lighter biters I find them harder to detect strikes. However, if you are chasing silvers I've not known them to hit light....usually like a freight train! I'd use what you can to get out and fish and look towards getting the riggers when you can.

[CP]

Divers work, especially for Coho.  That’s all they use on some of the charters out of Ilwaco.  I’ll sometimes put out a diver if I’m running 3 lines.

[sirmissalot]

When I was younger I used to kill the kings and silvers in the canal all the time with divers. Still use them on a center rod and they still catch fish!

[Button Nubbs]

Coho = propwash.

[h20hunter]

I've seen guys post this up before. So, when you are fishing the prop wash are you running a shallow rigger behind the boat or a surface line with say a trolling weight and a spoon? I've never done it but often have three guys in the boat with only two rods out. I can easily run a rod off the stern to give it a try.

[Button Nubbs]

Banana weight and a cutplug. You don't have to let much line out either. Makes for some exciting takes.

[Kola16]

Banana weight and a cutplug. You don't have to let much line out either. Makes for some exciting takes.

  That is what I do since I lost my downriggers to the bottom 

[Gobble Doc]

Do you do prop wash method only in the morning when the fish are shallow or even later in the day?

I've also wondered about trolling with or against the tide.  I've mostly read that you are supposed to troll with the tide but when I am out fishing it looks like a lot of people are going against the tide and almost sitting still.  The one hook up I had last Saturday was with the banana weight and a piece of cut plug herring but I was trolling with the tide. 

[FC]

Troll with the tide, your bait/lure looks more natural and you will get more hits.

I fished divers for a long time, they have it all over using a banana weight! Get the heavy deep six and you can fish down over 100 feet! It takes a little practice to figure out how much line to let out to get to your desired depth but they really will get down pretty far.

[Gobble Doc]

FC,

Thanks.  I will get the deep going diver.  I'm thinking no flasher or dodger, just a cut plug herring behind it?  I really don't know what I'm doing here.  I'm just thinking with a diver that I don't need a lot of additional junk hanging on the line.  My sense is that using an Ace-Hi fly that you need a flasher or something to give it action.  When I put all the variables on the table it seems like either just a cut plug herring or some kind of spoon is what I am left with behind the diver. 

[Rick]

FC,

Thanks.  I will get the deep going diver.  I'm thinking no flasher or dodger, just a cut plug herring behind it?  I really don't know what I'm doing here.  I'm just thinking with a diver that I don't need a lot of additional junk hanging on the line.  My sense is that using an Ace-Hi fly that you need a flasher or something to give it action.  When I put all the variables on the table it seems like either just a cut plug herring or some kind of spoon is what I am left with behind the diver.

A cut plug behind a diver will work great. You're correct about an Ace-hi or hootchie not working,they have no action of their own.

A spoon behind a diver will work also.

[FC]

Use a small hot spot flasher, green+glow works really well with a hootchie!

[Rick]

Banana weight and a cutplug. You don't have to let much line out either. Makes for some exciting takes.

Last weekend 6-7 of our 15 silvers came on a 2oz lead and a cut plug. That one rod put almost as many fish in the box as both DRs combined.

[Gobble Doc]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the info.  Just to confirm.  Trolling, not mooching, right?  I'm going to get another pack of herring and brine them up and try this again. 

[Alchase]

Coho = propwash.

We use to run coho flies staight out the back on about 100 pulls, no weight, on a fast troll out at Sekiu. Watching the silvers come up behind and hit it on the surface was half the fun.

[Button Nubbs]

Propwash fishing is best in the am but can be productive all day and especially on overcast days. As for going with or against the tide we catch just as many going into the tide as we do going with it.

[Rick]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the info.  Just to confirm.  Trolling, not mooching, right?  I'm going to get another pack of herring and brine them up and try this again.

Yep trolling.

[Glockster]

If you're fishing silvers depends on where and when and what year.  Once you think you have them figured out, it changes.  That's why they are my favorite salmon.  One year in the central Sound i was getting them at over 110ft on the d.riggers only.  Next year it was in the prop wash.  YOu really have to play around.

Personally, with the Sound's smallish silvers I hate having a bunch of flasher/diver/snubber stuff involved.  Keep it simple and light.

You can use the Ace Hi or similar "coho fly" (they used to be made out of deer hair) for a technique the Canadians call "bucktailing"...which is simply dragging a fly back about 20 to 50 ft in the boat's wake on the surface.  That's a lot of fun.

Another light trolling techniue for silvers is hitting the lower river estuaries with small Bradn's Wiggler plugs on bass rods.  Can be really effective. 

[Button Nubbs]

firetiger!

[Gobble Doc]

OK guys, I took the advice and got a diver tonight.  Hooked it up with a small dodger and a fly.  Hopefully I can update this with a report after the long weekend. 

[mallard79]

Try stuffing some red powerbait up under the head of your squid or fly......adds a little color and scent......we if we had extra herring we would also put a small strip on for scent and a little extra flash....

[highmuley]

My grandfather and I used to fish a ton out of westport. Always used divers with great success. Pink ladies over deep sixes. Never much liked the deep sixes. The trigger mechanism can get sticky.

[BigD]

Downrigger on the sides and divers out the back is how I run em. Sometimes I run divers only, the fish seem to dictate what I run. I have had silvers hit when I could still see the flasher behind the boat.

[ICEMAN]

Coho = propwash.

We use to run coho flies staight out the back on about 100 pulls, no weight, on a fast troll out at Sekiu. Watching the silvers come up behind and hit it on the surface was half the fun.

Same here. Occasionally I would add a herring strip to a hootchie, great results. Seems we would get hits on them at 20 pulls sometimes, even as we brought them in to check gear, hits right at the back of the boat...would have thought the boat would have spooked them...

[Gobble Doc]

Can anyone please answer if a dodger is supposed to spin or just wobble?  I'm being told by some people it isn't supposed to spin and by others working at large marine/fishing stores that it is OK if the dodger spins?  I don't get it?  If a spinning dodger is OK then why have both flashers and dodgers and not just dodgers? 

[CP]

Dodgers wobble, flashers rotate.

[FC]

Dodgers will spin a little bit if you are going fast enough. Check your speed and make sure it is doing a wobble-wobble-spin-wobble-wobble-wobble type action and you are running about right.

[Rick]

Dodgers wobble, flashers rotate.

Yep,Dodgers aren't designed to spin. They just swing back and forth. If you're running fast enough that your dodger is spinning,you're not fishing them correctly.

[Gobble Doc]

Thanks everyone.  What you are saying about the dodger and flasher wobble and spin is exactly what I've been reading.  I'm going to try each tomorrow so I can see for myself.  It isn't intuitive for me what the problem is with a dodger spinning because it seems like it is then just functioning as a flasher.  Thanks.

[FC]

When it is spinning it isn't swinging wide from side to side like it's intended to. A flasher will actually swing wider at that point.

[Glockster]

Dodgers have to run at much slower speeds so they're not my preference for coho.  Coho, as a general rule, like fast stuff. 

When coho are aggressive and near the surface you cannot really do anything "wrong".  I have caught them on bare hooks before. 

[7mmfan]

If I was you, I would play with it and try different things. If you can fish multiple rods have a diver out deep and one in the prop wash. When fishing the prop wash, put on a 2 - 4 oz lead and let it out 12' - 15'. I have caught them literally with my herring spinning 5 feet behind the prop of the kicker. If you aren't getting any action, let it out a little further but I would rarely fish that rod further out then about 35' because it just gets in the way. Be ready for the most vicious, line burning, rod holder creaking takes ever, and definitely be ready for evasive maneuvering around the other rods.

Also, fish it there all day. You will be surprised how far a fish will come to hit your bait in the prop wash. I've watched fish on my fish finder travel over 100' up through the water column to hit a bait in the prop wash. 

[Alchase]

This is how it was explained to me when young, a dodger, run slower, throws a Hoochie (squid ) side to side to mimic how a squid or wounded hearing swims in spurts not necessarily straight.
A flasher mimics a hearing school or feeding salmon, your bait is the wounded (easy pickings) trailing the school. I grew up with the basic rules use a dodger for hoochie, use a flasher for hearing.
But I have used all combinations of bait and flasher/dodger and still caught fish.

Just depends on how hungry they are, lol

[Rick]

Because of the slow speed required to run dodgers properly,I never use them. Even when I'm fishing kings,I troll fast. Rarely less than 3 mph and usually pushing 4.

[MatthewHunter98]

i personaly dont like deep sixis

[Gobble Doc]

OK guys.  I went out Saturday morning with my 14 year old.  We launched at Everett at 4:30 with the full moon.  We were fishing early.  I hate to say but we didn't get anything with the deep six and dodger.  I had a banana weight on another rod with a flasher and ace hi fly and I had one good hit but didn't get it.  Around noon it started to get pretty choppy for us and we headed in.  I have caught in a lot of different circumstances but I definitely don't have the area 9/area  8-2 coho figured out.  We saw quite a few nets flying.  Just not our net. 

[CP]

The Coho between the ferry and the shipwreck have mostly been running between 65 and 95 feet, probably too deep for your setup.

I say “mostly”, someone is sure post that they caught a bunch at 30’ and less.  You never know with Coho.

[FC]

The Coho between the ferry and the shipwreck have mostly been running between 65 and 95 feet, probably too deep for your setup.

I say “mostly”, someone is sure post that they caught a bunch at 30’ and less.  You never know with Coho.

If he got the big deep 6 he can get to 65 with about 180' of line out, for 90' he would want to let out about 300'.

[Gobble Doc]

I do have the large size deep six but didn't have out enough line to be getting down to 90'.  I will be looking for a downrigger for the future.  I really hate just guessing all the time about how deep I'm getting down.  Thanks for your help. 

[FC]

I do have the large size deep six but didn't have out enough line to be getting down to 90'.  I will be looking for a downrigger for the future.  I really hate just guessing all the time about how deep I'm getting down.  Thanks for your help.

Fishing divers takes a lot of patience to figure out but work very effectively if you take the time. I trolled in depths I wanted to hit and let out line a little at a time until I would start bumping bottom to figure it out. Downriggers have their own set of challenges, especially on a small boat! If you would like to experience downriggers on a small boat you can fish with me in mine. PM me if you're interested.

[Gobble Doc]

FC,

Thank you for the kind offer.  I very well may drop you a line as I get closer to pulling the trigger on a DR. 

[hunt_fish]

Is it worth using a diver until I can get a downrigger set up?  Or, is it not a good use of time and better to just bypass the deep six and spend the time and effort focused on a downrigger.  I'm thinking of coho during the next month.  Thoughts?

Divers are fine, we had just as much success on divers as downriggers this summer at Jeff's Head during days when we had more than just my dad and myself fishing out there.

[Ripper]

I catch plenty of fish on deep sixes. I have 2 Scotty electric DR's that I run off the sides and I run 1 or 2 d-6's off the back. Usually I have my best luck early in the morning with the 6's, but I have caught silvers all day with them. One of my favorite set ups for silvers with the 6's is run a 6' leader behind the 6 to a double hook rig. Slide on a small 2 or 3 inch hootchie. Put the top hook through the nose of a herring, then put the second hook though the tail. wrap your extra line to the second hook around the first hook till you have a good bend in the herring. this will cause the herring rig to spin like a cut plug with the attraction of the hootchie. I learned this from a charter I went on a few years back. It works good. Good luck out there.

[Gobble Doc]

I was just reading the Sept. 2012 fishing update on John's Sporting Goods website.  Not sure what to make of the following?  Either he just hates downriggers or wants to sell downriggers??? 


"No Downrigger for Coho No Big Deal.  ...Do not try to mimic the downrigger anglers by putting a flasher behind a Deep Six. That is a waste of time and money."

http://www.johnssportinggoods.com/northwest-fishing-journal/2012-northwest-fishing-journal/download?path=2012%20September.pdf

[snocohunter]

Lots of good information in here. I'm always apprehensive to run a deep six since i don't have much experience with them. But have tried just the fly out the back with some weight in the wash and it's worked well. I was always told never run a flasher off a deep six just like John stated on his website. I've got a ton of dodgers i picked up cheap from a garage sale though. Might give her a shot for the third rod next time.