BY JAMIE ROBINSON
Great Lakes trout and salmon fishing hot spots in both the spring and fall often end up being river mouths. These areas tend to be heavily fished and running multiple rod setups can be tricky considering all the boat traffic.
It’s not uncommon for 50 to 100 boats to all be fishing within a mile or less of critical water. For this reason, running lead core line, Off Shore Tackle planer boards or even diving planers can be problematic. However, a viable option is to run downriggers using short to moderate leads behind the downrigger balls. When fishing traffic, I run most leads in the 30 foot range but never more than 50 feet behind the downrigger ball.
My downrigger setup consists of two downriggers and in an effort to add more than two rods to my spread I incorporate Off Shore Tackle’s OR2 Medium Tension Stacker Downrigger Releases. The OR2 allows me to run two rods per downrigger, effectively doubling the number of baits in the strike zone.
I have found the OR2 Medium Tension Downrigger Stacker Release to be a versatile trolling accessory that helps me troll for both light biting fish and still run larger tackle items such as magnum spoons, deep diving crankbaits or my favorite flashers such as Yakima Bait Company’s Fish Flash. To rig this setup, the first step is to set your main line or the line that you will attach to the downrigger ball. One thing to note is the main line will need to have a longer lead length than the rod you plan to run off the OR2 to avoid tangles.
I like to have the main line leader length at least 10 feet longer than the stacker rod’s lead length. Also, I like to run 15 to 20 feet between the mainline and the stacker line to avoid a fish hooked on the main line from potentially tangling in the stacker line.
Now that the main line is at the desired length behind the downrigger ball and clipped to the release lower the ball 15 to 20 feet down and now attach the OR2 Stacker Release to the downrigger cable by clipping the snap to the cable and then the stacker release’s short cable release to the downrigger cable above the snap. The stacker release’s long cable with release is where you will attach the second rod/line.
Once this is hooked up you will lower the ball to the desired depth and the stacker line will be running whatever depth above the ball you set it at. Off Shore Tackle’s website has instruction sheets for all their products and for a good illustration of this setup see the OR2 instruction sheet.
The trout and salmon I target are usually in 70 to 150 feet of water with prime depths to fish generally being in the 40 to 70 foot range. A good example of how I start out the day is with one downrigger running 70 feet down with the stacker rod running at 50 feet. While the second downrigger would have the mainline down 60 feet with the stacker rod running 40 feet down.
My preference is to run the two downriggers’ depths no closer than a 10 foot difference, but if the fish are at a very specific depth, I will run them as close as 5 feet apart. However, keep in mind that the closer downrigger lines are run to one another, the greater the risk of tangles.
The OR2 Medium Tension Downrigger Stacker Release not only allows me to double down on my fishing success, it helps me fish in high traffic areas without the stress of worrying about those other boats.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jamie Robinson is a highly successful tournament angler, Off Shore Tackle pro staffer and avid angler who resides in Wawa, Ontario and frequently targets trout, salmon and steelhead in the Ontario waters of Lake Superior.
