Hooked Up
Which do you use trolling the lower Columbia and why? I've only been a couple of times and we used 6 - 8 oz weights ahead of plug cut herring. Would like to have options to change things up a bit. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Cannon ball weights vs divers
S
steelie_killa
From wat i understand is that divers works good when u want to run a constant depth in deep water versus using 16+ oz of lead...imay be wrong but thats wat i use em for water is choppy n the bottom is pretty even n im in 25+ ft of water
Irishrover
It depends....now thats always a good answer! If I'm just fishing two rods (My Wife and I) I will run with diver most of the time. I like the deep six version of divers. Last year I went to a line counter type or reel in stead of my old standard penn 209 reel. I check the deth and let out enough line to get the diver down to where it needs to be. If there are four rods I'll run diver on the back two and cannon balls on the front two. I put a slider on the main line and run a dropper line off the slider then add the weight. The other option I use from time to time is a side diver. It's a weighted diver that you can set to pull out to the right or left depending on where you want the line to be. I use the side divers on the front rods. Overall I prefer divers to weights in the lower Columbia because It's less hassle. I have less line to deal with and when there are lots of other boat that makes a difference.
When it comes to bait I run a whole herring on a nose clip with a large fin to get a nice roll. I seldom use plug cut bait, nothing wrong with it, I just have good luck with the nose clips. Most of the time I use spinners. I use a sze 7 to 7.5 blade and make my own. A good blade to use is a half white half redish orange blade with a brass back. It's called a half and half or some times a fire and ice. I also have luck with a red tipped white and brass spinner. Just remember those treble hooks have to be barbless. On the oregon side in Youngs Bay the Columbia County Sheriff Deputies were very busy checking hooks last week. I fish the area from Hammon to Rice Island and use the same methods. If there are four rods out we run two herring and two spinners. I avoid Bouy 10
When it comes to bait I run a whole herring on a nose clip with a large fin to get a nice roll. I seldom use plug cut bait, nothing wrong with it, I just have good luck with the nose clips. Most of the time I use spinners. I use a sze 7 to 7.5 blade and make my own. A good blade to use is a half white half redish orange blade with a brass back. It's called a half and half or some times a fire and ice. I also have luck with a red tipped white and brass spinner. Just remember those treble hooks have to be barbless. On the oregon side in Youngs Bay the Columbia County Sheriff Deputies were very busy checking hooks last week. I fish the area from Hammon to Rice Island and use the same methods. If there are four rods out we run two herring and two spinners. I avoid Bouy 10
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Hooked Up
Thanks, thats some great info. Never heard of nose clips before. We have 4 rods out max. No of our reels are line counters, we're pretty scientific by either counting pulls or number of times across the spool.
What size deep six diver do you use in what depths? I was thinking of trying spinners, will pick up a couple of what you mentioned. Using weights I just never seemed confident at what depth I was fishing at.
What size deep six diver do you use in what depths? I was thinking of trying spinners, will pick up a couple of what you mentioned. Using weights I just never seemed confident at what depth I was fishing at.
Irishrover
For the most part I use the largest deep six diver while fishing in the river. In the ocean I use the smaller ones. I watch my fish finder and try to get my gear down to where the fish are showing up at. Lately thats been about 25 to 28 feet on the line counter. That should put the gear down to about 13 to 14 feet. I've been hitting Youngs Bay the most so far this year. The bottom in the area I like to troll runs from 18 to 25 feet. When I use lead I let it hit the bottom then crank it up a couple of turns. Then I have to keep an eye on the bottom depth and move the lead up or down as the bottom depth changes. With the diver I don't have that problem.
