TOPIC:

Do you not like running it behind riggers? I know I read to have the ball of a rigger set to hit off the bottom a little (not dragging) but not sure if that has changed with the lake.

Is there a preference in the size of the SNG and its color. I have a small set of them, some with white plastic wings and some with green mylar wings. These are a firetiger pattern. I have a couple that are a glow white with pink dots. All are about an inch long and about 3/4 inch wide. These seem to be fairly large.

Steelie wrote:

BigEdV wrote:

I guess I had the wrong colors or setup Sunday for them. I had the ball bouncing the bottom all around the gong Sunday and nothing (although I only had one rigger set for Lakers). I want to figure them out and see what they are like - never caught one or ate one but seems that is going to be the long term fish to target and seems they are available most of the year.

I am like you Big Ed, I have tried off and on for a couple of seasons and have yet to slime up my motorized Dr. Pepper can with one. I have taken all the other species though. It would be good to know how to catch a few when nothing else is biting or around. I know they are for the most part a bottom dweller where water is cooler they will take flies and spin n glows fished near or on the bottom. That said I have taken a few when chartering on spoons that were put out as salmon and steelhead lures.
Does anyone have some tips or pointers to share?

My experience is that you want the ball occasionally ticking bottom. If it is constantly dragging, they don't like it as much. I usually drop the ball until it hits bottom, then pull it up a foot or so, and adjust as necessary. Same for the dipsys, if they aren't occasionally banging bottom, you won't get bit nearly as much. Constant adjustment is key, if you get lazy and don't constantly fiddle with the depth, your catch rate goes way down. When I first started targeting lakers, I made the mistake of thinking it was as easy as throwing a dodger and spin and glow in the general vicinity of the bottom. Also, I'm not sure what others find to be the best speeds for their boats, but for me it seems like 1.8 to 2.0 SOG is best.



My laker setup (if only targeting lakers) is generally 2 downriggers running chrome dodgers with a spin and glo on about 16-22 inch leader. I like using a fly instead of a hook. Great rig.

And then 4 dipsys, two with a paddle and meat rig, two with a mag spoon. 2 of them set to tick bottom, 2 set up a bit higher

Sometimes the meat is hot, sometimes the spoons. And it can switch really quick for seemingly no reason!

Used to be a lake trout maestro out of Michigan City named Carl Pardue. Boat name: Umpy.

He dangled a 2 or 3 foot length of log chain under his downrigger balls so it dragged in the mud. He'd take a Luhr Jensen Lake troll and cut it down so it had only two spinner blades and put a S-N-G a couple feet behind the spinners. He would watch the spinner blades when he dropped them in making sure one was going clockwise, the other counter clockwise (otherwise you'd get a massive line twist.) No one put more lakers in the box faster than Umpy. In tournaments, he'd have his laker limit in a half hour, then reset things for salmon.

I bought some log chain today.............................................................