Downrigger Blowback when Trolling

[Double Header]

How do you downrigger fishermen deal with the problem of cannonball blowback when trolling? How do you know the actual depth where you are fishing?

Experience.

A wide angle transducer on your sounder will help but you still have to factor in angle.

[trollin4trout]

I just drop the weight 'till I feel it hit bottom, then note the difference in reading between the depth finder and the line counter. Now I know at that speed and at that depth I can keep the lead right near the bottom. Of course when you change speeds and/or depths, you need to "recompute". Seems to work for me. Jim

[Land Shark]

Same as what Keta said. My transducer on the back of my boat picks up my ball and it looks like a solid string of little fish on my screen, tells me just how far off the bottom I am. I use another transducer on the front of my boat mounted on the bottom of a bow mounted trolling motor that goes to another fish finder . This helps me to see any unwanted snags coming up on me. This only seems to work from about 10 to 20 feet deep or so, but that is usually where I am trolling for salmon.

[greenbuttskunk]

over the years, I've just learned from experience, no real formula, just done it alot so I have a good idea. A good depth finder will track the ball down, so follow it and check the depth on the
line counter and make a note for future reference.
GBS

t4t,
How many times have you hung up doing that? Where I fish I wouldnt have the balls (downrigger balls) to do that :shocked:

Knowing the exact depth isn't that important anyway. Just put your gear a bit above your target fish and they will come up. Don't fish below the fish you are trying to catch.