Poor man's down rigger. These are one pound weights that have two Offshore Planer board releases attached with ball bearing swivels and split rings. These clip on the line counter rod/reel combo's we use when trolling for trout and salmon on Lake Michigan. Because down riggers involve using 15 pound weights attached to the 150 lb test steel cable. The down riggers are used when trolling to get the lures down to a depth where the fish are being caught. The problem with the heavy weight attached to the down rigger wires when trolling is that the wires give off an annoying hum when trolling at 1.5 to 3 mph, and this hum will often spook wary fish. These one lb weights attach to the line on the rod/reel combo after the lure has been let out behind the boat.
Let the lure trail behind the boat up to a hundred yards, and then clip on the poor man's down rigger weight and lower it to the depth that one wants the lure to be. Because of the lack of the hum that comes from a down rigger with weight attached, this rig will out perform the down riggers as they do not give off the annoying hum that a down rigger wire slicing through the water creates.
In hard fished ports, where everyone has down riggers giving off a hum that can repel fish in hard fished ports, the poor man's down rigger is the key to catching limits. We use these weights instead of the down riggers to get our lures down to the depths where fish are being caught, and because there in no associated hum from the down rigger wires and attached weights. These greatly out fish the down riggers and attached lures because there is no hum.
Simply reel the line the fish is on until one can grab a hold of the attached weight and unclip the weight from the line and then continue the fight until
the fish can be netted. With the the OR - 12 Offshore releases and split rings with ball bearing swivels, these cost about $25 to make one, but fileting a limit catch of salmon back at the fish cleaning station when everyone is bringing one or two fish to filet is priceless. Everyone wants to know where we caught them, but the question they should have asked is HOW we caught them. Well worth the money spent and the time making them up.
