Going Deep

[North Woods Fisher]

Gents,

I have the pleasure of going on my first Champlain fishing trip in two weeks. I do all my fishing (large amounts) in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire where even in mid-summer a good 8 colors of lead core will be enough to get into the thermocline and anything below that (lakers) will be double stacks on my downriggers.

I've been doing some research and realize my lead core rods will not do the trick with the need to get down 50-70ft and I obviously cannot quadruple stack my downriggers. I'm wondering what everyone is running for set-ups on their Non-Downrigger rods.

I've used small dipsy divers only a few times and never required using a set-up with slide divers? or snub lines? because I never needed to get that deep outside of my downriggers.

Any help would be much appreciated as it will allow me to be more prepared prior to my trip. My plan is to have a couple set-ups that I can use outside of my downriggers that allow me to get into the 50-70 range.

Thanks again.
-Matt

[fishingmachine]

try #2 tadpoles

[flyguy]

Slide divers or try the new small-diameter lead-core. You may be surprised at what the new lead core will do. Other than that, I've always used copper.

[C-Hawk]

You may find 2 downriggers will give you plenty of action once you find the fish.

[Reelax]

Lite bite slide divers will get 50 to 60 with weight upgrade... I always run one out set to 2.5 on each side this time of year... With 150 to. 250 out they get down really good.

A full core of lead with a clip weight can also get action. If you don't mind being back a ways...

Good luck. I am putting together a crew for Saturday morning and will post results on the North end of the Lake.

[cpmaple]

what part of the lake will you be fishing? I'm taking my step daughter out Saturday morning launching out of Westport and heading north toward snake den. Gonna work that area and see if anything is around if nothing then I will motor up to split rock will post how we do Saturday afternoon.

[Crazy Ivan]

There is nothing wrong with stacking rods on the riggers, back when I only had two downriggers i ran three rods on one rigger with a cheater on the top rod. This can be a lot of work but very productive. Run them 3 ft of the cable 5 feet apart.

Todd

[J_Hudson]

You can have plenty of fun with two riggers, bounce the bottom just after you mark fish and the lakers can't stand it and almost always hit. Where will you be fishing. I know the Willsboro area well and can pion,t you in the right direction if needed.

[North Woods Fisher]

Thanks for all the replies. We will be staying around Shelburne. We may end up fishing the Shelburne / Willsboro area on Friday, then Converse / Split rock area on Saturday.....or the other way around then leave Sunday as a last minute decision.

The boat has a pair of Cannon 10STX riggers which I was planning in double stacking then have a few other rods off the side of the boat. I will probably run 1 of them down deep for lakers most of the time then the other can go where the fish are marking.