Outriggers

Last year, a buddy of mine bought a big boat to play on the big ponds. This morning, he was asking me about installing outriggers. I personally don’t have any experience with them, but was having trouble coming up with any good reasons he should make that kind of investment for what we would gain in productivity. I think we have the bases covered between downriggers, dipseys and planer boards. Seems to me, guys were primarily using them to drag heavy lead on the bottom for lakers…not our primary goal. Is there something I’m missing when it comes to using them to chase salmon/steelhead/browns higher in the water column that can’t be achieved with the tools mentioned above?

Thanks,

Jim

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I would say that you have it covered with the way you are doing it now. Unless you have cash burning a hole in your pocket and want to add another tool to the tool-box but I would keep my money for the new hot bait. Thats my two cents. Good luck.

Wouldn’t you use the out riggers to get more lines out? If your buddy is taking 4-5 people out then its a good investment. When I fish the Great Lakes I want the maximum amount of lines out.

We actually run four downriggers (single set) and two dipseys at a minimum (assuming at least two guys in the boat on Lake Michigan). That said, we can certainly stack the downriggers and/or run planers boards to increase the number of lines to accommodate up to 4-5 guys.

I was really more curious about two things 1) if guys are using them for applications other than dragging bottom for lakers and 2) found there to be some type of tactical advantage to using them that would make them worth the time and expense. Again, I’m steering my buddy away from it, but then again, I’ve never used outriggers.

Thanks for the replies!

Jim

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Jim,
Sounds like you have the bases covered without the outriggers. I have been seeing more use out of the big planner boards and the outriggers are going by the wayside. The advantage on a larger boat is, on outriggers you can adjust depth with the roller clips on weighted lines or get a extra set of dipseys out in shallow water.