Silver Bay and points north ?

Next mon-tues if all goes well with the weather, wife and I are going to try the north shore, probably somewhere between Silver Bay and Grand Maria’s, probably depending on where we find a place to stay.

Considering the time of year, I’m wondering the minimum depth we can run our lures and still get fish?

Got some good tips already but looking for a little help here.
I don’t think we’ll fish the 150+ feet that we did when I went last weekend, but trying to figure if spoons and snap weights will get us deep enough next week?

What I’d like to do is run both riggers down a bit and then planers with spoons and weights a bit shallower if possible.
Sound feasible?

tia

Al

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Considering the time of year, I’m wondering the minimum depth we can run our lures and still get fish?

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From what I’ve been hearing lately, the lake trout can be found anywhere from 150′ down to the surface. The past 2 weekends I’ve found them hitting my dipsies around 50′ down. Now last weekend I had a hit on a deep diving crank with a 2 oz trolling weight near 200′ back with 20# power pro. that was over 400′ of water. I would take a wild guess and say it was 40′ down.

I’m pretty new to the Lake Superior game, but I’ve had some good success. Thanks to the other Big G (Grant).

I think the biggest thing is to cover as many depths as possible. I’ve been focusing on the 50-80′ range myself.

Thanks, was figuring on covering as much depth as I could but my luck with dipsy’s is not good, no lead core and I only have two downriggers…for now..:)

New here too..

Al

I prefer to run two riggers in my boat instead of four (I have two electrics and two manuals – the manuals are too much work when fishing deep) I just stack a couple lines to get 4-rigger lines down. 4 riggers and two dispies is a perfect 3 man spread in my boat(danged 2 line limit on Superior….lo.)

Roemer stackers are the ones I use – I have had really good luck with them.

T

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Thanks, was figuring on covering as much depth as I could but my luck with dipsy’s is not good, no lead core and I only have two downriggers…for now..:)

New here too..

Al

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Al

For what it’s worth most everything we caught over the weekend came 50 – 80 feet deep. If you can keep your presentations in that depth range I think you’ll be successful.

Thanks guys, I had forgot about stacking off the rigger line, have to try that.

Not falmiliar with the dive depths of spoons and snap weights, but I don’t think with a couple/3 oz’s I’ll get 50 foot no matter how much line I let out. ?

Lot more learning curve that I thought.

Al

I know you don’t like dipsies but that is the only thing I have caught anything on out there.

I use a #1 dipsey with 20# power pro. The the spoon I have about 4-6′ back on 15# fluorocarbon. I usually turn one dipsey to about the 1/4 or 1/2 position and run that one from 150-220 feet back. This one reaches from 60′ down to about 90′ down. The other I run in the #2 position 120-150′ back. I’m a little less accurate with this one because it has never hit bottom but I figure from 45-60 feet down.

It seems that each rod will get hit in streaks. I’ll usually adjust the other slightly accordingly.

I’ll be heading back up there to fish on the 23rd an 24th next week. Can’t wait for that! I’ll hopefully be able to pick up 2 more trolling reels to add some lead core to. Does anyone have any recommendations for best value on one of these?

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Not falmiliar with the dive depths of spoons and snap weights, but I don’t think with a couple/3 oz’s I’ll get 50 foot no matter how much line I let out. ?

Lot more learning curve that I thought.

Al

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Al

Here’s what was working for us.

50 foot leader of 20# flouro attached to 10 colors of 12# Sufix 832 Leadcore. We attached the snap weight where the flouro met the leadcore (clipped on the flouro) and let back 7 – 8 colors of lead. We were hitting bottom with this setup in 60 feet of water… pulling big spoons. Try it. I think you might like it. This presentation out-fished the same baits on riggers handily and it is very easy to fish using far lighter gear than you’ll need to run torpedoes or dipseys. Basically we were using our walleye gear – 10’6″ and 9’0″ Eye-Con trolling rods.

This was our first trip messing with the 832 lead core and it surprised us how much added depth we could get over regular lead core. We certainly don’t have all the bugs and variables worked out of the dive curves but from what we’ve seen so far this new breed of lead core looks to be one heck of a tool.

I think my prob was to light a line from the dipsy to the lure, (10# mono) and the release set to tight, caused several break offs.
And I need a dive chart for them too.
Not so much I don’t like them more I haven’t got them figured out yet.
Still, not my favorite way of fishing but I’ll keep working on them..

Leadcore?
Naw, not yet, I have enough learning curves going as it is, I know it works for many, but I’ll buy a couple more riggers before I go lead, just don’t care for it, good idea though…thanks.

Al