I have been using at top shot of 30 lb mono over 50 ld braid. I use a uni to uni knot and it has held up under stress. It helps with the clip. I use the Scotty pinch type and they do release a little easy sometimes.

I have used downriggers a lot in the open water but not at the Reach. We usually fish with jet divers but the last few years have been slow with low water. It has been recommended to that we use downriggers to fish deep holes in the Reach. How do you use downriggers at the Reach? Are the holes/slots long enough to set a depth and slowly crawl down? How far off the bottom? How far off the clip? I wish I had more answers than questions- sorry...

In the past few years I've migrated to moderately heavy mono for downrigging and find that I really like 30 lb Berkley Big Game for routine downrigger use. I've also found that my favorite releases are Offshore brand "heavy" releases. You can get by with mediums, but I really prefer having the fish get a pretty solid hookup before it ever pulls the line out of the release... fewer lost fish. Also fewer instances of setting the downrigger all the way down at depth and then having the clip release inadvertently while taking slack out of the line.

If lines are getting tangled between two downriggers, then either the boat speed is too low resulting in a lot of side to side slipping, or more likely (if using kwiks) the lures are out of tune. The only time you "should" ever tangle between two downriggers is if you sweep across a shallow spot and hang one line up on a hump long enough to drag the other line across it.

I'd like some tips from those that are good with downriggers. I've used them a bit, but had trouble with lines tangling when running two downriggers, and also trouble getting the clip tension correct. What brand and sive of clips works best with which weight of line would be my question...

Thanks!

Let's kick this thread off right! 2009 Hanford Reach Information.