As I started looking into fishing Lake Michigan a lot of what I read recommended having at least two down riggers on my boat. There was just one fairly significant problem, adding down riggers to a boat can be expensive! So I asked myself, do I really need them to get started?
The reason for recommending and having down riggers on a boat to effectively fish deep water. When out on lake Michigan you will often be fishing in water more than 100 feet deep, and be needing to get lures down to those depths. Having down riggers can absolutely make fishing these depths easier.
However, there is good news! You can absolutely start fishing for great lakes salmon without having down riggers on your boat. Fish could care less what tool, or what device was used to get the bait down to their current depth in the water column. Let’s break this down a bit…
Salmon in the great lakes care about 2 things. The first is the bait fish, the second is the water temperature. That second point was an eye opener for me when it finally clicked. Almost all fishing in lake Michigan is about and around water temperatures. Down riggers are only a tool that helps us Target those zones.
What I am really saying here is that I was asking the wrong question! Asking if you have to have down riggers is like asking if you have to snack on apples while out fishing (which I would argue YES, but you don’t ‘have’ to)! Ok, maybe not that extreme, because down riggers should be on your upgrade list, but the real question(s) to ask is where are the fish in the water column and how can I Target different areas of the water column (without down riggers).
Now that we are asking the right question, With that out of the way, let’s look at a few other setups that get lures down in the water column. Keep in mind that everything here is a general overview. Some tactics will require other equipment and depths listed are a potential range that can be affected by numerous factors such as line type and trolling speeds.
Diving Baits
A staple of inland fisherman is the dive bait. Whether casting or trolling dive baits, stick baits, etc can give a depth of anywhere as shallow as 5 feet all the way to 20 plus feet deep. This depth range, along with the bait type(s), is really all that is needed for spring trolling when the fish are generally closer to shore. When trolling these types of baits, keep in mind how far back the bait is from the boat (or the board if using planer boards) will affect how deep the bait goes.
Snap on weights
There are numerous weight kits or individual pieces that can be used to add weight to your line. Determining the depth chart for this style is more trial and error than anything else, but with a few ounces of weight and enough line out behind a planner board, you should be able to get baits down to roughly 30 – 40 feet deep depending on conditions.
Lead core
Lead core line is literally a long strand of lead covered in a fiber sheath. It is measured in ‘colors’ with each color being 10 yards, or 30 feet. A full spool of lead core is 10 colors, or 300 feet of lead core line.
When trolling lead core it will dive, or really sink, in the water about 5 feet per color out. Some lead core lines claim to achieve more depth per color such as Tuf-Line lead core. This is what I use and claims to achieve a depth of 6 feet per color. It claims this because it is a micro lead core, which is a smaller diameter line and should have less water resistance pulling the line up.
Copper
Copper line is similar to lead core line, but without the sheathing over the copper. It is sold on spools of different sizes (strengths) with each giving you a different dive chart. Copper line is referenced in how many feet out, for example a 300 copper, for three hundred feet out.
Overall,the depth charts of copper will get you a bit more depth per foot than lead corel. For example, the above mentioned 300 copper will get you down roughly 60 to 70 feet down depending on which line type (and depth chart) you are looking at.
Divers
A diver is a device that is attached to your line that will take your baits down to the fish, and oftentimes away from the boat. Most of these, at least the most popular models are circular in shape, and have a weight on the bottom that can be adjusted to change the angle at which the divers pull your line down and away from the boat.
There are numerous kinds of divers, however for great lakes fishing, the most popular are going to be disk divers. These are circular disks that will ‘grip’ the water and take your lure down and away from the boat.
Divers come in mainly two different styles, either an in-line version or a hang on version. The most popular of each being the Dipsy Diver (in-line) and the slide diver (hang on). Magnum Dipsy Divers have the greatest depth rating of 100ft.
Wire divers
A wire diver is an in-line style diver that is trolled with stainless steel wire line. The wire line will both help your diver achieve greater depths with the same feet of line out (compared to a traditional diver) along with having some additional fish attracting power. The wire line will hum in the water which is supposed to catch fish when other rigs aren’t.
Alternatives to Down riggers
As mentioned above, there are any number of methods available to target the top 100 feet of the water column without down riggers. Using any number of the strategies together will help those starting out put out a nice spread as a starting point. All of these strategies will also compliment down rigger setups quite well, for when they do eventually get added to your setup.
My Experiences
As I started out trolling on Lake Michigan, I did so starting without much ‘salmon’ gear at all. In fact most of what I started with was repurposed Musky gear – bigger (not great lakes big) bait casting reels on various graphite rods.
With the equipment that I did have available, I tried to balance out versatility and long term plans which would eventually involve adding down riggers. The first few things I chose to invest in were snap on weights, lead core line, and Dipsy Divers.
The snap weights are kind of tedious, but having a few different sizes available could do one of two things. First I could have a rod with just standard fishing line, that I could use with diving baits (in the spring) or snap a weight on to get the line down a bit in the water column. I could also use the snap weights with lead core line, attaching the weight after letting out the lead core, to get additional depth that setup.
For my lead core setups I went with a micro lead core for two main reasons. First, the micro lead core has a smaller diameter, which means that I could fit more of it on my smaller musky reels. For example I was able to put 4 colors on an Abu Garcia 6500 with plenty (well just enough) of backing!
The micro lead core is also supposed to get about an extra foot of depth per color. This would, in theory, get me slightly deeper as needed. For example, 4 colors of lead core should get me about 24ft deep, where traditional lead core will get only 20ft deep. Might not be a huge deal, but it was easier to bring baits up in the water than get them down.
Lastly, I choose to go with (in-line) Dipsy Divers along with adding two fiberglass rod and reel combinations to the gear list. My plan was to run up to 4 Dipsy Divers, two on each side of the boat. This would allow me to have one (on each side) set to dive more down, and one set to dive more out.
I choose to go with Dipsy Divers for a couple of reasons. First, is that they can get a bit deeper than a hang on style of divers. Second they fit with my long term plan, meaning that i would be able to upgrade them to wire divers and / or have them continue to be in use once I added down riggers.
Overall this path worked quite well for me. I was able to put some fish in the boat while at the same time learn how to troll with all this new equipment. If I had to do it over again, would I do the same thing? Yes I would.
Conclusion
Starting out, it can seem somewhat intimidating thinking that you have to have all this ‘professional’ gear like down riggers. But you can absolutely start out without having down riggers. As discussed, the real question you need to be asking yourself is how can I get my lures to where the fish are in the water column!