Four downriggers on a 22' ?

thats what we have been doing to date. 2 dr and swap em out. works good for coho. but summer king fishing can be slow at times same with winter BM so that third rod would be nice. esp.. for winter BM where the are hanging on the bottom. and I hate stacking, wont do it.
 
I will say that I have sucessfully stacked with experienced fishermen with good sucess. The novices? Well, they have a hard time just figuring out anything at all. When I lived in Spokane we used to king fish the Columbia down by Vernita Bridge and that is all we did was stack them as my old 22 foot starcraft boat had only Scotty DRs. A LOT of guys ran 4 downriggers though and their setup was two long armed cannons and two short little ones. I can see that working on a C-Dory too, but I still stack if people whine enough about not having lines in the water. I have found a well tuned K16 quikfish off the back of the boat works well if you want to fish 3. It dives just right for coho, and sometimes you luck you way into a king too. Pinks seem to ignore them for the most part too - an added benefit for sure.
 
Seems the best solution is just not to take four people out at once! Four is akward anyway, even just being aboard and moving about.

Stick to two or three people and two down riggers (two fish and the third operates the boat), or fish the third out the back center, and rotate positions frequently.

Local tackle maker and guide Gary Mirallaes (Shasta Tackle Company) makes stacking devices (the Shuttle Hawk) and fishes seven lines at once out of his boat, including a video camera on one down rigger. Whooa! :disgust

But fishing is supposed to be fun, not an overly complicated fire drill, so Keep It Simple, Sam! (KISS again!)

So why not use four down riggers, two side planers, two outriggers and a center free line?

Just get a gill net or purse seine and tow it instead, and take as many folks as you have life jackets for! :lol:

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
If you really want to fish a lot of people off the back of the boat, you better learn to motor mooch using cut bait. It works great on a school of fish and much quicker, simpler, and easier than trolling. I do it all the time out of Seward and if the bite is on and the fish are there, it works very well with quick 6 fish coho limits. When the bite is off, the fish are spooky, or they are sparse, out come the downriggers and everyone tests their patience. Or better yet, go to one of the Capes and fish for halibut since they almost always seem to cooperate. I'm not sure if you have those options where are at though.
 
T.R. Bauer":2v2vte6g said:
If you really want to fish a lot of people off the back of the boat, you better learn to motor mooch using cut bait. It works great on a school of fish and much quicker, simpler, and easier than trolling. I do it all the time out of Seward and if the bite is on and the fish are there, it works very well with quick 6 fish coho limits. When the bite is off, the fish are spooky, or they are sparse, out come the downriggers and everyone tests their patience. Or better yet, go to one of the Capes and fish for halibut since they almost always seem to cooperate. I'm not sure if you have those options where are at though.
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Yes indeed, mooching is one of my favorite over suspended fish.
 
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