Along with the seminar on the Shimano Butterfly jigging system, we attended a seminar by Cannon on downrigger setup and use. It also proved to be very useful, providing some great tips. The highlights:

• Use a snubber to attach the weight -The speaker uses a polyurethane shock cord (similar to the one shown to the left) to attach the weight to the wire. The reason - if the ball snags on the bottom, the cord stretches and hopefully pulls the ball free without the massive shock that would occur it the ball was attached directly to the cable. If the ball does not pull free, the snubber will break - better than ripping the downrigger off the mount!
  
  
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  courtesy Cabelas
  Clips and Grips - Rather than use a permanently-attached release clip, the speaker uses a clamp like the one shown on the right to attach the release clip to the cable. The release clip is crimped to a short length of cable which is attached to the bend of the clamp. The clamp jaws go over the downrigger cable at the desired location above the weight. This arrangement has the advantage of allowing for removable and vertical adjustment of the release clip.
  
  
• How Low Can You Go? The speaker offered these easy guidelines for depth control:
  
  
  • Rather than sweat the details of blowback angle on the depth of the weight (you do remember your high school trigonometry, right?), just let out the amount of cable for the depth you want to fish.
    
    Won't the lure actually be running higher than that? Yes, but the logic is that predator fish look up, so it is bettter to err on the side of being too high than too low. If you want, add a bit more, but not too much.
    
    
  • The speaker's rule of thumb: at speeds of 2 - 4 knots, you will get a maximum of 10 feet of depth for every pound of weight. Thus, a 10 lb weight will be able to run 100' down. If you want to go deeper, you have to add more weight.
    
    Can't you let out more cable? Yes, but it won't do you any good. Letting out more cable causes more drag, which just causes more blowback, which prevents the weight from travelling any deeper.
    
    
• Lure Setback - The speaker sets the lure back no more than 20 feet before clipping in . The downrigger cable already places the lure away from the boat, and in his experience, fish were not spooked by having the weight and cable that close to the lure. Keeping the lure close makes it much easier to maneuver the boat.
  
  
• Spectra vs. metal wire for the downrigger cable - The speaker felt that Spectra instead of wire would work, but he was also a proponent of using positive ion control systems such as those sold by Canon and Scottie. Obviously, you can't use these systems with Spectra, since it does not conduct electricity.
  
  
• Lever drag reels - The speaker confirmed our conclusion that lever drag reels make setting up downriggers much easier. That's because when you drop down a downrigger ball with a star drag reel, the water drag on the line tends to pull line off the reel, even with the clicker on. With a lever drag reel, you can take off enough drag to allow the downrigger ball to pull out line, but not enough to let line drag pull out line.

We recently had the opportunity to attend a seminar on the Shimano Butterfly jigging system, put on by one of the Shimano Pro Staff at the Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Show in San Diego. It really helped to clarify a number of points about the technique. Here are the things we found particularly enlightening:

• Rod action is critical. If you are using a long, parabolic action rod for jig fishing, you need to swap it out for a faster action rod. The tip needs to give a bit on the lift, then recover quickly. This type of action is needed to impart the proper action to the jig (a side-to-side darting action). Parabolic (slower) action rods can not do this.
  
  

courtesy Shimano
• A shorter, lighter rod is also a good thing to have, due to the need for constant motion of the rod. Much less fatiguing. Since you are using super-braids with this system, a long rod is not needed to move the jig, even at depth.
  
  
• Reels - A Stella or Trinidad is not required. The main things to look for are: speed of retrieve, a stout drag, and a rigid enough frame to withstand the heavy drag used.
  
  courtesy Shimano
  
  
  
• The Retrieve - An interesting point had to do with speed of retrieve. When fishing deep with conventional jigs, we often used a technique called "yo-yoing". The jig is dropped to the desired depth, then the jig is reeled in as fast as possible. The Buterfly jig retrieve is NOT like this. The side-to-side darting action is what causes the reastion strike, so a crank-for-all-you've got straight vertical wind with these jigs is NOT desirable . A moderate speed pumping retrieve is all it takes, and is much less tiring than conventional yo-yo jig fishing.
  
  
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  courtesy Shimano
  Rigging the jig - The key is this: attach the line to the solid ring, which has the hooks attached. The jig is attached to the split ring. If you want to try a different jig, take the jig off the split ring, rather then re-tie. Rather than rig every jig with hooks, you only need a few of the solid/split ring setups, in case you break off.
  
  
  
• A split-ring plier is a must for this technique, and Shimano has developed a couple of advanced split ring pliers (their Baysteel series), which contain a couple of different feature for opening the rings, along with scissors capable of cutting super braid, and a specialized cutter for super-heavy mono.
  
  
• Selecting jig types - the long skinny jigs work better in a slightly more horizontal retrieve, rather than directly below the boat. The jigs that are a little more teardrop-shaped are ment for vertical jigging.

Mold Craft Products announced the release of their new marlin trolling lure - the "4-Eyed Monster".

Reports from several locations report that this odd-looking lure stays in the water better and leaves a better smoke trail than even Mold Craft's Wide Range, one of the best marlin trolling lures ever made. Definitely worth adding to the spread.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced availability of free electronic versions of all of their raster charts. These charts can be downloaded and viewed in several different programs, including a number of commercial packages, and printed as needed. These electronic versions will always contain the latest aproved versions of the chart.

See: http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/Index.htm

This page also contains links to sources for viewer software. Most are trial versions or cost some money, but  Maptech makes available a FREE "lightweight" version of their ChartNavigator v5.07c product.

Decided to sneak a trip in again between storms. Left Mission Bay at 5:00am. A little weird - We were the ONLY trailer in the parking lot, which says somethng about the fishing?.

Headed up to La Jolla Kelp, and fished that area north to Torrey Pines. Fishing was slow - a couple of short halibut, and four calico bass, although nothing big.

The engine ran fine, sems a little smoother on cold idle than before. No issues while running - power was there, the sputtering from the bad coil ground was gone. Also, no "Low Oil" alarm, although we didn't take any really bad shots, either.

Unfortunately, the Simrad AP12R did not make it through the day trouble-free. Around 3:00pm, while heading in to Mission Bay, the autopilot suddenly threw the boat into a left turn. Good thing for us the turn started out gradually. We were able to brace ourselves, then while trying to correct course, the AP12R accelerated the turn rate until the unit hit the steering wheel stop. We were able to cut the throttle and lose speed so that the hard-over wheel position did not cause any problems. We turned the unit off, let it sit, then tried again, but it had the same problem. Back to to Simrad Tech Support!

One other product issue note: Our West Marine Ditch bag continues to have zipper issues. The handles on this one are still firmly attached, but the main compartment zipper continues to have difficulties sealing. Good thing it's a "seal healing" zipper - because it takes several tries to get the teeth to mesh correctly.

Ande monofilament has been around for a long time. New this year is Ande braided Spectra. The key with Spectra is making a  round braid, and Ande claims that their line is rounder than most. Worth a check. Available in 8 through 125 lb test, and 125, 300 or 1,200 yard spools. See http://www.andemonofilament.com