Once you get down to it—really down to it—the key to catching more fish is simply to present your bait in the strike zone. Sound simple? It is. The more time you fish in the active feeding zone the more likely you are to catch fish.

When you can see the fish feeding, fishing where they are is easy; just cast in front of them. However, many times the active feeding zone is far below the water’s surface, making it difficult to both present your bait and to locate the fish in the first place.

Originally, we used simple yet effective lead sinkers to vary bait presentation. Sinkers still work well, especially for fishing the bottom of a given water column. Smaller sinkers can also work really well when we need to get the baits just below the surface to feeding fish. The challenge is to catch those fish that are not on the bottom but are well below the water’s surface. To get the baits and lures to the fish we need to have a way to control the depth. Herein, we’ll explore some more modern methods for controlled depth presentation of bait and lures.

Positive control of your lure depth is the most effective way to maximize your success. The missing element would then be to locate the feeding fish. There are many excellent fish finders on the market today and we will explore that concept in a later article.

Remember, put your bait or lure in front of the fish and you have a better chance to catch them. Keeping the lure in front of the fish is always the challenge, a challenge that is increased when you fish from a boat. Wind, drift, current, and the boat speed relative to the ground can negatively effect your bait presentations. The faster the boat moves, the higher the baits come up due to the line and lure’s resistance in the water. But then, if we didn’t enjoy challenges we would play golf!

The best thing that has happened in recent times for boaters is the advent of the downrigger. The basic downrigger allows us to get our baits to sub-surface fish without the use of large cumbersome weights on our line. The downrigger also allows us to fight the fish without those same weights interfering.

First let’s discuss downrigger basics; generally a downrigger is a simple machine that’s equipped with a spool that holds stainless wire, a means for retrieving the wire, and a boom to direct the wire away from the boat. The terminal end of the wire usually has a means to attach a large weight; usually in the form of a large snap swivel, the weight is attached, and a release mechanism is then attached to the weight. Basic brands, the wire, the weight, and the releases can be as varied as snowflakes. This could be the basis for yet another article on downriggers. I would rather utilize this space to explain operational aspects on the effective use of this method of depth control.

When the fishing is great almost any application of depth control will catch you fish, but when the fish thin out and you are scrapping to catch a limit, proper use of this tool will insure that you get more fish.

The first rule of controlled depth fishing is to understand your fish finder. There are many excellent brands on the market; get a good one and install it correctly. Personally I prefer the ones that have a color read out. These color units tell you by the color intensity the size of the fish school under you and generally will help you differentiate between fish and bait. This can be really a critical detail because you want your baits in the feeding zone, not above or below it. Don’t make the fish work to find your bait or lure; make it as easy on them as you can, and your results will improve. Watch for large fish returns below and behind the bait schools. If possible, take note of which way the bait is moving relative to your boat. We know the fish are there, the best place to fish is where the fish are, now let’s put some baits in their faces and see if they will bite.

To best demonstrate this example we will presume that there is a large concentration of fish showing on your fish finder at 60 feet. What depth should we put the downrigger wire down to? Let’s go back the basic tenets: How fast the boat is moving, the wind speed, the rate of current, and tide conditions all impact how much wire needs to go out. Converting all these adverse conditions into a single indicator would make the equation a lot easier to solve. Look at the example on Illustration A, using the angle that the wire makes with head of the boom (b), we solve for the actual length of wire needed to achieve the true depth that the fish are indicated. The true depth equals the length of the wire (w) times the cosine of the angle the wire makes with the boom head. Or, DEPTH = Wire (cosine) ANGLE of wire from horizontal. Who said there would be no math?

If we consider that the true depth under the boat of the fish is a right (90 degree) angle, and the wire is the hypotenuse, we can solve for the length of wire needed to achieve the true depth. Confusing? Go to Illustration B for a visual representation of the formula, which is very simple, if you attended MIT.

Now, have you ever noticed that when you hook one fish, then take the boat out of gear, you often hook others? The other fish are taking the bait as it sinks lower in the water column due to lower forward speed. The wire will be at the actual depth (d) when it describes a 90 degree angle with the boom or you are dead in the water. This can be mentally exhausting, especially for an old guy like me who has been out of school since dinosaurs became extinct.

However, my nephew Evan Penn, who is a math wiz and has won the high school math prize twice in three years of high school in New York, worked up the formulas and diagrams for me. I keep Illustration A laminated in the boat and go out on occasion to compare the wire angle to what I think it is to get a better perception of how far the wire needs to be out. (He has graciously offered to email any readers a copy for $5; always thinking of these kids of today, his email is evioney@aol.com. You can, of course, if you are smarter then me, use the formula to figure it out yourself. It’s good to plus or minus 2 degrees.)

Again let’s look at what affects the depth of your lure presentation: wind, current, tide and boat speed. First, let’s control boat speed. Use your GPS to figure out what your SOG or speed over ground is. Let’s say you are at 3.5 knots, a fast trolling speed. Now look around you—which way is the wind blowing? Which way is the tide running? Can you slow your boat down by deploying a drogue (sea anchor) off the side of the boat, or turning into the wind or tide?

Sometimes a simple reversal of trolling direction will slow your boat down enough to get your baits in front of the fish. A favorite of mine is stemming the tide, where you point the bow into the tide and slowly troll just fast enough to move forward. Don’t forget you can always put on larger downrigger weights. If you are using a six-pounder, try an eight, 10, or even a 12-pound weight. Keep spare weights, wire, and connectors on the boat, so there’s no chance of a hung wire ruining a great day.

Keeping an eye on the SOG function on your GPS will help you to determine how fast the boat is moving. If all else fails taking the boat out of gear and waiting till the wire is vertical also can be a real fish-catcher. If there is a really strong current, consider dropping your anchor and just use the current’s strength to keep the baits moving. If the wind is too strong you can always cut the engine and drift; that should allow you to get baits down to the fish.

Many times fish will stay behind structure, letting the tide or current bring the bait to them. Watch for ledges and other structure and make sure your baits move towards them naturally. Try making circles, S-turns, and figure-eights with the boat as well. This will drop your baits down to differing degrees. Most of all, pay attention to when and where the fish bite, and if it’s consistent, keep at it till the bite stops. Try to analyze what helped make that work, and try it again.

These are some simple and effective ways to maximize your results. One other innovation for downriggers is the new pancake weights. Instead of a short, fat weight, the pancakes are slimmer, creating less drag in the water and lessening the boom angle. Remember anything that decreases the boom angle (angle of the dangle or AD) increases depth. AD (ADD for those of you unable to pay attention) can also be decreased by using a thinner diameter stainless wire as it has less coefficient of drag. Using both thinner wire and thinner weights will help dramatically.

Looking again at Illustrations A and B, in the former the middle of the road is a 45 degree angle. Sixty feet of wire will yield an approximate true depth of 42.4 feet, about 30% less. A 45 degree angle at 20 feet is also 30% off; use that to help figure real depth. You can also use the “WAG” rule, which stands for wild-ass guess. Or in all cases, you can put at least 10% more wire out than the depth on your fish finder.

Also, caution needs to be employed if you are in shallow waters fishing close to the bottom. You do not want to hang a weight on the bottom. If in doubt more speed can be your friend, as increasing the trolling speed will bring your weight higher as the AD is increased.

Are you ready to catch big subsurface feeding fish? Downriggers, fish finders, and GPS used correctly can greatly increase your chances of success. Fish where the fish are, and get those baits down to the fish. Be aware of the effects of wind, current, tide, and boat speeds on your lure depth. Utilize the graph in Illustration A to help gauge your wire depth. Try turning your boat into the opposing forces of nature to slow you down. Maneuver the boat through figure-eights, S-turns, and circles. Pay close attention to what works, and then continue doing it. But leave a couple of big ones for me.

Far-Out Charters owner Jim DiMaggio has been fishing Seward for 18 years. He can be reached at 907-440-3171 or dimaggio@residentialmtg.com .