Northwest Fishing Reports

I plan on fishing the Columbia River here in the Wenatchee Valley for the Kings very soon.
Mostly less than 50 feet deep with light current so I was wondering what size of downrigger weights you downrigger gods would recommend for this venue. I've got an 8lb set I use in freshwater lakes and I'm figuring they will be OK once I switch out the stainless cables on my riggers for braid.
Any ideas, recommendations or opinions are more than welcome.

I fished Hanford reach years ago for fall kings with DRs. I seem to recall we went with 5-8 lb balls. My main concern was getting hung up and dragged under, but in reality it probably would have just snapped the cable. In any case I had wire cutters available! Here's the article:

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReadArticle.aspx?id=16

give them a shot and see how they work but 8lbs may be a bit light if you start trolling at more than kokanee speed. I have a multitude of wieghts but end up using 12lb balls for most of my fishing, fresh or salt. I have given pancake weights a shot but I don't like their action in currents. I have two fish shaped weights that I use in the lakes from time to and they seem to track just a little bit better than the standard ball weights. Either way you choose you should have back-ups just in case you hang one up and can't retrieve it. If you don't mind E-bay, some great deals can be had. I picked up a pair of weights last year from this outfit, seems they are still at it. EBAY 12lb Downrigger Weight Listing As for painting them, I err on the side of caution. I've been working in the electronics field for nearly 25 years and understand the principals behind the generation of an electric field between dissimilar metals. So I paint the suckers just in case it does make a difference plus you'll note that lead is a particularly grabby substance. A bit of paint can give you an extra moment or two to get your weight out of the rocks you'll eventually encounter on the bottom of whatever body of water you fish.

I kind of have a lite setup, (smaller DR's/boat) so I've been using 8lb for anything over 50ft, fresh or salt. I've had no problem trolling effectively all the way down to 100ft. Sure, I have to let out probably 10ft or so more downrigger line than if I was using 12lb, but it's rather minor in my opinion. I'd say give it a try with what you have (test run), see if you like it/feel comfortable with your presentation, and if not go with 10/12lb. Trolling 50ft or shallower on lakes I have no problem using my 4lb, to me the smaller weights create less "disturbance", and therefore are less likley to spook fish. That is just my thoughts, I have no idea if it's really true, but seems to work for me.

I fish the salt with my down riggers and use 10 pound weights. I believe 12 pounders would be even better for the salt, because of the current, especially if fishing deeper than 100'. I find the cable angle is somewhat drastic if my 10 pound weight is deeper than 100' which is why I believe 12 pound weights would be even better in that scenario. I'm not sure how this would apply when fishing the columbia because I haven't been out there using DR's. Just my two cents...

I just always use 12# ers, unless we're in the little boat with the hand cranks. If the down riggers are electric use heavy balls. When trolling with them at rufus I didn't think 12#ers were too big at all. If you have current you want heavy balls. This is getting bad if I type balls one more time it's gonna start going down hill fast.........:bom:

As big as your mounts/boat can handle. 15 is tough. I run 10 or 12s, have some 8lb balls but have not used them in who knows how long....

Bodofish wrote:I just always use 12# ers, unless we're in the little boat with the hand cranks. If the down riggers are electric use heavy balls. When trolling with them at rufus I didn't think 12#ers were too big at all. If you have current you want heavy balls. This is getting bad if I type balls one more time it's gonna start going down hill fast.........:bom:

Ok, I'll type it then. :bball: When you guys mention "balls", are talking cannon balls or finned weights? I have a pair of coated 8# finned weights that sort of resemble a cannon ball with a tail. I've wondered how well the pancake weights would work and I'm glad to read of their performance. Think I'll stay with the finned style weights, they seem to work well as far as I can tell, but I am going to get some in the 10# and 12# size to see how well they work compared to the 8#. I have a fair amount of swing back with the 8 pounders and SS, so it will be interesting to see how they perform with the Tufline.

Great thread going here.

I'm not an accomplished troller, but I switched to the 10# pancake weight "With" fin several years back. I used to use an 8# and a 10# cannon ball weight, but as you can guess, it wasn't enough to hold the bait where needed at deeper depths without lots of blowback. The 10# pancake has less blowback than I experienced with the 8# cannon ball, even at 200-250 ft depths. I have changed to braid for downrigger line, and I can't tell a difference of blowback when comparing the braid with SS.
Hope others chime in with their experiences of the pancake weights to give different experiences with them. Tight lines all.

I haven't gone to the pancake simply because we pour our own and I hate to spend the big bucks on them. Some of the guides swear they do better when down 250 to 350 but the 12#eers have always worked fine for me.

Hey ya Bodofish, I totally understand pouring your own. If ya lose a few "Weights" while trolling, it gets spendy in a hurry, and pouring your own costs next to nothing once you've poured a few and recouped the cost of the mold.

Fishing for kings in the Islands you tend to loose a few............

I suggest you find your desired weight style in a major catalog and look up the customer feed back if they offer it. I did this on Cabalas recently and, while I am not sure of the knowledge of the reviewers, it gave me some more to think about.

As for weight, I need to go heavier.