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On my down rigger rods I use a bigger swivel 4-5ftish up from my main line lure.. I use a smaller swivel for the slider. This will keep ur slider from making it to the lure on the main line

Interesting conversation...I’ve never seen so much hate or discouragement for down riggers.  They are my bread and butter and wouldn’t leave home without them.  Have at least 2, I prefer 4 myself for when the rigger bite is on!  

Tmik34 wrote:

Sounds fine, like bk said slides and anything that spins could cause a world of hurt. Cow bells do best 1.5 - 2 mph, id opt for a spin doctor and spin n glow and go between 2.5 and 3 covering water.


Thanks for the insight,  I never used the cowbells before, I was not aware of the slower speed required.  I will opt for the spin doctor/ spin n glo combo as i will be moving in that 2.5-3mph range that you mentioned


 

gcundercover wrote:

Interesting conversation...I’ve never seen so much hate or discouragement for down riggers.  They are my bread and butter and wouldn’t leave home without them.  Have at least 2, I prefer 4 myself for when the rigger bite is on!  

 I dont think there is any hate for riggers, but if you dont have them and are concerned about the expense of adding them you cant get by just fine without them in the spring.

Got a boat last year missed the spring bite fished mid June till mid August caught fish on riggers and dipys spoons and f/f not a lot still learing. Looking to get my first king this spring only run a 6 rod spread can I run two dipys off one side of the boat without much trouble or should I look into getting a couple leadcore rods? 

Afuel wrote:

Got a boat last year missed the spring bite fished mid June till mid August caught fish on riggers and dipys spoons and f/f not a lot still learing. Looking to get my first king this spring only run a 6 rod spread can I run two dipys off one side of the boat without much trouble or should I look into getting a couple leadcore rods? 

Certainly get some leadcore or copper rods.  I would guess that 60% of my fish come on leadcore or copper on boards over the course of the season, maybe even higher than 60%.  They are incredibly important when fish are not all that aggressive.
 

You can run 2 dipseys a side. I usually run a mag diver on my deep one on a 1 or 1.5. Then the standard size on my high on a 3 to keep them apart. Can be a pain resetting them sometimes in a smaller boat until you get the hang of it. That being said I’d prefer to have the leadcore in a 6 rod spread to have as may varied presentations as possible. Some days the the fish will favor 1 presentation more than others. 
I’m not sure about cowbells but I run a F/F on my deepest rigger most days and I run a fixed slider above it every time. Seldom ever an issue. 6-7’ above my F/F I tie a bead chain into the line with a bead like used in a fly above that on the main line. Then only make you slider around 3’ long so when it slides down it stops at the bead leaving the flasher rotating 3-4’ behind the fish. You could also use a speed bead. 

What those guys said about combining a slider with a dodger/flasher'cowbells at the bottom. Will likely lead to a terrible wreck. This is experience talking. 

Sounds like you probably have two downriggers. Chances are, if you are running both of them deep for lakers or deep down chinooks, most days even if both have the same attractor and fly or spin/glow - one is going to outproduce the other. So leave the productive one down there and switch the other to a big spoon. It will likely catch as many deep fish as you would have had anyway, plus you can run a slider on it.

One last tip for now. For the next month or so a spoon or J-Plug on a deeper set downrigger is apt to catch some kings. You can run a small coho dodger and fly on a slider above either of these and won't get many terrible wrecks out of it.

Thanks for the tip BNature.  Much appreciated