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Hey friends,
Since I'm new to the down rigger game and am wondering what is considered to close to the ball where it will spook the fish and what is considered too far back and causing the bait to drift closer to the surface than where the ball is set. I'm sure there is no magical number and deep water is different than shallow. Just looking for a rough range to where I can start my experiment. Right now I'm running easy rigs of either spoons or dodgers and flies 30 ft back. and working the top 15 ft of water for the spring bight

For spring Coho I set within 10' of the ball usually. As the season progresss my leads get longer, somewhere around 50-60'. As always that's a starting point and will adjust from there.

Experiment as it sometimes changes daily. Later in May we sometimes get a really good dodger/fly bite going. At that time I rarely run a dodger further back then 6ft. from the ball. There are those days when with coho want it right in the prop wash.

Dipseys with smalll spoons or dodger /fly right under the surface can be hot also. As the water warms, the fish are more apt to change up.

Thanks guys, also sorry this was posted in the announcements instead of tackle....

Moved to Tackle.

And I agree with everything said above. Ultimately if your not getting bit then change it up.