Leaders, hooks, jig heads or what?

[Havalina]

Do you guys really find it necessary to have a 10 ft or longer leader? For all my fishing out here in Colorado, and all my saltwater shore fishing, I use a 5-6ft leader, attached with a barrel swivel. I don’t find any of my fish get “spooked” because it’s a shorter leader, plus I can change it out quickly using a snap to the swivel. Also, I don’t have any problems with the swivel reaching my guides because it’s only 5-6 feet long.

But I’m curious if the Powell experts think a longer leader is better for that lake, because I’ll change up my strategy if so.

I have not found any of the fish to be line shy. I usually run about 5 feet of 20 lb fluorocarbon for my leader and 30 lb mon behind that. If the fishing is slow I will sometimes throw on a dodger like you would for salmon fishing. It has been my experience that the longer the line is behind the boat the better. I will sometimes run 200 ft plus before I attach it to the down rigger. I fish Lake Powell the same way as I would eleven mile, spinny, pend oreille, ft peck, or flat head. Go big or go home!
The only thing that I have started doing lately is increasing my lure size to prevent walleye or smaller stripers from hitting my lures. There is nothing like dragging a 7in striper behind a 5in lure all day. I recently have moved to a yo zuri crystal minnow magnum and was surprised that the 20-25 in stripers are all about it. The only lure that I have had little sucess with has been a t50 flat fish. I caught one 27 in striper and hooked something that swam off and spooled me. No idea what it was.
I would suggest that you upgrade your hooks as I loose fish to them straightening the hooks out. I would also avoid the J13 by rapala, the stripers decimate them, and one good fish will tear it up.

 

[kgmerrill12]

thanks Havalina

 

[coachk]

Do you guys really find it necessary to have a 10 ft or longer leader? For all my fishing out here in Colorado, and all my saltwater shore fishing, I use a 5-6ft leader, attached with a barrel swivel. I don’t find any of my fish get “spooked” because it’s a shorter leader, plus I can change it out quickly using a snap to the swivel. Also, I don’t have any problems with the swivel reaching my guides because it’s only 5-6 feet long.

But I’m curious if the Powell experts think a longer leader is better for that lake, because I’ll change up my strategy if so.

I use an wingspan length which from what I can tell is about 7ft. Makes it easy to measure. Seems to work awesome.

 

[Bigbassman]

I have not found any of the fish to be line shy. I usually run about 5 feet of 20 lb fluorocarbon for my leader and 30 lb mon behind that. If the fishing is slow I will sometimes throw on a dodger like you would for salmon fishing. It has been my experience that the longer the line is behind the boat the better. I will sometimes run 200 ft plus before I attach it to the down rigger. I fish Lake Powell the same way as I would eleven mile, spinny, pend oreille, ft peck, or flat head. Go big or go home!
The only thing that I have started doing lately is increasing my lure size to prevent walleye or smaller stripers from hitting my lures. There is nothing like dragging a 7in striper behind a 5in lure all day. I recently have moved to a yo zuri crystal minnow magnum and was surprised that the 20-25 in stripers are all about it. The only lure that I have had little sucess with has been a t50 flat fish. I caught one 27 in striper and hooked something that swam off and spooled me. No idea what it was.
I would suggest that you upgrade your hooks as I loose fish to them straightening the hooks out. I would also avoid the J13 by rapala, the stripers decimate them, and one good fish will tear it up.

Wow, those Yo-Zuri magnums are no joke. 6 1/2” and $20 a pop. Do you know how deep they run? I just plan on flatline trolling, wonder if you ever do that with them.

 

[Havalina]

They run about 4-6 ft deep, and I am a down rigger guys in water over 20 ft deep. If you hawk amazon they show up on sale. I bought 5 perch colored ones on amazon a couple of weeks ago for $9.00 a pop. I also like the saltwater crystal minnows in ghost or sardine.

 

[JTJ]

I live at Havasu. I am trying a new set up. Light 8' trolling rod. Casting reel with level wind that moves on line out. 12' per cycle. 15 lb braid, bead, swivel 5'-6' of 10 lb flouro, quick clip. Supposedly the bead will protect the rod tip and snag weeds before it reaches the lure. This was my trout and kokanee trolling rig when we traveled in the summer. It was loaded with 8 lb mono. Now I need to get on the water and test it. It worked very well trolling flashers and small dodgers. If it works I will rig a heavier set up with 30 lb braid to 15 lb flouro for Powell. My 6501 reel does 15 feet per cycle.