Sending it down

[trollmonkey]

I starting downrigging with spinning gear,thats what I had 30 years ago. Since then I've gone to all revolving spool reels Ambassedeurs and Penn Peers which work much better. These reels all have clickers, so I put the line in the release put on the clicker ,flip the freespool on and send them down. So what is up with backing off the drag and sending it down. I do good to set the drag where I want it once a day

 

[SmokeOnTheWater]

The bottom line is to do what you like best!

I believe that using level wind reels are much easier to control with downrigger fishing than spinning reels. I took a friend of mine fishing a few months ago and when I let his line down with the clicker on, he started yelling at me to turn it of because I would wear it out. I told him to buy good equipment and he wouldn't have that problem. Depending on the equipment you have, the clicker may be made of plastic which may wear faster than a metal one. Now, during the off-season would be a great time to go over your equipment and look for any damage or wear. I personally send my rigs down with rod in hand, freespooling with thumb on the spool for backlash control. I need to crank down on the final rod bend anyway. Once I have my drag set on the sweet spot, I don't like messing with it.

I too use the ambassedeur reels and was extremely impressed that I could still get replacement parts for my 30 year old reel direct from the company. If you are setting your rigs without rod in hand, do what works best for you.

 

[Cariboospeed]

You can wear out a clicker?

 

[justfish]

I have been sending mine down the same way as trollmonkey for the past four years I ckeck my reels at the end of the year and have not had to replace anything yet I hate when someone play with the way I have the drag set

 

[twisted lines]

The only good reason I would do it is to stack lines on downrigger's for controling one of the rods while lowering the other in hand and controling the downrigger, but the clicker is by far better then changing the drag, I occasionly try to stack but I think you can figure out what happens. TL