Fishing Harnesses in the River?

[Quadd4]

I'm seeing a few posts about fishing harnesses and had a few questions.

1) Are harnesses used in the areas of the Ren Cen, Free Press or more towards the mouth of the river?

2) What weight bottom bouncers are needed to get down 30-40 ft?

3) Any type of boat control necessary? - or just drift down and troll up?

4) Does this become more productive than jigging as it gets later into the season?

I use harnesses in St Clair but haven't tried them in the river thus far.

Thanks!

[notmuchtime]

From Slick Fishing on a previous thread. Start here and sharpen your filet knife. :) Good luck

Hey guys this is my way of doing it and I can out fish any drifter this way and it keeps Gobies off your bait as well, I troll down stream at 2.3gps speed pulling 3oz bottom bouncers with your favorite crawler harness. Here is a website where you can learn to tie a great harness for the river.. The store bought one's are terrible never bought them..

http://dns.advnet.net/mkg/index.htm

In the early spring when the bite just turns on for harnesses I like to use real worms and when it get going I will turn to a Gulp 4" pumpkinseed colored turtle back bait. I will normally cut off about 1 inch off the head to keep from getting short strikes and it works well..

If the wind is blowing hard out of the north it is nice to have some 4oz bottom bouncer so you can hold bottom better, I also will run 4 rods with two guys on the boat so you up your odds by 50% by just going to 2 rods per man because it you see drifters they normally only run 1 rod per man..Here is the reasoning behind my madness fish face into the current and when your trolling down stream the fish have all day to see it and bit it if there hungry.. You can catch fish running against the current but your bait is sneaking up behind them and it is even less time for the fish to bite it..

The key is when setting up your rods let the bottom bouncer down to you just fell the bottom and then go to the next rod and do the same and so on untill all the rods are set then you go back to the first one and see if you feel the bottom most of the time you will need a little more line out and do so.. You have to watch your depth so you can adujst amount of line out so the harness is running in the strike zone, I use a gps for holes that are in the river so when I am getting close to them I let out a little more line so I get in them and thats about it.. One more thing about trolling against the current and trolling with it, when you troll with it I use my Minkota Auto pilot and it barley has to be running to keep me where I wanna be, but when you troll against the current it burns more gas and is harder on your motor so why not do it the way you dont drain your batteries or burn much gas make sence.. Got to run Cya Slick

[Longliner_382]

:yeahthat: ;)

[perchguy]

How far do you run your rig behind the boat? I have heard of guys that run it out 150ft. Do you have any recomendation as to what type of line to use? The last time we went out we got skunked and I would like to prevent that in the future. From Slick Fishing on a previous thread. Start here and sharpen your filet knife. :) Good luck

Hey guys this is my way of doing it and I can out fish any drifter this way and it keeps Gobies off your bait as well, I troll down stream at 2.3gps speed pulling 3oz bottom bouncers with your favorite crawler harness. Here is a website where you can learn to tie a great harness for the river.. The store bought one's are terrible never bought them..

http://dns.advnet.net/mkg/index.htm

In the early spring when the bite just turns on for harnesses I like to use real worms and when it get going I will turn to a Gulp 4" pumpkinseed colored turtle back bait. I will normally cut off about 1 inch off the head to keep from getting short strikes and it works well..

If the wind is blowing hard out of the north it is nice to have some 4oz bottom bouncer so you can hold bottom better, I also will run 4 rods with two guys on the boat so you up your odds by 50% by just going to 2 rods per man because it you see drifters they normally only run 1 rod per man..Here is the reasoning behind my madness fish face into the current and when your trolling down stream the fish have all day to see it and bit it if there hungry.. You can catch fish running against the current but your bait is sneaking up behind them and it is even less time for the fish to bite it..

The key is when setting up your rods let the bottom bouncer down to you just fell the bottom and then go to the next rod and do the same and so on untill all the rods are set then you go back to the first one and see if you feel the bottom most of the time you will need a little more line out and do so.. You have to watch your depth so you can adujst amount of line out so the harness is running in the strike zone, I use a gps for holes that are in the river so when I am getting close to them I let out a little more line so I get in them and thats about it.. One more thing about trolling against the current and trolling with it, when you troll with it I use my Minkota Auto pilot and it barley has to be running to keep me where I wanna be, but when you troll against the current it burns more gas and is harder on your motor so why not do it the way you dont drain your batteries or burn much gas make sence.. Got to run Cya Slick

[Longliner_382]

You want to keep your line as close to a 45 dregree angle as possible, If you let to much line out your b.b. will go into a flat spin and you will have a mess;)

[SabikiRig]

Quadd4,

I know someone will correct me if I am wrong. But, the General rule of thumb is:

1 ounce= 10 foot
2 ounces= 20 foot
3 ounces= 30 foot

[MUSHY1]

Use just enough line to feel the bottom,,,,,you still have to leave your thumb on the line to let more out, but the more line you let out, the less you feel when the fish hits.....I use to let alot of line out, and wondered why i was not catching as much, tried less line through trial and error and bam, i was on and catching...
The braided lines work great for harnessing, but havnt put that on the reels yet, because i have Thousands of yards of 12 and 14 lb. test.

Mushy

[Slick fishing]

Hello all the trick I have found out if your running at the 2.3 down stream and you wanna know how much line to have out, say if I am in 40' of water I normally would have out 90' of line approximate.. I will go by feel and then line counter is 2nd method I use.. Feel of the bottom is the most important because that bouncer needs to be running in the standing up position like it was made to be used..Cya Slick