What ever happen to the meatlines we used before downriggers. I am going to start finging the salt again and can't find them anywhere. How I love that 40 foot dropline with a hog on the other end.

"finging the salt"?? hmmmmmmm

Since the advent of downriggers meatlines make no sense for sport fishing. I still know a couple of fishermen who use them, however - ex-commercial trollers who were never able to figure out how to land fish any other way The rig I like is the setup one of them put together using a Penn hand crank downrigger for a reel, mounted upside down, with a super heavy fiberglass rod in place of the aluminum boom. Looked pretty easy to build to me. Still, why would you want to

Maybe he his hungry?

Can't find a meat line around Tacoma! Don't exist anymore.

As a former Meatliner, I can honesty say- forget it! Too much work!

Nonetheless, give Russ a call at Narrows Marina. He'll probably have to build one out of a 'But stick for you. The Alvey might take a little time to get here from Australia....

Downriggin'

Yeah right Gary, and they aren't any fun to fish with either huh?
Seriously, I own a few of those myself, although I use my Scotties most of the time now, that is when I am not mooching. I grew up fishing the south sound with my dad using meatlines and with no such thing as sonar. I can remember the days before the fiberglass rod used to go through the handles and my dad would get hung up on the bottom. If you were not watching, it would be "CRACK"!!! and "Splash" as the rod would disappear into the depths. Remember those window sash weights we used to use, back then.....geez, I can't be as old as it sounds, can I?
I have caught some hogs on those things and let me tell you, it can get your blood pumping just like a steelie on a jig rod. The advantage is that you can fish the depths of 250 plus and stay constantly in touch with the bottom. They also build muscles on your arms, if you know what I mean. I guess thats one reason I now choose the Electrics.

Ng

River Rat,

.I received your e-mail last night, I think I know where a meat line blank is, I started looking after you took off from my house the other night. If I can get it you will need to get a Alvey Reel, I have a pulley or 2 hanging around in the garage.

RiverRat, if you are looking for an Alvey, I have a couple extra small ones available. Make me an offer?

Scott knows me and can give you some input on what you need.

Steve Ng

Yes I do mine came from my mom house when they changed windows. As for a reel I used an old Packron. Thank you Scott.

River Rat,
Actaully, there are meatlines all over Tacoma. If you go out fishing at Pt. Defiance on a weekend, you will see a bunch of them. If you can get down to Narrows Marina or the Pt. Defiance Boat House, they can help you find one. There is always somebody selling one on the bulletin boards down there. I use downriggers, but have used meatlines in the past. I prefer to fight a fish on a good old fashioned fishing rod for the sport of it. I am not knocking meatlines however, I just prefer the downriggers. Jack

Meatlines...ahh the memories I have!

One of the first times I ever fished PD with my dad about 20+ years ago, we were moochers back then. We didn't know diddly from a dogfish or how to hook either really. Always caught a lot of cod and a lot of dogfish. I remember this story like it was almost yesterday.

One morning right down in front of Owens beach up close in about 125' of water on a beatiful warm and calm morning we noticed a guy had a really nice fish on his meatline and it was really giving him some trouble right up on top. The guy was in what looked to be about a 24' boat with meatlines off of both sides mounted on 12" meatline holders.

Anyway, this fish is really nice, 25+ and splashing all around this guys boat about 10' from the net. The guy keeps cranking and the fish kept splashing in a tug of war and then in a single instant, the fish, the meatline, and the glory were pulled to the depths of the sound as the meatline holder became disconneted from the boat as in it BROKE OFF the boat!!! Took less than a second for everything to disappear, unbelieveable, I still can't believe the look on that guy's face! Poor b******d, he was simply dumbfounded! As was everyone else within 50 yards!

So my dad and I continued to fish PD as moochers for next 2-3 years. We would stop by the boathouse and check out the derby board, talk to the old timers and try to pick up some tips on what we were doing wrong. Back then the derby board usually had a high 20's or low 30's fish in the top 5 places and frequently it was these old timers on top with thier meatline caught hogs. They were trolling out in front of the Clay Banks in 200+ feet of water on the bottom with big plugs. Some used flasher/hoochie combo's but mainly it was 6" white plugs.

So me and my dad decided that we need to get a meatline and try it out, it appeared to be the hot ticket. So we got one, mounted it on my dad's 12' Livingston with the cockpit style seats, one in front of the other and headed off to PD from Fox Island where my dad lived. It was like August, late afternoon/early evening and we decided to fish the wall right at the point on a good outgoing rip. So we rigged a blue/green hoochie with red hot spot and dropped her down to 120 '. Man, it wasn't 2 minutes and we had some hard shaking on the end of the meatline, a nice chrome 18 pounder as it turned out! Whoo Hoo, we're stoked! This meatlining is easy! Well, it has it's moments anyway.

We'll as time went by, we upgraded to a 14' tiderunner center console walkaround style boat and I convinced my dad to try one of those new electric downriggers. Bought a a Canon mini-troll(should have bought the Canadian brand, fool) and never have fished with the meatline again. Ever. My dad's gone, but I still have the meatline, damn, some good memories there!

But I'd recommend a downrigger, way more fun to fight a 20+ pounder with little to no weight/resistance on the line than cranking them in on a meatline. You want food, go meatline. You want sport, go 'rigger.