I've mentioned before that the only thing good I can say about pop gear is that it works. I hate the fact that it takes some of the fun out of playing the fish and I'm always fighting the gear when retrieving, whether there is a fish on or not.

I'm thinking of hooking some pop gear directly to my downrigger ball, and then putting a line release at the end of the pop gear, which I will attach to the line on my rod, with the wedding ring or whatever trailing behind the release. Theoretically when a fish strikes, the line should release from the pop gear and I should be directly connected to the fish. The only drawback I see to this system is that the downrigger ball and cable might spook the fish.

Has anybody tried this method? How far back should I run the lure from the release on the pop gear? I'm curious as to what comments others might have on this scheme. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Your set up sounds good in theory. I have heard of guys in salt water doing what your are talking about. Except they use a dodger/flasher seperate from the bait. I don't remember exactly how it goes but I think they attach a dodger/flasher to the ball and then "stack" the bait above the ball with stackers. This setup could be vice versa I am not really sure. I saw a diagram once upon a time on how to do what you are talking about.

I've fished for trout alot on my DR. Usually a hotshot or flatfish worked well. Spinners or lures of any kind will work well on the DR for trout. What doesn't work good and can turn into a hassle really quickly is the standard wedring setup or whenever you use a worm. Unless the fish are willing to gulp the whole worm or hook, then your looking at alot of missed hits and alot of rebaiting.

I thought the same thing, that it would work really good but i soon realized i was cranking up the DR everytime i got a bite because the fish would strip it or peck it off. Soon i developed Downrigger Elbow. So the mind game starts with every bite, wondering if the worm is still there. Not fun. SO try maggots with #8 hook or smaller on your popgear setups. They stay on bite after bite after bite and the trout luv em. Use them with your worm if you like. Another thing is use micro popgear. It's 3 bladed and easy as hell to pull through water and works better than the big Ford Fenders or Cow Bells types. Yes, why fight your gear? I've also tried setting the line in the clip lightly enough for them to just take it and run, but that rarely happened. Good Theory though. I think cause they hit it at a given speed and then peck it out of the clip and the lure or spinner kinda stalls untill enough slack catches up and it returns to speed but the fish have usually moved on after this stall in speed. Not always though. Just my experience.

When i went to Lake Washington with wedrings on the DR it sucked. We got massively huge hits over and over but managed to only hook one. When we did, the cutthroat spazzed out so much we never got it to the boat. We also burried the line in the clip deep enough so the fish would hook itself on that last Cutt. Then we switched to lures and only lost 1 of the next 5 strikes. Sometimes you just run into a bunch of peckers, not fun on the DR. So maggot tipped lures fixed the peckers and kept them happy at the same time. Experiment and you'll see what works and what just a hassle. (i write too much)

Well, I was reading a Canadian fishing newspaper and found a small diagram of what I was talking about.

Starting at the ball and working your way up:

Flasher/dodger either attached to the ball or just above it. I am not sure of the length off the ball.

Then "stack" your bait above the dodger/flasher extending past the length of the first dodger/flasher. Not sure of this length either.

Next, stack another dodger/flasher.

Then another bait above that dodger/flasher.

You can have multiple baited lines running off of one downrigger line.

THANKS GUYS.

I've tried the pop gear/release clip off the rigger with little success. For one thing, trout are more shy than salmon. I try to keep my bait back 60 feet or so from the boat. I've had luck with pop gear off the rigger but back 60 feet. Mostly I just use a thin blade spoon type lure off the riggers. Less hassle. I'll run the pop gear up high with a 1/2 oz weight to drop it into the 10 foot zone.

Sounds like my idea will be more hassle than it's worth. Will probably stick to the same old set-ups. Thanks to all for the input.