Scotty Pro Tip: Capt. Cefus McRae

Use Downriggers to get your baits in the strike zone.

Trolling is one of my favorite fishing methods.   It lets me cover lots of water, puts a little wind in my face on a hot day, and it's an excellent search tool. Once you locate a school of fish, or some interesting bottom features, you can elect to bring in the trolling lures and do some bottom fishing or jigging.  

Trolling also allows you to cover large swaths of water, both vertically and horizontally.  You can use outriggers or planer boards to extend the horizontal fishing 'footprint' of you boat, to make it seem like it's fifty feet wide.   And you can use diving plugs to get your baits down deeper.   But, diving plugs can only go so deep.  And if the fish are holding much deeper than about 30 feet, then you could be missing opportunities to catch them. 

That’s where downriggers become one of your best fishing tools. With the ability to put your baits at a specific depth, from just a couple feet to over a hundred feet below the surface...and keep them there...a downrigger lets you present your lure or natural bait in exactly the right spot to entice a strike.

And you don't have to own a huge boat to take advantage of the benefits of downriggers either. Scotty Downriggers (the one's I use) come in a variety of sizes and configurations, including mounts that will fit in your gunwale rod holder, so you can easily drop them in place, and take them out when you don't need them.

Take a look at this Nuts & Bolts Pro Tip on how effective, and simple to use, downriggers can be for targeting king mackerel and other denizens of the deep. << PLAY VIDEO >>