I like Downrigging, deadly in the summer. We will find the fish with them, then set up with live bait and tear 'em up.

Yep If I were fishing that deep electric downriggers would be a must!

I use a 10 pound weight.

I don't know if it's standard equipment or an option, but my DigiTroll IV has its own depth transducer. It would be cool if they could network with a Lowrance or a Bird. But I don't think my older IV will.

A buddy has 4 digitrolls that he can link together and control all 4 from one downrigger. Or set each separate depths from the bottom contours with the transducer.

I bet in a few more years they will all be blue tooth! Then I will upgrade my Helix to a newer mega imaging blue tooth sonar and blue tooth downriggers

While downrigging have yall found that the shallower fish seem to be the most active?

In my lake it is a strong rule of thumb from my experience that the fish ontop of a hump or point are going to be much more likely to be active and chase my downrigger than the fish on the deeper contour lines. Theres a spot that I know will produce if the fish are there and its about 14-18 feet deep. The fish on the deeper parts of the contour line (say over 25 feet deep), though present in large numbers, just won't bite. Does this seem to hold true in other lakes from yall's experience?

Hybrids on top of a hump are usually chasing bait up and across it. Experience has taught me that even when there are large numbers of Hybrids present on or near a hump or point it may be just a few that will bite.
The hunt for bait will bring them up Into the shallower water, while their buddies sulk out in deeper water.

Yes you set 1 unit as master and slave the others. You can set them all to different depths. But as far as I know, you still can't network them with a fish finder yet. With my Lowrance HDS gen 2 running an 83/200 kHz transducer and also the sidescan unit, and a kicker motor, it gets a bit crowded back there with so many x-Ducers. But I'll bet it won't be long before Canon gets it together to link up with a lowrance or a bird.

Sometimes I have seen that also and usually at fort phantom if they are up shallow ontop of structure I just couldn't keep them off my line. Theres one point that if the fish are there in 14-18 feet I know I am about to have some fun!

What areas or things do you look for to find the active hybrids then if so many are inactive on top of the humps or points? Are you focusing more on the edge and contour lines of these places and catching some of the more active deeper fish?

If you want to make the hybrids more active, try attaching one of these to the downrigger ball, then run your bait/lure about 5-10 feet off the wire.

https://www.wigglefin.com/Swarm_trolling_flashers_product.html

It works for salmon, so it may work for striped fish too.

Humminbird did have at one time cannon link that networked with the downriggers. It worked with the older core units. But they discontinued it for some reason.


https://www.fishusa.com/product/Cannon-CannonLink-Downrigger-Controller-Connection-Kit

That would be ideal 44. With the current setup, you gotta have one man in the back running the downriggers. If you get one on, he's gotta get the cannonball up and if it's a good one, he often has to get the other ball up and get the other line out of the way. Would be awesome to control things from the touchscreen on the lowrance.
We complicate matters by running sideplaners if there's not too much traffic on the lake...which is to say rarely... you gotta have a front &a rear control man when you try that.

Capt. Craig, thank you for that offer! I'll PM you.

Here's a newbie question. I switched to braid as suggested to get rid of the humming noise. Can I now get rid of the wire terminator and just tie the braid directly onto the release clip?

Did you mean to say tie the braid directly to the ball and not release clip? If so, that's one of the perks of switching to braid too, you don't have to mess with that silly wire securement device. I just tie an improved clinch knot to attach the ball to the 200-pound braid.