Yep..The extreme heat this summer has heated up the water surface. It looks like I'm going to have to get a downrigger. I have never been on a vessel nor have I ever used one..I have watched you tube videoes. That is all I know about them..I'm thinking all I need is to get down 18-35 feet..The rigs I have seen are way over what I need as far as price and downrigger line. I'm not on the "Great Lakes" in fact my target fish is rainbow and brown trout..One thing that comes up is that a stainless steel line on the downrigger "Whines" as it moves through the water..Did any of you change the stainless line out"...Also I don't think I need a 5 lb weight but maybe I do I don't know..Do any of you have home made downriggers?..I also had a thought about the downrigger getting hung-up..In my little boat it might tear it up on the mount system..I don't know..Some of the downriggers are quite pricey for what I need it for..I don't need an electric rigger..I don't want a cheap one as it would be $$$ wasted..I'm thinking along the lineof small boat or kayak..What do you use?

No experience with downriggers but have used dipsy divers for lake trout and salmon down to 50 ft with no problems. Much cheaper and very easy to use.

Tray has good advice. That would be the cheapest, best alternative.

Brian

There is also leaded line, dipsy diver work well also.

If you need to get down 18 to 35 feet I do that all the time with Flicker Minnows no extra weight and Spoons couple feet leader with 3 oz In line weight simple and deadly. Downriggers are nothing to be afraid of and we fished with them all the time as kids, back when the Great Lakes had lots of large salman. Personally I would not consider a downrigger until deeper than 50 feet. Look into planer boards and running a few extra lines.

This. They come with depth charts on where they are running, laminate it and keep it in your tackle box.
They are deadly accurate with a countdown reel or you can count the spool turns on your reel.
I always have dipsys along when guiding for trout and walleyes, pike and muskies at times as well.

Osky

Have you tried bottom bouncers? The deeper you go the heavier one you want. I like them because they follow the contour better. You can run harnesses or plugs. Easy to set up. Good luck

Yep...I have have not tried bottom bouncers or have I ever heard of them. I will start looking into the possibility..Same goes for "Dipsy Divers" never have heard of them but will start looking into them..I use a 8 lb test line..That's why I was considering a downrigger because I didn't know of an alternative..

Use dipsys with 30 power pro braid line. It’s 8# diameter. Your 8# test will not hold up to the pull of a dipsy. You can also look into offshore tackle company they have many options to help.

Yep..I think I have found what is a alternative option for light line. I may move up to 10 lb mono..Your right Offshore Tackle makes a "Tadpole Diver" from 1oz up..they are small...

Alot of reviews with lead core lines seem to have a constant complaint about the core being exposed through the jacket..I don't think I like that...

I have a little question..Which method is the most accurate on knowing what the depth of a lure/bait is?..Some of these methods use a line counter..Let's say one has 140 feet of line out with a diver..at a speed of let's say 1 mph..then in a chart let's say that the lure is in 20 feet of water..OK..That's all fine and dandy..I twist and turn in the lake..that means my diver is sinking and rising all the time..If I would troll straight..then the chart would be accurate...is that what happens to you?...even if I used lead line I think by turning in the lake my lure would rise and fall..OK...I'm going to guess at this and say that a down rigger would keep a more accurate depth..would this be true?..I really don't want to over think this..uh..too much..

What kind of lures are you running? I use snap weights on the great lakes to achieve depths like your talking. I use an Offshore OR-19 release with a cannonball weight from 1oz up to 12 oz. At 1mph you could use 1-3oz and keep the same line. Though all the charts use 10lb line for readings in their charts.

Your depth will change slightly when turning but unless your running right on bottom it shouldn't matter. And if you are fishing that close to bottom snags are just part of the game.

At 1 mph bigger dipseys can be finicky too. If you are interested in divers check out the slide diver lite bites. They let you run long leaders because the diver slides on the line. And the light bite allows you to run enough tension on the diver to keep it working, yet still trip with a 1lb fish.

I can easily run 10 lines off a 17.5ft deep v boat. Inline planner boards for the snap weight lines out to the side and divers run over the side. I also run 2 down riggers. I am limited by room for people on the boat before number of rods.