Pulling stretch lures

[Don C]

Need a little help, I've been pulling stretch 25' and 30's but I seem to have a problem with them running off to one side or another. I end up switching sides with them till they run so the don't foul each other. I pull them with braid, is there a way to tweek them to run strait? I here of people playing with the eye on the lure but it never seems to help.

Don C

[seapower]

They work but are pain it the butt lures for that reason. I haven't tried to adjust them, because I haven't heard of anyone having any luck doing it. I generally just pull one down the center far enough behind the rest of my rigs, so it won't foul them. They certainly are expensive enough, seems like the maker would do a better job about tracking. Frank

[Don C]

They work really good on the stripers, some day's they are the hot ticket while trolling but they seem to foul alot and braid is a pain once it gets tangled. I've tried to run them down the center with wire on both side on rod riggers but it always seems to bit me in the butt. I have a bunch of stretches just to get one or two to run true. Might need to find another deep diveing lure for the spring. Any others that run that deep, I'm thinking about the Bomber CD's. But I don't want to have to buy 10 to get 2 that run strait.

Don C

[Anthony of the ARK]

put a flurocarbon or mono leader. and slow down.

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Use an open loop knot.
Use a rod with a flexible tip...the stiffer the rod the more they walk.
Slow down.
Lighten your leader. Do not use a swivel.
If this won't work.....throw it in the garbage.
Holwachagot

[N2theBlue]

you can also take pliers and bend the eye the opposite of the way its tracking to straighten it up. Takes some practice, and doesn't take much to fix them.

[Don C]

I will give those those ideas a try. If not I may just scrape them and try the the CD's. The only one's I had that were good gave themselves to the blue fish one day when they were THICK at the barny ridge.

Don C

[CaptainSteve]

Here are four things that I have found that have saved me from losing my mind with them:

use a rod that has a soft tip

mono leader with a crimped loop

run it 200 feet behind the transom

run the boat at 2 to 2.5 knots max

[partfish]

i have found that you have to use mono the smallest lb test you can get away with and they will pull straight

[Captain Fred Archer]

I grew to absolutely HATE all of the diving plugs during my years down in Mexico. The constant tuning and tinkering with them in the tropical sun was like torture. I tossed so many of them after trying to tune them, putting them in the water, seeing them roll over and run to one side, then the other, trying again and failing...on and on. Then, if I did get one running right, a bite from just about any decent game fish would knock it for a loop and it'd run like crap again. The guys who are saying "slow down" are right when it comes to getting these things to run right, but that limits the amount of water one can cover in a day, which is no bueno when it comes to just about any kind of fish - or finding them in the first place, at least.

Now, that was my experience and resulting opinion. I'm sure that there are some out there who know how to tune the various deep running plugs so that they can be run faster than a couple of knots, but I'm not one of them.

Actually, for me, the very best running and a very good catching plug was an unglamorous one that I don't think many fishermen use. It is the Boone Cairns Special, a lipless plug with a great wiggle that runs nice and straight - at least most of them do. Plus, they keep running straight after being mugged by big fish. And they are quite inexpensive compared to the other plugs. No, they don't dive, but being that I am a fan of downriggers for deep fishing anyway, I get all of the depth I could ever want from the Cairns.

Those of you who have read my books know how I rig them for optimum performance.