Many anglers use downriggers while bottomfishing to drop the bait in a current without weighting the line. Since I don't own a downrigger, I came up with an alternate plan to run a bait off our weighted chum cage.

I run the metal eye on one end of a large trolling sinker onto the cage line and tie a second line to the middle of the weight so I can lower and raise it independently. To the sinker's opposite eye, I tie a length of 100-pound-test monofilament. At the end of that mono, I tie a downrigger clip.

When I'm ready to fish, I lower the cage, then fasten my fishing line into the clip and lower the sinker. The bait stays in the chum slick, and when a fish hits, I don't have to fight a heavy weight.

James Victory
Gautier, Mississippi