thought I would offer alittle insight into this topic and alittle background on the Rideback Rattlers' first year of use. My logic behind developing the RR was that every serious deep water fisherman uses downriggers. For all these years the weight has offered absolutely nothing to your presentaion, yet year after year we just dragged them along. Why not put the weight to work FOR you?? My philosophy is simple, these are predatory fish we want to catch....and they want to eat.... How do they hunt?? Sight. Sound. Lateral line (sensory) disruption/stimulation. The Ridgeback Rattler serves notice to all those senses in a prowling fish. Our sonar testing this year saw fish coming into the RR's from tremendous distances and following the "trail" left by the water disruption of the Ridgeback. Further to that point I believe that the Ridgeback makes your ENTIRE spread more productive, even if the fish does not make it all the way into the RR and its bait, the fish is right in the middle of your spread!!! A good thing. We saw leads of less than 3 ft. behind the RR produce this year and leads 60 ft and longer produce this year. All after watching fish come in and "look" at the RR. As with any new product I can only respond to the feedback that I recieve from the users. Thus far I have had guys tell me that the Ridgeback has increased their catch ratio by as much as 2 to 3 times!! A recent example is during a tournament this past season a boat weighed about 40# of fish the first day.....purchased two Ridgebacks that evening at the weigh-in and weighed over 80# the next day and consequently took second in to tournament. Coincidence?? This tournament was swept by boats using the Ridgeback!!! 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.......... Hopefully the above info will be added to by the guys in the trenches using the Ridgeback Rattlers. Thanks for this wonderful (website) venue in which to introduce and discuss fish, fishing, and techniques, both old and new. Sincerely, Chip Greene, Ridgeback Rattler Downrigger Weights
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We were sitting at the dock and I was discussing your downrigger weight - a question came up regarding cross current performance. We get some wicked side current (depending on trolling direction obviously) especially up off of Big Sable Point. It seems that the fin might actually make this worse than a round ball, wondering if you have any experience with this.
Post edited by: tiara3600, at: 2004/09/29 11:36
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We actually fished alot out of Ludington this past year. It was where we did the testing with Dave Mull of Great Lakes Angler. The Ridgebacks were not affected adversely by any cross currents. I could see that if you were running them in combination with another type of downrigger weight where there may be a problem. The RRs really track exceptionally well in all types of conditions and seas.
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thanks for the answer Chip - I defintely look forward to running a couple of these ... I noticed re-reading your literature that they are much lighter than typicall cannon balls but you have weight equivalancy - what makes them so the run like a heavier ball?
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Hey Greg, good question. The Ridgebacks are designed with two parallel flat surfaces. The bottom surface and the top surface. The bottom surface keeps the weight from rolling around in the boat while changing lures, etc. which is a great feature if you have ever fished in any kind of "chop". The top surface of the Ridgeback acts as a planing surface much like a dipsey works. The Ridgeback Rattler hangs with a "nose down" attitude and actually bites in and consequently helps to eliminate blow back. The RR is much more "efficient" than normal downrigger weights. The lighter weight means less strain on your downrigger equipment especially when retrieving the RR, as they actually tilt forward when retrieved and come up really easy. Testing and design early on in development proved that we could go as deep as MUCH heavier weights, plus incorporate some really neat fish attracting designs all in one. Hence, the patented design of the Ridgeback Rattler came to be bred, born and built right here in the great state of Michigan!! I can't wait for you to get to try the Ridgebacks too!! If you guys fish as good as you think (and ask questions) the RR's on your boat will be DEADLY!! HA....Hurry spring time!! Sincerely, Chip Greene Sincerely, Chip Greene
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Chip - spring can't come early enough, and I don't even the boat out of the water yet!!! It will be back in first week of April - probably fish a couple of weeks out of grand haven, then back up to ludington don't want to miss the browns and steelies - then heading for deep water after that.
This is by far the worst time of year - but already planning the bass and saltwater excursions for the winter. Plus have lots of work to do on the boat, so winter should go by pretty quick.
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Greg, it is good to have a plan!! Just hope the winter season doesn't last too long this year. Great site!!! I'm trying to get the word out to my friends to check you guys out. Good luck and keep up the good work. Best, Chip
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Wow...I've heard a lot about this site and finally got the chance to track it down and participate in the forums.
I had the great privilege (spelling) of seeing and actually running one of the first Ridgeback Rattler prototypes. To be quite honest, when I first saw the RR I was skeptical to say the least but I am an optimist at heart and saw the way Chip beleived in and promoted his product and I felt it was only fair to give it a try. All I can say is I'm a beliver now!
As just about anybody that first sees the RR, my first reaction was what kind of Star War age looking this is this. Knowing what I do about fishermen and seeing how some of the strangest ideas ever have won some of the biggest tournaments out there, I wanted to see how this thing worked. I first showed it to my tournament partner Larry Hartwick from Offshore Tackle/Riviera Downriggers. If anyone knows Larry, he usually is not at a loss for words. I handed him this "new" thingy Chip called me about and let him open up the brown paper bag. The first words he said was "What the HECK is this?" After fondling and curdling it for a few minutes, he asked me what the theory was behind it. I explained all I knew from Chip to Larry and it was like a light bulb went off. He asked when we were going to try it. Being that there was still a few feet of ice on the lakes I told him we'd have to wait a while but we were going to be trying it soon.
The first voyage with the one RR I had was so, so. In the days to come, we caught fish behind it, but we also caught fish behind traditional weights as well. Chip and I touched base and I told him what was working for us and how we were utilizing it. I wanted to try running two of them to see how they would track together so I picked up another one. By running tow of them my theory was that I would bring fish into the spread by using them, then the fish I did not pick up with them I would pick up with the whole barrage of stuff following behind such as wire dipseys, long lines, and lead core. My theory was right on. The first day I ran this set up, my riggers with the RR's were dominating my spread. Just to see if it was the RR's or the lures, I switched to lures that had not been producing all day and wham, they took off too. I asked myself if this was a coincidence or if I was onto something. Larry and I ran this set-up prefishing for a tournament we were in. One day during pre-fishing we had to have caught 30+ fish on these two riggers, not to mention our cores, etc... We were sold. What we found worked best for us with tis two RR spread was to run SHORT leads and to run the RR's the highest in our spread. Usually above our Full cores and wire dipseys so the fish that came into our spread and did not hit on the riggers would eventually hit the stuff following behind.
Now, since seeing the success of the RR's, we run them on 4 riggers almost all of the time. I've got to be honest in telling you that the RR's are not an everyday catch all thing though. We DID have a few weeks where the RR's were hit and miss and we found ourselves switching to the traditional round balls with traditional leads. I don't know if the fishing just happened to be slow that time of year or it was something about them they did not like during that particular time. What I do know is this. On the days when the RR's are working (and in my estimation about 80-90% of the time) the RR's are a must have in our arsenal.
Sorry for the bored at work novel but I saw your website and this forum in particular and I could not resist adding my two cents worth. If anyone had any questions, feel free to ask and I will respond as soon as I can. Craig aka "Sick Time"
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Thanks Craig really looking forward to running the RRs and doing some experimentation. Alsways looking for good technology especially something that might help catch more fish or be more successful around tourney time.
Are you running the standard color? Have you run the painted ones yet? If so, any difference between the standard and the painted versions?
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Boy, I just re-read my previous post and noticed I had a lot of mis-spelled words. Must have been tired.
Anyway, we have tried the original gold looking RR's, we have tried Chip's bloody nose version, and we have spray painted two of them black. We did not notice them working better one way or the other, but we did find was during a tournament when we were fishing in shallow water, our spray painted black ones seemed to work a bit better. For the deep stuff, the gold color (I think its called zinc chromate or something) was our go to RR.
It was kind of funny. We were pre-fishing in Rogers City and had a chance to take Chip out and show him how the RR's worked for us. We had just spray painted one the night before and were running a full spread. While trolling, all of the sudden the whole downrigger jumped, we heard a TWANG, and no one was home on the rod. The rod never popped but we figured we better check to make sure our meat was still there. Larry reeled in the rod, brought up the rigger weight, and thought we must have just had a hit and not a taker. All of the sudden he busted out laughing and said something to the effect of, "Holy sh&^, look at that weight. The fish hit the weight." If I did not witness this personally, I never would have believed it. The RR actually had teeth marks in the fresh paint from where an agressive fish struck the weight. We showed it to a few people but I think they thought we were full of it. l am honest when I say it's a fact, the RR actually triggered a strike itself.
Gotta run for now, work is calling. Craig
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I picked up a couple of the Ridgebacks from Chip this spring as well and have been running them out of Manistee. As Craig said , they sure look different and I have people asking me all the time if they work. YES , they work , not a magic lure or any thing but they do seem to draw fish into the spread on certain days and I love the way they track , and yes I have run them off from the Stick in Ludington and the currents didn't bother them a bit. Plus they don't roll around in the boat , they sit flat. I've had my brother in law borrow them for use on his charter boat when the fish went deep this summer , say's he is going to get his own this winter , I hope so. We also used them on the tournament boat this year fishing the GLPAA tournaments , used 2 Ridgebacks and 2 chrome shark weights , some days the rattlers were a lot "hotter" than the shark weights and other days it didn't matter. If your looking for the magic setup that never fails , this isn't it , but if your looking to add to the setup that does increase the amount of fish in the box on the hard days then this is going to help most people from what I have seen. I would recommned them and plan on getting 2 more this winter for myself. I hanv't tried the repainting thing but I might experiment with that this winter , maybe trying chrome or silver paint and the other red and black.
Post edited by: FLATRATE, at: 2004/11/03 15:49
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thanks FLATRATE and welcome! Thanks for your input on the RR probably a really good suggestion to work them as part of a full compliment of options. I also posted some questions about the GLPAA in this same forum wondered if you wouldn't mind checking that out also?
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