Help Me Identify This Bottom Bouncer

[alexmedic]

Recently I was given a huge box of tackle from an old fella that has no fished in years. A lot of the tackle is 20+ years old but most of it still in the original packages. It was a HUGE score. He just simply had no desire to keep it anymore and told me to take it all.

 

One of the things that I found in the box were about 6 of these:

Opened:

 

Closed:

 

Does anyone know how to use these??

 

As you can see the lead is able to slide up and down. I have used bottom bouncers in the past, but nothing like this. Or is it even a bottom bouncer?

Edited August 27, 2010 by Ten90

[ttreacy]

Not sure what it is. I am not sure how you use it as a bottom bouncer.

[rylan]

Could you use it Ice fishing?

 

Like a 4 way hook? but in this case 2.

[wallyboss]

Yeah it looks like an ice-spreader to me.

[OhioFisherman]

There was a similar but different style, the weight looked about the same but just a single wire. A lot of people used them on the great lakes for trolling over rocky areas, just a method of reducing snags. Might have been 12-16 inches high, with a good sized chunk of lead molded on to it. I believe they used to troll worm harnesses behind them.

 

Dad used to make them out of coat hanger wire.

[alexmedic]

I have been researching it to death on the net.

 

The closest thing I can find is possibly a trolling spreader..

 

But that is not for sure..

[OhioFisherman]

http://bismarck.ebayclassifieds.com/retail-merchandise/bismarck/new-double-bottom-bouncer-catches-more-fish/?ad=2921196

 

http://www.in-fisherman.com/content/bottom-bouncer-basics-and-beyond

 

just different styles

[adempsey]

Looks like a spreader to me. Just tie a hook on each end and bait them, and tie the end with the weight to the main line. I suppose you could troll two lines with it. I've used spreaders shore fishing and ice fishing.

 

However, not sure why the lead weight slides down.

 

Looking at it some more I suppose you could tie the main line to one end and the leader to the other and use it like a bouncer.

[SylvanOwner]

I've never seen one like this either but I'll take a guess on how it works.....

 

just like a regular bottom bouncer (as OhioFisherman says) with the weight sliding "down" the wire for storage and "up" for use. The "tail" created by sliding the weight "up" would reduce snags and also allow some adjustment for how high up off bottom the harness will track. Just guessing but I like the idea.

[Spiel]

I would say old style bottom bouncer.

Leader to lure attached at swivel and line to rod on the other end.

 

As mentioned slide weight up to close the rig for storage.

[bassjnkie]

The only thing that comes close to what you have is the Wahoo High Speed Trolling Sinker/Dredge Weight.

 

Weight slides up and down with two attachment points.

 

[fisher]

Definitely a spreader for use in ice fishing.

 

A few years ago I bought an old home-made sled made of an aluminum frame with skis attached on the bottam and basically a wooden box on top from a lady in Brampton who's grandfather used to own it (he had passed away). The wooden box had an old plastic board with a pciture of a penguin on it (which I think was a mascot for a drycleaners) as the lid for the box that sat on the sled. Wonder if anyone here knew the fellow?

 

Anyway, he must have been a hard core ice fisher because this sled contained every imagineable thing for ice fishing - most hand made.

 

Home made tip ups, a home made ice chipper/scraper, a tarp (made of cloth) that he would use to block the wind (and even long tree branches that he would set into the ice that would be used to drape the tarp over), old newspapers presumably to start a fire with if he ever got lost, a compass, wooden matches, and a whole wack of other interesting things). That brings me to your item...he too had a bunch of these metal spreaders just like yours with about a foot of fishing line extending out the two ends and a hook attached to each. The weight is so that the whole set up gets down to the lake floor.

[alexmedic]

Interesting... For ice fishing you say...

 

I would have never guessed.

 

I thought it was a double bottom bouncer for sure.

 

I thought maybe you bent the two ends up to what ever level you desired and trolled away!!

 

The weird thing is that each of the 6 that I have range from 1 to 4 ozs. I guess for water depth??

[Spiel]

Definitely a spreader for use in ice fishing.

 

 

Well I politely disagree, as a functional spreader for ice fishing it's design would be useless.

 

Note that one end has a swivel and the other does not, to me that would indicate it was designed as a trolling sinker/walker. IMHO

 

And the various weights Ten90 mentions would also suggest a trolling weight system.

[esoxansteel]

Put it on your TV you might pick up more channels

[canadadude]

Well I politely disagree, as a functional spreader for ice fishing it's design would be useless.

 

Note that one end has a swivel and the other does not, to me that would indicate it was designed as a trolling sinker/walker. IMHO

 

And the various weights Ten90 mentions would also suggest a trolling weight system.

I don't see a swivel

[Spiel]

I don't see a swivel

 

 

Click on the first image to expand.

Upper lead show's what I believe is a swivel, crude by todays standards but a swivel none the less.

Bottom lead is a closed loop.

[alexmedic]

Actually it is just a crimped end.

 

Come to think of it, the old gent that I got this stuff from (now deceased, or I wouldn't have to ask ya'll) and I had talked a long time about fishing. He thought I was crazy to go on the ice and said that was something he never had an urge to do.

 

That being said, he could have acquired it from someone that did use it for ice fishing.

 

Who knows???

[OhioFisherman]

Take this into consideration? It`s not like you are moving along at a good clip while ice fishing? wind and waves aren`t really a consideration sitting on ice in a hut? Different sized weights would indicate a need for more weight at different trolling speeds or water depths? again not much of a factor on ice? all you need is a little more time for whatever to drop to the desired depth?