I've mentioned before that the only thing good I can say about pop gear is that it works. I hate the fact that it takes some of the fun out of playing the fish and I'm always fighting the gear when retrieving, whether there is a fish on or not.

I'm thinking of hooking some pop gear directly to my downrigger ball, and then putting a line release at the end of the pop gear, which I will attach to the line on my rod, with the wedding ring or whatever trailing behind the release. Theoretically when a fish strikes, the line should release from the pop gear and I should be directly connected to the fish. The only drawback I see to this system is that the downrigger ball and cable might spook the fish.

Has anybody tried this method? How far back should I run the lure from the release on the pop gear? I'm curious as to what comments others might have on this scheme. Thanks in advance for any advice!