When I was a kid and there used to be kokanee in Lake Sammamish, we used to fish for them...and we'd take this huge meat stick, like a halibut rod, and the reel was filled with wire line.

Stick a four pound ball on it, stick it in a rodholder...and voila, instant downrigger.

Worked just fine for us, fishing up to 60 or 70 feet deep (though 90% of our fishing was in 25 to 40 feet).

Fish on...

Todd