the doc'
6/7/2016 3:12:00 PMHunter757
6/7/2016 4:14:00 PMMotoBoat
6/9/2016 9:41:00 AMRecall the good ol' days of the "cow bells" or "pop gear", hard to tell a small fish was hooked up with the strain of that gear pulling on a trout rod! Not much different than connecting to a downrigger ball.
Could also try a lighter, 4lb dr ball if your not already using one. I doubt that would have much different results, does however make for much easier dr cranking.