downrigger setup

My scotties came mounted on our 22 with heavy spectra braid
(probably250#), which gave much more blow back than I wanted even with a 13 lbs pancake.
For comparison I changed one down rigger to 150# power pro fishing line, which made a big difference when fishing deep.
Now both of them have 300ft of#150 fishing braid and it works very well.

Arend
 
found this article about rudder flasher, seems to get your gear out to the side, and might help.

http://www.theoutdoorline.com/blog/tag/ ... ger-trick/

Used my downrigger to get this monster on Saturday night, but it was just holding a can of chum. I didn't put a line on it, I just jigged on the other side of the boat. The downrigger cost me two other fish probably about as big as I was fishing solo and they didn't get pulled up quickly enough. Fun night though!

http://www.c-brats.com/albums/album2505 ... .sized.jpg

It looks like the above rudder flasher is especially good for halibut on riggers. I am thinking about finding some.

I have some 100# braid at home that I could use on my riggers. Not sure if that will be strong enough to troll for buts with my weight potentially hanging up, but should be just fine for anchoring and fishing buts that way. I don't usually troll near the bottom (tough with manual riggers), but I'd like to do exactly that.

It occurred to me that NMEA data being standardized, it would be very easy to tell your downrigger to stay 10' off the bottom and have the unit move up and down based on sounder data it receives in an NMEA network, after all the downrigger knows how deep it is fishing. This seems like an ultra useful and easy tool to provide, but I see that it is available as a very very proprietary setup with a humminbird sounder paired to canon mag trolls.

Seriously? Why don't electric riggers just integrate into an NMEA network and work at established depths off the bottom? I found this DIY setup that is the closest thing I could find to what I think should be widely available:

http://www.downrigger.pages.fi

I may build a pair someday. I doubt it though, I'd rather go fishing.
 
That is a very nice fish. As for keeping your baits off bottom. try looking at the cannon digitroll 4 or 5. I have a a set of older digitroll 4s that I just love. They work great. They can follow the bottom contour or move from one depth to another at set times.
 
starcrafttom":38whqs1s said:
That is a very nice fish. As for keeping your baits off bottom. try looking at the cannon digitroll 4 or 5. I have a a set of older digitroll 4s that I just love. They work great. They can follow the bottom contour or move from one depth to another at set times.
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But that requires a humminbird sounder as well, correct? It's all proprietary??? I'd prefer something that uses the NMEA standard. Apparently, it's not a thing. Go figure.
 
no it does not the digitroll four is a complete stand alone unit. It has its own depth sounder puck. You dont need anything else. You can go with the cannon humming bird link system to control up to 6 cannon MAG 10 or MAG 20s. that is the system you are thinking about. The new digitroll 10 does not need that and is self contained. You can link up to two of the digitroll 10s to one sounder puck, that is how my boat is rigged. I have three, well four digitroll IV units but one is in need of repair. I am thinking of selling them and buying the newer digitroll 10 units.
 
I'm not a certified downrigger engineer, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Braid vs wire: braid all way if you're fishing salt water at any appreciable depth. Less blow back from thinner diameter and no worry of salt corrosion. Cable probably lasts forever in WI fishing freshwater. I wrap the inside of my spool with duct tape to mitigate the chance of it splitting from the braid digging into itself. (Hint: to keep braid from digging into itself, quit hanging your ball up on the bottom.) Speaking of hanging up on the bottom, if you set the clutch correctly, you don't need to have super high test braid. I think mine is 175 lbs. I also use a shock-bungy to connect the ball so the newbies that stop it too quickly on decent don't snap it off.

Downrigger boom length: I used to have the short 24" booms. They're fine if you're fishing in flat water and pay attention when you turn. Keep the kicker on the inside of your turns and you'll never have a problem. But, if you fish in strong cross currents or slip down the face of a swell, you'll eventually run that 'rigger line into the kicker prop. I've lost two balls that way. Two remedies--prop guard as mentioned, and longer booms. Scotty booms are just shy of $100 each. Well worth it, IMHO, especially if you're fishing divers off the stern at the same time; you get a wider spread and fish more water.

Bottom tracking downriggers: Gimmick. Waste o' money. If they were necessary, Scotty would make them. 8) Seriously, they have a purpose if you're fishing winter blackmouth in the Sound. Those fish are real bottom huggers and won't come up to chase bait. However, if you fish the ocean or a body of water in excess of, say, 200', you're more than likely trolling for suspended fish in the 60-180' water column. Even halibut will come 20-30' off the bottom to chase bait, so I don't think they're necessary for 'buts, either. The other problem I have with those bottom trackers is how it affects the tension on your rod. Let's say your tracking 5' off the bottom in 100 FOW. You then go over a 30' trench and the downrigger lowers the ball like it's supposed to. Will the fishing line stay in the clip or release? My bet is it will release from the extra tension. What about the opposite when the sea floor comes up 40'? The downrigger brings the ball up, and now you have too much slack in your fishing line. Just not my thing.

Another tip: If you have Scottys, use about a 10' length of tuna cord between the braid and the ball. Use a large SS swivel to connect the two lines. The swivel will act as a 'stop' when the ball's at the surface. You won't have to worry about those plastic stops slipping on the braid.
 
I get the advice about the gimmick, but I'm not over that variable of a bottom, and I'm working on improving winter king fishing. Often they are on the bottom here as well, that's why I'm interested. More often we get king salmon on halibut gear on the bottom than halibut on trolling gear mid water.

I became interested in this feature because as I fished I wanted it. Sometimes yearned for it. I just figured it would be a simple add on to any electric downrigger, but not the case, or so I found when I went looking. Glad to see there are some other options out there. I'm somewhat new to this gear type so not familiar with all of the various models, but I'm sure I will be very soon.

I manually operate the downriggers I have, and just set my drag so that the rod maintains the bend I want as the weight is lowered. As I raise the downrigger, my rod slacks and I can easily see that and crank up and tighten it. Not sure why electric downriggers would be different, except I don't have to watch the sounder and raise and lower the riggers, just tighten up rods as they get slack. If I were after halibut and I had a slack line I wouldn't worry about it for a second. For a king it would be a bigger challenge.

I'm sure there are better ways to fish these, and I realize I sound a bit stubborn above, but I'm not. It's just that I didn't learn about the bottom track feature on Canons and decide I wanted one, I yearned for one because I was on the boat and realized how cool it would be for the way I fished. But I am a little bit tempered by the proclamation of these being a gimmick and I think I'm cooling my jets a little bit! Maybe I just need to try out some electric downriggers and see what I think about them before I decide what I want (need).

Maybe I just need Tom's old riggers so he can move on up!
 
Kushtaka":u7ttlz88 said:
Maybe I just need to try out some electric downriggers and see what I think about them before I decide what I want (need).
Click to expand...
I would most DEFINITELY consider electric downriggers, no matter the make.

Peter
 
Well I have to chine in again about the bottom following downrigger. It is not a gimmick in any way shape or form and if you have fished with them you would know that. The comments about lines popping out is due solely to the fact of using the wrong , and poorly designed, releases. My rods almost ,maybe one a year, pop out. If you have a electric down rigger and you have to adjust for depth up or down you have to adjust the down rigger then the rod. If you are making a big change you have to do both back and forth 20 ft or so at a time. with the depth control you just have to reel the rod up or down, the down rigger takes care of its self. If your reels drag is set right you dont even have to mess with it when it goes deeper. so much less (?) running around when you are fishing, it cut the work in half. You can set the cannon to move if the bottom comes up 1 for or 100 ft. I set mine for 5 ft. so if the bottom changes 5 ft the rigger moves. I can not tell you how many hits I get while the down rigger is moving. It adds a little more action that you dont get with a regular down rigger. I also use the jigg function , cycling between to set depth say 20 to 40, to fish silvers and suspended kings. You get your hits mostly when the downriggers move up or down. covers a lot more water if you have one rigger set to 20 to 30 and the other set 40 to 50 as an example. But to each their own. just want people to know that its is not a gimmick in any way.
 
If they were necessary, Scotty would make them. Cool
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I have been told that they would love to but can,t due to patents. not sure if that is true. If I was going to get a dumb electric downrigger I would get a used penn. Work so much better then scottys and the reel is oriented in the right dirrection. but thats just my experience.
 
Okay Tom. This is what I was envisioning while I yearned for bottom tracking. I even envisioned my drag being set perfectly and the rod maintaining perfect tension as the weight dropped.

How do these perform going downhill? Is there a delay on downhill drops so the lure trailing the weight doesn't hang up?

I've blown my boat upgrade budget for the year, but if you do end up selling your old ones drop me a line! Maybe we can work out a trade for some Copper River salmon!

The patent issue is one that I can't really wrap my head around, nor is the reasoning behind these having their own transducer, for the same reason really: depth data can be provided easily via either NMEA standard, and a downrigger could use this info, plus the length of cable info and perform, and the link to the DIY downriggers I shared earlier show units that do exactly this (coincidentally, he is using a humminbird unit). Perhaps the sonar on the downrigger determines the depth of the weight by it's depth as scanned and so isn't relying on the amount of line spooled out, and that could certainly provide better performance, and require a dedicated sonar. I'm guessing that's how they work?

I just need to figure out how to get a bigger upgrade budget from the Admiral.
 
These units date back to the 80's. so nmea was not used at that time. The line out is counted by the number of times the spool rotates. They use two different magnets in the spool to count how many times it turns. I once loss a magnet from my spool and did not know it. The line was only counting every other turn. 50 ft was 100 ft. that was a bad day until I figured it out.

I never have to touch the rods when they are going down for one depth to another. I just let the drag handle that. i like to keep my rods under a lot of tension and this set up works really well. as long as you are set up right with a good release and a long lead I have no problems with hanging up on the way down. My releases are about 5 ft long because of the long booms. I run my flashers 10 to 20 ft behind the release.

One thing that you have to take in to consideration is blow back at depth. If you are fishing 100 ft bottom and you have 100 ft or line out on your downrigger then you are really ( depending on total speed, your and the current, size of the balls and the thickness of the cable) at 90 ft. you have to fish your balls at 110 ft to hit bottom. The cannons allow you to set your lines at 100 plus 10 ft. So you are really fishing at 110 ft when you depth says 100 ft. its great.
 
I was really speaking tongue in cheek when I said the bottom tracking was a gimmick. I'm a diehard Scotty fan, and I know Tom is a diehard Cannon fan.

Those Cannons definitely have their place, and they offer some cool features, but none of which fit my style of fishing. If I fished predominately in waters like Puget Sound, I'd seriously consider buying some. Well, if Scotty made them. :D

Anyway, like Peter said:
I would most DEFINITELY consider electric downriggers, no matter the make.
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we both agree with peter on electric because hand cranking just sucks. It like pot puller. I hand to go buy a new electric pot puller because my old one left home and moved out on his own. even got a new mower that year.
 
Tom, it's like you're in my head! This downrigger convo is pre-planning the next upgrade. I'm now trying to figure out an electric line hauler out after installing a nice davit. I had been hauling line UP by hand, and at least now I can pull down, but I'm on the gray side of 40 and have the spine, knees and elbows of an 80 year old (too many rough sports and intense fieldwork in the past!) so hand hauling line, and cranking downriggers is quickly losing appeal for me. I have a new unit like the old hauler that moved out on you, but she won't be ready to install for another 10 years or so.

But I don't dare derail the thread with a line hauler discussion!
 
Kush,

The Brutus Ace Line hauler mounts on top Scotty Downrigger mounts and uses the same plug in. Very handy. They're a little spendy, around $500 but well worth it. I never want to pull a 50# shrimp pot from 300 feet ever again.

I'm not sure if they will work on Cannon mounts, maybe Tom can chime in.

Peter
 
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