Down riggers?

[ReeLKooL]

Well, season over for me Time to wrap her up and dream about the next GREAT summer.

(I wonder if that would be considered a WET dream ) I'm thinking about installing a downrigger(s) on my 1996 GW 272. Any thoughts, suggestion?

Cannon, Scotty's??? I tried to find a consumers review but no luck.

[pmagrady]

So, where do you fish and what is your target species?

When I fished for salmon on Lake Michigan I had 4 electric down riggers on my old Grady. Now that I'm on the East Coast of Central Florida I don't troll with a down rigger because we troll too fast to get the weight down and the wire can get in the way of a fast moving fish during the fight.

[auguste]

Downriggers are great if they are electrics . . . winding up a weight of 12 lbs or a Z-wing get real old real fast

New electric downriggers are fast . . . they come up at 200 ft per minute . . . just hit a button and up they come

First downriggers were electric Cannons and never had a problem with them

I then used Scotties for 2 years . . . least expensive . . . most dangerous to use . . . don't let newbie play with them, will break rod tips and maybe hurt themselves

I am adding 2 electric Cannon downriggers to me new 1963 Bertram . . . will be trolling off shore at 6 to 8 knots . . . will use z-wings at that speed to get lures below 60 ft for wahoo and big-eye tuna

If you get Cannons, make sure they are the saltwater series with the stainless line reel

I used Penns and Big Johns on other peoples boats . . . didn't like them as much as the Cannons

I prefer the aesthetics of the Cannons to the others and now they are white and they look even better on the boat

Get the stainless swivel base for the Cannons . . . much better than the black ones . . . yes, get the swivel bases so that you can swing the downriggers out of your way

Good luck

[auguste]

Regardless of the down riggers you select . . . make sure you have strong backing under the gunnels . . . downriggers pull realy hard, especially when the ball gets caught on the bottom

[Go Aweigh2452]

I too have owned Penn's, Scotty's and currently Canon Mag 10's... I liked the plugs of the Scotty's and switched out the canon plugs to the Marinco style last winter. The Scottys and Canon electrics have a habit of getting kicked out at the wrong time.. when fish on... Very happy with the new plugs. Even though the Canon put a charge in the water (.5v I think), I still run a Protroll Black box to regulate the charge in the water and specifically target certain salmon species...

Both Scotty and Canon do the job. Because Scotty is made in the local area, we have them all over the place and they are the downrigger of choice. Life time warranty is nice too.

I would go with an ebay search for a good set of used electric downriggers... No need to buy new...

[rrrwel]

I've had the same Cannons for 20 years and still going strong. I put the telescopic booms on them which is very nice. What I don't like about them is their front pulley, the cable can jump it and it's a pain in the butt. I'm changing my cable to Power Pro to see if that helps. I've also fished Penns and big Jon and they seemed to work just fine also.

Good luck

[DJWILLIAMS]

My vote for Cannon as well.

A couple of years ago I was helping a friend of mine find some accessories for Penn Downriggers that he already had, and needless to say finding the swivel brackets, and the rod holder mounts seemed impossible. I was told at the time that someone bought Penn, but the new manufacturer quit making the downriggers (at the time). So finding accessories was not easy.

Good luck!

David