Downriggers,

[Tangles]

Anyone had any experience with these from the downriggershop? i was thinking of one of these rather than a Scotty or Canon,

cheers
Mike

[Stuart]

What brand mate?

[Tangles]

dont know where they are made mate, they are from the downriggershop, they where at the tackle and tinnie show last year, wondering on this or a scotty or cannon

mike

[Horse]

I looked at the site and I did not agree with his assessment of the US brands. I have no idea why a 1m boom is needed to clear an outboard for example. Obviously they don't know how to set up a downrigger. I run a relatively cheap cannon HS Easitroll and its basically plastic so corrosion is not really an issue. Depending on price these units look fine but I would be careful of how much you pay. You can land a Cannon for a little over the $200 mark

[Stuart]

I have to agree with Horse. I did see them at the same show and while they look well made I did have a few issues with them. For me the rod holder shown in your piture seems to be fixed at one point and for the amount of load on the rod and rod holder one would have to ask questions to how strong this would be. I used to have a digitroll year sa go and I will be buying another soon. Yes they are expensive but its a matter of set and forget. I used fathom master which is also a very good down rigger.

[Smithy]

You can get the electric Canons for under $500AUD landed from internet shopping. Once you have used one you would never go back. The Scottys are good too but don't know anyone to have recently done the exercise.

[TREVELLY]

I have a manual and an electric downrigger from the downrigger shop.
They work fine for me - have had them for two years now.
The rod holders are adjustable for the angle they hold the rod but I did find if the boat is swaying sideways this action can release the catch and the holder pivots. I removed the rod holders and use the holders in the boat.
I use the manual for shallower stuff with a 3lb lead and the electric for deeper stuff with a 10lb lead. Motor is pretty strong. 74625
You can see on the pic the manual one is mounted in the rod holder bracket but you will also see mounted on the boat is a bracket on deck back corner - this I use to fit the electric downrigger for quick on/off. Not a good idea to leave an electric to collect heaps of spray for the longer trips and not an issue when trolling.
1m boom doesn't clear my motor so Andrew (from downrigger shop) gave me two to get joined - still to do that.

[Tangles]

You can get the electric Canons for under $500AUD landed from internet shopping. Once you have used one you would never go back. The Scottys are good too but don't know anyone to have recently done the exercise.

what sites would that be smithy as thats not a bad price, i haven't done internet shopping.

Are the electrics really worth it over the simpler manual one, i was thinking a manual one would be enough for what i want to do, spanish etc

cheers
Mike

[rowanda]

the ones from the downriggershop are great. Used them with no problems and Andy is great to deal with. Back up service is
a big thing these days and after sales service is something that he sure gives....give him a call, can't hurt can it...

[sharkcat one]

I have a cannon digi-troll for sale with transducer and weights if anyone is interested. I'm on the Gold Coast
$1000 1 1/2 years old

cheers,

[Horse]

1m boom doesn't clear my motor so Andrew (from downrigger shop) gave me two to get joined - still to do that.

I can't imagine a 10lb bomb running on a 1m boom in a bit of a sea never mind a 2m boom. Almost all Downriggers are used from the side or rear corners of a vessel. The booms are to clear the sides of the boat when it tilts on a wave. The Yanks use a lot of downriggers. Most of theirs follow a similiar design. If I was spending my hard earned I would probably go for the proven option. What are the Downrigger Shops units worth?

[Tangles]

about $425 i think Horse

[Moonlighter]

The ones from Andy at the downriggerbshop are great. Most of the guys from PBA fishing Club who use riggers have switched to them, which says something. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers

ML

[gazza2006au]

ive delt with andy before his a nice bloke and a sponsor of the sydney angler forum he knows hit s*** just subscribe to his weekly email fishing info and see the fish his catching around sydney i will shoot him a PM to drop in and let us all know why the 2m boom

[Andy from the CJ]

Lads, can I just say something? Putting aside the pros and cons of various brands, you've made my day with your generous words. In answer to the question about why a 2 metre boom, some boats have fitted rod holders that are way back, from the stern. Or, you might have a Cat with pods. For those setups you need something with a long boom to get everything well back behind the prop. We're sending one to the bloke who owns the boat in this video, you can see why he needs it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCG0WolBG5c (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCG0WolBG5c)

I'm just about to order another batch from the factory so if you have any suggestions for improvement, let's hear them. Only planned change at this point is a stainless steel hook about 100mm along the boom, from which the weight can be hung. Cheers, Andy

[TREVELLY]

I can't imagine a 10lb bomb running on a 1m boom in a bit of a sea never mind a 2m boom. Almost all Downriggers are used from the side or rear corners of a vessel. The booms are to clear the sides of the boat when it tilts on a wave. The Yanks use a lot of downriggers. Most of theirs follow a similiar design. If I was spending my hard earned I would probably go for the proven option. What are the Downrigger Shops units worth?

I hear what you are saying Horse but I am a structural design engineer I do understand a bit about forces and leverage.

The 10lb weight works easily on a 1m boom in any sea I have been in including 2m plus swells and a 1.5m chop on top.

My boat deck is solid enough just need to be sure the boom and outfit can handle it - Andy wouldn't supply the outfit unless he was confident - I will check it myself as I go too.

The outfit will be out the back of the boat so any side sway is not an issue and front to back is negligible - if I am not so excited about how it works i will use the 3lb lead or source something in between but do prefer to use the 10lb lead on the electric unit so i can track the bottom as we go with no effort - it works well.

Why electric - well when the 10lb weight is up to 100m down it is nice to raise it with a motor. Also it is easy to track the bottom or adjust depth. Also when out alone if I hook a fish I just hit the switch to lift the weight out of the way and focus on fighting the fish just have to keep an eye on the depth counte to switch off the unit when the weight is raised.

The manual with 3lb weight is easy to use to 30m or so and if I was keen enough deeper - just personal preference and willingness to wind the weight - I have options so I use them. Manual for not deep downrigging and with someone to assist when a fish is hooked is good - you can always leave it out there till fish is landed if alone.

Similarly with the 1m boom over the rear I can keep using this option if I am happy to make tight turns in one direction only and not so the line approaches the prop so this will be my fall back position if need be. It still works.

Andy uses heavy braid on these units.

I have a couple of hundred metres of braid on my rig and have used it to 120m trolling lednal offshore and it worked well - we moved the trolled livebait up to 90m and down to 120m to suit the bottom and baitschool levels.

Doesn't matter to me what others choose to use - but put simply this rig is proven, it does work and I am happy to use it and keep using it.

I am anxiously awaiting the spaniards to arrive to use it all again.

[gofishin]

Don’t think I would ever want to run a 10ld bomb off a 2m boom either, but unless these long booms come with a bomb weight restriction, you would ‘assume’ they are fit-for-purpose! I would actually be more worried about the mounting/deck structure of the boat than the length of the boom. Trolling a 10lb weight with large baits can exert some hefty forces!

In terms of clearance to props and in heavy seas etc, you don’t actually need too long a boom if you are happy with it out the side, either at right angles or a lesser angle. I still have & use a Penn Fathom-Master 60cm that I first started using over 24 yrs ago – and apart from a few corrosion specs on the anodised tube, it is still looking and working beautifully, and has seen use from quite a few boats over the years too.

The Penn first started its service out of a cat with stern drives, and with 100mm leg extensions, so the props were pretty low and wide in the water – and not too far from the wire (see pic, sorry about the quality, and yes, I had a lot more hair then too…;D). In this boat I used to troll a lot of hours in some pretty rugged country in sh!tty conditions, and sometimes in ‘un-chartered’ waters, so some tight manoeuvring was sometimes required (and in those days there was no GPS either). Apart from hooking the bomb on the odd reef (oops, bad skipper:-?), never had an issue with wire clearance & props – and with Duoprops I guess I had twice the chance of hooking the wire.

In my current boat (which has the ‘usual’ fastback/Portofino transom popular with most GRP boats these days) I mounted it out the side, but probably more like 40 – 45 degrees. A 60cm boom is more than enough for me in this case. Haven’t used it much in this boat yet but hoping this summer will be different.
Cheers
Brendon

[TREVELLY]

Actually guys the most impressive forces I have found in service with the downrigger is not when everything is running smoothly but when the bomb snags on reef - that's when it gets all exciting.

I will trial the boom with a static load two times the real load and shorten the boom as required if necessary a dynamic multiplier or safety factor of 2 should cover it.

Boat deck in my case is solid - don't recon that will be the weak link here but will be interesting anyway - when I get to it after Christmas sometime.

[Horse]

It sounds like they are a well built unit and I would love an electric one esecially when fishing solo. I run mine out the side at about 45o and its nowhere near props or the side of the boat. Setup this way its easy to play with clips and weights
Bring on the Spanish ones;D

[odes20]

A lot of the new electrics have auto stop feature , so you just hit the switch and fight your fish while it raises the bomb. It stops winding at the surface. I dont have an electric YET!! but when I do it will be with this feature.

Walkers, Big John, Canon, and Scottys all make them.

Does the electric from the downrigger shop being discussed here have this feature?

John

[Smithy]

All the usual places Mike. Meltons, Cabelas, Basspro, Ebay, etc.

[selous]

Yes it does have an electric clutch so you can raise the bomb and concentrate on your hook up.

I have a manual canon downrigger and have been looking to upgrade to one of Andy's electric downriggers. For me the convenience of being able to hit the up button and concentrate on fighting a big king without worrying about it wrapping around the bomb and snapping me off is worth the price of the upgrade. I have checked out Andy's downriggers closely and they are very well made. I will have no compulsion in ditching my canon for one of Andy's.

While I haven't got around to upgrading downriggers yet, I have bought quite a few of Andy's jigs and a couple of jigging rods. Excellent gear, the jigs are an absolute steal at $60 for 10 jigs. My mates and I have jigged up a fair few kingies on these and it is much less painless losing a $6 jig to those pesky leatherjacket than a $20 jig - especially as the $20 jigs don't catch fish any better than Andy's jigs.

Cheers

Rob

[Stuart]

When I was working on pro boats chassing macks and amberjack we always used a 10lb and sometimes more bombs in all sorts of heavy seas. I dont quite understand why the hang up on what size lead bomb you will use or not use when you will nerrly always go up in lead size if the current begines to run when bottom fishing. If your down rigger needs x size weight to hold the depth you need then so be it, what diffrence does it make. Most of our fishing was done using downriggers and we had quite a few dirrent size bombs from 5lb right through to 30lb. We often changed boom lenght depending on conditions as well, the smoother the water the shorter the boom. The rougher the seas got the longer we made the boom. We did this to stop any chance of the lead bomb or cable getting caught up around the leg of the engine, we also used a small gaff head on a long pole to help hold the bomb from hitting the hull. I was the one that did this on my own, holding the rod or rods, winching the weight up and bringing the bomb in. I did this for years so Im fairly confident in using down riggers and the rewards they can bring.

Stu

[Stuart]

Forgot to say that when we used the 30lb weight the boom which at the time was less than 1 inch round alloy tube held up fine and that use to be stretched out to 1.8 meters which means that the mounting point where the boom left the downrigger had 54lb of pressure on it. Thats 30lb x lenght of 1.8 meters or 5.68 feet = 170.4lb of pressure.

[Tangles]

search has widened, anyone with experience with Alvey downriggers?

[wags on the water]

How did the rod holders go Mike? Have you tried them yet?

[Tangles]

this weekend mate,

[TB91]

search has widened, anyone with experience with Alvey downriggers?

Hi Mike
I am looking at down riggers as well & what did you end up with?
Cheers bassman 385

[Tangles]

Still working it out mate, have trolling rod holders and weighing up the one from downriggershop or the Alvey one... have plenty of time to make up my mind and will depend on how many rods i want out.

mike