downrigger advice

T

twogone

Active Member
I am a complete newbee to modern salmon fishing equipment. I grew up near Cowichan Bay using huge Peetz reel with steel line and tons of lead; not a fun way to pull it a spring but it worked and we filled the pantry with bottled salmon every year. Career finances and family made it impossible the ocean fish for the next 50 years but retirement finally came along and the minister of finance (wife) allowed me to buy a little boat. It came with two Penn hand crank downriggers and they work pretty well but jumping up and down to crank them up (with arthritis in both knees) has become a bit of a chore. Everyone tells me to get some electric downriggers and I've been reading about them on a number of forums. I like to shop locally so in that regard the Scottys (made in Canada) would be my preference but a few comments on the forums suggest the Cannons may be better; primarily due to the 'power down' process. I can recall fishing with my brother-in-law on the west coast (with older Scottys) and when he let the ball go, it literally screemed to the bottom and he semed to have little control over the speed. After that very windy introduction, would the some of the experienced & knowledgeable folks on this forum please offer me some advice? It's a substantial investment for me (CPP ain't much) and I would like to make the best decision. Has Scotty 'fixed' the ball down control? Would I be better off with a different brand? Which model (remembering the limitations of CPP) would be appropriate for an old fart in a 16' Harbercraft?
Thank you in advance; twogone, Ladysmith
 
Best bang for the buck, Scotty 1106 which you can buy on sale for around $500
or used for about half of that.
Scotty have the best warranty and service in the business as far as I'm concerned.
As far as dropping the ball to the desired depth, some people including one of my buddies
doesn't seem to realize the brake allows a controlled drop.
 
Power down really is a neat feature but not really necessary and Cannons do sell for a premium.

If your BIL was letting the balls on his Scotties free fall like that either his brakes needed work or he was just plain careless generally a person lowers the ball carefully sometime with their thumb on the spool depending-and it's easy.

Occasionally you have to quickly lower the ball to sneak by hordes of Pinks or Coho but not so much on the Inside.
 
Scotty has a hand brake that you use to control descent of the cannon ball. The brake handle works on a horizontal curve of about 90 degrees. If you move the handle slightly along the curve, the ball goes down slowly more movement and the ball releases faster. I have used both and I have Scottys. Most people on the site will tell you the same thing. You learn how to control the descent pretty easily. Even when running it down quickly you slow down as you reach depth so as not to pop the release.
 
If you decide to go with a longarm model like the 1106 you probably shouldn't extended the full 60 inches. That is a lot of torque on a 16' alum boat. If you hang up on the bottom that is a potentially dangerous situation For your needs a short arm model should be good. If price is not a problem buy new. Otherwise used Scotties are great too altho this is high season for used. I know that because I just sold one of my used and many called for it.
 
Stick with Scotty as you live not far from the factory. Lifetime warranty on a new purchase and I have always got free service at the factory by dropping off and picking it up and taking them Scotty products to install. Want your braid or wire changed out. Buy Scotty brand and drop your rigger off at the factory and when you pick it up it will be changed and the rigger checked over, repaired as necessary and all tuned up ready for the season.

Scotty owns the BC market, lots of parts available everywhere, even in the boonies and most anglers know how to work on them if you are away on a trip and need a little help. Also like the low profile of the Scotty, easy to store and less getting in the way netting etc. Very corrosion resistant and reliable. Carry spare parts such as belts, plugs, counters, cable etc and some tools in your boat. Oh and a spare mounting pin for the day when it gets dropped over installing/removing your rigger.
 
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Holy Cow! All that GREAT information & advice in just a few hours. I like the look of everything about the Scotty 1106 and I'm now kicking myself for not bidding on one recently (on eBay - Tacoma) that went for $300.00 (almost new). I think I may just put up with the Penns for the rest of this season and go to the May madness sale at the Nanaimo Harbour Chandler next year.......unless of course someone wants to upgrade over the winter and has a couple of used ones to sell. I have already installed some mounts for electric downriggers at the back of the boat because my Penns are mounted on the gunnwal and they torque the hell out of the boat. The new mount is in a corner so they are very strong (I overbuild everything, it's in my nature..so sais the wife)
Thank you all very much for your time and advice. I will spend the next few months checking eBay, Kajiji, Buy sell & Trade etc and hopefully I can find something I can afford.

THANKS AGAIN CHAPS and may you all catch a fish so big there will be no need to exaggerate ever again. twogone - Ladysmith
 
Id stick with the Scotty's, the auto stop on Cannons can be troublesome as it depends on an electrical signal to operate which in the salt can bite ya.
 
yes....and the Cannons use wire line not braid........they claim they have "ion" control on the wire.....a fancy way of saying it is wire voltage control.....

I think using a black box on the Cannons (if one were so inclined) might mess up a lot of things...like their "auto stop"

Controlling the down speed on a Scotty is easy with the hand brake.........Cannon's "power down" goes at one speed I believe,..


On Scotty you have choice of using wire or braid without messing any of the features up.
 
made a boo. boo. left the boat parked at a friends when i moved boat cover on. forgot to pull the plug boat filled up with Aqua. rigger on the bottom of boat awash. finally hooked them up no power methinks elecs got flooded wondering if scotty would cover repair? any thoughts.
 
it is not too uncommon to see a pair of scottys for 500 buck on craigslist or buy n sell, Also if you are going to wait for the pirate day sale at HC be sure to bring someone with you as it is usually one per customer on pirate days, go early and with someone and you wont find a better deal on new scotty downriggers anywhere, also for a small boat the 1101's would work fine for you , picked up one for 399 at gone fishing sale and then one for 375 at pirate days..
 
Ya they will fix it I'm sure. I was going to ucluelet and was testing everything out the day I was going to leave and I realized I had a totally dead rigger. I live by the factory so I went down there and they guy stopped everything and rebuilt the thing for me on the spot while I chatted with another employee that was telling me where to fish when I got to ukee. They are a pretty awesome company .
 
twogone said:
I will spend the next few months checking eBay, Kajiji, Buy sell & Trade etc and hopefully I can find something I can afford.
Click to expand...

Even if money is tight I would suggest waiting/searching for a good new price because things are changing. It used to be that Scotty would fix any rigger on warranty other than the old blue ones without proof of purchase or registration but now they are registering them all in their computer system if they are not in it when you take it for free warranty service. If you buy a used one or have one you don’t have a receipt for, chances are they will register it in their system when you take it for service at the factory unless it has already been put in the system in someone else s name. We were able to register a rigger we won in a Derby for example even though we had no receipt. So if you buy a used one, you MAY be able to register for free lifetime warranty if it is not already in their computer system but if it is in their system you will not. Up till now Scotty has been very generous but are it seems starting to enforce the LIFETIME warranty as opposed to the unofficial used FOREVER warranty that many use to benefit from buying used and I suspect they will insist on immediate registration on new purchases in the future if they are not already. If you will be fishing for a lot of years the extra cost of new with their great lifetime warranty in my opinion is more than worth the cost of new over used.
 
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spring fever said:
Great price for sure!! How beat up could they be? Scotty's are pretty fixable!!
Click to expand...

Don’t forget it is Craigslist. It may well be legit but there is a lot of under priced offerings that go on as a result of fraud and email address phishing attempts etc. It always pays to be careful with prices that seem almost too good to be true.
 
I want to thank you all very much for your expertise, experience, advice and the time you spent giving it! The caution on buying 'used' regarding the warrenty is well taken; I've been 'bitten' before on an item that had an expired warrenty because I was the second owner. A savings of $300.00 (by buying used) can be eaten up pretty quickly with a few repair bills. In these days of serial numbers & computers to keep the records, registration information seems to stick with things forever. I would consider buying used if it was a 'smoking' good deal but I suspect I will be waiting for a pair of 1106's at the Pirates Sale at NHC. I also need some time to save up the coins.

Once again; thank you all for helping me with this. Cheers & 'tight lines'; Twogone, Ladysmith
 
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