Manual downriggers

[Alchase]

I need some manual down rigger advice. I will be putting one on my 13 foot Smokercraft Alaskan.
Do any of you have experience with either the Scotty manual or the Canon manual?
What type of mount did you use?
How heavy of a weight?
Any tips or tricks on running two lines on on down rigger?
This will be use mainly for Kokanee and land locked coho, at 200 ft or less.

[mallard79]

I prefer Canons just because of the vertical crank vs the horizontal on the scottys. I added swivel mounts this year and they are great. Weight depends on what model you get. I run 8 pounders for kokanee but use to use 6 and it work fine above 100'. I made my own stackers using 2 of the small releases and a snap swivel. We are still fine tuning our stacking technique but so far we are loving it.

[wildmanoutdoors]

You get more power from your body with the horizontal Scotty design. Les fatigue cause more powerful muscles are used.
Just by pretending your cranking both ways you can feel the difference. Schoulder and back muscles are barely used with the verticals.

You will need all the power you can get for 200 feet!

[MtnMuley]

Canon all the way for a manual rigger.  Much rather crank vertical 200' than horizontal, as stated above.

[Bullkllr]

Who trolls for kokes at 200 feet?

[mainer78]

I have the Scotty on my 14' alaskan and it works perfectly.  Go to the bargain basement and ask them for a better discount on them.. I got mine for 110.....

[cohoho]

Canon all the way for a manual rigger.  Much rather crank vertical 200' than horizontal, as stated above.

Totally disagree, I got two scotty, two Cannon and two Penn's, much rather crank the Penn and Cannons versus the manual Scotty.  I run 12lbers and run down to wherever the fish are.  I run four Down Riggers on my boat as I have enough deck space to do so, with a lawn chair at each one.  Granted rather have electrics across the board, but not spending 2.5K for four DR this year.   In fact the Scotty's came off the boat to make room for the two new cannons my buddy gave me.  A lot easier for sure on the vertical crank, dropping weight is so much easier for the Penn and Cannon types, perfect for folks that are new on the boat, as the slip lever on the Scotty is no conducive with any natural movements. anyone that has fished on my boat has used both styles and of course the Penn and Cannons win out 100% for ease of use and without problems...  I adapted Cannon to 5.5 foot extenders and keep the Penn short or angled in towards the boat at 45 degrees or middle...  With the width of my boat at 102" and 5 foot of span on each cannon, it gives me a 18ft spread especially with bent pancakes DR Balls on the outside.   Might add - limited out on silvers every trip.

[Dhoey07]

Penn fathom master. Good clutch, easy crank, fairly inexpensive

[Skillet]

X3 for tbe penn fathom masters.  I started out with cannon depthmasters ( I think), fished one season on Chelan with them and said F this!  I now have one Penn 620 and one cannon unitroll.  Both good manual riggers.  I fish 15# weights down to 380 feet in the winter for macks.  Really like the swivel base and extendable boom on my unitroll, but MUCH prefer the Penn even over the Cannon UniTroll when it comes to cranking up tbat 15# from 300+ feet.  Got a pair of Scotty 1106's in my sights for next year, though.  If you want to try them out to compare let me know and we'll see if we can work out a time to meet.

[wildmanoutdoors]

Canon all the way for a manual rigger.  Much rather crank vertical 200' than horizontal, as stated above.

Totally disagree, I got two scotty, two Cannon and two Penn's, much rather crank the Penn and Cannons versus the manual Scotty.  I run 12lbers and run down to wherever the fish are.  I run four Down Riggers on my boat as I have enough deck space to do so, with a lawn chair at each one.  Granted rather have electrics across the board, but not spending 2.5K for four DR this year.   In fact the Scotty's came off the boat to make room for the two new cannons my buddy gave me.  A lot easier for sure on the vertical crank, dropping weight is so much easier for the Penn and Cannon types, perfect for folks that are new on the boat, as the slip lever on the Scotty is no conducive with any natural movements. anyone that has fished on my boat has used both styles and of course the Penn and Cannons win out 100% for ease of use and without problems...  I adapted Cannon to 5.5 foot extenders and keep the Penn short or angled in towards the boat at 45 degrees or middle...  With the width of my boat at 102" and 5 foot of span on each cannon, it gives me a 18ft spread especially with bent pancakes DR Balls on the outside.   Might add - limited out on silvers every trip.

Think u disagreed wrong..... Cause u like verticals.
I have 4 Scotty 1106 electrics. No biggie. Have fun with hand cranks.

[MtnMuley]

Canon all the way for a manual rigger.  Much rather crank vertical 200' than horizontal, as stated above.

Totally disagree, I got two scotty, two Cannon and two Penn's, much rather crank the Penn and Cannons versus the manual Scotty.  I run 12lbers and run down to wherever the fish are.  I run four Down Riggers on my boat as I have enough deck space to do so, with a lawn chair at each one.  Granted rather have electrics across the board, but not spending 2.5K for four DR this year.   In fact the Scotty's came off the boat to make room for the two new cannons my buddy gave me.  A lot easier for sure on the vertical crank, dropping weight is so much easier for the Penn and Cannon types, perfect for folks that are new on the boat, as the slip lever on the Scotty is no conducive with any natural movements. anyone that has fished on my boat has used both styles and of course the Penn and Cannons win out 100% for ease of use and without problems...  I adapted Cannon to 5.5 foot extenders and keep the Penn short or angled in towards the boat at 45 degrees or middle...  With the width of my boat at 102" and 5 foot of span on each cannon, it gives me a 18ft spread especially with bent pancakes DR Balls on the outside.   Might add - limited out on silvers every trip.

How are you "totally disagreeing" when you totally argee with what I said? 

[Alchase]

Great info, thanks every one.
When you stack two lines on one rigger, do you run one off the ball, then attach another line higher up?

[mallard79]

Yep. I would recomend at least a 10' separation.

[Alchase]

Do any of you use a Shuttle Hawk (or anything simular):

You just snap your line into the Hawk then attach it to your DR cable and put tension on the line and it will track down the cable to the stop or the ball whichever comes first and depending on your setup. When the line releases the Hawk comes back to the surface without having to reel up the downrigger.

For salmon my dad use to use something like that. After a strike we could attach another clip to the wire, and it would slide down again without having to bring the ball up. If I remember correctly we could stack a few of the those clips before we had to retrieve and start again.

[NRA4LIFE]

Yes, attach the next one higher up on the cable at the desired depth.

[lokidog]

Do any of you use a Shuttle Hawk (or anything simular):

You just snap your line into the Hawk then attach it to your DR cable and put tension on the line and it will track down the cable to the stop or the ball whichever comes first and depending on your setup. When the line releases the Hawk comes back to the surface without having to reel up the downrigger.

For salmon my dad use to use something like that. After a strike we could attach another clip to the wire, and it would slide down again without having to bring the ball up. If I remember correctly we could stack a few of the those clips before we had to retrieve and start again.

Tried one of those once, I've also tried the shower curtain ring with a weight attached.  I haven't had much luck with stacking.  I used to have two manual Cannons on my 14' aluminum boat and on my 12 1/2 foot infaltable.  On the aluminum boat, I think i mounted them directly to the seat, on the inflatable, i had a board that I attached across the stern, this also held my depth finder.  I had a hard time turning the aluminum boat as the downriggers worked like the vanes of an arrow and tried to keep the boat going in a straight line.  They also make transom mounting plates.  The Scottys might work better for those though since with the Cannons you would have to hang way over the side/stern to crank the one on the starboard side of the boat. 

I've also had good luck with pink ladys and the other divers when fishing 60 feet or less.  A line counter real is handy for these and as the stacked/top one on the downrigger.

[cohoho]

I guess my computer skills are lacking when I attempted a quote follow up...     but agree on one point rather have electrics any day....

[MtnMuley]

I guess my computer skills are lacking when I attempted a quote follow up...     but agree on one point rather have electrics any day....

I will strongly agree with that.... Digitrolls as well

[KFhunter]

I have two scotty manuals and run heavy pancake weights down to 200 feet.  Manual donwriggers are fine if you aren't catching anything 

I went with the Scottys because that's what you find in Canada, and I fish mostly Canadian waters when I'm going deep.  If you want to run heavy weight get the scotty, the handle pops out and you'll get a lot more power in your crank and it'll be easier on the gunnel of the boat too.

I WOULD NOT suggest manual downriggers on the coast fishing for silvers, you'll wear your self out.  I'm not kidding in fast action when the ball is coming up and down a lot you don't want to be doing it manually.   Fishing for lake trout where the action is slow, ya manual is fine. 

[cohoho]

I WOULD NOT suggest manual downriggers on the coast fishing for silvers, you'll wear your self out.  I'm not kidding in fast action when the ball is coming up and down a lot you don't want to be doing it manually.   Fishing for lake trout where the action is slow, ya manual is fine.

Geez, another disagreement here, just bring #1 deck hand in the State of Washington - Robodad with you on your boat...   

We manage fine, just got to give training to everyone on board on what they need to do in the Chinese fire drills that go off, well as much as possible...  Hand cranking - makes for better stories than sitting there pushing a silly button that does the work.     Nothing like Down Rigger sweat to keep the game fun...  And make the fishing better than ho humpty of reeling them in....  Especially when you get a triple or quad hook up.  Glad - I man the net and thumper...  Besides I take a lot of ex-mil and active duty guys with me, they have practice reeling vertically while previously on deployments!!!

[MADMAX]

Penn fathom master long booms

[bear]

Penn fathom master long booms