Downriggers & Kayak's

If your fishing with a downrigger on your kayak please share your rigging experience and usage challenges and what brand and model and why you choose it.

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Fastfish/Geoff
Kayaks Owned>Outback/Mine & Revolution/Wife

I installed a Canon mini-lake troll....manual hand crank down rigger on the left side, just forward of the molded in hull rod holder on my Outback.
You need to make sure that when drilling or cutting into the hull, you do not run into cables on the inside....that could be a critical error!
I also found out the first time I used the down rigger , the kayak wanted to track to port due to the new/extra under water drag....I use a 2.5 # lead weight to fish at 30 to 80 feet depth.....solution is to install the sailing rudder......a cheap $22 investment that does the trick and tracks like a dream.
I picked the Canon as it has a line counter on the end of the arm/pulley to easily see how much cable is deployed.
An electric unit was out of the question for me.....extra battery required and the possibility of dunking the motor at some point.....not worth it....so I now have a larger left arm!

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

Thanx for the reply it looks like I'll be using a Scotty Laketroller, I to will be using a weight no heavier than 2.5lb my depths will mostly be in the 15-40ft range.

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Fastfish/Geoff
Kayaks Owned>Outback/Mine & Revolution/Wife

I have a Scotty Depth master mounted atop the livewell on my Outback. It works great and will accommodate heavier balls than the smaller rigs. I use an 8# ball on mine and my buddy has a 10# pancake ball on his PA equipped similarly. As stated by others, it does take some practice to get it right but it is well worth it. Because my setup is mounted behind the paddler it is out of the way, but also requires the user to turn around to crank it up. Great for trout, salmon and even halibut.

Tight Lines,

Steve

For a description of how I mounted a Cannon Lake-Troll downrigger on my 13' Revolution, see http://www.yakfisher.net/smffiles/index ... pic=9918.0 . The downrigger is mounted next to my right thigh, so it's easier to use than a downrigger which is mounted behind your seat. Here is a picture of the downrigger setup:

pmmpete, love your setup and write-ups on yakfisher. You guys keeping your weight under 3# are you fishing freshwater solely? You cats locked into the 8-10# are you into salt or super deep? Trying to get it dialed in as I'm going to be launching/landing in surf, fishing 30-60' in the saltwater and generally mild current at 2-3mph. What would y'all suggest for that setup and why? Thanks and get bent,

I prefer to use the heaviest weight which my downrigger can handle, because heavier weights perform better than light weights. A heavier downrigger weight will blow back less than a light weight, which will make the depth of the weight shown on your fish finder be closer to the true depth of the weight below the surface, and will allow you to troll faster and deeper before the weight gets blown back out of the sonar cone of your fish finder. I remember when I changed my Cannon Lake-Troll from a 6 pound weight to an 8 pound weight, I didn't notice any difference in the work required to crank up the weight, but I did notice an improvement of the downrigger's performance. I routinely troll below 150 feet with an 8 pound weight. I couldn't do that with a lighter weight, because the weight would blow back out of the back of my sonar cone, and I couldn't see it on my fish finder. A small downrigger like the Scotty Laketroller can't handle as much weight as a bigger downrigger, and you probably won't want to use a weight larger than four pounds.

Another way to improve the performance of your downrigger is by replacing the original steel cable with a low-drag spectra braided downrigger line, which will also get rid of the irritating hum produced by steel cables.