I have one of those fold up boats; Portabotes. I’m thinking about buying a clamp on mini-downrigger for it. Cabela’s has one called a Mini-Laker that seems perfect. Spec’s on it are that it’ll take up to a 6 lb weight, and it has ONLY 100’ of cable.
I have never fished with downriggers before, so I’m trying to figure out where and for what species this could be used. I was mainly thinking this was for the Gorge, but I’ve read other downrigger posts here that say that 100” of cable for the Gorge is not enough.
I’ve searched a fair amount of posts on many forums, and I thought this was an interesting comment:
[#800000]There is sooooo many different ways to get stuff down its almost insane. I think for the guy who is looking for a cheap and effective way to get down, snap weights have to be one of the better options. Better than permanently connected weights, cheaper than downriggers, and unlike steel line, they wont damage your guides. They dont have as much drag on them as dipseys either. But they have thier own downside. If you snag one, its lost. Nice that they clip on and off the line when fighting fish, but not so nice when you snag one. But if you have to break off the line you loose connected stuff as well, so its kind of a trade off. One nice thing is you can use snap weights with planers or whatever. I just stick with downriggers, but like everything else they arent perfect. Gadgets gizmos and garbage. Theres one out there for every type of fisherman, it just depends on wich one catches your eye.[/#800000]
So can 100’ work in the Gorge? If not, any other thoughts on waters where a downrigger would work, and for what species?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer. I’ll be watching this thread all day, and I’ll be responding as quickly as anyone (hopefully) writes.
Gotta get my house in order here; ice-off is happening everywhere…
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Downriggers are not just for getting your lures down deep. They work well for that, but are useful for much more than that. The value of a downrigger is that the downrigger weight takes your lure down to the exact depth that you want to fish, and when one hooks a fish one doesn't have to also fight a lot of extra weight, or anything else that was used to get the lure down to the desired depth. For trolling at Flaming Gorge 100' of cable would be adequate at times but not always. First off the cable doesn't go straight down, it trails behind the boat, and how much it trails is primarily a function of how heavy the ball is on the downrigger, the shape of the ball, the speed of the boat, and what lures are being pulled through the water. At times, one will be trolling in water that is deeper than 100' at Flaming Gorge. I use a downrigger on my boat when I am trolling Strawberry. Most of the times I only have it down 15 to 25 feet and I have never had it deeper than 65 feet at Strawberry. I have even used it occasionally on Willard, which is definitely one of the shallower reservoirs. I also own a Porta-bote and probably won't ever add a downrigger to it. I don't want the extra weight of a downrigger on mine, but if it were my only boat I might reconsider it.
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Hey! Thanks for taking the time to write such an informative reply. After doing a bunch of searching, I found some other posts that say/support what you write. So I'm probably going to go ahead and purchase.
It's interesting that you too have a Portabote (love mine). Because those sides are somewhat flexy, I anticipate clamping the Mini-laker to wood of a fair amount of square footage in order to distribute the load. Plus, I probably won't use more than a 4 lb weight.
I really appreciate your info! Tight lines to ya...
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I had fun time taking my Porta-Bote (12 foot model) out on Huntington Reservoir (the one at the top of Fairview Canyon with the tiger trout) on a couple of trips last year. They work great for the smaller bodies of water. Not sure I would want to get mine out on Flaming Gorge (I use my 19 foot boat for the larger bodies of water). I have an electric trolling motor on mine. At times I wish I had a small gasoline powered outboard. They are a little heavier than I would prefer them to be, but otherwise I really enjoy mine.
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I won't hesitate to use mine on the Gorge. Mine's the 10' 8" model, and it's totally stable. I have a Nissan 3.5/15" on it. Weighs 39 lbs.
I think these boats are great, and totally practical.
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toyguy,
You didn't mention that you had electronics (fish finder) for your boat.
In order to operate at downrigger, you will have to know and keep track of the depth of water you are fishing, and the amount of cable you have down to avoid hitting bottom.
All of this may seem intuitive, but I know of others who have used downriggers, and had some real problems.
As a general rule, you will not need more than 100 ft of cable.
Does the downrigger that you are looking at, have a counter on it to keep track of the depth?
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Thanks for replying, Saberfish. Yes, I have a fishfinder, but no, the Walker Mini-Laker does not have a line counter. I can't believe I overlooked that [crazy]. Why would a downrigger be made without a line counter? The idea here is to go fishing, not fix headaches with a downrigger.
I don't see a line counter as an accessory item, so I may have to opt for the Walker Lake Ranger instead, and just figger out how to mount it.
Aside from that your advice is encouraging. Thanks for your wise words...
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A line counter is nice, but not an absolute necessity. Your fish finder should show you the depth of the ball on the downrigger.
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Thanks, Kent, I was wunderin if that would be the case. I guess I dismissed that idea because that 4 lb weight is so small. I currently have a Fishing Buddy 4200 that's a 320 x 320 display. I am only a novice fish finder user, so I probably am not aware, or taking advantage of all the benefits of a fishfinder. The only way I currently use my fish finder is for depth and to get a general idea of the bottom contour. I have not relied on it to find fish because I am still unable to interpret whether those tiny images that show up in the middle of the screen are suspended fish or some kind of suspended debris. I would imagine that sounds somewhat stupid, but I just haven't fished enough with it yet to have mastered it. For that matter, I don't get to fish all that frequently period. For this Porta Bote, I will be purchasing an Eagle Fishmark 480 portable. It has a 420 x 420 display.
So are you tellin me that I'll be able to see that small weight 80' or 90' down? Since I haven't purchased it yet, do you think I'd be able to see that tiny ball all the way down there with a 320 x 320 display?
This actually is starting to shape up as an issue. Remember, I haven't purchased that downrigger yet, and the idea here is to get the right one. But there's some big time-sucking implications to not getting the Walker Mini Laker. Why? Because it clamps on to the boat. Easy on, easy off. Since I haven't found another clamp-on downrigger with a line counter, if I really want that built-in line counter, I'm going to have to purchase a deck-mount downrigger. And that means fabricating a portable mount system, since you can't bolt anything to a fold up boat. But if my fishfinder can in effect function as a line counter, then I'm back to the much-easier-to-implement clamp on model.
What say you???
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ANY fish finder that is working at all should show a 4 pound downrigger ball. The only reason it would not show is if you were traveling so fast that the ball is trailing too far behind the boat that it is out of the cone. The beauty of a downrigger with a line counter on it is that one can just look at the line counter as the ball is lowered and immediately stop it at the desired depth. By using a fish finder to gauge the correct depth one would often have to lower it more slowly and look at the fish finder. Another trick that you could use is to count the turns as you lower it. Drop it once to the desired depth, either based upon the fish finder or where you caught a fish and then return it to the exact depth the next time by merely letting it down the same number of cranks. PS -- replace your old fish finder ASAP and enjoy the benefits of not only being able to see fish but also see your jig at the same time.
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[font "Times New Roman"][black][size 3]Kent – [/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3][black]In order to get varied advice, I also posted this topic on the UT DWR Board. It’s interesting how this topic has taken on a different aspect here than the same one there. Here, we’ve somewhat gravitated towards the relationship beteween a downrigger and a fishfinder. There, it’s become more of a which downrigger to own. Between both threads, the advice all of you have given me is top notch. With respect to your sage advice, I think I will probably go with the 420 x 420 display. With respect to which downrigger, see for yourself! [/black][/size][/font][url "http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20914"][font "Times New Roman"][black][size 3]http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20914[/size][/black][/font][/url][font "Times New Roman"][size 3][black] [/black][/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][black][size 3]This has been informative and alot of fun, so I’ll write to you what I wrote to them: Tight lines to all of ya for giving me your time to walk me thru this…![/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][black][size 3]Much thanks and regards,[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3][black][/black][/size][/font] [black]Toyguy[/black]
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I read the other thread and you received some good advice on there also. I would never consider a downrigger that did not have a functioning clutch on it. IMHO, it should be illegal to even sell one. If you hang up your downrigger ball, which trust me you will do this on several occasions, you can capsize a boat extremely quickly without a functioning clutch. I carry a large pair of pliers to allow me to cut the cable, just in case. Letting out 100' (or close to it) if one only has 100' of cable to start with, means even if one has a clutch on the downrigger it is of zero value, because one has already reached the end of the cable. With few exceptions, one should spend whatever it takes to get quality and safety in any equipment, especially equipment that is going on a boat.
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