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My first downrigger attempt worked, but not so well. I used power window motors to drive the spools, but they have gears so I had to use a complicated chain drive and funky mounting that just didn't work. Well I made some more gooder ones instead!!
I used scrap aluminum plate, cheap bearings from fasenal, round stock aluminum to form the spools and sheet aluminum to make the spool sides. Bolting it all together with countersunk stainless hardware and using nissan pathfinder wiper motors from the mid '90's vehicles and voilla here they are. Also posted are some fish I caught using the old downriggers so the moderators wont move this post!! Enjoy
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thought that was your bait lol,but really, Good Job!
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Nice kokes, did you catch them at the Pig?
That is quite an improvment from your the older model. When are you planning on doing a test run on them?
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I like it do you have a way to measure depth? I just got me a used manual rigger. Wish I could afford an auto but maybe the next one can be like yours. Thanks for the ideas. J
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Yup those came from the pig. Small buggers but tasty. I will be trying them in a few weeks, maybe next week if I can get ahead of deadlines at work.
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Normally what I do for depth is I measure off every 5 feet on the cable and tie on a streamer that's about an inch long. Then just count off streamers as they pass the pulley. Works quite well.
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Very Nicely Done- Any thoughts on possibly adding a clutch. Sometime they are important.
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The beauty about the wiper motors is that with enough torque you can force the motor to spin. There is a double worm gear inside that keeps the spur gears from binding on the worm gear. This allows the motor to spin some. As a safety I have a shear pin through the output shaft and spool assembley. If this shears then the weight will freespool but I have the cable physically anchored to the spool with nicropress swages so hopefully it will stop if I'm in over 200 feet of water.
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I'm pretty new to down riggers what is the advantage of auto over manual? What weight of ball should I use to have my depth be close to the line I've let out? I'm thinking of trolling about 1.5 mph. I guess with some time on the water I'll figure it out but was just curious where to start. Thanks J
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Hey J whats up, looks like trolling season is getting closer. I have not had a manual downrigger and they are probably fine if you don't want to fish very deep, but on a place like Bear Lake or lakes that are 100-150 feet deep and you want to fish the bottom electric is the only way to go in my opinion. I have seen people sit and crank for a long time to get the ball back up, with electric just hit the button and it stops when it hits the surface. I don't know about other fishermen but I use a 8 lb. weight and like it for about any depth. Personally I would rather troll with a downrigger than without. hope that helps!!
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To add to the previous post the weight on the downrigger is just to send your lure/attractor down to the depth that you are marking fish on your fish finder. You can let out as much line as you want and let it trail behind the boat before you attach it to the clip attached to the weight. When a fish hits the lure it pulls the line out of the clip and you are now free to fight the fish without lugging around a heavy weight or reeling in a planing board, dipsy diver,... etc. Usually the rule of 100 works for me at Porcupine. If I am 20 feet down I let out 80 feet of line before attaching it to the clip. If I'm 60 feet down (which I am not that deep at the Pig anyway) then I let out 40 feet of line. Hope that helps some.
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Hey Dr P thanks for the tips I tried a small down rigger at the Gorge last summer and we definitely got more strikes on that pole but we didn't hook up very well on them so I think maybe we weren't letting enough line out before we clipped into the dr. Now I got a little better dr I'm looking forward to learning how to use it better. Do you use it on lakes less than 20 feet deep? I've always thought they are for 60 to 80 feet deep fishing. Anyway I'm excited to learn thanks for the info. J
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Thanks for that rule does your lure stay close to that depth if you let a lot of line out before you clip in? Guess I need to practice. Thanks for the pointers. J
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Your lure does stay pretty close to the target depth if it doesn't have a diving lip. If you're trolling a rapala type lure then it does dive some.
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Thanks I figure a little practice will help me figure it out. Hope I can get out soon and start learning. Later J
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