Downrigger help

Ok so been looking at the various ways people have been mounting their downriggers and have come to the conclusion that I like how pmmpete mounted his scotty laketroller on his trident 13.  Now my question is this could a Scotty depthmaster work if mounted in a similar fashion next to your thigh in a trident 13 or would it interfere with your paddling stroke.  Obviously one problem is that I can't use a rod holder mount so I found that Scotty does make a mount for the side of a gunnel, their no.1015 mount... been really frustrated trying to troll lately and have been looking into a downrigger again and am going to pull the trigger but want to figure out a mounting plan before hand so I can make an even more informed choice on which model I do end up with because I know I'll have to modify the boom regardless just to what extent again dependent on which model I go for.  Another good question is does the boom on a downrigger come off or are they pretty well attached, because if they do come off it would make modifying them easier I would imagine.  Well thanks in advance and sorry for all the weird specific questions

Redfish85, the top of a Scotty Depthmaster Downrigger is 5.75" above the surface on which it's mounted, and the handle of a Depthmaster sticks almost 8.5" inches above the surface on which it's mounted.  So if you mount a Depthmaster on your Trident next to your right thigh, it's going to seriously interfere with paddling the kayak, unless you have a pretty unusual paddle stroke.  To determine if a Depthmaster will work next to your thigh, bring your Trident to your friendly neighborhood sporting goods store, set it on the ground, persuade a salesman to let you set their floor sample Depthmaster on the gunwale, and try swinging your paddle like you're paddling.  I think you'll agree that a Depthmaster won't work next to your thigh on a Trident or any other paddle kayak.  The reason a Depthmaster or a number of other large manual downriggers work great next to your thigh on a Hobie Revolution, Outback, or Adventure is because when using a pedal  kayak, the only time you should need to use a paddle is to move the kayak the last couple of feet to shore.

If you want to mount a downrigger next to your thigh on a Trident, I think you'll find that your choices are limited to small low-profile downriggers with handscrew brakes such as the Scotty Laketroller, the Cannon Mini-Troll, the Attwood Mini-Rigger, or the Walker Mini-Laker.  The Scotty Laketroller bracket-mounted downrigger will be the easiest to install on your Trident because it mounts on a Scotty deck mount or flush mount, and the Attwood Mini-Rigger has a bracket which would be easy to mount in some locations on your Trident.  The Cannon Mini-Troll, the Walker Mini-Laker, and the Scotty Laketroller with the C-clamp mount will all be harder to mount on your Trident, because they have C-clamp style mounts which are designed to clamp on the gunwale of a boat, so some modification or a special mount will be required to mount them on your Trident.

The disadvantage of small manual downriggers with handscrew brakes is that they aren't as convenient to operate as larger manual downriggers which have a clutch or a lever brake, and thus are easy to operate with one hand.  If you want to use a larger downrigger on your Trident, I suggest that you try setting the downrigger right behind one of your hips, and see if you can paddle normally without banging your elbow on the downrigger.  Cranking and braking a downrigger which is mounted behind your hip will be a bit harder on your shoulder than operating a downrigger which is mounted next to your thigh, but you'll be able to operate the downrigger without changing position in your seat, and you'll be able to get at the downrigger just as fast as if it was mounted next to your thigh.

If you want to mount a larger manual downrigger behind one of your hips, I suggest that you check out the Cannon Lake-Troll and other manual downriggers which have a cable reel which is mounted vertically, i.e. on edge, such as the Walker Lake Master, Walker Lake Ranger, or Walker Kingfisher.  A vertical-reel downrigger could fit well behind your hip, and in that location you may find that the vertical cranking motion is more natural than the horizontal cranking motion on a Depthmaster.  And a major advantage of the Cannon Lake-Troll is that shortening the boom on a Lake-Troll is a ten minute job, because when you shorten the boom, the pulley continues to feed the cable into the center of the cable reel.  If you shorten the boom on a Depthmaster, raising the pulley so it will feed the cable into the center of the cable reel will require some major creativity and do-it-yourself skills.