My Trident/Scotty Laketroller downrigger setup, with pictures and an explanation

use a  snubber to keep that from happening

Sorry to dig up this old post. I just have a few questions about the setup. I too have a trident. I was curious how you came up with the idea to mount the downrigger there without testing it otw first. I also am having a hard time seeing how it wouldnt affect your paddle stroke.

Sorry to dig up this old post. I just have a few questions about the setup. I too have a trident. I was curious how you came up with the idea to mount the downrigger there without testing it otw first. I also am having a hard time seeing how it wouldnt affect your paddle stroke.

I strapped the Scotty Laketroller in various places on my Trident and tried paddling.  In the place where I have mounted the Laketroller, the arm stuck out enough to interfere a little bit with paddling, so I put the metal arm in a vice and bent it in towards the center of my kayak, which got it completely out of the way.  I can paddle normally without having to worry about hitting the downrigger, and I use short (194 cm) whitewater paddles.  You need to be careful not to bend the arm downwards, because if the pulley is lowered, the cable will run over and be bent by the lip of the cable reel, which is not a good thing.  And you need to be careful to put the boom in the vice, not the plastic base of the downrigger, because the boom is sufficiently stiff that the plastic will probably break before the boom bends.

A friend who has a Trident mounted a Scotty Laketroller in a flush mount next to his thigh on the outside of his kayak, next to the gunwale, so the downrigger is sitting at an angle to the water, and its boom sticks straight back along the side of his kayak.  This seems to work fine, but I haven't borrowed his kayak to try it out.