Downrigger woes

Out at Chelan this weekend I had a couple problems with my downrigger.  Last time I got back from fishing with it on the yak, I dropped my yak and it landed on the DR.  I didn't notice a problem at the time, but it had one.  There is a plastic 'washer' at the base of the unit, with two small tabs to make it fit into the body of the DR.  These had somehow bounced out and ended up in a bad spot, making the downrigger useless.  So, I spent Saturday evening jigging and not trolling (which was also unsucessful, but the whole weekend was a flop and that involves another thread!)

Sunday morning I got ahold of a ratchet set from my camping neighbors and 'fixed' my downrigger.  Basically I field stripped it, re-assembled, and attempted to get it to work right.  I got it probaby 90%, but the bolts that keep it at just the right tension to work, have a very small margin of error.  You need two wrenches to get to adjust properly and I didn't have that.

Moral of the story - don't drop stuff and carry a toolbox.


Problem 2:

After getting the DR to work enough to use, I went out Saturday and attempted to troll.  I put about 20ft of line out, clipped up, and dropped the ball.  Well, I get to paddling and realize that my pole isn't doing the normal tap,tap,tap that it does with flashers on so I reel in all 240 ft of line and 240ft of DR line on a semi-functioning DR.  My gear was in a huge knot.  I was pretty frustrated.  I fix the problem and attempt to re-deploy.

Same result.  This time I reel everything back up and find that my line was wrapped around the clip - seems the swivel was on a union break.  I re-deploy AGAIN, and this time things are working.

Any suggestions on deployment?  I try to paddle up to a decent speed, then deploy, to avoid knots and other stupid crap, but that only lasts for a few seconds, and getting gear down to 200+ feet ends up with me at a standstill at the end.  (wish I had pedals now!)


After getting things working, I start to realize that my DR ball is blowing WAY back.  I'm trolling 1.2 to 1.6 per GPS with 19ft accuracy.  I've determined that 4lbs is NOT enough at depths over 100ft or so, even in fresh water.  I'll be moving back to 6lbs for that kind of depth.  I'm also hoping switching from 50lb braid to 30lb power pro will help. 

Overall, very frustrating.  Now on to my fish finder issues...

Wow---200 feet??  That's a push even on my PB with the big scotty electric.   With my little Scotty "laker" downrigger on my Hobie revo, I find that rig is good to about 50-60 feet, with a 4# ball----more than that and blowback and drag are a serious problem.  For summer kings, which tend to suspend,  40-60 feet in the morning is productive.  And it's a hell of a lot easier (though not very quick) to crank up 50 feet of cable after a strike  than (gasp) 200.   Zee has a lot more experience than I with a downrigger on a SOT, but if you want to fish at 200 feet, mooching is the way to go.