Downrigging Question

Once again craigslist made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and I pulled the trigger on a downrigger which I'll hopefully soon mount on my adventure via gimbalmount.  It's a Scotty 1050 loaded with cable, which I plan to remove and spool with braided line. I plan on using 4-6lb balls, depending on situation.

I'm sure i'll have some more questions down the road, hopefully some that Zee/PMPETE's excellent input haven't already answered, but for now:

What lb-test braided line do you use, and why that particular lb-test? I recognize you need strong line since the ball weighs a lot. I've seen some previous posts/articles on the site saying 65-80lb should do the trick for decreased drag in water/blowback, and switching from cable since it's impossible to break from the yak, but I know there's absolutely no way in hell I could break 65lb while on the yak. 

I know guys have broken 65 or 80 on their down riggers when the ball came out of the water or was first dropped off the side.
If you are going to run light braid then you defiantly need to run a snubber of some sort.

I've run 80lb PowerPro on my modified 1050 for the past 3 years without any issue...it makes a huge difference in drag and blowback (especially at depth) and really cuts down on the noise too. I run a 4lb ball in freshwater for Kokes and a 6 or 8lb-er in the sound for Blackmouth and Coho...As FG said, a snubber at the ball is an absolute must with braid and check the knot (I use a Palomar) for any signs of fraying regularly...I've run that same 300' of braid but trimmed back and retied it probably a half dozen times. Now that I'm thinking about it I'll probably go out in the Garage and turn that braid over and it'll probably go another couple seasons. 

I use 250lb braid with a Palomar knot.  No snubber and check the knot often.  4lb in fresh, 8 in salt for chinook.  The difference between cable and braid was significant.  Now wondering how big the difference between 80lb and 250lb braid? 

appreciate the feedback.

so just to clarify, if you hang up with 65# (or stronger) braid, you generally have no hopes of muscling it out, and just cut line/sacrifice the ball/line, correct? cause i know there's no way i can physically generate 65#+ of leverage from my yak.

I once got hung up in about 60 FOW while fighting a fish with my ball left down... I must have drifted into some shallower water and got snagged up. I wasn't too far from shore so I landed and started hauling it in...pulled the whole damned log up into shallow water where I freed it up and went on my way...I'd imagine if I had hung up on something more substantial I'd have lost that ball all right. Of course, in hindsight if I had just reversed my direction it likely would have pulled right off that log.

thanks, nangusdog.

well, the older you get, the lower they tend to hang.

I think 65 is breakable from kayak if you tie off to a cleat. 80 might be doable from a Hobie with a head of steam.

I run 80lb Dacron tipped with a rubber snubber to my 6 or 8lb ball.  I think the snubber is a big help as it actually allows some shock in the line. 

Right on. Got the line question figured out. Thanks all.

In my impulsiveness after picking up the 1050 for chump change I also pulled the trigger on a gimbal-mount, thinking i'd mount the DR in one of the rear flush-mount rod holders.

The cupholder mounts (via pmpete) look nice, but for (1) the very limited amount of time i'll be using the DR, and (2) taking into account just how mechanically challenged I am, I'll be shying away from that solution.

Polyangler and others have some nice-looking and relatively simple milkcrate mounts which I'll probably end up copying, but what's everyones' impressions on the gimbal-mount solution? Seems simple in its deployment/removal, and no holes will need to be drilled or parts fabricated, but I'm not sure if that will put too much stress on that area of the yak, since i'll be dragging around a 6lb ball, among other questions that I don't know I should be asking. Whattya think?

Man, I hate to see anyone mount a downrigger behind themselves...I tried it on my first couple boats but man was it a pain in the ass!... even minor adjustments were gymnastics routines.
What I found was I was much less inclined to want to raise or lower the ball to change depths, clear weeds, change colors, etc...once I went to the forward mount, it changed the way I fished, tripled my productivity and cleared out my tank well for what was supposed to be back there..

Of course everyone is different, but that was certainly my experience with an aft mounted setup.

Nang, I agree that forward positioning would be ideal for accessability, but with my adventure's narrower width and my thunder thighs i can't envision any configuration that would allow me to mount the DR anywhere besides behind me.

Adam12 can show you some neat pics as to what can happen on older Hobie gimbals when lateral pressure is applied.

This is my mount for anyone interested. Easily straps in to any boat with pad eyes in the tankkwell. It's been strapped on my buddies little power boat more than once too. I used the bottom of one crate to make the lid for the other. If you don't care about having the extra crate storage you can just flip one crate upside down instead of making a lid. Pretty easy to deploy and adjust since it sits up so high too.

I find that the cable which comes with Scotty and Cannon downriggers has an irritating amount of hum.  I switched to Scotty 250 pound Dyneema braided line, which got rid of the hum, but which showed up pretty badly on my sonar, creating streaking on the screen of my fish finder which obscured any fish in the upper portions of the water column.  So I switched again to Scotty 175 pound low drag spectra braided downrigger line, which I like.  It doesn't hum, it has low drag (as advertised), and while it has a little sonar return, it has much less sonar return than the 250 pound Dyneema.  I routinely troll 150 feet down with a six pound ball, and as long as I keep my speed under 2 mph, the ball doesn't get swept back out of the cone of my sonar.  I've bought an 8 pound ball, and am looking forward to trying it out when the ice melts.

Excellent stuff, Poly and Pete. I'll definitely be going the milk-crate way and with some heavier braid (and snubber, whether rubber or mono) down the road.

So what happened to Adam12's gimbal/rear flush-mount rod holders?

Also, holy shit that was the worst call in super bowl - no, postseason - no, football - no, SPORTS history. The best back in football, numerous tries left, mere inches from the endzone, the clock is perfectly timed, and you PASS? Carroll could go on to win a dozen SB's and this would still be the first thing that came up in any conversation about him, and rightfully so. Just mind-boggling.