Electric Cannon Mini-Mag Downrigger on PA-14

I do a lot of downrigger fishing and have most recently used a Scotty 1050 Depthmaster on my PA-14.....It has worked very well as a manual retrieve unit and if you have ever used a downrigger, it often becomes a "Chinese Fire-drill" once you hooked a nice fish and need to recover the downrigger weight while fighting the hooked fish.
Once upon a time, I had a Jetcraft 18' fishing boat....really a sweet boat.....it had a Cannon Mini-Mag 2 electric downrigger that ran off the 12 volt starting boat battery.
I sold the Jetcraft in 2011 but retained the Cannon Downrigger.
Backing up two years, I bought a 2010 Hobie Outback in 2009 and started to use a manual downrigger since I never dreamed the Cannon could work on a kayak....

Fast forward to now....in 2013 I sold my Outback and bought a PA-14...still using the manual downrigger until this past week.
I decided to check the load current needed to operate the Cannon Mini-Mag....I measured less than 4 Amps DC.....I also had a spare 9 amp hour UPS battery in good condition.
I decided to outfit the Cannon to my Scotty Depthmaster mount and made an adapter using some 1/2" thick cutting board I had laying around in my garage.

I also knew that the Hobie side mounting boards were not very rigid based on cranking/deploying (up/down) my 4.3# weight with the Depthmaster....the board would flex as the span is about 24",  so I added some 1/4 x 20 SS threaded rods with fender washers I double nutted to the inside deck and mounting boards to stiffen it up.

In the last two day's I was able to give the Cannon Mini-Mag 2 a real test.....yesterday,at Lost Lake I trolled 8.1 miles and caught zilch.....unless the fish is 18" minimum I release it.
Today, I covered another 7.3 miles before hooking the 5# 15oz., really thick, German Brown....downrigged to 35' and my lure was another 8 - 10' lower plus it was about 100' behind my PA.
Here are some photos of the project and today's fish

Downrigger adapter with the Cannon mount installed in the Scotty base


Here you can see the reinforcing I made using the 1/4 x 20 threaded rod and my Scotty flush mount that holds my rod.


Downrigger ready to deploy


Photo today with the Brown....note downrigger and rod turned "aft" for beaching my PA-14.

So, if you do a lot of downrigger fishing, this is something to consider......in 2002 $$$, my complete Cannon Mini-Mag 2 with the swivel base was $340....don't know what today's compatible cost would be, but for this old fart, I would do it again in a heart beat even if it cost more....

Pretty nice downrigger setup!  Cannon no longer makes the Mini-Mag, which looks like a Lake-Troll (Cannon's smallest manual downrigger with a vertical cable reel) with a motor on its left side rather than a clutch.  So it's a real compact electric downrigger. How does the size of the Mini-Mag compare the smallest electric downrigger which Cannon currently makes?

I too have thought that it would be nice to be able to punch a button to lift my downrigger weight out of the way of the action when I hook a fish while downrigger trolling.  But I fish from a Revolution, and think that an electric downrigger and its battery would be pretty heavy for that kayak.  Still, perhaps I should watch for a used Mini-Mag on sale. 

pmmpete....Thanks....I don't know what the comparable model is today.
The ball retrieve is not super fast, but it's fine for me.

I used my wife's super accurate, digital  kitchen scale w/o her knowledge to weigh my old Scotty 1050 and the electric Cannon.
The Scotty is 4# 2.25 oz.....8" boom and no weight.
The Cannon is 8# 10.5 oz.....5" boom and no weight.

I believe your revolution is 28.5" wide Vs my PA-14 at 38" wide......so the extra weight on the rail might make some heeling difference on your kayak....My PA-14 hardly changes at all when the Cannon is mounted.

Being a new owner, of an older (2012) Hobie PA14, I really like seeing threads such as this one. Also, including a picture of a gorgeous Brown Trout doesn't hurt.