Downrigger advice.

[rtp1984]

hi all, how are you?

Just setting up a down rigger, mainly for chasing Spanish Mack's.

I have looked around a bit, and see some blokes running big braid in stead of cable. What does every think? Any benefit, or is it just safer to run cable?

Also, what size bomb do you think I should run? I know it might be an open ended question, but I'll be towing lives and dead baits in water from 20 to 40 meters.

Thanks for for any advice?

Rob

[snapperbasher]

Hi Rob,

I currently run the standard cable. It does hum a bit at anything over idle butdoesnt seem to put the fish off. Mine is electric so if i run braid I will losethe short stop feature.

I use a 10Lb bomb and can tow livies in 60mtrs no worries. Any heavier and itwould become hard to handle I think...

[Horse]

I have a manual one with the 150lb braid. It is quieter than the wire one especially in a tinny. I use a 8lb bomb and its enough for me

[robfish 1]

Hey rtp1984...I've tried both wire and braid over the years, and it's a bit of a trade off. Braid suffers less vibration than wire, and seems to work well in bluewater, eliciting more strikes - I feel due to the lessened vibrations given off, but learned the hard way that it's not so good in freshwater - particularly around snaggy areas. I've donated, (unintentionally), some downrigger bombs to the bottom of Eildon and Blue Rock lakes when running over branches which severed the braid. So it's back to wire for me in the fresh. In the salt, I've towed live gars and yakkas around the bottom of PPB for snapper with a lot of success, and it seems that braid has produced more strikes.

[Spiderpig]

I was running 80lb braid on my old downrigger (alvey deckwinch). I am running wire on my new cannon unitroll because it came with it.

I will be putting braid on the cannon; It makes much less noise.

[rtp1984]

Thanks a lot blokes.

Is there much difference in the bombs?
Do the straight round ones work just as well as the ones with the tails ect?

[robfish 1]

Just make sure if you use a round bomb, that whatever you're towing creates a reasonable amount of drag - or a fair amount of line behind the bomb, to stop the bomb twisting. Either that, or use one with fins.

[Seahuff]

Hey Snapperbasher, running an electric downrigger, why do you lose the short stop feature ( bomb stops at waterline) or before it hits the boom . Why do you lose this feature if you change from cable to braid?

[odes20]

Its all to do with electric current in the water around the motor to downrigger I remember, which when the metal rigging isolation clears the water on my cannon it breaks or trips the circut and it stops. I wanted to change from cable on my Cannon auto stop and this is what I found out.

[odes20]

Its all to do with electric current in the water around the motor to downrigger I remember, which when the metal rigging isolation clears the water on my cannon it breaks or trips the circut and it stops. I wanted to change from cable on my Cannon auto stop and this is what I found out.

[Seahuff]

ok, well that's a bummer, I was going to go down the road of buying an electric downrigger, then taking off the cable and using braid(don't like the humming noise cable makes) but if this is the case and you lose that feature, theres not much point. I will settle on a manual one. Lucky I found out before spending the big bucks. Big thanks for the info !

[Luke G]

Ive got a cannon ts 10 electric, you dont loose the short stop feature if you use braid, its got a counter on it, you just program how far down you want it to stop.

[Out-Station]

I use braid, got rid of the cable of my cannon, no more humming, easier to handle etc etc. American Fishing Wire makes a cheaper braid especially for use with D riggers, its good thing and saves a few quid as compared to regular 200 pound braid (did when I bought it anyway). Do a google on "AFW downrigger braid".

Scott

[Seahuff]

After reading Luke G's reply, I did a bit of research. The Cannon Digi-trolls tournament series Ts 10 & 5's have a feature called "waterline zero" which lets you keep the weight at a set depth below the surface (as Luke said you can program in what depth you want it to stop). With these top end models, they don't rely on the electric current of the cable and ball out of water to stop.
By the way Luke how have you found your Cannon, have you been happy with it ?