2006 Dodge Ram 3500 Dually, 21' North River Seahawk
most all of the new downriggers will do a good job I have had 1060's, 2106's which were great and for me they have to do 2 things, dependably get the weight from point A to point B and be easy and covenant to use, speed for me isn't a big factor (although if I was ocean salmon fishing in the 300' to 400' range with 15-20lb weights then that would be a plus ) the thing the digi-trolls do that the others don't (last time I checked ) is being able to set your auto stop, and it doesn't matter if you run braid or cable,( they don't rely on the water ) I run my masts fully extended to the side let line out and pull it over with the ball retriever to the side of the boat where I hook up and ''O'' it, that way when I hit auto up and bring in my fish it will be in the exact same spot every time and I can bring it straight over to re clip, so none of this hitting the down button or lever while pulling it over to the boat to get hooked up again. I know scotty can do this with beads but if you run shuttle hawks or stack, the beads get in the way so it's not a useable feature. ( the other thing that is nice about auto stop is if you get off track and the ground is coming up fast you just run and hit the auto up's and every thing comes up automatically you don't have to hold the button down and wait for it to come up and jump to the next one ). the up and down speed is also adjustable, when I am shallow, and out 50+ feet I set it to high, but when deep and have a 5' set back I run it in on med. or lo. so the line doesn't go down to fast and wrap on the cable. these are things along with soft start and stop, the others don't have or offer and may not be a big deal to some but it defiantly makes life easier. dfly
remember if the girls don't find you handsome they better find you handy
Shaun, one of my fishing buddies bought the digitrolls and I really didn't like the programmable auto stop at all. We blew a few fuses when fighting fish because the weight came up without stopping. There seemed to be enough slack in how the cable would wind or unwind that in a 100' of travel, there could be a couple feet of difference. The digitroll needs a level wind arm to make the cable wind the same every time.
2006 Dodge Ram 3500 Dually, 21' North River Seahawk
Dave, I use the ss scotty cable on my 4 ( didn't care for the cannon cable) but also have the ss drums and installed the scotty masts which are a lot heavier duty and don't flex like the cannons, don't know if that made the difference. and have never had any problems at all with it not stopping in the same spot even with the kids playing with them, was very impressed having come from using scottys all the time. I talk to others that have them and I have never heard of them having any problems but they all run scotty cable also. mine winds pretty level, it doesn't really count feet it counts drum revolutions, so if it cranks out 20 revolutions it should roll back 20 revolutions so it should never be off by much unless his is miscounting, the magnetic drum pickup is weak, or not lined up . dfly
remember if the girls don't find you handsome they better find you handy
Lunddude,it seems either you have been given bad info,or are mistaken about letting the weight down using Cannon elect's. I have a pair of mag 5's on my boat. I have never had to let the weight down manually. I always use power to let the weight down. I have never had a bird's nest on either the spool on the d/r,or a birds nest on my reel. Scotty's use a brake lever on the spool,it's very easy to use,and I have never had a problem with them ,when fishing with my friends Scotty's. It seems to me the problems you are having ,are due more to operator error then anything else.
"Chance Favors A Prepared Mind"
Like I said, it's all in what one is used to. When I use Bduck's Walkers, I feel like the weight just falls off the retrieval bar in free fall and hits the water with great force. It scares me every time I deploy but I'm not used to using it like other Walker owners would be.
2006 Dodge Ram 3500 Dually, 21' North River Seahawk
What problems are you talking about? You need to pay closer attention to what your reading in my post.
Once again FYI I have NEVER owned electric Cannons or Scotty's. Before I bought my electric Walkers I had manual Cannons. To me they were bulky and made out of to much plastic. When I decided to go with electric downriggers I researched all of them for several months before deciding to go with the Walkers. Got It?
I've had canon down riggers for years and models from uni troll manual's to mag 10 stx's I love the clean design, the ample use of plastics . clean modern design. simple drag system. the choice of using the power down feature or manual clutch. to let down your weight availability of parts and service , positive ion control auto stop price point etc. . never had any problem with any feature on the rigger. and there is no way you can get a rats nest on the spool unless you are free spooling and hit the bottom. as far as the original question asked at the beginning of this thread . you will catch way more fish with a down rigger verses a diver of any kind. with a diver you can never tell tell exactly where your rig is period. plus you don't have any extra weight to fight when you catch .
"I believe the reason being is that they travel to fast when lowered down under power that the reel will free spool when you stop it, leaving you with 100+ feet of stainless steel cable in a rats nest".
It's right there as part of your quote. But going back and looking at your post about back spooling,you failed to make it clear you were talking about manuals. I posted my reply as if you were talking about electric's. If you experienced back spooling with a manual,then you must of had no drag at all on the spool and it backed spooled. That is operator error,not the d/r's fault.
"Chance Favors A Prepared Mind"
Never had a problem with back spooling on my Cannon manual downriggers.
I was only referring to the problems I had READ ABOUT with the electric Cannons while lowering the ball under power. I was told by sales people that the Cannon electrics (Mag 5) had to be lowered manually because they traveled to fast while lowering the cannon ball under power
Well those so called sales people are wrong,wrong,wrong.
"Chance Favors A Prepared Mind"
Walker electrics use power for up & down at the same rate of speed. The only time I get a rats nest is not paying attention to the bottom depth, I'm not perfect. That usually happens when I'm getting ready to setup my next rig. I'm use to the way these function. The switches are a 3pos switch with center as off. When going down the switch stays in down position until you as the control stop it. When switching to up position the switch will also stay in that position but it has an autostop so you can reel in your rig.
Thanks for al the responses, I got side tracked on another project
Update I did get some Scotty's but not the previous ones mentioned as I couldn't work the deal being it was in AZ. I found two 1109's locally here now the work begins on getting them installed
Thanks again for the spirited debate
I have a pair of small Walker manual downriggers along with a pair of Shasta Tackle Shuttle Hawks AND about $500 cash still in my wallet to spend on things to get those fish to bite.
And yes, we catch plenty of Kokes, have never had one tangled in the cables and the only time I have to wind the ball up or down is when I decide to change depth.
It's all personal preference.
16 foot Tan/Green Lowe with 50 HP Yamaha
Almost always my wife and I together.
Pull up and say Hi!
It is really amazing to FEEL the koke shaking like crazy...with divers that is not gonna happen. We started with those, then went to Manual Downriggers. Used Shuttlehawks, so we didn't have to crank them up each time we got a fish. Then we bought a 17' Valco and it came with 4 electric DR...man that was a nice change!!! Our current boat, a FishRite also came with 4 electrics... What else can I say???
it sounds like you need to donate the extra 4 electrics to to the spoons kokanee experience. It's not tax deductible, but I'll give you credit for every fish I catch using them. Win, win, right? I have a 50 dollar Lowrance fish finder with a broken transducer I can trade.
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