# Homemade Downrigger



## troutgass

With the economy the way it is now, I can't afford to buy downriggers. I searched the forum, but didn't see if anybody has made any homemade downriggers. It looks like it would be pretty easy, but I am not the handy man type. 

I would like to use at Fishlake to get down to those lakers. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.


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## DallanC

Cheap solution:

Go buy a release, they are under $10 at cabelas or sportsmans. Now get something heavy for a weight, anything you can tie a string to. Pick up some braided line from homedepot, the kind used for running a straightline. Tie one end to your weight. 6" up from the weight tie a loop in the cord and attach the release to it. Now every 5" up from the release tie a large loop in the line. Thats it.

When out fishing figure out how deep you want to be, and use the appropriate loop and hook it to your boat cleat. Hook your line to the release and lower it over the side. Its basic but it will work. Everything beyond that just makes the basic system easier to use... winders, depth counters etc etc.


-DallanC


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## troutgass

DallanC

Thanks man. I thought that there had to be an easy way to do that. I can't see paying upwards of $200 for a manual downrigger when what you suggested would work just as well. 

I will name my first lake trout after you!


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## deadicatedweim

I have a electric big jon downrigger that I only paid $200 for. If you spend time searching you can find good deals like that. Just a quick search for a manual big john turned this up on ebay. $134 with $20 for shipping Usually most boat shops will sell it for the same price with free shipping. I like having a metal arm cause I have heard alot of people have problems with the plastic arms snapping when your weight drags bottom. The suggestion by dallanc is a good idea for a cheap way it could become tiring pulling the rope up from 80 feet over and over again trying not to get it tangled.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ON-SALE-NEW-BIG-JON ... 7C294%3A50


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## Troll

There are several ways to "get down".
down riggers are one, but before down riggers it was done with either weights or diving planers.
have you tried any of the "Jet Divers" or planer divers? They atach to your line and dive to a depth determined by their size. When they reach the epth they stay there until a fish hits. When a fish hits it moves the line on the planer and the planer comes to the surface.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... rchResults


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## Packfish

Bent some conduit in the shape of a down rigger with a small pulley mounted on the end- I mounted an old large trolling reel on it- Then down rigger cable and a release. Had a buddy who had a 8# weight mold and clamped it to the side of the boat- worked fine- then later sold the boat and it went with it.


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## BROWN BAGGER

Well, I have made six downriggers. But it helps being a machinist. You *can't *use rope and drop a weight over board, been there done that. The rope has way to much drag. your line will get all caught up, as the weight swings back. Buy some dracon line 130lb test, make a fish bone reel. Mark you line every 3 yards or foot if you like. pick up a release and a 6lb ball. then count your marks and tie off on you keel hooks. I would give you one of my old ones, but I gave them away already. I have one left that I copyed a scotty to a "t". HAd it black anodized and everything. used a connon mount and a cannon front pulley. you can buy the cannon front pulley sepperate, and it has a line counter. you know I have found small row boat sized cannon riggers at walmart for 50.00 bucks.+5.00 relaese + 20.00 weight at sportsman, you can find them out there


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## BROWN BAGGER

This thread brings up all kinds of memories. all the trail and errors. One of the hardest parts of building a rigger is, the mount to your boat, stopping mechanism, and line counter. Like posted earlier, cannon sale's a front pulley with a counter built in. I used to use a spring loaded dowel pin, with holes drilled into the spool for the stopping mechanism. once I had the spool come unscrewed from the post and it fell over board. Well with 150 feet of cable on it, it all came unwound. I had a pile of cable in the bottom of my boat after I retrieved it. I found kit string over the top of my house this year. I pulled it off of the top of my house and pulled the plastic reel out of a tree. It was a fish bone reel. So I know you can buy these reels for kit flying. here is a pic of the line I was talking about earlier. you will get tried of this hand method, and it will get you more and more into buying a downrigger


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## troutgass

Thanks for the idea's. I probably would be better off just going to Walmart and buying one, but now it is kind of a challenge for me to build a downrigger that will work. All of your suggestions sound great! Keep them coming.


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## DallanC

If you make the decision to buy... IMO the best "Bang for the buck" downrigger is the Cannon LakeTroll downrigger sold at cabelas. They run a deal pretty often for under $100 and they throw in a free cabelas brand 8lb ball. I bought 2 of them and love them. Eventually once I win the lottery and buy a new Bayliner Trophy boat for my fishing, I'll upgrade to electric units but until then the Lake Trolls work just fine.

Just do yourself a favor and no mater what brand rigger you pick, you immediately buy a couple Scotty releases. Anything else is just frustrating to use.


-DallanC


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## Troll

Find an old small tricycle. Use the front end as the main frame.

Sawsall the tire off to revel what will be your spool. Then weld an arm from the inside of the wheel fork that exends a couple of feet out and mount the pully with the counter there.

Weld a small plate to the outside of the fork "U". This becomes your mounting plate. If you can make 2 plates make one that is welded to the forks and one welded to the tube that the forks mount on you can make a swivel mount.

Now weld a small 1/2 x 20 by 1" bolt to the fork facing the same direction as the extention arm. Put a propeller lock on this stud to stop the wheel in any position.

My chances of finding a picture of the ones I made are pretty slim, but I'll look.

Main thing is that a small tricycle from a garbage pile can provide you with almost every part needed to build one. Flip the trike upside down and the vision will come to you if your handy.


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## BROWN BAGGER

Here's some pic's of my latest and greatest home made down rigger, with spectra line and the cannon front pulley with line counter.


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## lunkerhunter2

BROWN BAGGER said:


> Well, I have made six downriggers. But it helps being a machinist. You *can't *use rope and drop a weight over board, been there done that. The rope has way to much drag. your line will get all caught up, as the weight swings back. Buy some dracon line 130lb test, make a fish bone reel. Mark you line every 3 yards or foot if you like. pick up a release and a 6lb ball. then count your marks and tie off on you keel hooks. I would give you one of my old ones, but I gave them away already. I have one left that I copyed a scotty to a "t". HAd it black anodized and everything. used a connon mount and a cannon front pulley. you can buy the cannon front pulley sepperate, and it has a line counter. you know I have found small row boat sized cannon riggers at walmart for 50.00 bucks.+5.00 relaese + 20.00 weight at sportsman, you can find them out there


I have been doing this very thing for 2 years now and it works great. We have used them at EC and Causey down to 40' without incident. I can see going deeper than that would cause problems but for up to 40' it works good. Use the smallest diameter line you can find and up-size your weight to 8#. As for going down 80'? No thanks with the rope and ball. I will just jig. 8)


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## BROWN BAGGER

I found this rigger at cabelas for 60.00 bucks, comes with 4 lb weight


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## DallanC

BROWN BAGGER said:


> I found this rigger at cabelas for 60.00 bucks, comes with 4 lb weight


Those are terribly flimsy. If you are willing to spend 60, save up $40 more and get the cannon lake troll at Cabelas when they put them on sale, they throw in a 8lb ball.


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## luv2fsh&hnt

lunkerhunter2 said:


> BROWN BAGGER said:
> 
> 
> 
> Well, I have made six downriggers. But it helps being a machinist. You *can't *use rope and drop a weight over board, been there done that. The rope has way to much drag. your line will get all caught up, as the weight swings back. Buy some dracon line 130lb test, make a fish bone reel. Mark you line every 3 yards or foot if you like. pick up a release and a 6lb ball. then count your marks and tie off on you keel hooks. I would give you one of my old ones, but I gave them away already. I have one left that I copyed a scotty to a "t". HAd it black anodized and everything. used a connon mount and a cannon front pulley. you can buy the cannon front pulley sepperate, and it has a line counter. you know I have found small row boat sized cannon riggers at walmart for 50.00 bucks.+5.00 relaese + 20.00 weight at sportsman, you can find them out there
> 
> 
> 
> I have been doing this very thing for 2 years now and it works great. We have used them at EC and Causey down to 40' without incident. I can see going deeper than that would cause problems but for up to 40' it works good. Use the smallest diameter line you can find and up-size your weight to 8#. As for going down 80'? No thanks with the rope and ball. I will just jig. 8)
Click to expand...

I like LH2'S idea.My daughter and I have been fortunate enough to be invited to fish with him on his boat as well as on the ice and he is a reliable source of information on techniques and equipment. I went and checked on some different line material and found some climbing rope at S&E that is small in diameter and has a 600lb breaking strength for .17 per foot.


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## Packfish

Anything larger in Dia than basically the cable or wire that is used on a store bought down rigger is going to create a massive amount of drag. You may have 90 feet of line out but the lure will only be down a percentage of that due to the drag and the bow created. You really won't know where you are at as far as depth unless you have some nifty mathamatical formula that will take in to account - dia. speed and density and what ever else .or a scuba tank . (0:
The one I bulit worked OK but I did use the proper sized cable and had a down rigger ball mold- still wasn't in the same league as one I found on KSL that was manufactured. The simplicity issue of having everything working smoothly just out weighed any satisfaction I obtained by making my own or saving a penny.


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## BROWN BAGGER

I know where they are coming from with using rope. They are only going down say 20 feet no more. luv to fish, forget the rope you are picking up. that dacon line I listed is cheap and has a 130 pound breakage (all you need) and is smaller than the downrigger cable. I have done this before with sucess. you know a heavy short offshore rod and a small weight would work just as easy, pick it up at a yard sale. You have to think small and not going down more than 50 feet and these cheap riggers will work just as good. I will have to warn those willing to try these methods, it gets addicting and you will up grade. in late fall when all that muck gets into strawberry, you can fish under it, with out getting it all wraped around you main fishing line. In the summer heat you can get down to a good 30 feet into the thearmalcline. So in the end save up, buy a good setup, that is worth the time you will be using it.


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## troutgass

Thanks everyone for the advice. It would be fun to try some of these ideas, but I have come to realize that with my limited tools and machinery, it would be best just to buy a decent downrigger that will work. I am going to Fishlake so I will need to get down to possibly 80' sometimes.


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## Troll

Keep searching on KSL, Craigslist and E-bay. 
There often are some good deals on used ones. Make sure you get the mounts as they can add up.
When deep watering for Macs remember to try jigging if wind is not a factor. I do better with jigs now that i've learned to use them at FG.


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## BROWN BAGGER

I work at a machine shop programing cnc machinery


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