Shasta Tackle Shuttle Hawk

After this weekends Kokanee hunt, my right arm has asked me to find out if there is a better way of pulling up that downrigger weight constantly.  Quite a few over tension releases, lure and dodger changeouts, corn change outs, debris cleaning, and one actual fish, all required the dredgery of hoisting up that four pound weight up 30-60 ft at a time.  While researching lure combinations prior I read about this device that was designed to ease stacking by using a special platform, that runs up and down the downrigger line using your forward momentum, down when line is attached, and free floats back up when line is released, thus allowing you to leave the downrigger below.  Attach the line back and it shuttles it back down.  Ingenius.  My only concern is not having really heard much about it, as well as will it work with the slower speeds that we generally go at on kayaks.  If this system works, I will be stowing my downrigger and taking it on more excursions.

Here's the link.  http://shastatackle.com/tackleshop/show_Product.asp?ID=209

So I tried the other one,  made by seps here: http://www.sepsprofishing.com/cart/catalog/Simply_Trolling_Device-5-1.html and I wasn't happy with the results.  Just didn't seen to want to dive once the line was clipped to it.  Might be the way my setup is, or i'm not sure what was wrong.  Maybe you need to be going faster than 2.5mph or something to get it to dive?  I do need to try it out again after changing out the steel cable for some braided line, it might work better this time. 

I can also tell you that I need to find a better diver for my second rod.  Trying to crank back in the 20ft JetDiver was much more of a pain in the ass than I was expecting.  The 10ft one works pretty good though, but even then I was having to use it on a med heavy bass rod.  Maybe time to try a deep six?

If you're only going down 10'-20' just try using bullet weights a few feet in front of your dodger. Been working fine for me. I too made a downrigger out of an old rod and totally agree that cranking up the weight is a major hassle not to mention playing out line on the downrigger and rod while trying to maintain forward motion. A pedal boat would make the latter much easier. I plan on trying out the shuttle hawk, seems it would make going deep with a downrigger much more enjoyable on the yak.