Downrigger Help Needed

The whales thing definitely for real
I was at moss last year and I had one following me when I turned it turn several times I think it was just checking me out
But it could have easily gotten tangled in my rig
I was fascinated by its actions and quite enjoyed it

Definitely switch out the cable for braid and have a knife near you in the event you hook into a whale. Scary stuff no doubt!

I’ve got 85-lb braid on mine.

As for shortening the boom... Flip the downrigger over and you’ll see a bolt that holds the boom in place. Remove that. (I can’t recall if any more disassembly was required). There’s a hole drilled through the boom. Measure how close that hole is to the end, cut it short, then drill a new hole (I suggest using a vise and some sort of guide to help keep the drill bit aimed right).

Don’t cut the boom too short. You still need to be able to situate the line guide so it’ll wind up properly.

The whole downrigger is a pretty simple contraption. I suggest taking the whole thing apart at some point to get familiar with it. If you want it to last a long time, you’re gonna need to take it apart for a thorough cleaning once a season or so, anyway.

I emailed Scotty and this is what they said:

“Unfortunately these arms can Not be shortened.
 
Our down rigger arms are made of stainless steel and stainless steel is really hard to cut. The other issue is  there is a precisely drilled hole that the pulley clips into, to hold it on and we use a 10 ton press with a jig to make that hole. And if you were to cut off from the reel side, the rod holder would have to be moved.  And again a hole would need to be precisely drilled through the center of the arm to mount it.”

Meh electric is the only way to go.

I emailed Scotty and this is what they said:

“Unfortunately these arms can Not be shortened.
 
Our down rigger arms are made of stainless steel and stainless steel is really hard to cut. The other issue is  there is a precisely drilled hole that the pulley clips into, to hold it on and we use a 10 ton press with a jig to make that hole. And if you were to cut off from the reel side, the rod holder would have to be moved.  And again a hole would need to be precisely drilled through the center of the arm to mount it.”

Not true. It’s not difficult to cut. The only catch is that if you cut it too short, the cable/braid won’t go smoothly thru the pulley. I fixed that by raising the pulley up with some starboard plastic.

If you shorten the boom on a downrigger which has a horizontally-oriented cable reel, such as the Scotty Depthmaster or Laketroller, the pulley will end up lower and the cable will run over the edge of the cable reel, which is not good.  It takes a fair amount of creativity and work to raise the pulley up above a shortened boom so the cable will feed into the center of the cable reel.  The first picture below shows how I accomplished this when I mounted a Scotty Depthmaster with a shortened boom on my Revolution. 

It's way easier to shorten the boom of a downrigger with a vertically-oriented cable reel such as the Cannon Lake-Troll, because the pulley will still be lined up on the center of the cable reel after the boom is shortened.  The second picture below shows the shortened boom on the Cannon Lake-Troll which I mounted on my Revolution. The Cannon Lake-Troll downrigger setup is my favorite downrigger setup, and the one I am currently using. For more information about how I set up my Revolution for downrigger trolling with the Cannon Lake-Troll, why I set my kayak up that way, and how to downrigger troll from a kayak, see http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=12575.msg138905#msg138905.

For anyone looking at other ways to mount the small downrigger on an Outback here is a pic of mine. Laketroller with shortened and bent up boom (so the line lays correctly), Scotty base with yak attack track adapter.

I really like the cup holder mount but I prefer my downrigger on the right side and that is the skinny bottle cup holder side.

It’s also in a good position to use my knee as a clutch which I’m used to doing on my revo.

ThreemoneyJ- how did you bend your lake troller boom?  I cut mine short only to later realize that the line is
now off center. I cranked the pulley mount vertical and that helps, but I don’t know how well it will stay put with a 4# ball?!?

ThreemoneyJ- how did you bend your lake troller boom?  I cut mine short only to later realize that the line is
now off center. I cranked the pulley mount vertical and that helps, but I don’t know how well it will stay put with a 4# ball?!?

The boom on Scotty Laketroller downriggers is quite stiff, and won't bend under the minor tension of a four pound ball.  Bending the boom is fairly hard.  I was worried that I would crack the downrigger's plastic base if I clamped the base in a vise and tried to bend the boom, so I clamped the base of the boom in a vise and bent the boom from the vise outward.

ThreemoneyJ- how did you bend your lake troller boom?  I cut mine short only to later realize that the line is
now off center. I cranked the pulley mount vertical and that helps, but I don’t know how well it will stay put with a 4# ball?!?

The boom on Scotty Laketroller downriggers is quite stiff, and won't bend under the minor tension of a four pound ball.  Bending the boom is fairly hard.  I was worried that I would crack the downrigger's plastic base if I clamped the base in a vise and tried to bend the boom, so I clamped the base of the boom in a vise and bent the boom from the vise outward.

Yup, this. Clamped the boom in a vice and used a big hammer to bend it up.

Thanks for the advice with the vice! 

I’m curious what is the recommendation length cut off for the laketroller boom?

I’m curious what is the recommendation length cut off for the laketroller boom?

To reduce the tipping force, I think you want it as close to the kayak as you can get it without rubbing. The ideal length of the boom will depend on how you have it angled when you mount it to the kayak.

Thank you.

I’m curious what is the recommendation length cut off for the laketroller boom?

One option is to leave the boom of your Scotty Laketroller at its original length, and to point the boom forward or backward along the kayak so the cable hangs only an inch or so from the side of the kayak.  You will want to position the downrigger where it's easy to crank the cable reel without reaching way forward or backward or stressing out your shoulder, and it's also easy to grab your downrigger weight and release.

If you decide to shorten the boom of a Scotty Laketroller which you intend to mount on a pedal kayak, you will have two challenges:

1. The cable pulley is attached to a plastic fixture which is molded to the end of the downrigger's boom.  You can't remove and relocate the plastic fixture.  If you saw off the end of the boom, you'll need to devise a way to attach the cable pulley to the shortened boom.

2. The boom on a Laketroller positions the pulley so it feeds the downrigger cable into the center of the cable reel.  If you cut off part of the boom and re-attach the cable pulley to the end of the shortened boom, the cable pulley will end up positioned below the level of the cable reel, and the cable will bend and rub over the edge of the cable reel, which is bad.  So you will need to bend the shortened boom up so it positions the cable pulley where it feeds the cable into the center of the cable reel.  If you shorten the boom too much, you'll need to bend the boom up very sharply to get the cable pulley high enough, which will be difficult because the boom is made of very stiff metal.  So you need to figure out how much you'd need bend up the boom in order to position the cable reel properly for various lengths of boom.

If you want to mount a Scotty Laketroller or any other downrigger on a paddle kayak, you'll have another challenge, which is that you need to find a place to locate the downrigger's base, and a direction to point the downrigger's boom, where the downrigger won't interfere with paddling your kayak.  Because most of us have only two arms, and you need both arms to paddle a kayak, if you mount the downrigger next to your thigh, you'll be able to control the descent of the downrigger weight by leaning your thigh on the edge of the cable reel while you paddle forwards with both arms.

When I mounted a Scotty Laketroller on my 13' Ocean Kayak Trident, which is a paddle kayak, I decided to leave the boom at its original length, but point it backward to position the downrigger cable only couple of inches from the side of the Trident.  Then, to get the cable closer to the side of the kayak, and to get the boom further out of the way of my paddle stroke, I bent the boom sideways.  I didn't bend the boom down, because that would have resulted in the cable bending and rubbing over the edge of the cable reel.  A couple of pictures of the way I mounted a Laketroller on my Trident are shown below.