Northwest Fishing Reports

Can someone out there recommend a good manual downrigger for Chinook and Coho in Grays Harbor? My boat is a Lund Alaskan 1600 Tiller model.

Full sized Scotty manual with an addition of the clamp on base. Clamps to the side of your boat instead of requiring a bolt on mount.

I just got the scotty 1080. I disagree with the clamp mount. You will wish you hadn't on a larger boat.

I agree with ResQ. Clamping the DR to the gunnel not a good idea on a light boat like an Alaskan. When fishing especially for chinook in PS waters, yor DR wt could hang up bottm or soomething. That would be pretty scary.

is a person with a manual downrigger going to lower the ball down close to the bottom?? They might once or twice but after cranking it back up might go with the standard 30' - 60' deployment.

Hand cranking a manual downrigger from deep water gets old fast.

I used a clamp mount for years on my 15 ft Smoker Craft Alaskan. Hung up once or twice with out any damage. I had the down rigger set so the line played out when it got hung up. I like the Scotty down riggers.

zen leecher wrote:is a person with a manual downrigger going to lower the ball down close to the bottom?? They might once or twice but after cranking it back up might go with the standard 30' - 60' deployment.

Hand cranking a manual downrigger from deep water gets old fast.

Especially with 12 pound balls. Sunday I was down to 140 feet.
I have had Walker and Cannon manuals. I like them because they are like reels. But I would not like them out in the sound. I have saved up and bought 2 used electric Scotty's for the boat I haven't been able to use yet.

I fish from a 12' Duro-boat. I was using 2 smaller clamp on models, and Atwood cheap plastic one, and a Cannon easy troll. Neither one is rated for over 4lb ball. I recently picked up an older Canon electric. I have it on the left, because when i would shift in my boat to the left side, it seemed to really lean, and with the electric on that side i would no longer have to shift. I have the cannon on the right side, and i have it set up so i don't have to move to run it up and down. the only thing i dont really like about the Canon manual is the pulley on the outside. I switched it over to braid when from the wire it came with, and sometimes the line pops out of the pulley and its a bear to get it to ride back in the pulley. I doesn't happen all the time, but when it does in am thoroughly annoyed. I will be installing solid down-rigger mounts soon, but in the meantime, and as long as i clamp it to a wood backing block, it is solid enough that i use a 6lb ball on it with no problems, with more weight, i would consider a more solid mount.

HOOKUM wrote:Can someone out there recommend a good manual downrigger for Chinook and Coho in Grays Harbor? My boat is a Lund Alaskan 1600 Tiller model.

Honestly, most of the salmon fishing in grays harbor is done without downriggers, as it is fairly shallow. Most guys fish a cutplug herring behind an inline flasher with lead on a dropper. Some guys use divers. Using downriggers just seems like it would be more of a pain than anything, as you would have to constantly be adjusting your depth to track the bottom. Just stick with lead.

Thanks guys.