1)how many downriggers do you have on your boats?
2)how many releases do you run on each downrigger?
3)what brand of downriggers do you reccomend?

I have two downriggers on my boat they are penn fathomasters that I got at a pawnshop for 80 bucks each. I prefer to just run one clip off each but will run two occaisionally. I recomend Scotty downriggers though, I have fished them alot. They seem real well made and I like the flip up feature for ball retreival.

Welcome to the board fishinut,
I have 2 Scotty Longarm manuals. Had them for five years and they have been very trouble free. Usually run 1 release per side off of the balls, but stacked more this year than I have in the past. As for the releases I like the Offshore mediums. If I had the money I'like to have the electrics though. If ya do get the riggers' I highly reccommend you get a black box to go with it.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff
PS,
If ya use the search feature in the upper right hand corner there have been other dicussions on downriggers.

i'm setup pretty much identical with Jeffhead and have never had any problem with my scottys. I, too, would love to have electrics like my buddy has, but what I have works. I don't have a black box, but have my weights tied to a loop of 60 pound dacron (so they can break off in an emergency, like snagging bottom) and to provide an insulation from the stainless wire(you do not want dissimilar metals touching or too near each other as they create an underwater battery). Something I read in a canadian downrigger tips section. I like the offshore mediums as they are reliable and you can vary the amount of tension by how deeply you place the line into the clips.

I have to agree with Jeffhead, I run two Scotty long arms,(manuals) from our sled. and really love them. we started out with the short arm scotty's and no real complaints, just that the arms were too short, and after cutting off one of the cables with the kicker on a windy day, made the upgrade to the longer arm model, they are maintenance free, and easy to use, and the horizontal crank it is easy to crank if it is choppy with one hand.
as far as releases go, in my opinion there is only one...it is actualy a kite release for fishing bait on the surface from a kite for marlin, but it far and away the best release out on the market. no pads or any of that, a positive, stainless elbow, with a tension thumbscrew, when you go to check your gear, one quick pull and its off. try that with an offshore.
they release cleanly, every single time. I place the release about two feet above the ball, that way I can bounce the ball on the bottom for blackmouth, and not get the bait, flasher, plug etc... dragging in the mud. and when you have the gear up, and are re-setting, the ball isnt swinging around in the air, its in the water. safer, easier, quicker.

Fuzzy

Silent Approach Jigs

One more vote for the Scotties. Ihave had two sets now, so you know I liked the first one (I sold them with the first boat, and got new when I got my newest boat). I use two downriggers, and will fish two lines per ball when I have that many people with me. I didn't go for the long arm ones, because I thought they would be unnecessary. You do want to be thoughtful about whether you kicker can get to the cable, and a long arm may be helpful there.

One thing to think about - the long arm rigs have the potential to exert more force on your boat if they snag. This can be dangerous for small boats. If you're using a smaller boat, stay with the short arms.

Back when I had a boat, I had a pair of Cannons' that I really like, I only fished 1 other person so didn't need to stack.
When I was guiding up north I fished 4 people on 2 Penn 600 which were also good downriggers but required more maintainance, I would stack the lines 20 feet apart, 1 thing I would point out is that the bottom line probably caught 70-75% of the fish. I personally have not used Scotty downriggers, but most of what I've heard aboutthem has been positive. :p

I run 2 Penn 600's off of my boat, and I have fished as many as 3 lines off of a downrigeer, but usually only fish a single line off of each. I tried to run 5 lines off of the boat this summer, but the fish were so thick that I spent all of my time setting lines, so we switched to 3 max, one on each down rigger, and one out the back on the surface.

The Penn 600's have not failed me, yet, so I'll keep fishing them.

I also agree that Scotties are the way to go. I recently replaced my 1050s that crank 1 foot a turn, with 1099 electrics on swivel bases. Have also fished the 1080 longarms that wind 2 feet per turn, much nicer and easier than the 1050s. But once you buy the manuals and see how long rigs take to go up and down all day long rebaiting, removing seaweed, jellyfish, dogfish and deciding if you want to hassel with going 150ft or more and the fact that the fish may tangle in the DR cable, you will wish you had the electrics. Super quiet 3ft a second retreival, auto ANY depth stop, auto stop at boom.Hook a fish, push the button and in seconds you'll lose the ability to use the excuse that you lost it on the DR line. And for $299 at SportCo, you can't beat it.(cheapest online was $279 but shipping evened out the price) And as for the black box, all scotty DRs have that technology built in. If you are looking for a great deal look at the telescoping 36"-60" Pro scotty combo electric downrigger package at http://www.outlaw.com . $399 for their top of the line 60" boom DR with a swivel base and dual pole holders. Nothing can top that deal. Wish i had seen it first. A problem i encountered was some of the manual bases were different than the electric bases so consider that if you purchase a low end manual first and decide to go to the electrics later, you may have holes or damage to cover up or repair from the previous DR mount. Hope that helps.