looking to upgrade to electric downriggers. considering the Scotty or Cannon. I would like to know what you like or don't like about your downriggers.

I've had a pair of Scotty's for about 8 years with no problems. My brother in law has the Cannon's with the same results. I don't think you can go wrong with either of them.

My buddy has the scotty 1099 and then bought longer booms for them, i think the 36 inch. That makes them almost idenical to the 1105. I am not sure if that will save you any money doing it that way. They are nice downriggers and very simple to use. Good luck

Baddawg, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the "big 3" Cannon, Scotty or Penn. I sale all 3 of them and I hear very few complaints about any of them.
I personally have used both Penn and Cannon (hand crank) and think they are both excellent downriggers.

Electric or manual? As far as the electric go, the low end Scotty's retrieve speed is much faster than the low end Canon's. I have Canon Mag10s and my buddy has Scottys. The only negative I have heard about the Scottys is that the cable spools horizontally and if/when you drag your ball the slack in the cable will cause the Scotty to tangle up and that is a real problem when you have 100' out and a 12lb ball bouncing back there.

So if I were buying... I'd go with the Canon Mag20s or the less expensive Scottys to save a few bucks.

I've used all the big 3,penns were good,were my first elect., used them 2 years,thats when they stopped making elect. for a while ,so I sold them, had a chance to prostaff Cannon-bottomline,they gave me 3 mag20's......I HATED THEM, the up-stop-down switch sucked..after a year I gave them back,but I bought the Tourn.Master fishfinder..great unit. Had a chance to do Scotty's guide program,got 3 elect.,4 years ago,still use the same one's........GREAT UNITS....BETTER THAN MAG20s cost about $300.00 each less, thats $900.00 saving's.

Scottys, no question about it... buy them in Canada, save a ton of cash. If you don't want to drive up there, mail order them from a place like Berry's Bait and Tackle in Richmond, BC. Since NAFTA, mailing them across the border is no problem. I got mine two days after ordering them.
http://www.berrysbait.com/

-N.

I'm happy with the Scotty electrics. They are real easy to work on -- the whole unit disasembles by removing one nut. AND you can retrieve the cable manually if necessary. I don't really understand the previous comment about the horizontal spool causing problems. Scottys use the least power and have the fastest retrieve (& best warranty). The Scottys and Penns let you lower the ball without the motor. Are the Cannons a "power-down" deal? I would not like that.

SlabQuest, I used 3 mag20s for a year and didn't like them,for one the only way to lower the ball is power down,...slow.. then the down -stop -up switch is way to touchy. Sometimes you can't find stop and it just slams back-n-forth between up and down...what a drag.. ...at $800.00 give me a brake....scottys work everyday....and you save over $300.00 each unit.

A friend of mine is certified in repairing both Scottys and Canons. He finally descided to quit repairing Canons because he had to repair so many. He just got tired of it. He said that the Scottys are much easier to work on anyway. (Just for your info).