Just ordered a new North River and was kicking around the idea of installing downriggers.I normally fish the estuaries and rivers and when in the salt mooch or jig.My question is this.Can you troll down to say 100ft w/o riggers.For instance a fishflash with weights or a deep six/pink lady.I know I can't pull flashers but trolling sure seems effective at times.Any thoughts or should I just buys the riggers Led

Go ahead and just buy 'riggers.

Here in The Great Lakes, we use a lot of wire rods and 1lb balls. You can get down to 100ft easy. Also which is gaining a lot of popularity is either fireline dipseys or wire dipseys. You can easily get to 100ft with wire dipseys. It may not seem the most sporting way of catching fish but wire can be the hottest thing in the boat. You can check out www.glangler.com there is all sorts of info on wire. I hope this helps a bit.

OK Easywhich ones.Scottys perhaps.Salmon U here I come :p Oh and a black box

Buy what your budget will allow. If you can afford them, get electrics.

Sportco has the cannon unitrols for 169.00 I think give or take 10. They are refurbished but who cares for that price. Refurbished is dam near as good as new. If you want new do a search and you can find them for 250. I just bought a pair of easytroll 2s for 149.00 with free shipping and a 10% discount on top of that from insidesportfishing.
Glow

LZ,

You'll have a tough go reaching 100' w/o the aid of a down rigger. It is possible though...

Like Easy mentions- allow for your budget. One the other hand, might want to save up for electrics... This becomes especially handy when you are by yourself or when trolling deeper than 150'. It is hard to concentrate on fighting a fish and winding that ball up.. Electrics are the way to go...

Downriggin'

The best place to get down riggers is on ebay. I have bought and sold several pairs there and have always done good.. remember a few rules to better bidding on ebay. 1st find what you want and click on the watch button. this puts the item onto your ebay list and you can watch it until you are ready to bid. 2) never bid on anything until the last 10 mins. all you are doing by biding early is jacking up the price. 3) set a limit for your self and never get in a bidding war. People have bidded more then what you would pay new just to win. 4) if you are selling something and you get bids early have your girl freind bid from her account to drive up the price . that just a few hints and dont get bumed becouse you lost "just what you are looking for" there will be another on next week. right now there are 24 penn downriggers for sale . tom

Just for everyones info, I was going to go down to Outdoor Emporium and pick up a Pro Troll Black Box on Saturday. I called first to see if they had them in stock and was informed that they will be on sale for $79 on the 13th through the 15th. I got $79 burning a hole in my pocket!

For blackmouth fishing, electrics are the way to go.......especially when there are lots of shakers. Nothing like bringing the riggers up from 150' 20-30 times in a day. I've also found when the action is fast and furious (like Sekiu) you will get more fishing time when the bite is on because your downrigger weight will be coming up at the same time you are bringing your line/fish in.

I started with a manual rigger and upgraded when money permitted.

I got mine off of ebay. My Cannon Unitroll was $90, after replacing a broken spool and a new clutch cover is about $140. My DigiTroll IV was a canabalized unit that was just a body and motor, no electronics. It had a boom with no pulley. Got it for $65. After a new pulley, and a motorcover plus a $4 switch to bring the ball up and down, got about $100 into it or so, now comparable to a Mag10. Am looking for another electric one day, watching for another raped unit that I can rebuild. Not only does this mean I have about 7or$800 worth of downrigger for under $300, but with doing all the work I can now completely rebuild any Cannon downrigger. This helps if you have a problem as service seems pretty spendy.

Electrics are the way to go!

At least get the brackets for the downriggers and you can add the actual units later if its a cost issue. If you save a little for electrics you will never regret it. I was all hot for my first set of downriggers and went for manuals, had them for years and they worked fine, then I got a new boat that already had electrics and boy I wish I had had some patience when I bought my first set.

Actually it looks like I will be patient for awhile.I really only intend to troll a few times each summer while scouting bait.I really enjoy jigs(dungeness stingers)and have done quite well in the past.I talked with Al the inventor of the fish-flash and it sounds like motor mooching may be the ticket for me.Well see. I have some experimenting to do this summer at Point Wake.I mean Point Defiance

Maybe it's because I get feeling fat and lazy trolling around all day with a motor (I rowed for salmon for years until a rotator cuff injury), but I don't really mind winding up my Penn downriggers - good therapy for my shoulder, warms you up on a cold day, and Lord knows I need some kind of exercise. And manual Penns are cheap - nobody wants them anymore - you can get all you want for under 100 bucks if you look around - I even saw a pair for $150 or offer once

I kind of believe in minimal electronics and other things on my boat anyway - less to go wrong. I have a manual start motor, no generator, run it off the tiller, and just carry around a battery for the depth sounder, lights, and bilge pump, and plug the battery into the truck occasionally to charge it for free while I'm driving to the launch. I use oars as my backup motor, and also for trolling way down. My GPS runs off of AA batteries, and without any electrical system by boats runs .680 all by itself, so no black box either.

The advantage of all this minimal stuff kind of sunk home this weekend when my buddy lost his steering - steering cable broke and we ran in on the kicker. Well, I don't have a steering cable, so that's just one less thing to break I kind of feel that way about electric downriggers too - they do catch fire occasionally, don't they DR :p

Well, I can't say THEY caught fire, but I definitely had a DC spike somewhere that caused a lot of smoke that morning of the derby... Thankfully I only smoked the electronics harness... Still got my fish...

What a morning huh? You bugged out just in time. I got smacked with 40 kts of wind and quickly spun around.

Downriggin'

I am a big fan of Penn 600's.
Keep an eye open at the pawn shop. I got one for $60.00.