What should I look for in a downrigger?
I hear I should go with a electric one.
Anyone have an idea on where I should shop for one?
Not only am I a new boat owner. But also in to the westside.
I live in the Mill Creek area. But will drive from Renton-Mt.Vernon if anyone wants to point me in the right direction.
Thanks
Hunter

Ted's Sport Center located on Hwy 99 in Lynnwood.

Cigar

Depends what you are planning to fish for. If you're primarily going for coho in the saltwater you can save a lot of money by going manuals since you won't be fishing super deep. But if you expect to consistantly fish deeper than 65-75 feet deep that electric is sure sweet. If money isn't a major consideration go electric. I have one of each on my boat which I think is a good compromise.

You might as well buy electrics now cuz you will eventually want them. I had manuals, but one day salmon fishing we must have reeled them up a good 50 times after landing 38+ salmon in 4 hours. The next morning my arm was immoble. LOL. Think of how nice they will be when you get your limits of Sockeye next year on Washington

One thing you must think of is the speed in which you can get your downrigger cables out of the way of the fish you are fighting. If you hook a fat fish and can't get the downriggers reeled in before the fish darts under or around your boat, you'll probably not even get to see the fish, and you'll kick your own azz for not getting the eletrics. It's hard to fight a big fish with one hand on the crank and one on your pole. I know this first hand . With the electrics you just hook the fish and turn the dial and forget it.

Scotty brand reels in 3ft per second with the lowest amperage drain of any model on the market. All models have the same motor, from the base model to the highest priced PRO version. So my advice is to go with the 24" model(lowest priced). 24" is the boom or arm length, you can always extend the boom in the future if you need to. It lists for $269 at Sportco in Fife. I bought 2 and run them off one battery and they have worked nicely with no problems. And they have got me more fatties than i ever thought i would catch.

I have been happy with the scottys. Take a look at berrysbait.com in B.C thay have good prices.

I agree that the Scotty electric is the way to go. More expensive but will pay for itself in short order.

Buying the shorter boom now and replacing it later is not a bad way to go. That is what I did for two of them. The stainless tubing is pricey though. and getting the end caps out of the old one is a pain. They run into the pipe about 6in. so you must be persistent and careful. I recently bought the extendable model, cant remember the number offhand, but it is a beauty. Fully extended it runs out 48", nice if you are using more than two on the boat, but it is a long reach........ tilting it up works, but is still a workout. Sportco has been the cheapest locally I have found.

I have been shopping for 2 Scotty electrics and the best price I have found was at Outdoor Emporium in Seattle the price was 349.95 for 1101s with a free 10lb ball it was 20$ cheeper than Sportco.

I have a pair of electric scottys. What I like about them is the automatic shut off when it gets up to the surface, You can adjust where it stops. Keeps my hands free to reel in the pole when you get a fish on to get it out of the way. Its like doing two things a once. A couple of things I would suggest is get one of those green bungies they sell to put inbetween the ball and your line. This allows some stretch and takes the shock out of your downrigger line if you hit bottom. Second I got a bunch of halibut clips to attach your releases to the downrigger cable. If you try to attach the swivel to the ball or cable clip it gets all twisted up. Learned that lesson the hard way. Third I went to 15 pound downrigger balls this way you can get strait down even at faster trolling speeds. If you go to the scottyusa.com site and look around you will find a link to using downriggers they have a chart showing the different weights and how much speed affects them . You can compensate for the speeds with diffent weights but I wanted to take the guess work out of it. I picked mine up for just under $300.00 US apiece from berrysbait.com and that included shipping. They came with the scotty released witch work fine but I have picked up a couple of offshore released and like them better. They seem to release smoother .

Hello HunterWA73

I personaly own Penn downriggers and I love them.

But, I would suggest stopping by on the eBay website. They have a varity of them from time to time, and the prices they go for are pretty good!

Tight-Lines!!

I bought a pair of 30 inch boom electri scotty's.

I put them on and wired them up and tried one out sunday. I'm happy with the,.

Now I just need to get more fish, so I can forget how $$ they were. Ha Ha.

Thanks for the help
Hunter

Congrats on the Scotty purchase! You're gonna love 'em. Make sure your not hot on the wires...
Your next investment... a Scotty Black Box. By far my best investment on the boat.

Downriggin'