Scotty Downriggers My Choice For Downrigger Fishing

I have used Scotty downriggers for about 30 years. They are a quality product that has been well thought out and designed by fisherman. My first exposure was to their manual downriggers. I liked the idea that there were very few metal parts and having the wheel and crank in the horizontal position allowed one to get their back into it and not just wear out your arms.

My latest downriggers are the 1101 Depthpower 30 inch. We have two of these mounted to my Arima and they have performed without issue for 3 seasons now. These are electric downriggers and so I mounted the receptacle plugs way up under the gunnels to keep salt water spray out of the electrical connections.

I think I have had to adjust the brake one time. Easy to do as the top swings up exposing the mechanism. Line is played down using the brake and when a fish pops the release just turn the switch and the downrigger motors itself up until it hits the stop clip which you set previously. Once you hit the up switch you only have to worry about playing the fish. The downrigger takes care of itself.

For trolling sockeye in Lake Washington, I will use a 6 pound ball. Every where else which usually means just of the coast of Washington trolling for coho and king salmon, I will use the 12 pound weights. It is a function of current and boat speed. In Lake Washington there is almost no current and we are moving extremely slow. In the ocean we have lots of current and the coho like a faster moving bait. A little slower for Kings. Depths in the lake for sockeye are from 50-90 feet with 60 being the major zone. If we are trolling for coho, we start at 15 feet and work down to about 30. For the kings, we may fish anywhere from 50 -150 feet. A fishfinder and downrigger are lethal in the hands of the right fisherman.

 We always use the trolling snubbers. Its a length of rubber that gives a little just in case you are a little too close to the bottom and hit something with the ball. Steel cable has zero stretch or give to it so the trolling snubber puts a little bit of flex in the system. Might be enough to save you having to buy another ball or replace the cable.

 We use the Powergrip Plus release grips. They are adjustable. They work real well even with the large flashers we use for coho.

In the above photo you can see the square mounting plate for the Scotty downriggers. We don't always have the downriggers on the boat as they are a tool for salmon fishing and we don't need them for other types of fishing. The low profile plates are out of the way. I have made a couple of blocks with rod holder mounts attached that I will mount to those plates when tuna trolling. I never have too many rod holders. Maybe I will send the design to Scotty.