Downriggers

[wshniwsfshn]

Anyone ever have luck with clamp on downriggers or should I go permanent it’s going on a 14ft tiller opinions please cause I’m up in the air on what to do thanks

[Hottuna5150]

I use a clamp on for my canoe. It works fine for my purposes but I do wish it would handle a heavy ball a little better. If I had a boat like yours I’d probably prefer hard mount.

[zwiggles]

On our old boat (16’ Grumman) we had one hard mount rigger, and one clamp on. The clamp on was more of a pain, but I never noticed a difference once they were set up.

That said we only used the clamp on because there wasn’t anywhere else to mount the second base. If you can mount both on the rear I would just do that.

[seamonkey84]

Tagging along with this thread as I’m looking into a clamp on unit as well. Don’t want to hijack your thread, but diving a bit deeper, what brand are you looking at or what do people recommend? Do the mini downrigger work with braid instead of steel cable? I’d like to try it to help with the fact they use smaller weights.

[zwiggles]

https://www.fishusa.com/product/Big-Jon-Runabout-ClampOn-Manual-Downrigger

That is the one we used. Ours is probably 25 years old, but looks to be the same. Everything but the release worked great for us.

[wshniwsfshn]

Zwiggles yes that’s the one I found one used and like it really don’t want to drill holes if I don’t have to just worried about it rocking on the Gunnel thanks

[seamonkey84]

That is quite the difference in price compared to the mini riggers I’ve been looking at for my little boat.

[wshniwsfshn]

Seamonkey look on Craigslist that where I found the one I'm interested in much cheaper than new good luck

[zwiggles]

Zwiggles yes that’s the one I found one used and like it really don’t want to drill holes if I don’t have to just worried about it rocking on the Gunnel thanks

We had a very thin gunnel on our Grumman. We attached a small wood block with a heavy duty rubber back for where it would rub on the boat to help with the wobble. Attached with a small chain. This was key for us in getting the rigger to sit right.

I agree with you on the used ones. If I didn’t have half a mind of reviving our old boat and using it I would have put them up there for sale.

[MikeF-NH]

....just a  thought for you but when I had my 16 footer, I knew I would want to resell at some point and didn't want to drill anything into the hull. I bought some pressure treated 2x6 lumber and created a bracket that laid across my back deck (might be a bigger challenge on a tiller boat) and put a couple of Canon quick release mounts on it. The whole bracked weighed about 30 pounds and I clipped it to my rear cleats with carabiners. The whole thing mounted in a few seconds and worked great.

There are more professional rail sytems like this: https://www.cabelas.com/product/Berts-Custom-ft-Downrigger-Mounting-Board-Kit/738034.uts?productVariantId=1189682&WT.tsrc=PPC&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=00004873&rid=20&ds_rl=1252079&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsq6Ax_fV3AIVlo7ICh1UVQ1_EAQYASABEgKg7fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds but its pricey and you are still drilling holes (unless you make some wooden "feet" for these rails and attach the rail to them.

FYI: I did drill holes in my current boat and went with swivel mounts...never looked back. Good luck

[Jethro]

I used a Cannon Mini Troll clamped on to the gunwale of my 14' Starcraft for many years. It worked ok but the constant cranking motion side to side eventually loosens up the rigger itself. I used a block of wood cut to fit the outside of my gunwale, but it still works loose. On long trips I would screw the block of wood fixed to the rigger clamp and that would work, but it's not quick release anymore. Then once you use real riggers with heavier cannonballs you will not look back. Because of that I would suggest a full size rigger right from the start.