Re: electric riggers,
It's pretty much a Ford, Chevy thing.
I've used them all. Big John's have the lifting booms which is nice. They do have a heavier boom option which is a lot better, but I haven't seen many? The stock booms are pretty chinzy. The auto stops are even more so!
Cannon's are fine if you don't mind reaching way over the gunnels or swinging them to the side every time you use them. The cable retrievers are fine, I guess. The bottom sensor Cannons (forget the name cuz I have CRS) are great if you don't mind the above and they are working. They have been known to spend a lot of time in the shop.
The simplest, most dependable, and arguably the fastest are Scotties!
They have booms that lift, but are much heavier made then the BJ's.
You can put a 20# ball on a Scotty and in rough seas it wont bounce up and down like a BJ does with an 8# ball in a salmon chop. No power is used when the ball goes down! It has a clutch handle that you can release slower then a second hand goes around, or as fast as any other electric rigger and everywhere in between.
Scotties bring up balls as fast as any of them and faster then most. They have an auto stop "bead" that you can put anywhere on the cable or multiple places on the cable. In addition to the auto stop, they have a green button in the middle of the auto stop that you can push for minor upward adjustments (as little or much as you want).
Another really nice feature is that these "up" buttons are on top of the rigger for easy view and handling.
You don't have to reach under and around rod holders to go up or down. And you don't have to have lighting reflexes to put the release at the depth you want it. Another great feature is that in the rare instance you need to work on these Scotties, you just turn a tab on the top and lift the lid. Everything I ever needed to work on in 12 years with 4 Scotties, is under that lid looking at you. All I ever needed was a screw driver to adjust an idler pulley. That was done while fishing.
As far as I can tell, the only reason people buy BJ's is cuz they never used a Scotty.
after decades getting to using a variety of down riggers I found the Big Jon riggers to be the most trustworthy hardy. Fishing on Lake Ontario for many years all of my guides used Big Jon riggers. An interesting fact is that the Captain's Pack manual has a retrieve rate faster than an electric?
Dick
Dick, I almost hate to say this, but nothing could be further from the truth!
Big John's are the least "hardy" rigger of the top three.
Not at all the most most trustworthy!
"All of my guides used BJR's". How many guides have you had?
Cannon's were the first and far away the biggest on the great lakes block.
Their popularity is fast waning with all the mother board issues they have with the guides that use them almost daily.
Yes, there are some BJ's used still out there.
The Scotties are one of the newer riggers out there (but not new by any stretch) and one of the most popular.
Just walk down the docks at any major Lake O port, including where the guides are. Let me know what the most popular riggers are?
