mr 580

Looks like getting kicker mounted would be pretty complicated. Do you know weight capacity and if swim platform was designed to accept kicker? Looks like composite boards to me so I doubt it was designed for a kicker. Likely you would have to remove one side of platform or the whole platform so you would have room for mount, kicker and steering mechanism to out drive unless you used stand alone steering system for kicker. Might be a project to work on in off season?

Fished my first ESLO in '79 out of 16' StarCraft bowrider with 2 manual Rivera's. Four of us fished with two guys using the downriggers and other two just flatlining. We had bass tackle and ended up just placing out of the money eventhough we were pretty much clueless about what we were doing. By '85 had a new 23' Wellcraft with four manual Rivera, Loran C and Lowrance paper graph that would go through a roll of paper a day. We would stack those riggers and get as many lures as we could in the water. Fished a lot of evil eyes, northport nailers, chargers and loco's. In the fall off the Genny you'd load up the j plugs and a good day was when you picked up as many as you lost. Remember hearing guys talk about NK's in a bar at Braddock's and how hot the 28's where once I got a few (wrapped in paper). We'd listen to radio all day and that provided lots of entertainment. Lots of good memories from those years. Pretty hard to compare to todays fishing- today's equipment is so much better than the old Penn 209's we had and the electronics are far superior. With Loran C you never knew when signal would fail, GPS is so much more reliable. Huge advantage with down speed and temp on the dash. We thought it was high tech when we got the Mac Jac handheld temp unit and sent that down to find the thermocline. The amount of information available today really helps as all we had in the past was days old info that had varying degrees of BS buildt in. Today with the clearer water and fleas we have to pay more attention to lines and terminal tackle. We use more "junk" lines and spread things out more. it was fun in the old days and it's still fun when a wire dipsey takes off screaming. To me we're pretty fortunate to have the resource at our doorstep.

Based on your pictures looks to me like your diver is getting twisted up on deployment. Only way I know that would cause line to your lure to be under pressure. Let diver out slower or under more pressure should eliminate diver twist. On my braid light bites I "thumb" them out and my wire slide divers I use drags to keep even pressure. Use all the time never have line cut into rear of diver. Slow down deployment should cure problem.

X2 to Big Dave's comments. Probe is first rigger down in my boat too. With probe and trollmaster I can dial in my speed, no comparison to the days of reading cable angle and rod reaction.

If you're not already using dipsey's in your spread, I'd add those before you go to copper. For someone starting out braid on dipsey's is more forgiving than wire, but braid has the flea issue. If you do go with wire get dipsey rods, add Twilly tips, and reels with good drags. Have someone familiar with wire setup your rods as wire needs to go on with steady pressure. Have to watch wire for kinks so have to be careful breaking down rods and handling. Don't give up on your lead core setups either. Short segments of lead core have been very productive for me this year. Keep in mind with all these tactics there is a learning curve so stick with it until you are comfortable. Good luck!

Did my dashboard with plastic material so my electronics were flush mounted. Looked for starboard but found a cut piece of food grade plastic for $40. If I would have had to buy a full sheet of material would have been pricey. Luckily I had access to CNC equipment so I got dash and a blank cutout for a template done. Template will come in handy if I ever change electronics in future. Also wired so I can remove dash and electronics for winter storage. Really makes a clean install.

I run 13lb on back riggers and 10lb on side long arms. All are high speed. Ball snubbers absorb the shock and keep weight in water better. Wouldn't want to go back to the old and slow mag 10's I had before.

Amish Outfitters has ball snubbers that really smooth out the jerk from the sudden stop. They have been working well for me on my cannons.