Downrigger weight question

[kjb7486]

Adding Cannon Uni-Troll manual downriggers to boat this spring and have question regarding size and type of weight to use. I would like the ability to fish down to depth of 120 ft with manageable blow back. Will 12 lb. balls work or should I go with 13 lb. torpedoes? Thanks.

[bandrus1]

13 torpedoes

[goin deep]

Minimum 13lb torpedos for that depth. You will still get a lot of blowback if you are trying to reach 120ft deep. I would go with the 15lb torpedos.

Brian

[Mortigan]

Search "torpedo". One of the members makes and sells them for a good price - find his recent post and send him a PM.

[Mickey Finn]

I run a 12 pound ball on my deep rig, and 13 pound torpedo's on my probe and on my side riggers with wingers. You should be fine at 120 ft. You will get quite a bit of blowback if you push them down to 150 or more but 120 shouldn't be a problem in my opinion. I guess it depends on what you call managable.

[cdgn troller]

I just added the same downriggers and have the 12lb michigan stinger weights. We fished keuka last weekend and had them down to 150 with minimal blowback. You better start working out your right arm though!

[tcon]

TROUTMAN 87 is the fella that makes the weights mentioned in the previous post viewtopic.php?t=24934#p143832

Tom

[LongLine]

A 12 Lb torpedo will give you less blowback than a 12 lb ball. I'd advise not going any heavier than 14 on the manual rigg'r. (I run my own 14 Lb missles on manuals and it is work when you get below that 100 ft mark)

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[kjb7486]

Thank you for all the responses. Think I may give the 12 lb. torpedo weights a try. Do you recommend painting them black, with paint or vinyl coating, or leaving bare? I like the idea of vinyl coating to minimize potential damage to boat gel coat if accidently bumped against, but not sure of durability of self done coatings. I Home Depot sells a vinyl overcoat product called Plasti-Dip but don't want to be constantly touching up if easily scuffed or scraped off. I'm thinking voltage concerns are probably not an issue on lines of manual riggers (regarding positive ion control or black box control of voltage on wire cable and lead weight), so probably more of a looks and durability question. Thanks every one.

[Mickey Finn]

My torpedos are painted black.

[Fish Hunter]

We paint the bottom half silver/top half black, with a red eye, on our 13 lb torpedoes.

When your down in the 140-150 range, they still blow back pretty dang good, but as long as your probe is telling you what is going on, no worries.

[thompsm7]

We've had a lot of success with the black 12 lb shark weights. Mine are bare in the nose from running them on the bottom for lake trout, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I wouldn't really worry about touching them up that much... I would worry more about getting a probe so you know your speed and temp. At 100+ feet down you have a lot of current that changes constantly. We see a .5-1.0 mph difference in speed from the ball to the surface. The probe is by far the best investment you can make.

[Neo1945]

which probe is best?

[Mortigan]

Alien

[Mickey Finn]

which probe is best?

Oh god! Here we go again. This has been the source of many many conversations/aguments on this site but it's a great question. They all work well. I have the Depth Raider and it works well for me.

[thompsm7]

I love the Fish Hawk X4 but they all have their pros and cons. I didn't want to replace my downrigger cable, so I couldn't use the Cannon. That said, I had to mount a tri-ducer so the probe could communicate with the head unit. You'll get a range of opinions but in general the newer Cannon or Fish Hawk will both be solid. It just depends on if you want a tri-ducer or if you want to change your downrigger cable.

[Locoman]

which probe is best?

ding-ding-ding Sub-Troll