Downrigger counters

[FishingSkrip27 1]

I run 3 cannon riggers on my boat, 2 are older mag 10a and one is just a mag 10...the 10 works great and seems to be very accurate. The 10a....are off by about 10-15 feet....if I put out 65feet....the ball is closer to 80feet down. I know this cuz I have a x4D and can see where my lure is. I have been debating on swapping out the wire and going to braid...for blow back. But I was wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks on how to get the counter to be more accurate....thanks

 

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[Fishnut 45]

Sounds like you have too much wire on your spools. If your riggers are designed for 150’ of wire and you out 250’ of wire on them the counters will no longer be accurate. Your balls will be deeper than the counter says.


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[pap 206]

1 minute ago, Fishnut said:

Sounds like you have too much wire on your spools. If your riggers are designed for 150’ of wire and you out 250’ of wire on them the counters will no longer be accurate. Your balls will be deeper than the counter says.


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Man your quick buddy!!! I was just ready to hit send when I saw a notification, read yours pretty much word for word so just hit delete!! LOL. Speaking from experience your 100% right.!!!!

[Fishnut 45]

Yea I thought it would be cool one time to have 500' on a rigger that was only suppose to hole 250' Lol 

[FishingSkrip27 1]

Sounds like you have too much wire on your spools. If your riggers are designed for 150’ of wire and you out 250’ of wire on them the counters will no longer be accurate. Your balls will be deeper than the counter says.


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That's good news! I thought something was broken. Honestly have no idea how much is on there. Since I bought the boat and riggers together...the 2 10a are original to the boat...the 10(short boom) I just bought.(used)....any ideas on where i go to find out how much line should be on them?

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[TrophySeeker 8]

The math doesn't quite make sense to me. You would have to change the diameter a full inch to be off that much. That would be a lot of wire. Cannon advertises 150-400 foot capacity. Are you sure the counter is engaged fully? Does it always return to 0?

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[Fishnut 45]

The math doesn't quite make sense to me. You would have to change the diameter a full inch to be off that much. That would be a lot of wire. Cannon advertises 150-400 foot capacity. Are you sure the counter is engaged fully? Does it always return to 0?

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Take a 5 gallon bucket and wrap a string around it at the bottom of the bucket, then measure it. Then take the string and wrap it around the bucket half way way up the bucket and measure it.
How much difference do you have in the lengths ???? And every revolution it’s getting a little bigger diameter.
The math is probably really close with 80 feet of cable out.


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[FishingFool34 20]

I suppose you could always "tune" your riggers same way you "tune" a linecounter reel. Measure off 100' on your driveway/yard and then pull the cable to that 100' mark and see what the counter says. If your counter is saying 65 when you have 80' out then like everyone said there is too much cable. Which is easy to fix... just remove it in small increments until the 100 on the counter is at your 100' mark in the yard.

[TrophySeeker 8]

1 hour ago, Fishnut said:

Take a 5 gallon bucket and wrap a string around it at the bottom of the bucket, then measure it. Then take the string and wrap it around the bucket half way way up the bucket and measure it.
How much difference do you have in the lengths ???? And every revolution it’s getting a little bigger diameter.
The math is probably really close with 80 feet of cable out.


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I think we were making the same point. The spool would need to have about a half inch more cable build-up (1" in diameter), which seems like a lot to me.

If 65 spool revs = 65' of cable, then 1 rev = 12", so diameter = 4". If 65 revs = 80', then 1 rev = 15", so diameter = 5" (approximately).

[FishingSkrip27 1]

The math doesn't quite make sense to me. You would have to change the diameter a full inch to be off that much. That would be a lot of wire. Cannon advertises 150-400 foot capacity. Are you sure the counter is engaged fully? Does it always return to 0?

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So right now....if I set my rigger at 60....on the fish finder the ball.shows up at 70-75....if I put the probe on that rigger my down speed/depth will show at 70-75 depending on speed and blowback. I always make sure it's set at zero before I put it down. It's a pain but I've gotten used to resetting them. My plan is to buy new riggers by next season. But wanted a temporary fix for this year. I bought new counters and everything.

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[FishingSkrip27 1]

I suppose you could always "tune" your riggers same way you "tune" a linecounter reel. Measure off 100' on your driveway/yard and then pull the cable to that 100' mark and see what the counter says. If your counter is saying 65 when you have 80' out then like everyone said there is too much cable. Which is easy to fix... just remove it in small increments until the 100 on the counter is at your 100' mark in the yard.

How do you "tune" it

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[pap 206]

Just forget about what the rigger #'s say go by the probe if your running a hawk that goes by a pressure switch that's pretty much spot on. Do like the above post says Mark 100ft off pull cable to your100' mark, if your 20'off take a paint can mark 20' of cable. Reel in cable in to the painted mark set to 0 and with 20' of cable take that spray paint mark down to the 100' mark see what rigger reads now, keep marking till you read 100 on counter and at 100' mark. As you get closer to reading 100' on cable and counter, you might have to split the difference with the cable to read 100 on rigger. Hope this helps, and you can make sence of my way of thinking. LOL

[lost a lure 5]

How do you know the fishhawk is correct?

[TrophySeeker 8]

So right now....if I set my rigger at 60....on the fish finder the ball.shows up at 70-75....if I put the probe on that rigger my down speed/depth will show at 70-75 depending on speed and blowback. I always make sure it's set at zero before I put it down. It's a pain but I've gotten used to resetting them. My plan is to buy new riggers by next season. But wanted a temporary fix for this year. I bought new counters and everything.

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You need to reset your counter each time? That is a problem...

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[Fishnut 45]

Just forget about what the rigger #'s say go by the probe if your running a hawk that goes by a pressure switch that's pretty much spot on. Do like the above post says Mark 100ft off pull cable to your100' mark, if your 20'off take a paint can mark 20' of cable. Reel in cable in to the painted mark set to 0 and with 20' of cable take that spray paint mark down to the 100' mark see what rigger reads now, keep marking till you read 100 on counter and at 100' mark. As you get closer to reading 100' on cable and counter, you might have to split the difference with the cable to read 100 on rigger. Hope this helps, and you can make sence of my way of thinking. LOL

X2 is use the probe on the one your having trouble with.
If your resetting you zero all the time you have something slipping. I set my zero when I put my riggers on and have never had to touch it.


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[FishingSkrip27 1]

How do you know the fishhawk is correct?

It's an X4D...so it does depth. My fish finder will read the ball down to about 80ft....if the probe says 60...it's pretty close to 60 on the screen. I trust the probe more than I trust the fish finder... together it's pretty close....that's how I figured out my rigger was off....then I tried fishing bottom in 60-80fow...and it's definitely off. Cause I only put out 50-70foot of cable and it's bouncing


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[FishingSkrip27 1]

You need to reset your counter each time? That is a problem...

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Yeah, they are older riggers. And I made the choice to buy more rods and a fish hawk....and upgrade the riggers later. I don't fish my riggers deeper than 100....which can hurt me at times. But it works. I'm just trying to work out a few hiccups this season....but it's definitely a pain in the ass to reset my rigger counter Everytime


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[FishingFool34 20]

4 hours ago, TrophySeeker said:

You need to reset your counter each time? That is a problem...

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I guess I’m confused? Why would you need to reset the counter every time? If you’re counter is reading 65 and you really have 80ft our according to the probe than it seems like you have too much cable on the riggers. Keep in mind the counter is based off of spool roatations. Too much cable (aka larger diameter spool) means more is coming off the spool than the counter is set for. Simple fix... remove cable from the spool until the spool diameter is correct(aka factory amount of cable). Measure 100ft out with a tape measure, pull the cable out to that 100ft mark. If your counter reads under 100 that means too much cable. Remove some until your counter reads 100 at the 100ft measured mark. Problem solved

Edited June 21 by FishingFool34

[kingpossible 2]

I have an overfilled spoon.  What I do is measure 50 ft in the driveway, pull the cable to 50 ft, set the counter to 50 feet, and fish it from there.  It will read negative when i bring it up, but I make my adjustments based of the 50 ft baseline.

[FishingFool34 20]

7 hours ago, kingpossible said:

I have an overfilled spoon.  What I do is measure 50 ft in the driveway, pull the cable to 50 ft, set the counter to 50 feet, and fish it from there.  It will read negative when i bring it up, but I make my adjustments based of the 50 ft baseline.

That is an option, only problem is as soon as you go over 50ft you will be off again, the further past 50 you go the worse it will be.

[pap 206]

20 hours ago, pap said:

Just forget about what the rigger #'s say go by the probe if your running a hawk that goes by a pressure switch that's pretty much spot on. Do like the above post says Mark 100ft off pull cable to your100' mark, if your 20'off take a paint can mark 20' of cable. Reel in cable in to the painted mark set to 0 and with 20' of cable take that spray paint mark down to the 100' mark see what rigger reads now, keep marking till you read 100 on counter and at 100' mark. As you get closer to reading 100' on cable and counter, you might have to split the difference with the cable to read 100 on rigger. Hope this helps, and you can make sence of my way of thinking. LOL

 

Hmmm I must speak a different languages. Carry on guys I'm out

[pap 206]

22 hours ago, lost a lure said:

How do you know the fishhawk is correct?

 

I had my brother sit on the swim platform after we deployed the rigger weight, he held onto the 100ft surveying tape and I dove down till my hand hit the weights, that’s where I quit pulling the tape. Swam back to the surface to see my brother holding the tape at 65’ Same as the rigger. 

[garrymny 35]

I would spool out wire until it is 3 feet below the bottom of the boat, and read the counter. Do the same with 100 feet out. Then disengage the counter gear, turn it until it reads correctly then re engage. I just ordered new gears for my counters ony 10 As. $2.99 each from Cannon.

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[garrymny 35]

Also, I can see my weight on my fish finder, so I know how deep it is. I have to set my fish finder frequency to medium chirp to see it. So you can use your fish finder too. If you see the ball is at 80 feet on the FF, but the counter says 60, just disenhe gear, turn until counter reads 80, and reengage.

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[joe g 2]

35 minutes ago, garrymny said:

Also, I can see my weight on my fish finder, so I know how deep it is. I have to set my fish finder frequency to medium chirp to see it. So you can use your fish finder too. If you see the ball is at 80 feet on the FF, but the counter says 60, just disenhe gear, turn until counter reads 80, and reengage.

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your weight is not at the same depth as your sonar shows it. it appears deeper on screen than it actually is because of the hypotenuse of right angles