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So I have a small tin can I will be doing a little fishing out of. And I was thinking of putting a small Down rigger on it. I was wondering why they use the heavy steel lines on riggers when a braided line has a smaller diameter and would cause less drag. I mean the line only has to take the force of the weight of the ball and the gear. Once a fish hits the lure it comes free form the rig or at least that is my understanding. So is my thinking up in the night?
Thanks
Majja
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Is there really that much stress put on the line? I meand a Down rigger to me looks like a big real and a short noflexing rod.
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[#000080][size 4]Pulling a heavy weight of about 8 pounds or so through the water with the boat at trolling speed puts more stress than you think. Often you are lowering to just above the bottom and getting wedged between a couple rocks can be tough on them. I am sure you could get away with half but its a matter of what you feel comfortable with. I wasn't taking into account how small the boat is. You don't want it to heavy either that its break strength is heavier than tipping the boat over if its mounted to the side.[/size][/#000080]
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I know of several people who have made the switch. You are right, it is an advantage to have less wire drag. This reduces the amount of "blowback" that you get. A lot of people also feel that this completely eliminates the problems associated with "ion control." No metal means little to no trasfer between metals. This could also be an advantage.
With all of that said, I still use wire. I track bottom a lot and even drag at times. For this I feel better about having a steel wire. I also use cannons that have built in adjustable ion control. I feel this is an advantage because I can not only ensure that I don't repel fish (too negative or too positive) but I can also attract them by dialing into the perfect balance.
If you don't fish bottom a lot (like trolling for suspended fish) and you don't mind not having any of the effects of ions (good or bad), then I'd say go for it. Switch to the braid and enjoy less drag, less wire hum, etc. Cabelas sales a replacement that I've heard good things about. Here is the link...
[url "http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat21276-cat350017-cat601347&id=0053030019445a&navCount=1&podId=0053030&parentId=cat601347&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601347&hasJS=true"]http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat21276-cat350017-cat601347&id=0053030019445a&navCount=1&podId=0053030&parentId=cat601347&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601347&hasJS=true[/url]
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I used dacron for a while and hated it. Switched back to wire. It tangled easily, and if you take your d-rigger on/off the boat (as I do), it begs to become unspooled since it has no memory.
Never could understand the drag argument. You're only trolling at less than 3 mph; not alot of drag to begin with. Plus, just like bkidder wrote, you can't Black Box dacron.
Stick with wire, IMHO...
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Thaks for the info guys. I will mostley be using a small clamp on Rigger on my little 12 footer, so I do not think there will be any black boxing. This post was to just try and lern some more info on the hobby that seams to get more and more complicated with the more I learn.
Majja
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If you mainly fish for kokes or other open water fish then braid is fine ... when dragging the cannonball off of the bottom or ledges after macks, I'll take the abrasion resistance of wire.[pirate]
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I agree. But I will add a person can "stir things up" by using a 1 pound dropped on a 3 or 4 foot line under the main D/R weight to avoid a lot of big weight hang ups.
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I can't count the number of times that I have hit bottom with the downrigger when I thought I was in water that was plenty deep. This is especially true when one passes over a point. It also happens when one isn't paying total attention to the depth finder. I have always kept a cutter pair of pliers handy to cut the cable if I get hung up and the boat is in danger of capsizing.
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[#000000]Like anything else there are pro's and con's of using braided line compared to steel line. You will eliminate the hum from wire line when you use braid.
You do eliminate most of the "blowback"with braided line.Braid is cheaper to replace then SS wire ,plus it doesn't kink and cause weak spots like SS wire will. The downside of using braided line is that it doesn't last as long as SS wire does.When I was using braided line ,every two years I had to remove all the line.Then re spool to keep the fresh stuff of on top.
If you hang up your weight,the braid will break easier then wire. Some electric downriggers that have the "auto-stop" feature will not work with braided line.This is why I'm staying with the SS wire on my new downrigger's.
Being that your using your downrigger on a 12ft boat. I don't foresee you having most of these problems through.
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[#000000][/#000000][size 4][/size]Regarding your question about line other than steel cable.
[#000000][/#000000][size 4][/size]It should not be a problem, I think that the standard steel downrigger cable is only about 125 pound test.
[size 4][/size]The 200 pound test line is really over kill.
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