# Fishing Downrigger



## FuzzNut (Jul 23, 2021)

Going on the lake in the morning and decided I wanted to fish deep. I tried making 2 divers like the “Dipsy diver” on weds. Haven’t tried them yet. 

Then I decided on my day off thurs I was gonna attempt to throw together a downrigger instead of paying 300+ for a decent manual one. Plus I wanted a fun one day build. 







Got some 6061 cheap from a buddy 





I need more chucks. This is a random hunk of steel that I could barely grab outside. Couldn’t grab inside. 





I had 3 3/4 pillow block bearings laying around, so I’m gonna use them for the spindle. I was going to build a full case around it but decided it’d be a waste. 





Put the steel sleeve pulley over aluminum shaft, drilled and tapped to pin together. 











Some random power tool handle I found in trash at work. Very hard to grab that without a 4 jaw. 

Allthread is 3/8, cut threads off for bearings at 5/16, then cut 1/4x20 threads on the end to make a crank handle. 










Zapped stainless bushing onto crank handle to bolt crank to the pulley shaft. Both 316 stainless, couldn’t find 316 rod so I used 308. Probably fine was 3/16 rod at 55A. 






Old aluminum house cleaning brush handle as a guide rod. 






Was getting tired and wanted to just finish up since I’m on midnight tonight and needed to nap before work lol. So stainless clip hose clamped to the pipe and bolted to pulley it is lol. 








Testing tomorrow.. err today in 8 hours I guess lol. Just gonna C clamp to boat deck as I’m sure I’ll be making some tweaks. 

I left material on one side of the pulley to drill a few blind holes to create a stopping mechanism to set different depths. Also the cable at ace was way too expensive. 200ft of cable online for downriggers is $20. The para cord takes way too much space up, can’t fit 50ft. 

I need to figure out a line release. For now I might just use some 4lb test as a break away leader line off my 30lb main line from the downrigger flash weight. 

Also I need to make a flash weight.. just gonna use my 15lb anchor tomorrow LOL. I do I’ve a few 1.5in or so 1ft pieces of stainless I could play with. Some people make it like a “jet” to allow water to flow through the center and be redirected to dive. Others have just a cut face to make it dive like a lure. Some are just a weight, which may be the best bet. KISS (keep it simple stupid) 


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## FuzzNut (Jul 24, 2021)

Success!! 







I’d like to put some type of brake on it. If that thing gets away from you, you aren’t stopping it til it runs out of rope or hits bottom. 

I just used a 4lb test tag line from the anchor to the main poles line which was 30lb, just a hard rip to separate. Going to make a line release. 


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## RJSakowski (Jul 24, 2021)

Back in the '80's, I used to fish L. Michigan for salmon and trout.  I bought a pair of Proos manual downriggers.  They were simple in design but sturdy construction.  I opted for the 4' boom and a swivel base which allowed swinging the boom in to the side of the boat for lure change.  The 3/4" hex boom was strong enough to resist bending when I snagged the bottom and snapped the 150 lb. steel wire.  Rather than a pin lock it used a friction brake.  Somewhat of an advantage in that if you snagged bottom, it would slip.  I used a 10 lb. ball and we fished as deep as 120 ft.

We used to fish two and three lines per downrigger. With use of Dipseys and planer boards, we could fish as many  ten or twelve lines although we usually only use six.

I made my own line snaps from Mueller #27 battery clips.  Some rubber gasket material from the hardware store, two barrel swivels, three split rings, and a swivel snap made up the parts list.  The rubber pads were glued in place with epoxy.  The snap went around the cable and one clip wasw attached to the cable to set the depth.  The line went ti the other cable.




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						Mueller Electric Test Clip, 16Mm, 20A - BU-27: Multi Testers: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific
					

Mueller Electric Test Clip, 16Mm, 20A - BU-27: Multi Testers: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific



					www.amazon.com


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## FuzzNut (Jul 24, 2021)

You’re the man! Awesome idea! Gonna give it a shot 


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## RJSakowski (Jul 24, 2021)

FuzzNut said:


> You’re the man! Awesome idea! Gonna give it a shot
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Digikey has the clips for less than a buck apiece.


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## brasssmanget (Jul 25, 2021)

Use something more streamlined for the weight and it lowers/raises/follows much easier [torpedo shaped finned sube of some sort?] - usually a pin setup like a divider hear works as a brake.


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## epanzella (Jul 25, 2021)

I've done extensive fishing with down riggers. Your setup has way too much drag to be able to troll a rig. For most fishing you need to be near the bottom and that anchor will grab at the first hump you drag across.  Use smaller cross section line like 200lb cable, braid, or even mono. For an improvised line release use a clothes pin (the one with the spring) and add rubber bands to increase the tension. If you want to buy releases Black's clips are the best ones.  You can also make a simple aluminum version. To keep track of depth use a 20 tpi threaded rod and a nut with a pointer on it. The nut will move 50 thou per revolution. It's also very advisable a make a drag for your spool to prevent the whole rig from ripping off your boat in the event of a snag. Yeah, I built one many years ago and it worked OK but most of it was from mild steel and the salt water ate it alive. I ended up buying PENN 600's.


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## FuzzNut (Jul 25, 2021)

epanzella said:


> I've done extensive fishing with down riggers. Your setup has way too much drag to be able to troll a rig. For most fishing you need to be near the bottom and that anchor will grab at the first hump you drag across. Use smaller cross section line like 200lb cable, braid, or even mono. For an improvised line release use a clothes pin (the one with the spring) and add rubber bands to increase the tension. If you want to buy releases Black's clips are the best ones. You can also make a simple aluminum version. To keep track of depth use a 20 tpi threaded rod and a nut with a pointer on it. The nut will move 50 thou per revolution. It's also very advisable a make a drag for your spool to prevent the whole rig from ripping off your boat in the event of a snag. Yeah, I built one many years ago and it worked OK but most of it was from mild steel and the salt water ate it alive. I ended up buying PENN 600's.



Thank you for the great advice! I ordered some cable and 8lb flash weight. 

Awesome idea to keep track of depth ! Gonna add that to it as well. 

We did catch a small white bass and a decent smallmouth on that setup, but my buddys toon doesn’t even have a depth finder LOL. 3inch white mr twister at about 30ft depth for that one. Was a “Sewag” (slightly educated wild ass guess) from previous times out on my boat reading depth. I use similar tactics on long range shooting lol. 

Anyways I’m gonna set up a more permanent rig for it on my bass boat. I’m only freshwater fishing so hopefully it holds up! 







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