Downrigger Question

Hi All,

I’m looking to add a pair of downriggers to the spread for this coming season. I plan on fishing the North Shore as well as Lake Michigan. It sounds like on Lake Michigan there isn’t much need to have over 150′ of wire spooled on. When it comes to the North Shore, how much wire should I have spooled on the downriggers?

The less expensive cannon models come prespooled with 150′, but I am wondering if I would need to have more for any reason up there.

I appreciate any input on make/models that anyone recommends. Used could also be an option.

Tight Lines!

I am defiantly a novice on the North Shore but I think the deepest I have run is about 80′ down give or take. Quite often they are at 5-20′ when we target salmon.

I have not fished superior, but fish Michigan fairly often. The deepest I’ve run riggers is 125. I run Big Jon riggers and have 200 ft of cable on them. I am far from an expert though as I’ve only done about 25 salmon trips.

I fish Superior and Michigan, and have never fished the riggers lower than 120ft, and that’s very rare. They are typically 35-80
depending on temps.

I fish Lake Michigan and have never run my riggers lower than 150 LOC. I believe my Big Jons have 200 feet of cable.

I can’t recall our having 150 feet of cable out on Superior out of Two Harbors. I know that the water near Silver Bay is substantially deeper so I can’t speak for there. Duluth to two harbors you’d be good to go for most circumstances.

You will be just fine with 150.
My first rigger was a Walker hand crank. It was the biggest POS I have used. Fell apart on me one day on SUP after 2 short years of use. I went with Cannon Uni-troll and have been very happy since (5 years or better).
Scottys just seem weird to crank for me as they mount their spool horizontal.

I think Cannon had a bigger following and better parts availability around here than the rest…Maybe its just me though.

Even further up the shore (Tac Harbor-Hovland) where I fish most of the time, 150′ would be sufficient 90% of the time. Can only think of a few times I’ve ever run deeper than 140′ or so and that was only on really slow days where I was in desperate search mode. I do almost always have one rigger down 80-120′ in that stretch of the shore, however, so if you’ll be fishing in that neck of the woods an electric rigger would be very beneficial. Cranking my old Big Jon manual up from 100+’ feet multiple times every day was quite the chore.

Worst case, I’m almost positive you could simply re-spool most any rigger with 200′ of new wire if you eventually determined 150′ wasn’t enough. Maybe not the smallest Cannons (Lake Troll, I think they are), but I do know my previous Big Jon manuals held 200’+ and my current Cannon Mag 10’s hold 250′ easily.

FWIW- If you do decide to go with used electric, I will likely be selling a couple of my Cannon Mag 10’s this spring as the never-ending boat upgrade proce$$ continues… Can PM me, or can keep an eye out on the classified forum here and over at GLA as I’ll eventually be listing them there when I get around to it.

Regardless, I agree with everyone else that you should be good to go, at least initially, with 150′ of wire.

you will be fine with 150′ but may I suggest going higher then you think you need. If you use your down riggers a lot sometimes the wire frays thats just the nature of the beast then when you have to cut them there is still no worry. I run the uni troll 10 stx I love it the telescoping booms are supper nice because you can put them all the way out at 53″ and run another right down the middle and everything is out of each others way. They are diffidently worth the extra cash. I will never own a different down rigger. Good luck!