mounting a downrigger to a rail.

Just wondering if anyone has mounted a downrigger to their rails? What mounting system did you use, and does it work fine? I can use either cannon or penn downriggers.

I have used the Cannon Rail/Side mount #2250940. I have the smallest size cannon downriggers and the mount works just fine. I only use it a few times per year.

Thanks, I was looking at that mount. I wonder if I could modify it to bolt a penn base to it?

I have no idea what a Penn base looks like, but thw mount is just a metal plate with some predrilled holes. You could probably drill new holes if needed.

I mount it to the T on the rail and it comes with soft plastic to wrap around the rails so you can synch it down tight.

I had a very talented machinist (Joel Ballweg) make a mount for me that worked great. I ended up shortening the rail after one season and put in a fixed mount, but the mount worked great for the 10 trips I did that first year. The only thing that would probably need to be changed would be thicker bolts for the support legs. One set did bend a touch and made it tough to remove. The rest of the system worked great.

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