Make Your Manual Downrigger Less Manual

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Downriggers are an essential tool for many deep water salmon, trout, and walleye fisheries. However, deploying and retrieving the downrigger ball and release clip can cut into valuable fishing time. In this video I show you two methods that you can use to deploy gear on your manual downrigger without having to crank up the downrigger ball after each fish.
Tackle Featured In This Video:
- Mack's Shuttle Hawk: amzn.to/4cc5Arp
Stacker weight build components:
- Carabiners amzn.to/3qJKHf8
- 150 lb mono & crimps amzn.to/3rHm4AZ
- Scotty Mini Clip amzn.to/3EyDMzJ
- Berkley Crimping Pliers amzn.to/3qAl0xG
Downrigger in this video:
- Cannon Uni-Troll 5: amzn.to/45uto89
- 6 lb Downrigger ball: amzn.to/4cc680r
Other Tackle:
- Columbia PFG Catch Bag: amzn.to/3W93LHc
- Frabil Ultralite net: amzn.to/3UJaruF
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[@bigfish222]

I love the Shuttle Hawks. I put a rubber band on for a little insurance.

[@kylejackson5491]

How do you mount the rubber band to the shuttle hawk to help?

[@bigfish222]

@@kylejackson5491 From front to back to prevent it from sliding out the side. Saw it on a you tube video.

[@callmekham8458]

Man this is a game changer for me. I HAAAATE cranking the manual because it's loud and everyone on the lake stares at you lol

[@spiltmilt]

Yeah once I started using these approaches a few years ago it made a big difference in how I view my downrigger

[@xnorcal831x]

Seen someone use a old level wind combo as a downrigger. He cut the rod short and used the guides. Kinda cool idea

[@roberturen1772]

Thanks for those tips,just bought a down-rigger for my old town.

[@ryanseratt9123]

Tip on the shuttle hawk , I put a wide rubber band from the slot to the backend to make sure the cable doesn’t come out. Never had a problem losing it that way and does seem to hurt the deployment in anyway.

[@paulheberling9847]

I had a couple Shuttlehawks come off the cable so now I have a small sheet metal screw in that notch to restrict slipping off. I just leave my Shuttlehawk on those down riggers.

[@stingray4540]

I love those shuttle hawks, especially for manual riggers. I also have some pink ones from another manufacturer that I can’t remember. I like them for the fact you only need one, instead of a bunch. If you like the weight ones though, I found out by accident that the giant carabiner (that Home Depot sells next to the rope and cable) is the perfect weight on its own to stack without added weight. Made a few of those and they are bit less cumbersome.

[@daveengstrom9250]

Thats a pretty slick trick, sonny.

[@Goats22]

those are both brilliant ideas, especially the second one with the weight to bring everything down to the DR cannonball. idk how i didn't think of this before hearing it from you. great tip!

[@ehdcoyote]

We have quit using downriggers and switched to divers. Something about them put off our landlocked steelhead trout. And you can deep with them 100’ on 30# braid. Several tests we have done increased our hookups to 7to1 on divers vrs the wire.

[@jayrobertson232]

Divers been outfishing riggers for many years now on Lake Michigan (since zebra and quagga mussels cleaned up the water). Lots of tricks now to improve more, like 15-20 ft diver leaders, slide divers, black divers, stealth divers. Latest trick that keeps us using riggers is referred to as “secret weapon” by the salmon charter crowd. Set a 3 or 5 color lead-core line in the downrigger. Gets the bait lower than the ball and way back from the boat. Works like magic after the sun comes up and the daylight bite has “died”.

[@stevezylstra7792]

Thanks!

[@spiltmilt]

Welcome!

[@mikechiurato8468]

Thanks Tyler. Used shuttle hawk for years as a 2nd rod stacker. Going to try your merhod. Even electric DW's can be tiresome to mess with. Just watch the depth

[@idaho2ndgens240]

Couple of great tips. Thank you!!

[@deogee1000]

Hey, when you attach the Shuttle hawk to the down rigger add a wide rubber band to it. This will keep you from losing it. Love the Videos

[@kylejackson5491]

how you add the rubber bands?

[@warrenhunts]

I ended up putting an eletric downrigger on my pro angler, so it isn't completely infeasible.. But you can also make a fair argument that a pro angler isn't a kayak. The one thing I really appreciate about the electric one is that you can get it out of the way asap. Last year an orca surfaced right behind me while I was fishing for coho. I was able to hit the button and get my gear cleared out quickly.

[@returnofsid]

Another excellent and educational video! Thank you!

[@kylejackson5491]

can you use the shuttle hawk if you use mono or breaded on your down rigger? I am in the process of trying to reduce the noise of the down rigger. This video was great and willl be getting a shuttle hawk. Thank you for the info.

[@davidwilliams3643]

I think I saw an article about stackers where they were using shower curtain rings. Will that work in place of the carabineers?

[@spiltmilt]

Yes that would work

[@kyleoden3015]

I'm curious how much the downrigger influences kayak direction. I have a 10ft yak and it goes off course when reeling in kokanee. My steering control doesn't drift it's just from drag and my Short kayak. Awesome info as usual sir!

[@spiltmilt]

Not much because I have a rudder to offset the drag, change out the cable for much thinner braid, and cut down the boom so it runs tight to the kayak.

[@caaspal]

I have 10.5 ft kayak and use the same downrigger in this video and it doesn’t turn my boat at all. Sometimes fish can turn my boat, but I find it only happens when I let up on pedaling. But not a big deal

[@michaelmccune1821]

Do you have a recommendation for a two person kayak? My wife and I love to fish together, but some of our favorite lakes near us have low water, so we can't launch the big boat

[@spiltmilt]

The Hobie Oasis is the best tandem pedal drive on the market. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZ7GXn99h9R-o9E

[@Bubbles36DD]

Is there any advantage to having your rods pointing to the rear, or is it just preference? I usually have mine more straight out to the sides.

[@spiltmilt]

Doesn’t matter

[@AlanSprague]

So just a thought but what about using an electric reel as a downrigger they are lighter than the manual downrigger and more than capable of pulling a 4lbs ball up and down it would take some rigging but it might work

[@spiltmilt]

Been thinking of doing this for years

[@SethBricel]

@@spiltmiltI have a tanacom 750 with a battery set up for deep dropping halibut and cod, but I think I should be able to rig up a downrigger replacement. I’ll try it and report back!

[@thedreadpiratefisherman5325]

How much line do people like to let out before attaching the clip to the line. I'm running 100 feet of line out before I clip onto the line.

[@spiltmilt]

30-70’ is my standard depending on depth

[@thedreadpiratefisherman5325]

@@spiltmilt I think I have it right that the concept of the deeper you go the less line you need? Hopefully my luck will change because I just got a PWM installed and I can control my speed far better. I'm running a 55lb thrust trolling motor and could not get it below 2mph now I can.

[@NghiaPham-xi5so]

How long are your rods?

[@spiltmilt]

7' to 7'6"

[@ThaxorSmash]

Hey Tyler, What kind of line clips are you using?

[@spiltmilt]

Scotty Mini Clip amzn.to/3EyDMzJ

[@kevinredden7833]

I run an electric Scotty (1099) on my Hobie Outback: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hISkc6FnmqqHhLM

[@spiltmilt]

The Outback is a lot bigger kayak than the Salty.

[@kevinredden7833]

@@spiltmiltTrue, you don't appear to have much room on that but I believe your comment in the video was about kayaks, not about the Salty specifically.

[@johnspecht7449]

Hey, get out there and fish for some Kokanee. Just kidding, but watching some other youtube video’s on koke fishing and they are just………..well, so bad compared to your video’s.