pukingdog

I had cables crossing when I first started using pancake weights. The trick is to bend the tail of the pancake weights in a vice to get the weight to travel away from the boat like a dipsey does. Bend one right and bend the other left. Then you have to color code the weight to match the correct side of the boat. I do that with red and green refractive colored lure tape. I put a piece on the ball and the same color on my down rigger. Then just match pancake to rigger. Haven't had a crossed cable since. I do always keep my riggers on the correct side of the boat because I have one side of the boat wired for my sub-troll temp and speed sensor. If you don't have a need to do that, put the tape on the gunnel instead of the rigger. I like having a little additional spread to my down cables, especially when running paddles and spin doctors. Gives you a little more separation. I like pancake weights and torpedo weights. Round Balls are my least favorites, but I have all 3 styles on board. I've also seen a cable jump the roller on cannon Mag 10 end pulley on a buddies boat. That will really screw up a cable and can cost you a hundred or more when the cable eventually breaks. If you have a down speed/temp sensor on that cable, a hunred dollar bill turns into $300 or more.

I have a MEC 600 jr I willing to part with for $80 if you are willing to drive to West Falls to pick it up. They shoot trap at West Falls gun club every Wednesday night which is open to public. I could meet you there. I have a ton of AA wads I would sell also for a fair price.

Before you spend too much money on a reloader, you best look into the price of shot first. I used to reload all the time. Now shot is so expensive, it's almost a waste of time. Trap and skeet have become a sport for the rich. I miss it.

Aluminum can be welded. That's how Crestliner boats are manufactured. I can't remember if its TIG or MIG but most welding shops will know. I have no idea how much they will want to charge you. It may be cheaper to buy a new one, but it won't hurt to inquire.

I run a pair of electric big jons because I won one in a walleye tournament. Mostly i like them alot but i run 2 batteries. one rigger hooked to each battery. My kicker is a Yamaha with the charger option so I don't worry about getting home. I really like the twin adjustable rod holders on each big jon which stay on the boat weather you install the rigger or not. Rod holders work fine with dipseys and boards if not down rigging. Big jon's also come standard with ball holders. Down side of standard big jon electric is it doesn't pull in a 12 lb weight fast enough, so 10 pounds max. That's not a big deal if you go manual. I have long booms, so swivel base and ball retriever is a must. I rigged up cannon retro-ease retrievers to my big jon's. I fished for many years with Cannon uni-trolls before I got my electrics and they were flawless and cheap back in the day. Uni-trolls were short booms and you don't really need retrievers with them but I still used swivel bases which come in handy when docking to keep from breaking your booms on the dock. HB2's comment about locating in the correct place is spot on. If your boat has built in rod holder holes in the gunnels like most glass boats have, I would think hard about buying the down rigger gimble mount that slips into the rod holder hole. Easy on, easy off but kinda clunky to store but no new holes in gunnels.