follow up question in regaed to my cannon depth probe

[stealhead4748]

I just got back from 5 days up on the lake... and as someone suggested wrapping a damp towel around my boom seemed to do the trick and the unit worked perfect after i did that... but my next problem was with the coated cable and the enormous amount of blowback...I was running a 13lb torpedo weight on it... had to go down 160-170 to reach a 110 trolling depth.. but that wasnt the problem... the problem was on countless occasions the line from that rod would get caught up with the other rigger and i mean some nasty messes... i never had this happen before... is there a trick in preventing this....i tryed turning so slowly that it seemed to take forever to get around and still got a mess..Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do to correct this... Im still a novice and tryed everything i could to fix this....

I will say however in between cutting lines and untangling things, we did do pretty well on kings, (for us anyways) out of mexico...

[ray koziatek]

wow i ant no expert on this unit and have heard of blowback issues if you did 160 for 110 down your speed musta been way off or towing a sea anchor behind the ball... some times when i fish deep ill run just a spoon behind that rigger ,but even with a flasher (8") and fly I only needed 130 out to reach the 110 ft depth with a 10 lb weight at 2.4 mph down speed,but no coated cable either (FISHHAWK)

[Shade]

I have a Cannon also and I do not use the coated cable. I have a 8' beam and I run 3 Scotty riggers. I have my cannon on the starboard rigger and I run a 12lb ball. I run this rigger inside 100' and at 100' my counter shows 120. I run my center rigger the deepest and with a 12 lb ball at 140 I read 160. I normally troll between 2.2 and 2.7 depending on current and weather conditions. My outside riggers have 2' booms and my center has a 4' and I drop it right through the wash and my corner riggers are at 45 degrees. I have no problems with my cannon and do not use a wet towel. I grounded my antenna to my rigger. I ran a wire from the end of the coil to the rigger. I also put my release 2' above my probe, this way my probe staye in the water when I change setups.

Shade

[chinook35]

There are many variables that determine how much cable is required to reach actual depth. I have seen times that i needed 160 ft of cable to reach 110 ft of depth. You may have been in a serious current. What was your boat speed compared to your down speed ? The larger the flasher you use , the more drag on the cable and more blow back .An 11 " flasher pulls much harder than an 8 " . There are times when you must use an 11-13 " flasher , and you just have to put up with more blow back. Your tangling problems ,and we've all had more tangles than we care to remember, may be due to your weight. Try using a different weight, yours may be wandering all over down there. I used 13# pancake weights for a while to minimize blowbacks and had amazing tangles. It turns out the weights were wandering back and forth many feet. Sometimes due to strong side currents acting on the large surfaces. I went back to balls with fins and my troubles decreased . What kind of set back are you running (distance from release to lure) ? The longer the set back the more chance of tangling in a current or turn. I have experimented for a lot of years and found that there is no hard and fast rule for the amount of cable needed to reach a certain depth. An uncoated cable with an 11" flasher seems to need an additional 15 % let out to reach target depth (with no down currents), that is ,to reach 100' of depth try letting out 115' of cable. lastly don't rely on sonar to give you the depth of your lure . It is merely telling you how far from the transducer your st up is . If your sonar shows your ball at 100' , it only means that it is 100' from the ducer , actual depth may only be 80'. Hope this helps a little , knowing you are not the only one dealing with all the variables.

[LongLine]

How heavy is your cable? 150 Lb? The heavy stuff ie 210 Lb is ridiculous for blowback.

What kind of weight are you using? Ball, fish, shark, pancake?

How much vertical space do you have between weights?

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[CaptSpike]

I'd also ask if your weights are different sizes. That could cause a problem. I fished last year with a cannon S&T and was 140 on the rigger to get 120 on the probe. I have the standard cable coated 150lb and 13lb atomic weights. I did have blowback but not unmanageable.

Spike

[stealhead4748]

i have no idea as to how heavy the coated cable is...its whatever came with the unit...the weight im using on is kind of a fish shaped torpedo, and is 13 pounds....On the other rigger without the snt probe just a 12 pound cannon ball which is what i had on the snt rigger prior to this weekend

[jekyll]

Comes with 150#

[Born to Fish]

I run the same unit with a blacks release about 1 foot above the probe.

I put a crimp between the holes on the blacks where the rigger cable threads through to keep it up out of the way, and I clip the safety clip from the probe on that little section of rigger cable in case someday I lose the ball I won't lose the probe also.

never had a tangle, knock on wood.