Rigger upgrade.

[C.F. STUPID]

Replacing my cannon mag 10s.

Can not decide between scotty pro pack, or big-jon brute.Looking for opinions on both.

And best place to purchase (price that is).Thanks all......

[ray koziatek]

the brute is soooo fast the weight is almost uncontrolable (speed)...I was lucky enuf to find some new mag 10s reg speed not HS, trust me faster ant always better.

[Trannyman]

Order the Brute ES with the auto stop and variable speed contol. More money but well worth the extra.

I am happy, happy with mine.

Al

[A-TOM-MIK]

Another vote for the Big Jon Brutes

Add the variable speed and you can control how fast you retrieve your weight

Very nice riggers, ran mostly 15# weights all last season and some 20# at times flawlessly

Tom

[S Mick]

Brutes all the way. Just be sure to order them with the variable speed control/ auto stop. You will not be dissapointed.

[goin deep]

I never used the Brutes but I switched from the Cannons to Scottys last year and like them a lot. They are very simple to use and handle my 20 lb rigger weights easily.

Brian

[Gray Fox]

Another vote for the scotty pro packs

[spoonfed-1]

Scotty.

Been running them for 14 or 15 seasons.

Very reliable.

Glen

[TrophySeeker]

Not trying to start another "Best Downrigger" thread, but I am curious why you are switching from Cannon?

[HPORT]

I too just went down the same path. I have 3 older Mag10's and one Digi II and wanted to upgrade. Looked at Scotty's and Big Jon's, and finally came back to Cannon and at one point thought I wanted the new HS units, but heard that fast is not especially good when going down.

I just purchased a pair of Digi II's, so I have 3 now and looking for one more. What I really wanted is a unit that will be there all day long without issue. The Mag 10's are 15+ years old, so needless to say they owe the boat nothing. I also thought the tip up feature would be nice, but I'm so used to swiveling the Cannons to the side that I didn't see an advantage to the tip ups. The manual down on the Scotty's doesn't help when your busy.

My 2 cents,

John

[Tim Bromund]

The manual down on the Scotty's doesn't help when your busy.

My 2 cents,

John

Sure it does. pull the lever back and let it drop. I can have my scotty riggers deployed, the rod in the holder and slack snugged up in about 20 seconds. There's not a rigger on the market that can be reset as fast as a scotty IMO.

Tim

[Iceman]

Scotties = toy lawn mower with a rubber band drive!

[ray koziatek]

hey its my turn again in the stick (stir the pot),just a side note my cannons im slowley replacing were made in 1985 they still work 2 kinda tired ,but more than likly user error the motors are still 100% but the little gearshaft support in the housing is bent a tad causing extra friction during the retrive thus the term "tired",,,,,,,bottom line on riggetr is what ya are used to,, high speed for a charter with a desinated "Rod setter" "firstmate" will get the stuff back down fast for those dime size pods, or during a derby with a narrow fishing window IE; Pro/Am 30sec extra retrive time x 4 riggers =2 min x 40 retrives a day could add some serious fishing time to your day..

But as a rec fisherman im happy with the slow ones....but after writing the last part of my post maybe thats the reason they call our team ::Team L.O.U.S.E.R.S

[Mickey Finn]

I got tired of the Cannons. It seemed like they had a lot of problems with the short stop boards. Electronic circuit boards in a wet environment just doesn't seem like a good idea. We did some research and talked to guys who work on riggers. They said they never see the Scotty riggers in the shop. I switched to them and would never go back. They are simple and reliable...exactly what I want. With the manual down lever, I can set four of them much faster than I could with my Cannons. I've never had new Big Jons, so I can't speek to them. I did have some older ones that came on a boat that I bought and I had motor issues with them but they were old. Someone would have to do a lot of talking to get me away from Scottys.

[HPORT]

The Cannon's Digi's give me auto up and return with one push of the button, so for me it seems to work, close the release, push the button and walk away. Not near as fast as the Scotty's or HS units.

I like to think of it as "not fast", slow has that old & tired ring to it...

John

[fishman08]

Scotties = toy lawn mower with a rubber band drive!

you can say all you want about the belt but look at the new motorcycles all the companies are switching to kevlar belts you know why because they last longer!

[Mickey Finn]

That is a nice feature of the Digitrolls but they are very pricey for the average guy. Another thing to consider is weather or not you are going to be extending and retracting the booms often, which I do a lot when trailering. Those plastic things that tighten and hold the booms extended on the cannons were horrible. Either, they wouldn't hold the boom extended out or they were so tight, you could never loosen them or the little tab would break off when you tried to lossen them. I didn't like that feature. The extending boom on the Scotty is much better in my opinion. Just something to think about when you are considering new units.

[HPORT]

We have Digi II's, but the IV's are nice but $$$,for what I use them for, the II's are fine.

Your right about the adjustable booms, Cannon would have been better off with aluminum collets instead of the plastic ones. Our current setup is 5' on the corners and 4' out the back, all fixed booms. The 5' gives us a wider spread and the 4' clears the platform. Swinging the riggers even with transom and gunwales when towing for long distances. I leave them straight out the back on my usual 6 block trip to the ramp.

Those who have switched to Scotty's or Big Jon from Cannon's, do you like the tip up feature better then the swinging when your resetting?

This forum and the internet should give anyone looking to upgrade the differences between the big 3. Personally, I would be happy with any of them, I stuck with Cannon, because I have the swivels mounts already, I'm used to using them and the units I have now are 15+ years old and still going.

John

[Mickey Finn]

I use the weight retrievers for pulling the weights near the boat to rig lines, so I don't use the tip up feature for that. Actually, because of my boat layout, I have to swivel the back riggers to the side of the boat and then use the weight retrievers in order to reach them to set lines on those riggers. Maybe the tip up feature would work better on those back riggers. I'll give that a try next time I'm out instead of trying to swivel them. I do use the tip up feature when extending and retracting the booms and I use it to lower the weight into the water and retrieve the weight at the end of the day. Just have to make sure you don't have your finger or anything else stuck between the rigger and the base when you lower the boom down or you will get pinched really good. There's a lot of leverage with the boom all the way out and the weight hanging on the end of it. The Scottys have a warning about this on the rigger. So far, I haven't got any body parts caught in there.

[skipper19]

I like the tip up feature on the Scotty. I have the stop beads set right where the ball comes to the hook on the 5 foot boom when I lift the boom. I just catch it in my hand hook it to the J hook and then it is ready for the line to be placed in the Scotty release. Then unhook and swing the boom up a little and back down to settle the ball back in the water just below the surface. My stop beads are set so that the balls stay below the surface and under control when the water is rough. It depends on the height above the water from the boom to do this but on my boat the ball stays about 2 feet below the surface and that swings right to the hook on the boom when tipping up. Only thing I don't like so much is the angle of the rod holders and there is no adjustment horizontally for that, but you can swivel the holders in any direction you want and lock that in place. Mine were used... I don't know how long, but they have been good to me for three seasons now. Low draw on the battery too. no need for GIANT fuses to run them. ...and so what if they look to some folks (or one folk) like a toy plastic lawn mower. I still have that too and it has all it's wheels and makes colored popping corn balls in the little plastic dome on top

Mark

[Mickey Finn]

I'm glad I got involved in this post. My last two trips out, I started using the tip up feature of my Scottys to rig my "hard to reach" back riggers. It's much easier for me. Takes a little experimenting to get the stop bead in the right place so that the weight is where I want it when I tip up the boom but I love not having to reach out over my side rigger to set the back one.

[Tim Bromund]

I like the tip up feature on the Scotty. I have the stop beads set right where the ball comes to the hook on the 5 foot boom when I lift the boom. I just catch it in my hand hook it to the J hook and then it is ready for the line to be placed in the Scotty release. Then unhook and swing the boom up a little and back down to settle the ball back in the water just below the surface. My stop beads are set so that the balls stay below the surface and under control when the water is rough. It depends on the height above the water from the boom to do this but on my boat the ball stays about 2 feet below the surface and that swings right to the hook on the boom when tipping up. Only thing I don't like so much is the angle of the rod holders and there is no adjustment horizontally for that, but you can swivel the holders in any direction you want and lock that in place. Mine were used... I don't know how long, but they have been good to me for three seasons now. Low draw on the battery too. no need for GIANT fuses to run them. ...and so what if they look to some folks (or one folk) like a toy plastic lawn mower. I still have that too and it has all it's wheels and makes colored popping corn balls in the little plastic dome on top

Mark

Mark you can replace the stock rod holders with these

they replace the stock holders in the scotty bases and are adjustable, both vertically and horizontally. I like my rigger rods as flat as I can get them and the fixed rod holders were my only beef with the scottys as well. I got the replacements from http://www.fishusa.com these are the stock holders on the 1117 pro packs.

http://www.fishusa.com/Scotty-Model-346 ... der_p.html

Since I seldom stack, I just replaced one of the holders on each of my riggers.

Tim

[skipper19]

Tim, you have a PM, Thanks

Mark

[Iceman]

Bigjon riggers come with real rod holders, not plastic wannabee's. You never see anyone putting extra Scotty plastic rod holders on their boat!

[ray koziatek]

The ice strikes again!!! great post....................CF if you ant got riggers by now ya might better sell the boat.....have ya heard from Rick ??