Cannon mini mag question / rigger advise

[Phisherman585]

I've got a 16ft boat that I want to equip with downriggers this year. I've got an old set of invader manual downriggers laying around. I'm not sure how much weight these can handle. They look pretty solid. I've got a buddy who's selling 2 cannon electric mini mags for 150$. They look to be older. I want to be able to run 12lb torpedoes off my riggers as I want to do some trout fishing on Lake Ontario this summer as well as trolling for eyes on conesus. I know 12lb is the absolute maximum for the mini mags. I'm wondering what your guys opinions are on what I should do.

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[sammygee]

Buy the electrics and you will never go back to manual.  You will also have fits if you ever need parts for your Invaders

Edited March 8, 2015 by sammygee

[Sk8man]

You may want to reconsider running 12 lb weights off the minis they will be struggling and extremely slow. I think 10 lb is the max on the older motors anyway.

[Nautitroller]

Yup Les is right 10 lb max I have them on my boat. Ran heavier but the gears broke and had to fix them. I need to upgrade someday...

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[Phisherman585]

How deep can you run 10lb torpedoes without having to much blow back?

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[Sk8man]

With a 16 ft boat and reasonable speeds you should be able to troll just fine with 10 lb weights.  Blowback also depends on what you are running on your lines (e.g. single spoon vs Spin Doctor or flasher with something on it) and the speeds you are running. Submarine currents also influence it. I eyeball the angle of my downrigger cables continuously to keep them where I feel confident it is about where I want to be and I coordinate things with my depth finder as well. Sometimes I ignore the counter on the rigger and just adjust by the depth finder.  Guys on big boats may have to be more concerned about blow back and thus the use of greater weight because of the greater "pull"and lift  through the water. Before switching to 10 lb weights I ran 8 lbs for many years successfully but I used the riggers for less than 100 ft of water and used other stuff down deeper than that. Heavier weights also help in very deep water presentations and especially with the bigger boats.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Sk8man

[Nautitroller]

I have run one down 150' plus, but if you run two and turn too fast, they can get together, but i am talking finger lakes not the big O currents are crazy on the big pond.

Bait is usually really deep this time of year and so are fish

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[Phisherman585]

Thanks guys. My next question is do you think 150$ is reasonable for two older mini mags?

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[Nautitroller]

Yes, the gears inside may break but they are fixable. There was a thread on here talking about replacing them, not sure where, I welded em.

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[Phisherman585]

The gears? Like the metal shaft with the small gear on the end of it? I've been looking at the schematics. I'm

worried about spending 150 then having to put a couple hundred into them. At that point I could have bought some mag 5s or something or just went with the invaders. Anyone know how much weight these manual invaders can handle?

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[Nautitroller]

Yes end of shaft gear, they pull 10# just fine. Worth the $150 unless you can afford better lol.

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