Reliable compact electric down riggers for 17 foot boat?

[BRsnow]

Was think of Scotty 1106B, but they might take up too much space. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[stinger]

Everyone has their favorites. My recommendation would be the Big Jon Captains pack. They have a small footprint and  vary easy to repair yourself (which will be seldom if at all). Some say that they are to slow to retrieve but I don't have a problem with the up speed and I often fish 100'-120' of cable out with 12 lb balls.

Edited March 26, 2023 by stinger

[jmyers8]

Magnum metalz

[BRsnow]

2 hours ago, stinger said:

Everyone has their favorites. My recommendation would be the Big Jon Captains pack. They have a small footprint and  vary easy to repair yourself (which will be seldom if at all). Some say that they are to slow to retrieve but I don't have a problem with the up speed and I often fish 100'-120' of cable out with 12 lb balls.

Thanks, I looked at them because many of my family members use them with good success. Only issues when speaking with big Jon is no braid option with auto stop currently, I would guess there is work around though.

[BRsnow]

1 hour ago, jmyers8 said:

Magnum metalz

They look really nice and the owner was quick to respond , they do offer braid options,

[jmyers8]

9 minutes ago, BRsnow said:

They look really nice and the owner was quick to respond , they do offer braid options,

I've had a set on my 21ft crestliner for 3 years. I have one boom extension so probably 24inch boom plus swivel mount makes for a great rigger. 

[sherman brown]

i bought a new set of Big Jon pro tournament rigger with auto stop. after less that a couple of weekends of use the auto stops stopped working. the switches aren't covered under the warranty. i never did really check to see if the switches were bad or if the 13# weights had caused the cab,le to cut the hole in the bead stop to get so large for the bead to make contact with the switch. now i just use them without auto stop. you lose very little time without auto stop.

 

they do work great and if anything does go wrong they have great customer service. one with the short piece booms can be used at 1' 2' 3' or 4'. but the shorter booms do make it much easier to hook the line up to the cable. 

 

if you get a ball retriever the Traxsteck pully retriever kit is the best one in my opinion. they use to sell them for 2 riggers for about what 1 kit cost now. you can go to Traxstech.com to check them out.

 

another good thing about them is you can get a set of slide mounts that lets you just slide them out to remove them from the boat. cannon will work with the extendable booms.

Edited March 27, 2023 by sherman brown

[Shakemsam]

The most compact electric DR's are Walkers. Dependable and simple design. Finding a pair that are in excellent working condition can be a problem.

[Bozeman Bob]

On 3/26/2023 at 10:42 AM, BRsnow said:

They look really nice and the owner was quick to respond , they do offer braid options,

Have 3 on one of my boats , compact , pivoting boom , simple clutch design , everything is made very well . Have performed 100% going on 4 years . Also have 3 Traxstech on another boat , more features ( soft start and stop I love ) and a lot more money , there on a Charter boat . Have 2 Cannons on 17' Lund , and are the most " bulky " of the 3 and has the fixed booms which I am not a fan of . Basic weekend warrior ? Get the Magnum's . Hitting it hard and deep pockets ? Go Traxstech . 

[nysrx01]

The one thing I do not like about the big John auto stops if you stop the ball below water level which is where I like stop it so it doesn’t swing and bounce the rigger boom. But  you cannot just hit up again after it stops to raise the ball higher to get to the release. . You have to drop the ball first to make it come back up again that’s kind of a pain in the neck. Or crank them up by hand. Scotty’s auto stops work great and then you can just flip it back up to keep coming afterwards. Plus I like the manual clutch  handle for descending the ball.  Magnum Metals are nice but pricey. All depends what you want to spend. You can’t go wrong with the Scotty’s set up with braid for the price. Amazon has the Scotty 1106b for just under $600 each. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by nysrx01

[Total Chaos]

Magnum Metalz. Been using them for 4 years now and love them. Very small footprint.

[J.D.]

Scotty 1099 Depth power. Perfect for my 17 footer...

[Bozeman Bob]

The Scotty's look like they are 2 - 3 times the footprint of a Magnum Metal . 

[jmyers8]

You can get an idea of the size that mine takes up. Basically it's about as wide as my gunnel and when I rotate it to come off the corner the motor barely gets into the fishing area. Probably the smallest footprint with good quality that I would trust

[BRsnow]

3 hours ago, jmyers8 said:

You can get an idea of the size that mine takes up. Basically it's about as wide as my gunnel and when I rotate it to come off the corner the motor barely gets into the fishing area. Probably the smallest footprint with good quality that I would trust

Thank you, going to order a pair, with quick disconnect base.

[jmyers8]

3 minutes ago, BRsnow said:

Thank you, going to order a pair, with quick disconnect base.

I think you will be very impressed its money well spent. I dont have the quick release but I do have a swivel base on a track mount that makes it very easy to slide in and out. 

[sherman brown]

I have the Big Jon pro tournament riggers with 12" pedestals then my swivel bases with the slide mounts so I can remove them in an instant. if I was going to mount to a track system then I would use the traxstech 4" risers with the swivel on them.  

[Trorun]

You can’t go wrong with Magnum metals. Love them.