Mega Byte

At some point an engineer is going to come on here and just smack us for making a mockery of their profession. So I was just thinking, the anchor side of the triangle read 13 pounds 3 ounces. It's illogical in my (non-engineering) brain to think that the other side of the triangle would also be supporting 13 pounds 3 ounces also, since there isn't 26 pounds, 6 ounces hanging there. So I would think the other side of the triangle, so the side the rigger is actually pulling up would be the actual cannonball weight minus the weight that is supported by the rigger base anchor point. So in this case that would 18 pounds 13 ounces minus 13 pounds 3 ounces, so the force on the rigger side would be 5 pounds 10 ounces. I think this might be possible because my rigger arms aren't flat, they angle up. So my anchor point where the scale was is lower than the opposite corner where the rigger wire comes down from the rigger pulley and towards the cannon ball. So the ball is shifted towards the anchor point since it is lower. The ball isn't perfectly centered because my rigger arm isn't flat. But I think the lower the cannonball goes, the more this would probably even out and the closer each side would be to supporting half of the weight of the cannonball.

Because a $3 pulley is cheaper than new riggers. The boat is the barn so I did a little experiment using my fish scale. With a direct connection to a single cable - so no pulley - the cannonball weighed 18 lbs, 13 ounces. Then I attached the pulley and put the scale between the pulley and the anchor point the on rigger. The weight recorded was 13 lbs, 3 ounces. So it didn't cut it in half like I was thinking. It makes me wonder if the angles of that triangle makes a difference. So maybe that weight (force) would be less the lower the ball got? Just another thing to experiment with I guess. Pictures attached.

I can put down a 28 lb cannonball, but because of the pulley, it would be easier to pull up. Or maybe I don't have the pulley set up right to make that actually work? It would be good to run this past an engineer, which I am not. But the concept is through the use of pulleys it makes it easier to pull the weight up. So if I lose power, it would feel like I am in still pulling up 14 pounds of weight, just like I was before I switched to a heaver cannonball. The other end of that triangle is supporting some of the weight, but that is my non-engineering brain thinking. Now granted, I would have more cable to pull, but it's not like it would feel like pulling up 28 pounds hanging directly from a single cable. (And it's not like we have to pull these by hand a very often...) I also have leather gloves on board just in case I have to do this. But your question makes me think I should research the exact setup needed to make it easier to pull the weight. Let out 160 to go down 80...imagine a triangle, with the point facing down. This is where the cannonball is. For every 10 feet of cable you let down, 5 feet goes to the left of the cannonball and five feet goes to the right. So I have to let out 10 feet to get a 5 foot drop in my cannon ball.

Heavy cannonball, pulley & a rigger So earlier this year I took one of my cannon downriggers in for service. It wasn't pulling my cannonballs up as quickly as usual and I wanted it looked at before it decided to stop entirely on me. The service rep asked how heavy a cannonball I use. My small ones are 10 pounds, but the larger ones, that I like to use when the fish are deep are 19 pounds. He explained that the 19 pounder is to heavy. I pointed out that according to the owners manual, they are rated for 20 pounds. He said, "Well, they will lift 20 pounds for a while, but they will wear out a lot foster. You need to use lighter cannonballs." I didn't want to use lighter cannonballs. If I'm trying to fish 75' down or deeper, I prefer to use my heavy cannonballs to minimize the blow back. So on my last trip out I tried something new. I wanted to share this in case someone wants to improve on it. I haven't seen it done before. There were some pros and cons, so I wanted to share how this experiment went. I integrated a pulley with my downrigger setup. I used one that had a pin on it so I could easily remove the pin, add the pulley to my rigger and not have to take anything apart. The swivel on my cannonball wire that normally attaches to the cannonball, I clipped to the hook at the base of my rigger. I put the pulley on the cable that spanned the area where the cable leaves the rigger and where the cable attaches to the terminal great for the rigger. I attached an "S" hook to the pulley, followed by my release and then the cannonball. This created a triangle with my rigger wire. On the other side of the boat I integrated my fishhawk with that set up. (In one of the attached pictures, I wrapped my ball retrieval cord around the rigger arm to try and get it out of the way for the picture. So if you're wondering what the heck that is, it's just to get it out of the way.) The thought is by using the pulley, I can still use my 19 pound weights, but to my rigger, it will feel like it is pulling up 9.5 pounds. I will get the benefit of having a heavy cannonball and my rigger motor will feel like it's pulling up a very small weight. My though was if this worked, I'd get some 28 - 30 pound cannon balls. It will still be easy on my rigger motor, but should really limit blowback and help me get my baits deep. So obviously when I lowered the cannonball down and raised it up, it was slower. I didn't think that was a big deal. (In my opinion, some of those riggers are to fast on the drop anyway.) Also, just as obvious, if you want your cannonball 80' down, then let out 160' of cable. On one side of the boat, I didn't have any issues at all. Everything worked great and I put my cannonball down 90' with very little blow back. On the other side of the boat, the set up with the probe, it had a couple of issues. The first is down around 70' and below we lost signal with the probe. I had new batteries in it, but they were new last summer and they spent the winter in the boat. So I'm not sure if it was a battery issue, or if maybe the pulley blocked or interfered with the signal between the probe and the transducer. The second issue, and this only happened once and it happened on the probe side, is it appears the rigger cable got stuck somewhere on the pulley. After the cannonball was down for a bit, we decided to lower it even more. The cable between the pulley and my rigger base remained very tight. However, the cable between the pulley and the end of the rigger became loose. It's like the pulley was stuck on the cable and was no longer rolling on it. When I brought it back up to the surface, it was operating like normal. On my next trip out, I will test this again with fresh batteries to see if it resolves my probe signal issue. Overall, I was happy with the performance and I don't see why this wouldn't work even better with a 28 or 30 pound cannonball. Having two rigger wires in the water seemed to be easily overcome by the heavier weight. Anyway, just wanted to share this since it seems like the fish are really deep right now. Maybe someone can find a way to improve it.

i'll be in Pentwater tomorrow. I'm not sure how for "up north" is, but if you're in the area, let me know how your doing.

Not sure if yours is like my 251, but mine has high (30" - 32") gunwales. It's great for fishing with kids.

That's a nice fat fish!

The black ones with the orange line have been sold. The others are still available.

All the eyes are good. No issues. Just don't need it. Make me an offer. I can deliver to GR, Muskegon and Ludington.

Two sets of reels. One set came off a trolling mast. I don't have the mast. My son had a "great idea" and I haven't seen the mast since. Reels work fine and have pulleys too. The other reels clamped on a side rail. One reel is missing it's clamp. I think it might have been a victim of the great idea too. I am selling these in sets of two. Make me a decent offer. I get to GR once a week and can deliver also to Muskegon and Ludington. Otherwise I can ship them. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

That rounds up to 18 pounds on my boat.

Now that looks like fun! Thanks for the details.

I just went back and checked the pictures of the kings we've gotten this year. For what it's worth, we have gotten 5 wild and 4 stocked kings.

Nice! I think I need to make time to get out sometime during the week...

Dimitri, Try http://cart.gltsupplies.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=166 or http://cart.gltsupplies.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=177