2005 Trophy 1903 CC Downrigger mounting ideas.

[Team On-Strike]

Hello All,

A friend of mine turned me on to this site.  Great site.  My father and I have been fishing the Great Lakes for year and just upgraded to a new used boat for us.     I attached the only pic I have of the back but I'm hoping someone has a similar boat and has ideas how to mount riggers and rod plates?  We had 4 downrigger on old boat but we're probably only going with 2 on this one as we find ourselves using copper more now, and also on Erie more then Michigan

Does anyone have any ideas or pics of mounting?  And what's under the gunnels of this thing?  I'm assuming marine plywood but hate to assume anything when it comes to drill bits.

Thanks in advance

Brian .  

[Flasher Joe]

I would suggest go to TRAX TECH WEBSITE, and they have a form you fill out  and they will help you Trax tech mfg's a good product I have them on my Hewes Craft like many other do.

[Flasher Joe]

P.S. there should be flotation under the gunnels, could be wrong but my old Seaswirl had flotation under them

[Team On-Strike]

Thanks, I will ask them.

 

I have looked under the gunnels and so far I only see the floatation foam.  I definitely will need some form of backing under there.  That's why I was hoping someone has set one of these up before and had some good ideas on how to put backers under there 

[Flasher Joe]

Personally I would take the dimensions of the trax tech length and width and get some aluminum same size maybe 1/4 thick then lay trax tech on top mark the holes onto the aluminum  and drill this is your backing plat under the gunnels make sure you use flat head bolts to fit flush into hole use the nuts with nylon to stay secure w/ washers and make sure length is sufficient.     Big Jon also has something on line about their product, similar to trax tech 

Good Luck

Flasher Joe

[mvanhank222]

I agree tracks are the way to go. I think you would be fine with Bert’s, Cannon, Cisco, Traxtech, Cannon, Big John, Hi-Seas Or any other brand. I think the track is pretty much all the same the accessories for the track are where the different brands shine. I agree with the backer plate too aluminum is best but I think marine plywood or starboard would be ok and if you don’t have the space for a true backer at the very minimum I would use large washers.

[Sea Eagle]

I had a trophy 1802 and only ran manual downriggers with light balls, so I mounted them in tracks  I decided to forgo tracks when I rigged my 2102 since I got new Big Jon Tournament electrics. I ran 12 lb balls on longer poles, so I through bolted the down riggers on Big Jon swivel plates with 1/4” aluminum backer plate. I still used tracks to mount my rod holders and trees. 

[Team On-Strike]

Thanks all.  I have a call in to Traxtech but no reply yet.   I should probably take a pic of the top rail and add that, might see what else the issues are.   I found a few other forums that say the riggers will flex a bit on the gunnel's so support is a must.  I have seen people use the HDPE white marine board as backer as well.  Might try some of that if I can figure a way to get the stuff up in that area.  That is the main issue.