What do you like about your cannon ball's

[caznik]

Hello Member's,

Well lets talk about the types of cannon balls you like to use while fishing on the great lakes. I know there are lots of different kinds of cannon balls that are out there, so whitch ones do you like better and tell us all why. Please if you can, take a picture and show us what they look like because just maybe some members might not know. Well my favorite ones to use is the shark balls on the side riggers. Just because the sharks has tails on them that you can bend so your cannon balls can go further to the side of your spread. But right now I just use plain 12# balls that I make on my own with the mold that I baught at a garage sale. I use to use 8# balls the first time, then went to 10# balls, but both of them balls was not heavy enough and kept my cable going out to far behind the boat. Now I use 12# balls and like them very well and they seem to keep my rigger cables down below the boat more. If I can only find a 12# shark cannon ball then I would use that for my side riggers and go with my 12# regular cannon balls that I allways make up for my back riggers.

The yellow cannon ball at the top of my picture is called the shark and that is what I use to use long time ago. But its only a 10# ball and it will not go down enough for me like the 12# balls do. The white cannon ball at the bottom of my picture is what I make for myself and that is a 12# ball and works very good because it keeps my cables running straight down better. Now make sure you check with your downrigger dealer to make sure that you can use a 12# cannon ball before you try it.

Well lets see what you like to use and why,

Caznik

[LongLine]

Caz - I also use what you call sharks. We call them "fish-shaped" or "herbies". Down south they call them "mulets". I run 10 lb'rs but have them painted silver. I wish they'd come out with a 12 Lb mold for that shape. I think there's a very expensive plated weight called a "shark" that looks like a ball that's been squished, hammered and elongated, with a sheet metal tail. Mulets do sway a little, but I like that.

I prefer the fish-shaped over the ball simply because there's less frontal resistance against the water and the short tails on the balls are worthless. I run one on my probe and have no blowback problems till I go deeper than 90 ft &/or into the current &/or run at 3 mph or more.

[caznik]

Caz - I also use what you call sharks. We call them "fish-shaped" or "herbies". Down south they call them "mulets". I run 10 lb'rs but have them painted silver. I wish they'd come out with a 12 Lb mold for that shape. I think there's a very expensive plated weight called a "shark" that looks like a ball that's been squished, hammered and elongated, with a sheet metal tail. Mulets do sway a little, but I like that.

I prefer the fish-shaped over the ball simply because there's less frontal resistance against the water and the short tails on the balls are worthless. I run one on my probe and have no blowback problems till I go deeper than 90 ft &/or into the current &/or run at 3 mph or more.

Me to,

We have got to find a 12# mold and make some up. I allways loved them on my outside rigger.

Cazzzzzzz

[Cstar]

I have couple of those expensive chrome sharks, but I fins myself using the 12 lb black sharks on all 3 riggers

[Satisfaxion_Gauranteed]

I use 10lb finned balls on my back manual riggers. They work pretty well, but I don't generally fish those deeper than 50-60' down. When/if I upgrade those to electrics, I'll jump to 12lb balls.

My side electric riggers are the finned balls and are 12lbers. I really like them. I have not had any tangle issues with any of the riggers, so I haven't had a need to experiment with bending the fins to push the balls farther to the side of the boat.

Overall, I like the fact I don't get much blowback on my 12lb balls and the fins help keep the cable from twisting while I'm setting lines. I also switched to red balls for the 12lbers. I like the place for clips out on the fins of the balls. This is a great place for a poor mans thermocline finder(fancy thermeter that tells you depth and temp--$4).

While fishing deeper than ~50-60' with my 10lb balls/manual riggers is not ideal, the electric riggers/12lb balls fish down to 80,90, 100' without issue. There is deffinately a difference is fishing flexibility between the two setups.

I know most of you guys use the cable style releases. The last two years, I've switched to running my releases right off the balls and my hookups have improved. I'm not sure if it's the releases or me getting better as a fisherman or........... At the same time, I started running heavier balls. I'm sure that has some effect, too.

[special x]

I use the 10 lb fish on my center riggers & 12lb true trac pancake with the fins on the outside riggers and bend fin i do have a (chrome shark ) very spendy found that it catches bottom just like all the rest the pancakes do not get hung up as bad in the rocks as the rest when reef jumping at Isle Royal