12lb cannon balls

[Trout115]

I have been using 12 lb cannon balls and seem to have trouble with my electric down riggers. Does this weight seem a bit heavy for salmon?

[JWheeler]

No, that weight should be fine. I run some 12#er's and so does my BIL. We haven't had problems with them.

[silver one]

What kind of trouble are you having with the downriggers?

[Trout115]

I was out fishing one day last season when I hit the up lever and internal gear pin nut broke free from the shaft. I had to manually reel 120 feet of cable plus ball up from the bottom of the lake. had it fixed but now it makes me nervous cause sometimes it seems like the wire slips while coming up when I am deeper than 50 feet. Almost seems like there is to much weight on the downrigger. The whole setup kinda sounds noisy?

[Satisfaxion_Gauranteed]

What kind of riggers do you have?

Some riggers have drags that allow you to spool them down instead of powering them down with the motors. The slipping sounds like a drag could be adjusted tighter.

Any other details? Age of the riggers? What kind of noise? Any other issues that make you nervous?

[Trout115]

The noise is kinda clanky, with a popping sound. The wire does not slip back into the water but rather slips down tighter in the spool. maybe I should respool my Cannon down riggers. when the downrigger pin broke I was tighting up the drag a bit when it just snapped and down went the ball. I had to spool the wire back on by hand. That I will never forget. After I got the ball into the boat I reached over and hit the up lever on the other downrigger and belive it or not the drag tention handle spun right off and fell into the water. Down went that ball. I had to get that one up by hand too. This is why I am so nervous about this situation going into this season.

[silver one]

Is it just the one downrigger or all of them doing the same thing? If it is just the one then I would say something is not right with the rigger. Try and get a diagram of the rigger and compare it to what you have and see what is missing or contact cannon and tell them about the problem and they might be able to tell you why it is doing what it is doing. 12lb wheights should be no problem for just about any downrigger. Cannons are a good rigger and you will find that even the guys that dont run them usually dont have anything bad to say about them.

I run walkers and with sub troll probe and 12lb weight no problems. My close freind Moosky runs Big Jons with same set up with no problems.

[Trout115]

Thanks for the help

[HitMan]

Most all electric downrigger should be able to run adequately with a 12 pound ball. We fish with Cannon Downriggers and have no trouble fishing everyday with 15 pound weights.

[Satisfaxion_Gauranteed]

I've got 4 cannons, all older than 5 years, and none of them have an issue with 12lb weights. I'd agree with the sediment that there's deffinately an issue with the riggers if you are having a problem with 12lb weights.

Also, Cannon has service center information on thier website as well as a corporate technical assistance center. I'm sure they can help you with your issue.

[shu9265]

I also run nothing but #12 balls on my Cannon Riggers.

Have not had any trouble with them at all.

[tltorrice]

I have two Big Jon Captian Packs (electrics) and I also run 12lb balls for Salmon. They come up slower than the 8lb balls I use for walleye. I called Big Jon to find out if they could handle the 12# balls and they said no problem. So far it has worked fine.

[Yooperdad]

Is it just the one downrigger or all of them doing the same thing? If it is just the one then I would say something is not right with the rigger. Try and get a diagram of the rigger and compare it to what you have and see what is missing or contact cannon and tell them about the problem and they might be able to tell you why it is doing what it is doing. 12lb wheights should be no problem for just about any downrigger. Cannons are a good rigger and you will find that even the guys that dont run them usually dont have anything bad to say about them.

I run walkers and with sub troll probe and 12lb weight no problems. My close freind Moosky runs Big Jons with same set up with no problems.

Silver One, I just got a Subtroll last fall and also have Walkers. I read a post on GLA that Walkers tear the coating from the cable. Has that been an issue for you?

Mike