Walker downriggers

[srj]

I've narrowed my choices to Walker Combo Paks or Cannon Mag 10s. I'm leaning toward the Walkers. Looking thru the archives, good things were said about most brands by most responders. One negative post about Walkers referred to knocking off counters and switches. To you Walker owners/users---an issue? Any other negatives on the Walkers?

Thanks

[Sluggo / NY]

I've been running a pair of Walkers for fifteen years and they still have the original counters and switches! Actually..they still have the original cables on them! And yes..I do use them quite a bit! Good Fishing, Sluggo (Chris)

[Trailerguy]

[font color=green size=3][b]I have a Walker, the problem I had was the toggle switch turned the motor on and then stripped the gears. I now unhook the battery when traveling on rough water. The factory warrenty repairman said he tested the toggle and it wasn't too senative, which I disagree with. I bought the lifetime warrenty, so it's their problem now.

[Waconia Guy]

Greetings! As long as we are on the topic of Walker downriggers: does anyone know if the Walker portable (clamp-on) version has a line/depth cointer on it?
Thanks!
Michael in Waconia MN

[DHotRod]

Been running a Walker 14 years now, no problems. When I bought it the guy at cabelas said they had bigger and better Motors in them..... I don't know for sure and really don't care. It's just been a good unit .

[Starfish]

I love my Walker electric. It's been bulletproof despite heavy use and neglect. I haven't found a weak link yet. I do have to occasionally readjust the depth counter setting but it's never broken.

[srj]

Thanks for replies, guys.

[perchjerker]

I have a set of electrics from the 70's

they have been great all these years.

[lobo1]

If you are buying new Walker's look at the michigan-sportsman site. some pretty good pricing to be had. look in the cold water species fishing forum at the top and contact Beave.

lobo1

[srj]

Thanks for the replies. Couple more questions. When on the run, do you use anything to secure your balls? Whoa, loaded question! I've seen a couple types of ball caddies available. I'll be running the riggers off the sides--will a two foot boom be enuf? And for mostly shallow fishing--35-40', will an 8lb weight be enough? They will be used mostly for small cranks fishing walleyes so one final question--what is the preferred release?

Thanks again.

[Burr]

I'm pretty new to the downrigger scene as well, so take my advice as being from a novice downrigger.

I changed to the Blacks release, and really like that release compared to the snap style release. This is one upgrade I wish I would have known about right away.

At the depths your referring to, the 8 lb ball should be good. I found as you are, there are tons of additional things to buy with d-rigs - securing your balls is one of them. I haven't bought a caddy yet, but will do so soon.

I fished with both extendable and fixed length booms. The extendable are nice, but the fixed length catch fish just the same. If buying new downriggers, I would lean toward the extendable. I went with used downriggers, they came with fixed length, and are fine. The only flexibility I am missing is to swing the riggers to be off the back of the boat instead of the side. Since I just run 2 downriggers, I can deal with that.

Have fun and keep us posted on what you experience. Most of what I've learned about downrigging started on this site.

[Waconia Guy]

Greetings! What is a Black's release and how do you feel it is better than some of the others on the market?
Thanks!
Michael in MN

[Burr]

Here is a url from Cabela's.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jhtml?id=0004232011601a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnString=hasJS=true&_D%3AhasJS=+&%2Fcabelas%2Fcommerce%2FCabelasCatalogNumberFinder .giftCertificateURL=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Ftemplates%2F giftcertificate%2Fgiftcertificate.jhtml%3Fid%3D000 5586990011a%26podId%3D0005586%26catalogCode%3DIB%2 6navAction%3Djump%26indexId%3D&_D%3A%2Fcabelas%2Fcommerce%2FCabelasCatalogNumberF inder.giftCertificateURL=+&QueryText=Blacks+Release&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jhtml.8&Go.x=10&Go.y=11&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=Blacks+Release&noImage=0&returnPage=search-results1.jhtml

oooohh - thats a nasty url, you could do a search on the site for Blacks Release.

What I like about it is, no false releases, it snaps out real consistently when a fish hits, it doesn't slip with the super lines I use, and no break-offs when popping line out.

All that said, keep in mind I am pretty new to downrigging, a more experieced voice may offer better insight. The Blacks have worked well for me.

[Starfish]

I run my riggers off the sides and two foot booms work fine for me. I have the Walker on a swivel mount and use deck-mounted caddies. I prefer ten pounders because the 8 lb blows back pretty far even in 40' water.

[srj]

Thanks for the input. I'll have a similar setup--I'm using 6" Pursuit tracks and a Pursuit swivel mount. But with my tiller rig, I don't think it work very well to mount ball caddies up by the riggers. Guess I'll wait till I install the tracks and stick the riggers on before figuring out what to do with the balls.

[Hines R]

I've heard good things about that release, but have had very good luck with the Walker Adjustable Line release. It's really simple to get the line into it even in rough water. You just wrap it around it and pull and it just slides in. If you need to adjust the tension it's just a matter of turning the front part a little bit either way.

One thing to keep in mind is the amount of torque on the boat gunnel. I added a third Cannon Unitroll HP to my boat and I use 8 lb weights. I've always run two downriggers going out opposite sides. When I added the third rigger I set it up to go off the back on the opposite side from the kicker motor. When I extended the one I'll be leaving out the side to get more clearance between the two downriggers the laws of Physics clearly took affect. Darn Law of the Lever. When I extended it out with an 8 lb weight you could really see how much additional force it was putting on the gunnel. I'm going to try a ridgeback rattler which is only 3 lbs and is designed to plane itself forward. I think this will keep some of the stress off the boat on the one that I have to extend farther out.

Later, Ryan