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I recently moved from Florida to Whidbey Island, WA and have been outfitting my Tashmoo for use up here. I just purchased a used Scotty electric downrigger. After reading a lot of advice on this forum and others, and with salmon holding past 100' regularly up here, I decided to buy one electric instead of 2 manuals for now and save up for a second.
I am looking at my mounting options and trying to decide between two. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Tashmoo, it has an approximately 8" wide sidedeck/gunwale and rail setup identical to the Newport, in addition to molded casting/lounging decks fwd and aft and a small center console. I will try to add some pictures of my setup.
I am thinking that the easiest method would be to use one of the scotty rail mounts on the aft grab rail.
The other, more finished option would be using the standard scotty flip up mount just aft of the grab rail. My concern is that the gunwale cap on the Tashmoo (same as the Newport) may not be sturdy enough to handle the load of a downrigger wih a 10 or 12lb weight (30" boom), even with a backing plate. If it is strong enough the plan would be to make a mahogany wedge on top to bring the gunwale from sloping to parallel with the water, with a starboard backing plate underneath.
If any of you have mounted something like this on your newport, and have insight on the best method or whether the deck is strong enough please chime in. I'm also not sure how far to extend the backing plate on each side of the downrigger base if I go that route.
Also, if you were fishing with one downrigger, which side would you mount it on. I have read the discussions debating between mounting in the middle and mounting on the aft corner, but none on which side, presumably because most people are mounting in pairs, which I will do eventually. The only consideration I can think of for which side is weight and balance, if there are others that I am missing please enlighten me as I am new to downrigger fishing. Thanks
Jeff
Jeff, good choice on the Scotty. I have two 1116 propack by Scotty. On my Montauk I have Cannon manuals mounted to the rail. With the 6# ball that seems to work well. I am sure you will need a 10to12 # ball to go that deep. Most of the torque on a downrigger seems to come from raising the ball and stopping it. In the past I have used a 2x6 mounted across the back to dispurse the torque. Mount the DR to each side and they offset each other. Montauk , and 15 I mounted it to the rails. The Outrage I used the gimble mounts for the 2x6 to rest on . I also raised the mount height to save my back when loading lines . The center area of the 2x6 I use to mount gadget holders or anything you may need. You may wan't to use mohagany or just a plain 2x6 works well its up to you.Hope this helps, if you need a pic let me know. BG
I've posted some photos of the boat now on my member page for those who aren't familiar with the Tashmoo layout.
BG, thanks for the insight. The 2x6 looks like it would work great on a Montauk, I saw a few member photos set up that way, sort of a modular fishing attachment. However with the Tashmoo, the aft deck gets in the way of anywhere you would install the 2x6. The rail doesn't seem to be as sturdy as a Montauk's either. I'm leaning towards beefing up the sidedeck right behind the rail with a backing plate and a piece of 1" mahogany on top and mounting it there with the standard mount. As to the ball weight the guy I bought it from included a 10 lb which he said is the lightest he usually fishes with. I will probably wind up using that for a while until I am experienced enough to try something else.
