Well I hope to finally see some of you guys out on the water. My brother-in-law and I just pick up a 1998 18' Bayliner Capri w/120hp Merc. only 23 hours. We got the open bow so we can take the family out, too.

My question what downriggers to get? We are leaning to the Scotty electric #1099. Is there a huge difference from a 24", 30" or 60" boom?

What is the best fish/depth finder and GPS combo for under $1000.

Thanks
Noskunk

Recommend going with the Scotty 60". This will help extend your gear out if you have two riggers in the water. It will also help if you decide you want to brave a stacker for an additional rod. Plus, if you decide to get a bigger boat down the road, you still have a nice set of riggers with a life time warranty.

If you go fishing by yourself, just bring the boom all the way in...

Downriggin'

congrats on the boat noskunk, as far as a combo gps plotter sounder, I just picked up a Garmin 188 for $755. It has all the things I wanted, it actually wound up being half the price of the nearest competition (raymarine & Furuno) , great plotter with awesome chart software( bluecharts, about $150 each plus $50 mail in rebate), and a fishfinder with 500watts/dual frequency/temp/speed transducer. Check out the garmin website
http://www.garmin.com/marine/
and you can do a side by side comparison of ANY garmin marine model here
http://www.garmin.com/marine/compare.jsp

Hope this gives you a place to start

Thanks DR & Johny.

DR- I was reading about stacking, do you ever do this? Is it effective? We were going to get a black box, too. What else is going to necessary? I've being reading your post for a while now and you know your stuff, any hints would be appreciated.

Noskunk

I have used the ones with 30 in booms for years with no problems. The only difference in all of the electric Scottys is the length of the boom. The added cost for the extra length just ain't worth it .

I find long booms to be a real pain - I actually shortened my Penns up to 20". That way I can reach the booger ball and release easily without having to dink around with a boat hook. My boat is narrower than yours and yet I never tangle anything unless I really screw up - the ends of the 'riggers are plenty far enough apart even with 20" booms not to tangle.

Be sure to mount them an equal distance from the stern, however, as they will tangle if you have one forward of the other. If you want to run 3 or 4 of them then you will need real long booms on the side 'riggers and short one's on the stern. I have been tempted to try this, as stacking works ok for non-bottom hugging species, like sockeye, pinks, kokes, etc., but not so well for blackmouth - the bottom line will get the fish 90% of the time.

I would also recommend the Scotty's. Some people like long booms and some like short. Personally I feel the long booms give you more options and make the likely hood of tangling gear less of a problem. Stacking can be done but if you don't know what your doing you'll end up spending more time hassling with the gear than fishing. In the beginning I would think two rods and two downriggers will be enough to challenge you. I have a 27' boat with a much bigger beam and fishing three downriggers is a challenge especially in strong currents. The black box would be a good addition. For gear I would recommend some Hot Spot flashers, Coyote spoons, squid and some 4 and 5" plugs.

Go with the long booms, first off the can get you away from the boat a bit more and help from getting gear wrapped together even more so with turns, next they help with the electlrolic (s/p) from yor boat. 3 of 4 fish with 3 DR's come off the 60" booms. Spend the extra couple bucks and don't forget to check barrys bait in B.C, hope this helps

I run a 171/2 ft. smokercraft. Long booms are not necessary. I have scotty 1099 (24" boom) and have been very pleased with this set up. Low battery draw, and I can easily reach my ball and gear without using a "stick". Never had any problems turning with my gear down. Space is at a premium on a small boat. The added cost is not worth getting a longer boom.

Noskunk, Since Spawnout said just about exactly what I would have said about downriggers I'll just give you a couple chartplotter/fishfinder thoughts, 1st the Garmin 188 mentioned above is a great combo unit and "probably" my first choice for a unit under a grand, that being said, check out the new Eagle products, specifically the SeaCharter 320DF. Until the new line of products came out I was not a fan of Lowrance/Eagle, they put out an ok product but they were over priced, well after a couple years of getting there butts kicked by Garmin, they seem to have learned a thing or 2. The new SeaCharter 320 has very similar specs to Garmin's 188 unit but it has better definition then the Garmin (320x320 pixels as opposed to 234x320 pixels) it is also 1/2 the price of the Garmin, the 188 price mentioned above is a boatshow/sportsmans show price, there now $875, only $499 for the Eagle. The biggest drawback (and its minor) is that it uses Navionic's cartography which I think is third best to Garmin Bluechip and C-Map, but for $500 saved I could deal with Navionics.
If I can answer any questions on downriggers or chartplotter/ff's stop by and see me at Boatersworld in Everett.

The only thing i would argue with akkings post is that to get comparable coverage on the lorwance you may well have to spend a couple of hundred more on charts than the garmin...especially with the rebates right now...and blue chart is definitly better , if he shows you side by side its a no brainer there. That said AkKings advice is one of the reasons I bought what I did. I seriously doubt he would steer you wrong...

I happen to have an Alpeco L265 fish finder I'll sell cheap

Oh yeah, forgot about the Garmin rebates, $50 rebate on either the Bluechart chip or the Bluechart CD-Rom, and upto $150 rebate (depends on which unit you buy) if you mail-in an old fixed mount gps or loran unit.

I only stack in the summer when Kings can be found at any depth. ... or when the Humpy's are in... (and looks like I'll miss that this year!).

As far as gear... Needle nose pliers, good wire cutters, extra rigger terminal gear (connectors/snaps, releases ) and weights. For fishing gear... anything green and as long as it glows.... That is the pretty much the Blackmouth/Summer Kings staple

Downriggin'

Hey I wanted to add.... I never have extended my booms fully - nor will I - too much torgue on my poor aluminum. I'll bring them out a foot/foot and a half with two rods out... This is especially helpful for us guys that like to work the bait and cutting quick corners around the bait ball.

There is a school of thought that a combo unit is not the way to go. Two reasons. If one goes down, they're both down. Also switching back and forth from a full screen or viewing a smaller split screen turns some folks off as well. Just my big fat opinion.

I forgot one other thing. In the lower end combo units, usually something gets compromised. It seems like the FF component is the usual victim. Closely look at the FF's performance of any low end combo unit.

I am in the process of outfitting my boat right now and will be able to put nice a nice garmin FF, garmin gps/plotter and a vhf with dsc for under a grand. If you have the room for multiple components I would suggest it.

Birdnest

Hey guys thanks for all the info.

Noskunk

Hey NoSkunk, you probably won't need the black box since you have a glass hull. I use Cannon downriggers with the retractable booms, that way I can have them anywhere I want. If you use long booms, just get the weight retrievers so that you don't have to reach out to get the ball, they work great! Sounds like a nice boat!

The Scotty design allows the boom to be raised to a 90 degree angle to the water which brings the ball right to the boat. No need for a hook to get at the cable/ball. I've used Penn's, Canon's and Scotty's. Go with the 60" boom Scotty electric. It has the fastest retrieve and the most efficient power draw using a 15lb ball. IMO, that's the best downrigger made.

Scotty with the extendable booms. Allways good to have the extra if you need it. Any problems with them just take them in for life!