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Author Topic:   Downrigger is Unreliable

Roarque posted 05-28-2007 04:18 PM ET (US)
After using my downrigger for four hours this morning, it stopped working for no obvious reason. I was in 200 feet of water and the downrigger ball was at 175 feet. As I approached a shoal, I was forced to manually rewind the 10 lb ball. A real "keestone cops" drill as you can well imagine. My fellow fishermen ( in nearby boats) were well entertained.
This has happened sporatically for the past year. I suspect the problem is that I "plug in" the downrigger's pigtail power cord and that plug is exposed to the sea air. The usual solution is to "sand" the terminals thereby removing the scale build up on the copper contacts. That solution failed me this time - thus the manual rewind from 175 feet. I suppose that I could hardwire the power but I do like the convenience of being able to easily remove the downrigger for security reasons and to occasionally replace it with a prawn trap puller.
Has anyone tried other solutions - perhaps vaseline on the male and female ends of the plug in device?
jgkmmoore posted 05-28-2007 04:25 PM ET (US)
That's it, you got it. The Navy uses it by the ton.
mpaluda posted 05-28-2007 07:20 PM ET (US)
WD 40 works wonders too.

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Author	Topic: Downrigger is Unreliable
Roarque	posted 05-28-2007 04:18 PM ET (US) After using my downrigger for four hours this morning, it stopped working for no obvious reason. I was in 200 feet of water and the downrigger ball was at 175 feet. As I approached a shoal, I was forced to manually rewind the 10 lb ball. A real "keestone cops" drill as you can well imagine. My fellow fishermen ( in nearby boats) were well entertained. This has happened sporatically for the past year. I suspect the problem is that I "plug in" the downrigger's pigtail power cord and that plug is exposed to the sea air. The usual solution is to "sand" the terminals thereby removing the scale build up on the copper contacts. That solution failed me this time - thus the manual rewind from 175 feet. I suppose that I could hardwire the power but I do like the convenience of being able to easily remove the downrigger for security reasons and to occasionally replace it with a prawn trap puller. Has anyone tried other solutions - perhaps vaseline on the male and female ends of the plug in device?
jgkmmoore	posted 05-28-2007 04:25 PM ET (US) That's it, you got it. The Navy uses it by the ton.
mpaluda	posted 05-28-2007 07:20 PM ET (US) WD 40 works wonders too.