Mounting downriggers on a 3988-gctid342797

[Aqua_Therapy]

Has anyone done this? I am thinking of bending some flat aluminum into an L and mounting the two on each side of the cockpit. I did this on a previous Carver we had and it worked well. Then mount the downrigger quick connects to the bracket.

Before I drill holes though does anyone have a different idea?

Mike

[Guest]

When I had my 3988 I had mounts I purchased from Sportco, they were a L shape bracket that slid into a side mounted bracket on the inside of cockpit.

I had my scotty swivel mounts attached to the L bracket that was a quick release set up.

Not sure if they even sell these mounts today, I want to say they were made by off shore, or something like that.

[Guest]

check scottys web site there is tons of mounting options

[Guest]

I prefer options that don't leave holes in fibreglass, like installing rod holders into your taff rail and using rod holder mounts dropped into the new rod pockets. If you're going to want a bunch of DRs, add a cross beam on which you mount the downriggers.

[cosmo777]

Brad had the name right, they're called Offshore mounts. I bought mine at Harbor Marine in Everett. Here's how I had them mounted on my 3288. Since I had a little higher installation, I installed the center pin for a little added security that it wouldn't come out.

[Guest]

That's it Cosmo, I think they have a clean look and ya don't have to mount the more bulky type down rigger mounts.

[Guest]

Yikes ... no offence but if you ever hooked a ball on the bottom that thing is GONE along with the DR

[Guest]

cosmo777 wrote:
Brad had the name right, they're called Offshore mounts. I bought mine at Harbor Marine in Everett. Here's how I had them mounted on my 3288. Since I had a little higher installation, I installed the center pin for a little added security that it wouldn't come out.

I have them in my Scout They work great. I had a fear, like you, that they would come out but gravity and friction keeps them where they belong

[cosmo777]

The pin goes thru both pieces of the offshore mount, including both sides of the mounted "pocket".

It keeps it pinned in place so it can't come out. It would need to sheer the stainless pin before it would ever come out.

[Uncle_Bob]

I doubt if I can get my 39 to slow down enough to match the various speeds necessary for good success. Regardless if I were considering downriggers I would try to keep the aesthetics by using flush fish rod holders and accompanying downrigger mounts. Scotty makes a 1029 Gimbal mount that slides into a flush mounted rod holder. It can be removed and all that remains is the rod holder hole.

[Guest]

On my 3870 i did not want to have any sign of the downriggers when not in use. My solution was to purchase 2 gimbal mounts from big jon in michigan that slide right into my rod holders. I modified the stem of the gimbals to fit snuggly into the pre-existing rod holders. I use 2 48" big jon captain's pack electric downriggers. I picked up the power supply by running the electrical out through the 2 hatches just before the transom on both the port and starboard side. They work great and when not in use there is no sign them. Steve

[Aqua_Therapy]

Thanks for the good ideas guys.

[mmichellich]

Uncle Bob wrote:
I doubt if I can get my 39 to slow down enough to match the various speeds necessary for good success. Regardless if I were considering downriggers I would try to keep the aesthetics by using flush fish rod holders and accompanying downrigger mounts. Scotty makes a 1029 Gimbal mount that slides into a flush mounted rod holder. It can be removed and all that remains is the rod holder hole.

A good friend did that with his Scotty downriggers and it never seemed to work very well. If you are a fisherman, you should be proud to show your downrigger bases. On our boats I use the very flat square Scotty bases and attache the much larger rotating bases to them using four bolts.

Looking at the mount in the photo, IF the vertical mount is through bolted to solid fiberglass it should work perfect. Most all the forces are fore and aft with a bit side to side, nothing pulling up, and if it did it would bind even if the pin broke.

[Guest]

Ofishal wrote:
Yikes ... no offence but if you ever hooked a ball on the bottom that thing is GONE along with the DR

I have hooked a ball several times with mine and they just wege in tighter. After trying to saw my boat in half with the cable in strong current and the ball firmly stuck I now alwasy haves a cable cutter handy. As you can see I also had my concerns there is a safety line attached to my DR

http://baylinerownersclub.org/media/...cout.jpg[/img]

[Aqua_Therapy]

Nice fish BTW.

Yeah I'm not too concerned about holes in fiberglass or the downrigger pulling away especially if mounted correctly.

Now another can of worms. Why Scotty vs. Canon? I like the bracket that is shown in the pix and I haven't found any on Canon's site. Any pro/con other than one is side ways to crank up? Electric seems like the goto way to go on either.