The Outdoor Line Forum

I got a pair of Cannon Mag 20 DT's and one of the line counter's don't seem accurate. 90' of water the downrigger hits bottom at 67' on the counter, at 120' of water the downrigger hits bottom at 83' on the cable counter. Both are set up with same cable. Does anyone have an idea what I need to do to correct this? I'm not seeing any skipping in the counter gear and it seems aligned properly.

Hey BD,
A couple things to consider:

First, are you using wire or braid? Wire counts a bit more accurately than braid.

Secondly, are you sliding the counter out to "zero" it occasionally?

How much wire is on the spool? Low spool readings are notoriously inaccurate!

Finally, make sure the wire is not stacking up on the spool, causing a bad reading. Use the ball hook for a fair lead and keep the wire centered in the spool and you'll have more accurate readings.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

I think I got this figured out. I replaced the wire with full 400' spools of cannon line, and replaced the line counters, made sure the line is going through the hook. I tested them out at the San Juan’s and they were still hitting bottom way too early. When just about to give up on the downriggers, I take a look at the transducer on my depth finder and see it’s nocked cockeyed. That explains why it's further off the deeper the water. Looks like I might get a chance to test it out again in area 9 Friday.