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  2. General Downrigger Information
  3. Spools and Lines

Downrigger Line and Spool Information

Updated

Spools

Composite

Composite spools comes standard on most of our downriggers except for the Tournament Series downriggers. The composite spool works well in most situations. 

Stainless

Many saltwater anglers want to run monofilament or superline instead of cable. Plastic spools can break when spooled with these types of line, so all of Cannon’s Tournament Series downriggers come with a stainless steel spool.

Lines

Using Braided and Monofilament Line

You can use braid and mono line. If you are using a downrigger linke the Optimum, Magnum, or Digi-Troll, Short stop and Positive Ion Control will no longer function and when using the Auto up feature the weight will stop when the line counter reaches zero. Short stop and positive ion control both rely on the stainless steel cable to conduct an electrical current into water. Since monofilament and superlines will not conduct an electrical current, these features will not function when the downrigger is re-spooled with them.

The Advantages to Using Monofilament

First, cable tends to act like a long guitar string when it’s pulled through the water, creating an audible hum that can spook fish. Mono runs silent when pulled through the water. Second, kingfish anglers like the ability to quickly cut their downrigger line if a fish makes a run toward it, to prevent them from losing it. It is much quicker and easier to cut mono than it is to cut braided stainless steel cable.
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