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I had the chance to take a good friend fishing last Friday. It was a very windy day, winds were sustained 20 mph with gusts to 40mph out of the NW. I wouldn't have even attempted to go but this guy doesn't get too many chances to fish so I picked a lake with a long NW shore line to fish hoping for a decent lee to hide in. Merrymeeting lake is a lake I'm very familiar with, my brother lives there. Anyway, we were catching Lakers down around 30 feet on the riggers on the NW shore where the wind was at least bearable. I never fish this shore but I didn't have a choice given the wind. We were trolling in 60 ft of water with the riggers down at 25ft and 30ft when I marked a huge fish at 20 feet, at least I thought it was a fish. It turned out to be a cable with poly ball floats suspended at 20ft in 60 ft of water. Needless to say it caught both down riggers and stopped my Outrage dead in her tracks. With the riggers hung down and waves breaking over the stern we had all we could do to pick up all rods and turn the boat into the wind. Thankfully i wasn't alone and we only lost one cannon ball and release. I couldn't help wondering what would have happened if this had happened to one of the many guys fishing out of small aluminium boats. I can tell you with certainty that a lesser boat could have been swamped with a tragic out come. If you fish with downriggers carry a pair of cable cutters, it could save your life. I am in the process of finding out what this unmarked cable was and if it is legal to have where it is. Be careful this time of year, the water is only 46 degrees here in NH. That makes a life preserver nothing more than a body finder.

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Wow, you got lucky!!! Thanks for the tip and sharing of your experience. Close call!

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I had the same thing happen to me about 24 years ago, while downrigger trolling in the Atlantic in my twin engine Outrage 18. A wire cutters and the Whaler saved 5 lives!

We were 2 miles off Boca Raton FL, downrigger trolling offshore with FOUR downrigger out, down anywhere from 40 to 90'. Seas were running about 4' out of the SE in at least a 20 MPH wind, a cool, cloudy late December day. We were the only boat out.

I mistakenly gave the steering over to one of the other 4 guys in the boat, while I worked the lines. Running downwind at 1200 Rpm on only one engine, he took us right over a crab trap rope, all four downrigger hung up and instantly stopped the boat dead, stern to the seas. In a second a 4' wave crashed over the transom and engines, and filled the Whaler right up to gunwales. The batteries, in tan Whaler boxes, were under water as the water ran back out the notched transom. The boat held steady, I told everyone to freeze while I grabbed the floating tackle box for the wire cutters. I snipped off all four wires and their fishing lines, and the boat floated down wind, waves still laping over the transom, and the one Merc tower still running. We prayed while I turned the key on the second engine, and it STARTED, battery still under water. Full throttle on the 230 HP dumped the water back out while we planed off, pulled the sump plug and turned on the bilge pump. In five minutes the boat was totally dry. We were ready to start fishing again, but had lost all the gear saving ourselves.

All five of us were convinced the Whaler saved our lives. In any other boat we would have probably gone down, or at least the engine would have gone out, left to swim 2 miles off shore in 70 degree water. An I/O would have been history with an underwater engine. There was no time for a radio call, (there was no one out there to save us anyway) and all should be aware that a Whaler filled with water will indeed float, but lateral stability is not good. Occupants have to freeze where they are. You move around and you roll over.

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Being I'm fairly new to owning and running a boat, stories like these grab my attention. Learing about what both you did in the situations just might save my and others lives someday.

Thankyou for sharing.

Don

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I have a question about freezing in place. This sounds like a darned subjective request. If everyone was on one side of the boat?
I hear these Whaler stories and know the reality is a darned serious one. Thanks for the stories and the information, I can use it and if ever needed I have more tools in my survival kit now.

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My riggers have 200 feet of wire rated at 200 pound test. The weakest link is where the wire attaches to the riggers spool. I always keep the rigger drag tension loose enough so if I do hang up it will spool out and break off in an emergency. It is much better to loose a ball and the wire than to go into a panic and dangerous situation. I tell all my rigger fishing pals to not get too carried away when attaching the wire to the rigger spool. This attachment should be the weakest link for safeties sake and once there is a few winds on the spool it never comes into play until you get completely spooled.

I have seen riggers ripped right off boats because the fisherman did not have a wire cutter handy and made a super strong connection of the wire to the spool.

Happy to hear everything worked out and all are safe.

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Years ago while trolling with a downrigger I had a whale come up heading on a course to hit me broadside. Just before he got to me he submerged enough to pass under me. I thought I was OK until I remembered the cable. Well the downrigger pole was dancing as the cable scraped along the whale's side and then the I thought the whole downrigger was going to rip off the boat as the cable passed over it's tail. I wouldn't want to go through that again.

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Scary stuff.. Not sure about the electric Down Riggers, but on the manual ones you can adjust the tension.

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I have never seen a manufactured rigger that does not have a tension knob for setting the drag! The one time I saw the riggers ripped off the boat the guy had cranked the drag knob down as tight as he could because he did not understand the principal behind it.

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Thank you for sharing your story.

Best to set the drag on the riggers appropriately and carry wire cutters. We switched over to braided line for the riggers so any handy knife can be used to cut the line in an emergency.

Thanks again for sharing so we can all learn and be safe.

IC

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I have always owned Big John downriggers, and although they have a drag knob, I found it never could be tightened enough to hold under the pull of higher speed ocean trolling. So I always use the positive locking pin. When this incident happened, all four were pinned. Probably a big mistake in retrospect.

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Interesting Finn, I put Big John long arm electrics on my last boat and never knew they had a "Positive Locking Pin". The drags held great at 3-5 MPH in Lake Ontario trolling for Salmon but never much farther down than 60 feet. These Big Johns on my old boat were the ones I saw ripped right off after I sold it years back. I have to wonder now if he might have found and employed the positive locks. I hung them a couple times and even bent an arm but never had a real dangerous situation as described above.

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20 mph winds and 40 mph gusts. You should have known not to tempt that.

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John fyke,

I chose to fish a small lake due to the wind. I chose a lake with a large leeward shore to fish. I did not feel unsafe at all. When the riggers were hung down I saw the potential for trouble. The point here is that small boats or even large boats with downriggers can get into trouble so please have a plan if something unexpected happens. Having cable cutters handy would be a great start for anyone fishing with downriggers. On another note I see this discussion was move to "Whaler Tales". I'm not sure what boating and downrigger saftey have to do with Whaler Tales, But I'm sure the powers that be could explain it......

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OutragousBob....We venture out on our lakes with winds blowing as you've described...it's all about using your head and choosing a ramp that's leeward to the wind.....scooting along the shoreline can keep you out of the big gusts and bad situations.....done it several times in the years we've been boating....you've done nothing out of the ordinary.....