Northwest Fishing Reports

I'd like some opinions about a downrigger failure I had on Sunday 2/7 from y'all.

I was fishing kokanee on Hayden Lake, ID, my first trip there this year. I had caught a few fish when my port side downrigger failed quite catastrophically. A fish hit the line and the rod holder that comes on the downrigger literally ripped out of the downrigger itself. There was a very loud crack and it happened so fast I had no time to blink let alone grab hold of anything. It scared the crap out of me it was so loud. I attached a picture of what is left of the downrigger where the rod holder attaches.

When I got home I called the Cannon warranty guy that works in the Spokane area where I live. His name is Bob. He was very shocked but incredible to talk to and assured me he'd fix it and it would be covered under Cannon's warranty. All too often I see posts on the internet about how X company won't stand behind their stuff. That's not the case here. Kudos to Bob.

My question for everyone here is... Do you think I should be pressing Cannon to replace my rod and reel that I lost as a result of this failure? Bob brought up that point and said I'd have to call Cannon directly and inquire. He wasn't sure if they would do that or not.

I'll be perfectly honest. I did not lose an expensive rod and reel, thankfully. I was fishing for kokanne and it was simply a Lamiglas kokanee rod and a little Daiwa line counter reel. All together, it's probably about a $150 set up. It easily could have been much worse had it been one of my salmon set ups. I attached an old picture of the rod and reel I lost too in case you want to see exactly which ones I'm talking about.

What do you think?

Probably not going to get a replacement rod/reel from Canon, check their warranty to see if it covers incidental damage or loss. Most warranties don't provide that kind of coverage, usually only repair or replacement of the defective item they manufactured. It sure can't hurt to ask though.

I just gotta ask, a Kokanee broke that off??? That must have been one heck of a Koke!!!!

Maybe he hooked Nessy's US cousin

I can't say for certain what kind of fish it was. There are big rainbows in that lake too. I just know the rod started dancing and before I could even reach for the rod it was gone. I think the thing had to have been cracked and slowly but surely weakened until it failed completely. I don't really ever take the rod holder off so a crack under there is something I never would have seen.

had the whole down-rigger pop off when the mount cracked last year, insurance just replaced it with the rod and Reel that was in it at the time. LOL. Glad Im not the only one that this kind of weird **** happens too. LOL

In the second picture, showing where the rod holder would normally be. The gears that fix the rod holder in the desired horizontal position, over half are badly damaged! The damage appears to be caused by a friction rub of some sort. Like the rod holder was not tightened down properly, for a long period of time. The loud crack you heard might have been the adjustment bolt or knob snapping or the housing on the double rod holder failed by breaking? Was the adjustment bolt in the now vacant hole, showing in the 2nd picture? If the adjustment bolt was loose, the strain would be solely on the outer (water) facing side of the gear (appears to be the case)and all force on the adjustment bolt/knob areas, instead of spreading out the strain if/when tightened down.

Those teeth should not show any damage from what has been described! Furthermore, the area showing damage would require that the rod holder be loose, so as to wear out the gears in a non uniform way, like what is pictured. Rod holder loose enough, with strain placed in one direction (rod or rods attached to a dr ball, and drug through the water = stress in lbs per sq.in.), the opposite side of where the strain is, would "lift" creating a space or gap, this space would show as the teeth with less, to no visible damage, from no "contact" between surfaces/uneven wear. One half of the circle of teeth is nearly ground off, while the opposite side appears untouched.

Is the warranty replacing the missing double rod holder, or entire downrigger? The damage pictured shows the dr base would need replacing or the entire downrigger replaced due to the tooth or gear (whatever the technical term) damage.

As far as the rod goes. If you feel what came off the downrigger (double rod holder) was a defect of the downrigger, a press for the replacement of rod and reel would be appropriate. If damage was likely operator error, then that question would best be for the conscience to answer, and perhaps downrigger replacement alone is more than satisfaction.

The above conclusion is based solely on visual inspection of the dr in the supplied pictures, not the visual inspection of the downrigger itself. Were 2 Salmon rods ever used on the damaged dr? The strain from one Salmon rod trolled at Coho speed is enough that removing the rod from the holder takes a good amount of strenght, imagine how much strain transfers through the dr, multiply that x2 when using 2 rods.

I am not a downrigger engineer, but I play one on TV :-)

I don't believe your analysis of a long term friction rub is correct. In an undamaged unit there is a nut embedded in the plastic. That nut pulled completely out and took the bolt that was screwed into it along with the rod holder with it. The portion of gears that is missing that you think have rubbed off actually were pulled out with the bolt. A very small portion of that plastic wound up in my boat. Most of it went overboard.

I seriously doubt the rod holder was loose. I would've noticed. I'm pretty particular about what angle my rod is sitting at.

My Canon rep told me it would need an entire "new body". They are not replacing the entire downrigger. He did say he put a new rod holder on it as well.

I live inland so trolling for Coho is something I have never done. I do troll for chinook on lake Coeur d' Alene. Typical trolling speed there is about 1.8 to 2.1 mph. On this particular day I was at Hayden Lake and I was trolling 1.1 mph

This the bit of plastic I was referring to above.

Hang on to that piece! The argument made sense but that piece would appear to negate it. Good luck.

I was leaving a disclaimer at the bottom of my post, incase another picture with additional parts were include. Some possible conclusions come to mind based on provided picture,and divulged information or description of the event. If what your saying is that the piece in your hand is the missing, not friction damaged area. Then, I would totally fall back on to much stress was caused by two rods placed on that double rod holder connection.

Your saying the bolt head "pulled" through" the dr body. Now I feel there was perhaps a washer that would normally be on the bolt head to eliminate a "pull through". Something like a washer would be needed to spread the load created by two rods in a double rod holder with a single bolt holding the double rod holder to the dr base! I am using the added information (picture with what appears to be the missing gears that first looked to be removed through friction).

Given the breakage, and the result being a lost rod and real. I would strongly consider placing one of the two rods in a "fish on" type rod holder, the other in the Cannon double rod holder. This may be a known defect for the Cannon double rod holder of this model. Do you know how old your dr is, and if there have been any modification to newer models to improve the possible weakness of your double rod holder mount. Might consider asking your Cannon Rep, if the replacement body is the same exact part or a revised/improved body over the your model? If different, that may be the clue to a Known Cannon possible part defect. If this is indeed the case, I would use that as the basis for my argument that Cannon is responsible for the lost rod and reel.

I am still stumped as to why a washer was not on the bolt head that pulled through.

If this is the

I think there was/is indeed a washer on the inside. Its now flopping around the inside of the housing. It is one of those really small washers that looks like a small sprocket. I don't know the technical term for those. I'm thinking the little teeth on it were once embedded in the plastic on the inside of the body. If this was not the case then the washer would fall off into the housing if you removed the rod holder. This seems unlikely since the rod holder is not installed when you buy the downrigger. If you look closely at the hole left in the body of the dowrigger you'll see that it is hex shaped, the same shape as the nut that used to be there.

My downriggers are 1 year and 1 month old. They are the latest version that you can still buy today.

As far as this being a dual rod holder model, all of them come with one rod holder like this that can be mounted to either side of the downrigger. At the buyers option you can buy a 2nd rod holder and install it on whichever side you did not install the original.

I am envisioning the washer your describing. At first I was thinking lock washer but that would be inappropriate, when considering the hex head notch provided in the dr base housing is to lock the head so it will not turn while tightening the knob from the opposite side. I don't think that is a washer that is rattling around. A washer would be larger in diameter than the hex notch that the bolt head normally is firmly pressed into, perhaps there is a broken piece of dr base rattling around. I would still not hesitate to ask the Canon rep if this is a known problem of your model. It would suck, but I would use a rod saver of some sort to guard against the loss of a rod and reel should this failure repeat. Like a small diameter para cord tied around the rod, just above the reel seat, opposite end tied onto the boat. I started doing this with my fly gear when in a float tube. I used 50lb mono with plastic clips tied on both ends. The clips are attached to shoulder straps that come with soft sided carry bags. When I borrowed an expensive pair of float tube fins, I used one on each fin in the event a fin slipped and sunk to the bottom of the lake. Clipped one side to a "D" ring, the other through a brass eyelet, could not feel something was attached to the fins when kicking about.

I honestly don't know what I'll do in the future. For now I'm just glad the downrigger will be fixed and I'll have the option of using the rod holders that are a part of the downrigger if I want to. I do have some Scotty Orca style rod holders that I use when I'm fishing on the Columbia river for Chinook. They are rail mounted separate from the rod holder. There is so much current there that creates so much more pull on your line that I've never been comfortable using those tube style rod holders. I would hate to have to think I would need to use those to fish for trout or kokanee however. First of all, it's going to tear the crap out of my cork on my Kokenee rods going in and out of those rod holders. My salmon rods are lamiglas red lines which have solid handles so it's a nonissue there.

Sharing your experience, earned Cannon a thumbs up in the warranty and customer satisfaction department. Hopefully this is a rare occurrence for the double rod holder.

Being aware of the strain produced from having one rod in the dr holder, is enough for me to constantly wonder if over years of stress, strain, sun, if the dr base where it bolts to the boat is in good shape. I have run 2 rod off of one dr cable, but the second rod always goes into another rod holder. Of course, this is my only option not having a double rod holder mounted on my dr. I would hesitate hanging two rods, that's just me. Your Cannon is built for a double rod holder, and should be fine........but is it?

Wow, I just wonder how thick the body is at the location and did cannon make it to thin? Sounds like you might of just got the lucky DR of the bunch with a air bubble or something. I have always loved the way Cannon has taken care of my DR's. Glad they are going to get all taken care of for you.

Maybe it was one of these. I got this fish out of Hayden in 2009. Ultralight rod fishing for small mouth bass.

AJ's Dad wrote:Maybe it was one of these. I got this fish out of Hayden in 2009. Ultralight rod fishing for small mouth bass.

That's a funny looking Kokanee!


Nice spawner! I would have loved to have seen it chrome bright!

I wasn't sure what it was when I caught it so I posted it on this and other sites. General consensus was that it was a gerrard rainbow. I got it using 6lb test. Some thought it may have been a line class record however I didn't get an accurate weight on it. Sorry I didnt mean to hijack this thread.