Brief History of a Downrigger

Using a downrigger began early 1900’s in effort to increase productivity of fishing in larger bodies of water. One of the more popular models of Downriggers is called the "Scotty setup." It was developed by two Canadian west coast fishing innovators named Charlie White and Blayney Scott. They developed this model in the 1970s that used a ten-pound weight. It was described as "a good model for finding the right depth at which fish were feeding." Downriggers are used to troll and maintain the lure's depth by the thermocline at which the fish species being usually sought feeds. People began using Downriggers in the oceans while others later developed smaller downrigger systems, which are useful for smaller bodies of water such as the Great Lakes. They are now used all over the world and catch a large variety of fish.