Looks like this one is back to original condition!

Time to re-read this...!

I just re-read this thread again and its good to see it revived. I do want to comment on the subject of snubbers. I have been using snubbers on my downriggers for the past few years and would never do any downrigging without them now. The snubber is used between the DR weight and the DR line. It takes some of the shock out when you are raising or lowering your ball and also I believe that it lets the ball bounce when you happen to hit the bottom and helps to prevent form hanging up your downrigger. I have not lost a ball since I statred using snubbers. Scotty makes snubbers just for this purpose and so thoes Big Jon. I personally prefer the Big Jon 11" heavy snubbers do to the way they connect to the DR cable and the ball.

Also the snubber is made of a rubber or plastic material and I think that it may also reduce negative voltage produced by your DR when trolling. No I have no real proof on that, but it seems to make sense to me because yoy ball which is a large mass is isolted from yoyur DR. I prefer SS cable against braided cable (own personal opinion) and I think the snubber might be a way to reduce the neg. V and also help reduce noise.

I am open to opinions of others on the negative voltage theory.

On another subject of trolling and downriggers... how many folks have tried vertical blades on their downriggers? I have used a few vertical blades in the past but have little knowledge to say that they helped me in anyway. This might be because I usually pull out the vertcal flashers when the fishing seems to be slow and I start trying different things to turn on the bite. I am looking to play with the vertical blades this year to attempt to try to replicate some schooling bait for attractors and I have a couple of ideas to maybe try.

Any suggestions?