I recently aquired a used Penn Fathom Master 625 manual downrigger from a friend. I broke the unit down into all component pieces, ran the parts through a sonic cleaner in 50:50 Simple Green: Water, cleaned all parts with steel wool, rinsed, dried, lubed w/Penn Blue, and reassembled. Fairly simple to service. There are 3-clips, and 2 snap rings. Drag washers are Teflon/plastic composite, 4 gears are plastic, drive shaft is bronze, antireverse ratchet is pot metal, dog and remaining components are stainless.
John
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I've a couple of them in my storage shed. They were my first set of downriggers and I ran them for 7-8 seasons before getting my first electrics. Never had a single problem with them.
If you are going to use it, I'd recommend keeping a couple extra dog springs in the boat. These were good downriggers, but had a problem with their dogs such that the spring break too often.
Quote from: akfish on March 30, 2019, 12:06:55 PM
If you are going to use it, I'd recommend keeping a couple extra dog springs in the boat. These were good downriggers, but had a problem with their dogs such that the spring break too often.
Already got a few.
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Done!
I am a fan of the Fathom Masters. Some of my best fish have been caught using them especially when I used to slow troll live baits with them. Simple but functional. Nice tutorial.