trolling motor line guard

one of my friends brought his boat over a while back with the prop messed up and down rigger cable all twisted around and behind it and told me they were fishing and got 2 fish on and in the excitement the boat got side ways to the current and wind and got the cable. even though it was just idling it still did a lot of damage so we fixed the motor and he is back fishing. this got me thinking I have 4 down riggers and so far have haven't had any problems but after seeing my buddies boat I decided to look for a line guard. well I about fell over when I saw what they were asking for these things and at a 100.00 plus even for the cheesy ones that were narrow and flimsy and all were universal (which means it isn't going to fit without modifying it or your motor) so I didn't reinvent the wheel but I took things I liked about a lot of them and made my own. first I got some 12 GA 316 SS flat bar 3'' wide and about 40'' long and rolled into a 12'' circle

then bent and cut the tabs , made 2 SS plates so it will be sandwitched on the cav. plate and the bolts won't dig in to it and made the rudder brace

then went out and layed out the cav. plate

drilled the holes and test fit


every thing looked good so I took it in and tig welded the rudder tab and polished it up to make it look purdy and installed it with SS bolts and acorn nuts so every thing is smooth and looks good

this is what it looks like mounted



other than time the acorn nuts were the most expensive part. now I know my prop is safe from cable and any stray line. dfly

Nice! Looks pretty straight forward for anyone with more skills and tools than I101ok101

Just wondering would you be interested in selling one of those? Is that a yamaha motor you put that on ?

I don't really have time Iam going thru the electrial and setting up downriggers to get ready for greenpeter that is why I post how to's. and yes that is a new yamaha hi thrust I fitted with a 4 blade 5 pitch prop. dfly

Well thanks for the reply.Well I am not much into metal work my specialty is working with wood.I have the same motor on my boat . They are great motors. You really do nice looking work .If you would be into making one done the road in the future keep me in mind . Thanks maybe we will get to meet at GP some time I have a red lund with a tan top and scotty down riggers . Good luck fishing!

Dragonfly, nice work, looks great. I have a Yamaha T9.9 that I have a prop guard installed on. I can tell you from first hand knowledge, you can still get downrigger cable and fishing line in the prop. I've only had downrigger cable get into the prop once and fishing line more times than I care to count. What these are really for is river debris and work very well, but they are not fool proof. Once again, great work.

Keith