haven't ever seem one like that before. I would get a chamberlain release and attach it to my cable then attach the release to the weight at the top nearest to the fin. blacks release would also work for this. blacks is much cheaper but chamberlain has 2 tension adjustments. 1 for rod tension and 1 for lure tension. I use the chamberlain and wouldn't use anything else.

how much does this weight weigh? I wouldn't use anything less than 8 lbs but a 10 to 12 lb would work even better. I fish the central basin and use 13# pancake weights.
sherman

 

I got on the scale with it and its about 5 lbs. I just got the riggers to. Ideally I would like to get 12 lb torpedos, but want to make a trip up next weekend and not sure if I will be able to get any before then. So I may have to make due with what I have. I got the pictured weight and a 5 lb canon ball right now.

 

It looks to be homemade and the horizontal attachment is on the wrong side. Just a guess.
Or it could be as you describe which makes sense.
I've never saw one like it either.

 

After looking at it again, i think the orientation of the picture threw me off. I believe you have it right. The left side attachment is for the cable and the top attachment for the release.

 

That is the only thing that made sense to me. It just threw me off having the release attach on top instead of the rear of it. I have found similar pictures online by searching downrigger shark weights, but they have 3 eyelets with 1 of them in the rear. Guess will try it and see, at least until I can get heavier weights.

 

I would try like the Dickins to get other weights. 5# weights at 2.0 mph is going to blow back so far you'll have no idea how deep you really are unless you pick them up on your fish finder. you can get some pretty good deals on ebay. are you fishing the western or central basin?
sherman

 

We go to Conneaut when we go. So I guess central basin. I'm gonna keep looking for close used options and see if I can find any.

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somehow I forgot my riggers when we went to Geneva back in july. another ogf member that lives up there was good enough to loan me a set of big jon riggers with track mounts and 10# balls. we fished harnesses at 1.8 to 2.0 and wasnt catching much. so we heard spoons and faster speeds was getting the fish. so we switched to all spoons and started running 2.8 to 3.0 or as close as the waves would let us. we used 6 divers and put out the riggers at 50' down. the blow back was really bad. so after catching a couple of fish on the divers we had a little problem letting the divers back out without getting tangled in the rigger lines. with the rough water and blow back we had to thread the needle to get the diver between the lines going to the rigger weights. then we just brought the riggers in and just fished with the 6 divers. it took us 2 hrs to get 18 fish. then it took 2 hrs and 45 minutes to get the next 12 fish. but my point is using 5# weights the blow back is going to be bad at best. I normally use 13# pancake weights to reduce blow back.
sherman