I am looking to make some adjustable cable drowners but I am not sure how to stop the cable from slipping. Let's see your setups.

Thanks,
Schmattz

Not sure what you mean. I just toss the brick deep and pull the top end up to wherever I’m anchoring. Sometimes I add an old cable tie off to extend it past the trap to a stick or log if there’s nothing good close to the trap.

I don't do pictures but I just use a large washer. Just drill 2 holes as far apart as you can Make sure they line up. Run your cable through both holes and your good to go. I would crimp on a stop button just to be sure.

Another thing you can do Is grind a flat area on your re bar stake. Then drill 3 holes for your cable.

I don't use them...but the ones I've seen were 1/8" 7x7 cable and they used a cam-lock for adjustment. Pretty slick.

Shakeyjake- some spots only require 6 or 8 feet drowners where other spots might require 12 feet or more to get to deep enough water. I would like to grab a cable no matter the situation and go set. An adjustable slider also lets you tighten up the cable if your brick doesn't quite get your cable tight. No need to retoss the brick.

Beav - Do you ever have issues with the cable kinking where it goes thru the washer?

I never thought about a snare cam lock. I will play around with both ideas. Thanks guys.

Schmattz

you use a snare lock. ADC a moderator on here has an excellent picture. Ask him for it.

Ditch the cable and get a roll of 11ga wire and a belt reel.

X2

The problem Is when you pull the set you have to deal with winding up that wire. And I think that would be a issue for me. And If that wire isn't staked tight at the set It's going to get kinked and that also could be a problem the next time you use It.
I have NO use for wire on my trap line.

The purpose of the adjustable cable drowner is to make sure it's pulled tight.

Snare locks makes the adjustables really easy. Just remember to install it opposite way of your drowner lock. Only time I use them is when I got spots I gotta walk to where I dont even want to carry my fiberglass rods to. I make mine 20' as I've got fixed ones that cover anything under 10'.(This is why prescouting is important. Worst thing in the world is getting to a spot and not have a way to anchor your traps).



Little tip from Dustin Drews to deal with those old drowner wires after your done. You can crumple the things up all you want to get it back home. To straighten it back out, hook one end to something solid then the other in the drill. It will straighten that wire just about laser straight. Ive done 50ft foot sections of #9 wire at a time with this for other projects.

I leave the drowning wires on the pole all the way up and spooled a bit at the top.Just take out the trap.
Ready for next use at that spot open water or under ice for snarepoles.

That might be hard If your using wire.

Not hard to get the wire tight.
Wire the dryland stakes after setting the deepwater polestake
Easy peasy tight like guitarstrings.

Ok, I've no idea how you tighten guitar strings, but otherwise Boco is right, that is a big advantage of wire, cut to length as you make the set and it is always the right length and easy to tighten.

rotate the pin.

big disadvatage of wire is its heavy and you have to carry cutters. cable is lighter and no extra tools needed on the line.

And wire has a way of punching holes In gloves and even your waders and hip boots. I don't seem to have those problems with cable.

From th archives
Here is a way to build adjustable drowner cables ... for this example I used eight feet of 3/32 cable, one cam lock, one universal swivel as a drowner lock, 3 double ferrules and two stops

A ferrule swager/crimper is easily replaced with a hammer ... on the deep water end the double ferrule can be substituted with a 3/8" or 5/16" nut ... just pass cable through it making a loop and secure a stop or annealed nut to end of cable for adjustable end

These adjustable drowner cables can really come in handy ... only thing i should add is ... make sure your line stays tight or your adjustable length may extend ... i sometimes coil the excess cable and secure it with a zip tie ... then pushing it into the mud ... keeps it out of the way

Study the pictures, it should make it quite easy for you

Hope this helps

Sometimes ill tie off the top end tight if I am on a spot where flooding is a possibilty that does help with that issue..or on somewhat more public spots ill stake the top end away under water because I have had some idiots try to steal the trap but they were too dumb to yank the stake but the cable instead which gave me some nice curly-q's at that end <_<