Charlie Brown wrote:
I see larger fishing boats advertised with downriggers and outriggers.
Call me ignorant, but also please tell me what these are?


A downrigger consists of a heavy lead weight on a line or cable.
There is typically a "clip" on the line just above the weight.
A fisherman secures his leader or line in the clip, and lowers the
heavy weight into the water. This allows a fisherman to troll deeper,
at a controlled depth, than would be possible without putting a ton of
lead on the fishing line itself. When a fish bites, the line releases
from the clip on the downrigger line and the fisherman is then just
playing the fish without a lot of excess weight to spoil the action.

An outrigger is a large pole that is typically stowed vertically
against the superstructure when not in use, and lowered to reach well
outboard when needed. The purpose of the outrigger is to
take the fishing line away from the boat to one side or the other.
Commercial trollers use outriggers with several lines per side.