Home of "The Poor Man's Downrigger™ "
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ABOUT US
Orindo Matteoli
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The SINKER-DROPPER is a unique and patented sinker release born from the invention of now 90 year-old Orindo Matteoli, a native northern Californian.
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Close-up picture of the
old .22 SINKER-DROPPER
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About twenty-five years ago, Orindo (Matt), unable to afford a downrigger, fashioned a sinker release from a .22 rim fire cartridge and a spring steel wire. Using a hand-made jig and simple tools, he flattened a .22 long rifle shell after removing the end. This created a sleeve into which he filed a notch on one side.
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Matt then ingeniously formed the wire so that the notch opening, when blocked by the wire, would hold a weight. He drilled a small hole in one end of the shell for the rod line, and attached the leader and lure to the other end. The wire would slide at the strike of a fish and open the gate, releasing the weight (now at whatever depth the fish were feeding) and allowing Matt to play the fish without the encumbrance of the sinker!
Some of his first weights were pieces of re-bar around which he tied a string that he then attached to the SINKER-DROPPER with a loop. CLICK HERE for other ideas about weights.
Matt and his fishing pals used this device for years. As time went along, he acquired somewhat larger brass tubing which made the device easier to handle in his aging hands.
Strike tension was accomplished by squeezing the tube to add more friction. That was "OK", but pretty chancy and hard to reverse. His fertile mind then devised a better solution . . . another step in the evolution of the SINKER-DROPPER.
Evolving versions of the SINKER-DROPPER
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To solve the strike tension problem, Matt cut a diagonal slot on one side of the tube from end-to-end, so that the spring could now be popped out of the sleeve, and bent more obtusely to add more drag (strike tension). The wire could also be bent sideways to create even more tension. Now he had a field-adjustable sinker-release that could be adapted by the angler to almost any light fishing situation, yet has been used for stripers and steelhead.
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Bill Vanderweken with one for the frying pan
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In the late 90's, the SINKER-DROPPER came to the attention of his fishing friend and personal physician, Dr. Bill Vanderweken. As Matt already knew, Dr. Vanderweken also saw its potential as an inexpensive and eminently useful device for fishers everywhere. Together, they obtained a US patent (6,314,672 B1) for the SINKER-DROPPER, organized a company, and eventually produced it from corrosion-resistant stainless steel, with all the components made in America. Since then, the SINKER-DROPPER has been used successfully by anglers from coast to coast!
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At this time, the SINKER-DROPPER is not in stores, and is available only with an order from this site. CLICK HERE TO ORDER ONLINE
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