While many inventions today are created to offer more convenience to our increasingly lazy culture, there are still many inventions that come from a desire to do better and are driven by a the want to succeed. Bill Perry and Betty Sue Cowsert invented the CleatRigger because they wanted to catch more fish. Like many of us with smaller center console boats with outboard motors, they were trying to find a way to create a trolling spread that mimicked the much larger battleships that now troll our offshore waters. The part of the spread they were most concerned about was their flatline. After fishing on some larger boats and seeing just how productive the short flatlines were, Bill and Betty Sue knew they needed to find a way to mimic this presentation on their 28’ Grady White powered by twin outboards. For those of you who have fished a large boat powered by inboard diesels and then fished on a smaller boat with outboards, you quickly realize that the prop wash is much different. A smaller boat creates a white bubble trail that can make a bait and/or lure hard for the fish to see. Bigger boats generally run a much cleaner and clearer prop wash and the flat line is much more productive.
They knew the only way they could get clean water on the flatrigger was to move it outside of the prop wash. This meant extending it out away from the boat, but still keeping the line low to the water so it would still be a true flatline. The next task was to figure out a way to attach an extension to the boat. The result of their efforts is the CleatRigger. Basically the CleatRigger is a wooden extension that fits in the cleat on the side of your boat with a release clip attached to it. The extension angles out and down to keep the flatline out away from the prop wash and keeping the line down flat to the water. While very simple in design, this invention has also proven to be very successful. As I spoke to Betty Sue about how it all came about she was so excited about the results, she was talking a mile a minute and when she go