Yooperdad

I had some work done by Ged Strazynski in Ludington. Don't have his address handy but his phone # 231-843-7862

My source was Purple Taco, but that dried up last year. Trout Beads has a variety of sizes, including a large 14mm. I buy from him now and they are better than most out there, but they don't glow quite as long as the beads that Purple Taco used to carry. Hope this helps. Mike

Thanks HONDAM. I already have a GPSMAP 546 which I bought 2 years ago to have a separate chart plotter from a fishfinder. What I should have said in my reply was that I plan to get a Garmin Echo 550c to replace my old Garmin 300c.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Yes, you can't go wrong with Furuno, no doubt. But I'm comfortable with Garmin having used their products for years, and believe I am going to get the 550c. Thanks again for the comments.

I have a Garmin GPSMAP chart plotter on the boat and prefer a smaller separate fish finder. I'm looking to replace my fishfinder and this Garmin and HB both look impressive from the ads and reviews. But always good to get comments from someone who has used them for salmon. Any experience with these units? Show rigger balls beneath the boat? Track bottom well? Show fish while at speed? Or spend twice as much and get the Furuno FCV627? Thanks, Mike

That's my favorite rod on the boat, and I paid $99 for mine. Go for it!

Beautiful fish Andy. And love those smiles. Things are still very slow on the north shore. Was at Fairport last weekend and had a nice fish on a 10 color and Moonshine Sarge, that was breaking water immediately. No doubt a nice steelie that seemed as big as yours. Were we surprised when we boated the fish, a 14# king:confused: I haven't had one do that before. Anyway, thanks again Andy. That's a trophy!

Appreciate the feedback Mark. The regular size Eyeflies worked very well for those who tried them in 2010. I made and did limited distribution of the smaller versions for this spring as a test. They worked well in Lake Superior too, both the blue/silver and the blue/chartreuse. Will likely add them to the website for next spring. Mike

Nailer, I'm interested. I need to do some quick research and see how this would work with my Garmin. I have G2 Vision and am not real happy with the accuracy of the contour maps. I'll get back to you later today or this evening. Mike

Torker, all the comments here about the line counters on reels also apply to your downriggers. If your rigger balls show up on your sonar, set your counters to a common depth you fish per the sonar. Or you can measure on the ground to a common depth, say 60', set your counters to that depth with the line pulled to it, and then bring it in. You'll be surprised when you retrieve the line and the counter says some odd number instead of 0. But at least if you want to go to 60', you know that setting is accurate and can "adjust" up or down from there.