Line Dancin

One last comment and then i am out of here. I never said i was quitting wire line. I was just stating that there is a place for braid also and what some guys have noticed. I have to much invested in 4 rods to give up on it and it does work. I was just trying to point out that it may be at times more beneficail to use it. Sorry i even brought it up.

I think i agree with most of what sea mac said and i am done with this conversation also.

One of the guys i am talking about was in a booth next to you at the show and is really good friends with Chip. I am not mentioning his name as he doesn't want it used in discussions but you can figure it out as you know him also. He said the same thing wire was the hottest thing but the other five riggers and out rods weren't producing the way they should. By eliminating the wire he was able to make all his rods productive all day not just the wire rods. When i was fishing with him last spring getting ready for walleye we got on the topic on his boat and he said you will never see wire on his boat again and that there are other capts that have done the same thing.

The thing is the guys i know in the ludington area that have eliminated wire and only use braid are some of the top producing boats in the ludinton area. Most of their bite is back on riggers in that area. These boats are back to running five riggers again to produce fish. These are guys that have been in the top producing boats since the late 70s early 80s.

After what i have been hearing from some of the captains in the ludington area i completely agree with this post. That is why i am keeping my wire but putting braid back into the picture again.

They tried to do this in the 80s also and coulnd't get it passed. I hope to God that they can't get it passed again. The hand held pop flares suck. They are not as bright and dont get nearly as high in the air.

I like the sportcrafts. If i ever get back to work i am looking at the hard top models.

I use the dreamweaver coast lock swivels for everything including walleye fishing. Heavy duty and haven't had one fail yet. I did have one stick a little after draggin for lake trout but after rinsing out the sand it worked fine again for the rest of the season.

I have abused the okuma cv series reels with divers till last year when i started upgrading some of my reels to tekotas. Not that the okumas went bad or gave me problems. the cv 30s with braid are a great combo. A trick to making the drags last in the reels is back them off after every trip completely and when the rods are stored for an extended period of time. Even the upgraded carbon drags or tournament drags from tunas. Most people that complain about drags never back them off and they flatten out causing the sticking that people complain about after a year or two. I still have a couple penns that havent had drags replaced in over ten years and are still working fine as they are backed off after every trip.

heres my rig:

I agree with the maumee for not having a boat and getting fish. right downtown maumee at the bridge they do prett good with stick baits. when i go down to the inlaws in the spring i always end up going down there but have never fished it, and always see guys with fish. not sure if there is anywhere near trenton you can fish from shore or not usually we use a boat in that area. You could give trenton lighthouse tackle shop a call and maybe they can give you a little more info. They are the walleye store in that are and have all the info on em.

has to do with the harmonics between the two lines. i agree with the over analyzing at times but these guys are winning these money tourneys because they know something. and listening to them talk of how they are getting away from wire and producing more fish is something to consider. These guys are out there every day unlike most of us who are lucky to get out three or four times a week. I say if the pros are on to something like this then it is something that needs to be considered whether the fish has a pea sized brain or not. When guys on here are getting 5 6 7 fish and they arecoming in with 15 20 30 fish then.....

I got rid of my PP diver rods a few years ago. I now have added two back into the game. Reason is, and this is coming from a lot of big name charter captains from over the last couple years, wire will and does shut down your down riggers. Most of the big names are going back to PP to get their riggers producing more fish. As a matter of fasct Jim and i were talking about this last fallwhile we were fishing on his boat. I listened to this very discussion by a couple captians at the show in GR friday night after the show was closed. Edit: Dont get me wrong i amnot getting rid of my wire but am going to try PP again and see if i see the same results.

two years ago off bonaire. my wife and i were in about 30 ft of water near the bottom getting some pics of a hawksbill turtle. there were two other divers near us had no clue who they were. all of a sudden they were waving their arms trying to get our attention. by the time we turned there was nothing there. we were on a ledge that dropped to 130 ft. When we finished the dive the other divers told us we had about a 10 ft tiger shark behind us about 60 ft. and dropped down the ledge. We never saw it later that day at the resort we were staying in there were a couple other divers that were talking about that same shark in the same area. Bonaire isn'tknown for tiger sharks, and they are the aggressive ones not like the sand tigers. We actually wne tback looking and never saw the shark for the rest of the week we were there.

3 times the length of the dodger is the best rule.

i agree with what josh said. Actually you want to hear the reel click out line every once in a while. That is a proper drag set. This way when a fish hits it can take line if it needs to and you dont loose the fish. IF you have the drag cranked so tight that it isnt clicking something is going to break. Line rod or hooks out of the fishes mouth. As far as the way i feel on diawas, they dont have the power to get out of their own way. there are a lot of better reels on the market. unless you aretalking the old great lakes series reels. Now daiwa is trying to live on their name alone and not a quality product.

why is it always a democrat?????

I do agree with shorter rods for core/copper rods for the reasons mentioned.

Sterling state park. It has a nice boat launch short ride to the lake, fish cleaning station and campground. WE stay at the park and slip the boat at Brest Bay Marina for June.

Walkers for me.

I third what don said. We use Thompson water seal on our Revolutionary war reinactment tents. Better than Canvak and doesnt change the color much.

My brother is redoing an old boat and was asking the same question. The marine grade wood is treated with different chemicals that wont allow natural warping and completely seals the wood including any places that you are going to cut. Even using a non treated and sealing, even though it wont rot as easily will eventually warp. Even if the wood is screwed so that you wouldnt think that it could warp it will and it can then chip the epoxy coat and allow rot. there was a guy at wood source in grand rapids that was explaining all this to us. You can call and ask for the guy that builds wood kayaks there and he can explain eveything to you. He highly suggested only marine grade in a boat. Espically if it is for flooring. Just going by what we were told. I know some others mught be able to suggest better than me. I am by no way a wood worker.

With the 8'6 blanks they seem to be soft and flex to much down toward the butt area, getting to close to my riggers even in a heavy action rod. Going to a 10 foot you have a little more stiffer but area (about 2 ft) which gets around my side riggers better and allowing me to run my divers on .5 to 1 to get clearance around my riggers and be set to dig deep. I dont like my divers skipping out to the side on 1.5 or greater as i am running to many other long lines to tangle in. Here is a good test and one i learned from my Lamiglass rep. take the two rods you are comparing. place the tips on carpeted ground. and push down on the rods at the handle. this is the easiest way to see what the flex is going to be in the rod. and it will also show your stiffer areas so you can see exactly what the rod is going to do. compare 8'6 diver rods that you can find to 10 ft and you will see the difference pretty quickly. Most guys want that stiff two to thre feet for getting around riggers that you are going to find. I looked at some talora 9 footers and Outdoorsman a couple weeks ago and compared them to the 10s. I ended up with two more tens.

Typically if you call the local coast guard post and ask if it would be ok to test pop a flare they are good with it. THey will issue a call on 22 stating that there will be a test fire of a flare at the lat lon you are at with type of vessle. Once this is done then you have like three minutes to fire your flare and report back the the coast guard that you completed your test and they will sound an all clear message. It has been about 10 years since i saw that done up by frankfort. not sure if they are still allowing testing of flares but i dont see why not. Do it without contacting them and you are in for it.

Mike is right some walmarts have them. i was just looking at them a couple weeks ago. Keep your old ones.