Line Dancin

I use olypmus camera. I have a c5060 my wife a sp-350. we use them mostly for scuba in housings. What i have learned is if the company designs that camera for underwater use, they typically have a larger ccd processor in the camera, whether it is point and shoot or dslr. The bigger processor makes a huge difference in your pics where there is odd lighting. thats why the cameras for scuba typically have the better processors. I went with my olys because they had the best reputation when i was getting into underwater photography. Now nikon is producing cameras of equal caliber. I say if it has a scuba housing even if it is a 5 meg camera it will take a near dslr quality pics above water. the one problem is dslr is so much faster. no lag time. with the refresh rate on dslr you can practically take pics as quick as you can push the botton, It also depends on the person taking the pic and how much control your camera lets you have over the settings, and how much you know how to set the camera up right for the pic. underwater cameras let you have complete control of all settings light metering speed white balancing etc etc.. so you dont have to buy a dslr to take great magazine quailty shots. edit: My next camera when this one floods (its not if it will it when it will) will be a olympus e-520

another thing that i hear alot about copper is that it gives off harmonic vibrations like downrigger cable that attract the fish. That is why they claim copper out produces lead. Dont know if it is true but it does produce more fish. Lead core the sheathing can rot over time and you lose strength in the line. I saw this after four years on my friends boat. you tried to tie the lead core knot and the nylon broke every time you tried to cinch it down. I run almost all copper now. the only lead i have on my boat is a two and three color. i have 8 coppers 4 300' , 2 150' , and 2 75'. i havent looked back since i did switch out. the problem most people have with copper is letting it out. a couple tricks to help adjust the spool tension to the point that it goes out very slowly at first. as more line gets into the water the faster it will pull out but not over run itself. Put the tip of the rod into the water straight out the back of the boat this also helps to pull the copper out at a managable speed. and lastley never , never take your thumb off the spool cause you never know what can happen and can cause an over run. Practice with lead core and get profficient with it then start replacing some of it with copper. If you set up a convector 45 with lead (full core) to start out. you can very easily fit a 150 copper on it with 300 yds of 50lb power pro backing. A 30 convector will hold a half core and 75 ft of copper(all 45 pnd tst copper). when you are ready to switch out. make sure when you do purchase convectors thay have the new wide mouth line guide. If they don't have them they are about 5 bucks apiece through okuma and fifteen minutes to install. another nice thing about copper if it does get tangled you can untwist it and use it again did a 300 last year when the driver decided not to pay attention and do a 90 degree turn. lead when it balls up you may as well throw it away. if you want to go out and mess around with it let me know i'd be willing to take you out and show you how to manage it. I should be in benton harbor fishing some time in mid april.

talked to outdoorsman and to gold coast yesterday. Both are doing their sale on march 6th not the weekend before like it usually is. Grand Rapids steelheaders are doing a swap meet on sunday the 7th.

Another thing to look forward to is the saturday before the gr show. the local shops have their open houses. Outdoorsman, Gold Coast and Gander. Ganders is pretty much a waste of time no deals just a couple speakers. Gold coast does a fantastic job. They do some great deals. Moonshine mags last year were like 4.59 each. okuma copper rods for like 24 bucks. i can't name them all. They also roast a pig the weekend before and have pulled bbq pork sandwiches potatoe salad chips etc. Only thing they don't provide is pop. bring your own or they have a machine in front of the store. Outdoorsman has virtually everything big lake on sale. they usually do a lunch also. Both shops offer better deals during their open houses over the show because of have to recoup the rental fees at the show. Goldscoast quit going to the show when they raised the table fees two years ago. outdoorsman still goes but the prices are higher that at the store during the open house. THey did a deal on tekotas last yere the 800s for i think 179 each maybe it was a little less. Usually i save for that saturday and i buy everything i need for the season. I already have my shopping list made. If you can make it to the area pm me i will give you my phone number and we can hit the shops together. i ususally make a good half day to a whole of bumming around betweeb the three.

agree with everything said i only run my lows on 1 to 1.5 and if i am running highs 2 to 2.5 and keep that copper way out like jim said. typically i only run two divers six coppers and a two or three color with three donwriggers as long as i have enough people with me. With four people and 12 lines you can really cover some water and have more chances of hookups.

Grand rapids fishing show is coming up. Franks had a good deal on the walker mags at novi and will be running the same deal at GR. i think it was like 3 of 4 bucks off the regular price. Also cabelas has a great selection in the store and online of the walkers: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20166-cat602747&id=0048587122251a&navCount=2&podId=0048587&parentId=cat602747&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=UK&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat602747&hasJS=true they are the 124 mm size. also the dipsy: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20166-cat602747&id=0011728111778a&navCount=6&podId=0011728&parentId=cat602747&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IA&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat602747&hasJS=true and gl outdoors in ludington: http://www.gloutdoorstore.com/magnumluhrjensendipsydiverswalkerdeeperdivers.aspx i have bought quite a bit of stuff from gloutdoors. they are great to deal with. i also prefer the walkers over the dipsies now. edit:Cabelas prices are pretty good on their divers

Welcome there is a vast amount of information available on this site. Do you fish the rivers and creeks down their for skamania. it ben a while but i used to fish down their a lot in the rivers.

thanks everyone i ordered two of the 600lc's tonight.

Every year i add a couple tekotas to replace some of the convectors i have (upgradin). this year i am wanting to replace my 2 convectors that i have been using for my wire divers. what size should i go with. The 600lc or the 700 lc? i always put a full 1000 ft of wire on my wire reels.

I am not sure if i will be there friday or not depends on when the wife gets out of work and how the roads are over there. probably saturday till 7 or 8 pm and sunday till 2 pm

i'd be interested as long as i dont have to work. My dad and brother would probably come to depending on the date

I had posted it a while back. here is the email that okuma sent me. Just give him a call and Ron will take care of you: "This is Ron from the customer service department in Ontario, California. We have the wider line guide assemblies in stock for all of the reels you are requesting. The cost on this item is $4.85 ea plus s/h fee. Please call me at 800/466-5862 ext.135 and I can generate a parts order and take a Visa or MasterCard to get these sent out to you. " They take about 15 minutes to change them out.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the ultimate fishing show in novi is coming up. jan 7 - 9th. this one is just fishing unlike the grand rapids show and has some different vendors than the grand rapids show. I will be heading over friday and there on saturday and sunday at the MUCC booth. http://www.showspan.com/UFD/Home.aspx

way cool. can't wait to tune in.

i might be interested in getting into it jim. with the way things keep going up there has to be a way to save e few bucks.

i havent noticed that. i messed up a mason line and the cabelas whent right on no problem.

I've used the cabelas brand for quite a few years. It is half the cost and if you open the package and look at the fine print there is masons or cortlans name i cant remember which it is the guy at cabelas showed me that quite a few years ago.

Looks like a good start. I agree on the wire diver rods if you can set them up. They are in my best producing rods with mag dipsies during the summer and early fall. if you are looking for more reels. the fishing show in novi is coming up the weekend of jan 9. the fishin hole out of st joe usually does two reels for a one price. His prices usually set the show price i have noticed over the last six years of woking the shows. you can give them a call during the week and Charlie can tell you what his deals are going to be. He is usually pretty fair about that.

this is the way i set my off shore sst boards up. the ones in the pics are my buddies churches boards and i really like the offshore sst boards better for heavy long lengths of coppers. the orange barrel in the front holds in any weather and is very easy to lock your line in. there like 3 or four bucks. the one in the back is an or16 release. this release has a pin in it and locks it to the line and will not rerlease. when a fish hits the front release pops and you watch the board fall to the center back of the boat. fight the fish not the board, when the board comes over the side a guy reaches up one handed and squeezes the release removing it from the line and you fight the fish the rest of the way to the back of the boat without a board in the way. with the split rings like offshore says these will ride any weather and not dive.

I would really like to learn to fish whitefish on the piers. anyone on here want to take me under your wing and teach me a few things. I would love to go out and try it sometime. I also need to know what to use for them.

14's on my walker tournament series and no problems. edit: directly connected

with the humming bird units how is the bas map. With lowrance you have to at leaset have their freedom maps to have anythjing accurate at all. for example coming into ludington with my old unit and no map the peirheads are shown way south of where they actually are. so if you arent using the bas map you would beach your boat. Do you need the navionivcs chart for this unit? how much detail does it add?

thanks everyone for the info so far. i am soaking it all in and trying to make a decision. keep the info coming jay one of the guys you mentioned jwheeler sent me some info also thanks

Raymarine looks nice but i just can't afford 900 bucks for a new unit this winter. i am really working on the wife to get to spend 650 right now.

I have a eagle 480 df which when i got it it was a great unit for great lakes fishing. well after 5 years of nothing but problems and 4 transducers it failed me again at the end of the season. the GPS works great but the fishfinder has never shown a fish past 40 ft but showed the bottom. Now even after all the problems i was told earlier this week tough luck send it in and pay this time. even though it has been recurring and they were taking care of me after the warranty. I have been reading on the new hds units that lowrance has and i have only read where one person actually has had zero problems. The people that have them and have the problems say cust service is now horrible to deal with. so i am starting to look at a new combo fish finder gps unit. the 5 inch screen units are the size typically that will fit on my dash. i dont want to spend any more than 650 on a new unit. what would you guys suggest. no lowrance or eagle units. what about the hummingbird 788 unit? i was told it was a nice unit by both cabelas and bass pro.