S. Yonker

I went with a nylock nut as I had the standard nut back off while trolling.

When you upgrade to countersunk screws I'll be first in line to buy a copy of this from you. Neat idea & professional grade construction!

I own a half dozen Offshore inline boards & a pair of Otter Boats. My use is based on how many lines I want away from the boat. If it's just a single line on each side, I'll use inline boards, but if I need multiple lines away from the boat, I go with my Otter Boats. I grew frustrated with false releases when I rigged my inline boards to release & slide when a fish hit, so I went with an OR18 snapper adjustable tension release for the front & an OR16 snap weight release in the rear. This has worked great for me when I salmon fish, but it was a disaster when I had 6 lines out trolling for steelhead/browns in the spring/fall skinny water as I was dropping fish trying to unclip the board. This is the precise reason why I use Otter Boats for spring/fall shallow water trolling as I can fight the fish cleanly. Oddly, I don't seem to experience any dropped fish as others have when using big boards/tether line/mast set-ups.

I'm using a pieces of surgical tubing for the line stops as well as a replacement for the spring/vinyl tubing up on the release arm. Most decent bait shops carry the surgical tubing to insert lead into for a river snagless sinker set-up.

Frank- That's a great deal for those releases! The prices I was quoting came from the Offshore website. Below are the price quotes taken from that website. OR18 Snapper Adjustable Tension In Line Planer Board Release Pkg. of 1: $14.75 U. S. Funds OR16 Snap Weight Clip With Split Ring Pkg. of 2: $11.00 U. S. Funds $14.75 + $5.50=$20.25 without any sales tax or shipping added to the final cost.

I have 6 Offshore inlines with an OR-18 in the front & an OR-16 in the rear. These releases hold the line nicely. The only gripe I have is that to modify an existing board with these release upgrades runs about $20 per board. Too bad you can't buy one pre-modified with a cheaper price point.

I'll waypoint bait balls & go back to run through them a few times. I also waypoint the fish that I hook/fight. If I have had a few hits I'll zoom out the GPS & see what if a pattern is developing. Once I noticed a pretty decent straight line of action in a particular depth of water when I was reviewing my waypoints at home. I also noticed by my "trail" that I left this straight line & slid out deeper which resulted in no more fish. Now I always zoom out while on the water to look for a possible pattern.

With the thermocline closer to bottom, I think more fish will be susceptible to lamprey attacks. These pics of a laker were taken on 08-07-09 off of Grand Haven.

I use a single Gamakatsu 4/0 octopus for my flies. For those of you experiencing breakoffs with treble hooks in a tandem set-up, are you filling in the gap where the hook shanks come together with super glue? I have noticed that in a tandem set-up with a treble as the lead hook, the line connecting the lead hook to the trailing hook can sometimes get wedge in the hook shank gaps of the lead treble resulting in the trailering hook breaking off.

Another boat with interior shots with snow in the background.

I swapped out my stock J-Plug harnesses 2 seasons ago & now use 2 sections of bead chain with a pair of Gamakatsu siwash hooks. I don't think I've had a single fish become unbuttoned since I went to this hook arrangement.

Although this is a Moor SubTroll document, the parts list for the TruRac Klincher probe connection will work with the Depth Raider.

Great advice so far. I too am collecting ideas for a project boat & have some suggestions regarding the flooring & sound proofing. I've been reading that some rebuilders glass in the marine plywood to seal out the water, but I'm leaning toward applying a textured paint such as Durabak to the flooring & eliminating the need to applying a fiberglass barrier. Durabak will seal out water, provide a non-slip textured colored deck surface & allow me so save weight/install time by not having to resurface the floor using vinyl or carpeting. By not using vinyl flooring or carpeting, the weight that saved can be used to offset the application of Durabak to the entire hull area underneath the floor of the boat. Applying Durabak in this area will provide sound dampening as well as provide a seal around rivets & seams. After you gut the boat, I was told to fill the boat with water & get underneath it to check for leaky rivets/cracks. If you discover a leaky rivet, I read that some folks drill out the leaky rivets & replace them with 10/24 stanless machine screws with nylock washers. Before tightening the machine screws they applied some 3M 5200 adhesive on the screw head to create a leak proof seal. I'm also considering replacing the the bow seating area with a step up continuous platform in front of the windshield that will have a built in, insulated, self draining fish box or a cut out in the platform that will hold an Igloo type cooler that I can remove. Any additional space in this platform area could also have some flush mounted boxes that will hold some Plano 3700 tackle trays. One last idea is to string some of that red or green LED light rope underneath both gunnels that has a dash mounted switch. Using the red or green lighting will preserve your night vision & yet still provide indirect illumination to the floor. I haven't started my project yet, so by all means post progress pictures & any nifty/novel ideas that you incorporate in your project. Good Luck!

www.fish307.com carries 500' spools of 150# test nylon coated cable for $119.99.