pikeman8

I generally like lean on the side of bigger. I seem to catch shakers on magnum spoons just as well as on smaller spoons. Like the previous posts I run small spoons high for steel and all big spoons down Deeper for kings and lakers. The stingray and magnum sizes are both a solid choice but for me I seem to find myself always prefering the magnums when I'm picking baits outta the box. Hope this helps.

Hello, I have a 937C Humminbird on the boat and am looking at getting a mapchip as I plan to fish other bodies of water than S. Michigan which I already know very well. Is there a mapchip that covers all the Great Lakes? I dont need any inland lakes, the boat will never see any of them. If not my main need is Lake Superior. Let me know I cant seem to find one that has them all.

I have a kicker on my boat which I use almost exclusively for trolling as I always struggle to get down slow enough with my main engine (below 2.2 mph). I have run a sock in the past and it works good (kind of a hassle) but it has destructed. Im looking at picking up a couple of socks for this year. What brands/sizes work well and also last more than a year? Thanks

Hello, I have bought an X4 probe for next year and was in the process of installing it on the rig but have been warned about installing the X4 triducer too close to my depth finder transducer will cause interference. My depth finder is a Humminbird 937. I have a transducer plate on the back of my boat which is about 15" long. Is this enough separation? Its kind of hard finding enough space with the Kicker and trim tabs and now being too close to the other transducer:lol:. Let me know what you guys think.

Walkers here. I love not having the rings to mess with and come off. I have dipseys but they never get wet anymore.

Thanks for the help. I will be rigging mine up here this week!

What type of connectors do you guys use to connect your wire together at the spool and end swivel? Just a couple of wire crimps? I have everything I need for my new wire setups but the connectors have left me scratching my head.

Fished on a friend of a friends boat last summer who ran the Tr-1 gold on his kicker for trolling. He loved it and after fishing the weekend I really took to it also. Seemed to handle rough conditions well and was easy to use. I am thinking about adding one to my boat this year but would like to get some more input from the guys on this forum. Do you have any negatives (other than the price) to deter me from getting one? Also it seems that a limited number of retailers carry these. Anybody know where I can get the best deal?

Moonshine Mag Flounder Pounder Green. Went down every trip near the end of the season and always came up with at least one fish. Close seconds were the Mag Moonshine Sarge, Mag Double Trouble, and Mag Happie Meal. All my Moonshine spoons did well for me last season.

Eyefull - Tried what you said tonight and got the tips off just fine. Gradually heated them up while pulling with pliers. Had to put more heat than I would have liked but both just slid right off when they reached that melting point of the glue. Twili tips slide on perfect. I see you make rods so what type of glue should I put them on with? The package just says super glue. Is this fine or should I use an epoxy? I dont want to damage the blank.

I just bought a couple of non roller setups for wire divers. If you do not fish a ton then they will serve you just fine from what I have observed. In the process now of trying to remove the old tips to install the twili tips. Any tips from some one who has done this? I cant get the old tips off.

What are your thoughts about running standard rods with twilli tips with wire? Will this work or would it be better with a roller rod. I Usually only fish 20-30 days a year for salmon.

I am planning on setting up two more divers (wire) next year as my divers this year accounted for nearly all my "large" kings. I currently only run two braid divers and the setups are Talora 9'6" rods with Tekota 500LC reels. I have already purchased two Tekota 600LC reels for the wire but am torn as to what length rods to get. I am planning on getting Talora rods once again in the medium heavy weight but should I get shorter, longer, or the same length for the rods. Should the inside ones be shorter? I have been on a friends boat and all diver rods were the same length. Any thoughts? Thank You and have a Merry Christmas.

I just purchased a new to me boat. A 89 Lund Genmar. The boat is in great condition and has everything I was looking for. But the trailer is rough. It has new brakes and tires but it has some significant rust I would like to get fixed. I was wondering if anyone here knows of somebody that would mediablast the trailer, remove the rust, and repaint as well as possibly re-wire it. I prefer quality work over cost. I will strip the bunks and steps and redo those myself. I have a place to leave the boat off the trailer. Anybody have any input. I live down by St. Joe, Mi but am willing to drive to take it somewhere. Thanks!!

Don't leave fish to find fish. I am guilty of this at times when mediocre fishing is hapening don't pull unless you have a reliable report. If you found fish stay there find what they want and give them a lot of it. This has put many of fish in my boat over the years. The water is not always greener over there...

Never run same length coppers or leads next to each other unless you like snarls and buying copper and lead. There may be a point about running lead on one side and copper on the other but keep the lengths different. Like a 150 and 300 copper on one side and a half and full core off the other.

Get at least one full core. It has been DEADLY for me this year at times taking close to 1/3 of the fish caught this year. I always run one off each side. Its not bad to real in, I actually like it, more of a battle than just the short downrigger lines. I actually have 12 and 14 color setups that at times have good success. Other than that I would get a 5 color thats my $.02. I have never tried the dive bombs.

Hit the water at about 6:00am and had lines set by 6:30 in about 40 FOW due to some tips about the cold water being in close. I dont have a probe but thought id give it a go since it was so slow for me deep last weekend. Well trolled toward deeper water and worked the depths of 40-80' going 4 for 10 with one king and three lakers. 50-70 took all the fish. All lost seemed like kings and a couple of them were nice fish. Pulled lines at 12:30 and headed in. What worked: 1. Dipsy on 2 out 100 blue bubble SD with matching fly 2 for 3 2. Dipsy on 2 out 80-125 green pro troll with green glow fly 1 for 4 3. Flounder Pounder down 30-60' 0 for 2 4. 7 color with a blue mag pro king 1 for 1 Came back after lunch and set lines at about 4 and fished till dusk. Worked from 50-70 with 60 being the best. Went 7 for 8 with one coho, one king, one steelie and four lakers. What worked: 1. Dipsy on 2 out 90 blue bubble SD with matching fly 1 for 1 2. HOT Rigger 10' off bottom with a mag bloody nose 6 for 7 (I really didnt need to run any other lines as they were dead) Was a really slow day for us and all fish came spread out through the day. We put a long day on the water and seemed all we could get was grease. The biggest king we got was 14.5# and the biggest laker was 16# all others were average sized 6-10#. I am looking forward to the big ones to come.

Why do you want that much line? There is no need to have more much than 400' no matter how much it can hold. Even at that depth you would need a 20 + lb ball to keep your blowback to a minimum. I have 400' on all my diggers and have never needed more. And like Mainiac said the more line you put on the less accurate the line counter.

We lost power Friday night in the storm so decided to go out fishing Saturday as we still didnt have power. I would have posted a report sooner but still didnt have power. We put a decent portion of the day on the water but the fish were bitting GREAT for us. We left the dock at about 2:00pm just as everyone else was coming in. Ran out to about 90FOW and set a coarse toward all my fish waypoints to the west. Didnt get a hit until we got to 115FOW and was a nice steelie on 10 color. Continued to troll west and hit fish consistantly till about 165 than not a sniff to 175 so we turned back east and bumped the speed to about 3-3.1 GPS in order to get back to the fish quickly. As soon as we bumped the speed we began getting hits. Trolled back to 90 and got hits the entire way to 100 than nothing below that. Turned and headed back west and didnt get hit till we got to 120 this time. Hit 140 and by this time it was dark and we pulled lines going 12 for a painful 26. We lost 8 close enough to the boat we could see them. 3 Kings, 2 Coho, 3 Lakers, and 4 Steelies. the majority of the fish lost were steelies as we couldnt keep em on when they started jumping. Nothing huge with the biggest king at 12lbs and all the lakers being morbidly obese and running 10-16lbs. Every line I put out caught, or got bit, at least once. For the first time this year my dipseys were hot taking 6 of the 12 fish boated. What worked: 1. Blue Bubble spin dr with matching fly 150-210 back set on 2-2.52. Green pro troll with grn glo fly 175-200 set on 2-2.53. 10 color with a blue mag pro king4. 10 color with a lime tux stinger5. 5 color with orange crush dw6. 3 color with goldilocks stinger7. Riggers with nitro spoons in stingray size down 40-80 Was a great day for us on the water with only my dad and myself. Lake turned flat calm toward dark and I only saw one other boat the entire time I was out. I cant wait till the June slow down is over. Oh a couple of buddies went perch fishing and only got 9. Glad i went salmon fishing.

On a more serious note though when I lived in the UP I got a couple Herring a year trolling. Not common but not shocking either. Now if I got one in southern Lake Michigan then id be very suprised.

Anybody get any Asian Carp yet?

Hey sorry for all the posts. I have figured out how to post pics now though!

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/2/1/2/4/6-12-2010_lakemichigan.jpg' alt='6-12-2010_lakemichigan.jpg'> Here are a couple pics of the fish. Hopefully it works.