BenLubbs

Well decided to brave the fog and headed out with a buddy from Colorado, his son (8 y.o), and father in law. Took our time motoring to 70 FOW and set lines. Got out to 115 fow with out a nibble and started turning south with the intention of going back to 90ish fow where we had marked a bunch. Pulled a tripple shortly after turning. By the time we got done there I decided I didnt' want to be way out in the fog so started heading shallower. Once we hit 60 fow all hell broke loose on our north troll. Ended up 12 for 17 with most fish in the 6-8lb range and one mid teens fish. As far as what worked: Cores from 2 colors to 10 colors. Riggers 35, 45, and 70 down. Divers 90 out. Stinger UV Mixed Veggie SS Fire Cracker SS Mini Orange Chili Willy BLL Super D DW SS Double orange Crush Stinger glow wonderbread MS Rasberry Carbon A couple other glow spoons I don't know the names of Crome/Glow/Greendots 8" pro troll -blue glow fly with orange beads Best two days of fishing in a row I've had and it was a blast. I'll post pictures tomorrow but Seth had an absolute blast

I forgot to mention I'd like to thank Dr. Hook and my buddy Dane for coming along.

I suppose Ben'din Rods will have to show up

Haven't posted a report in a while because there was not much to report. A bunch of 3-5 fish trips with nothing very consistent. The most consistent thing we have had was a 7 color with Caramel Dolphin on it. We did manage to take big fish in the first 3+1 event plus we also had the smallest fish (and yes they were legal. Would have thrown them back but they were both dead by the time we found them) Today seemed to be a turn of luck. Setup in 70fow where we have been finding fish last week. On a tip of hot fishing out deep moved out to 150 fow and found a real nice temp break and the fish. We spent the rest of the day trolling SW over the temp break, coming back East, then turning it SW again. SW was definitely the best troll for us. As the day wore on it seemed like the colder water was moving in but the key was to stay in the 55-47degree range. We had one line were every time we moved through we would pick up 3 fish and a couple other hits. Ended up the day 13 for 18 or so. The best rig by far was our 10 color with a glow wonderbread stinger. Here's a pick of the haul. Here's what worked for us today: HOT - Stinger glow wonderbread on 10 color lead SS Firecracker (I think) on 5 color lead Stinger Green Slush on 7 color lead NBK SD with ??? Fly on wire 90ft out BLL Oopsie Daisy on slider on rigger at 80 Stinger Miami Dolphin on slider on rigger at 60 Mixed Veggie SD with Blue Maggoo Big Weenie Fly 80 back on wire Green Mylar Ace Hi on 200 #45 Blood Run Copper BLL Super D on 5 color Lead Also had one fish on Mongolian beef on diver 80 back

Nice work Rog. Bluegill and spec fishing with my Uncle is what really got me hooked.

sound like when my outdrive imploded a couple years back. One of the gears went and took out the bearings and shaft with it. Got me back to Holland from Laketown park but probably wouldn't have made it much farther.

I might be misunderstanding a little bit but if you are running wires for the downriggers 20' 10 gauge probably isn't enough because of the high current riggers need. Also, 20' is a long way to run power for the riggers, it might be a good idea to move the battery closer. Are you running the riggers off a house battery (same one that starts the motor)? As far as the rope lights, I'd be very surprised that you would see a surge interruption from turning them on. However, when running power from my batteries to the front of the boat for lights I used 12 gauge, which was the minimum recommended for that distance. Hopefully this helps, I've always hated electrical work for this reason

Got out for a couple hours after work Friday night. Started out in 15 - 20fow ended up in 15 to 9 fow. Fished from Holland down to Lake Town Park. South seemed to be better. All of our fish came on the shore side boards. Black and Silver J9 Rapala on a flat line, Pink and Silver Husky Jerk flat line, and UV mixed veggie spoon on a 1 color. Ended up 4 for 5 with three browns and 1 nice 15lb king. Saturday we fished the WMFL. Started fishing right out of the piers again but working shallower water. Stayed inside 12ft most of the morning and got as shallow as 5ft. Action was steady all the way from Holland almost to Saugy. We did slide out to 20-25fow after getting our 9 browns to see if we could find a big king to use as an upgrade, but no such luck. Ended up pulling lines around 10:00 and going out for breakfast while we waited for other boats to get in for the weigh in. Spoons took most of our fish today. Mini SS Moldy Muffin on a 2 color, Regular SS Confusion on a diver 15ft back, Mini SS Pink Panties on the rigger 5 ft down, A Mini Orange/green/copper spoon that I don't know the name of on the diver 15ft back, and Stinger UV Mixed veggies on a 1 one color accounted for all but two of our fish. The others came on the black and silver J9 practically in the surf on the beach. Ended up 13-16 throwing back an undersized king, laker, and brown. Kept 9 browns and 1 king. Two of the browns were decent (I think our biggest was ~6lbs) and the rest were pretty average. However, we were able to sneak in a 2nd place finish even with a lot of nice boxes being weighed. Congrats to JDH for taking first and weighing a dandy 12lb brown to pull ahead of the pack. Also, a big thanks to Bloodrun Tackle for sponsoring the event.

Good work.

Nice work Kevin!

Not sure why that's the wrong species. Big lakers are awesome.

Bob, I don't think Jon is running it this year but if you pm me your email address I can forward you the information with who to contact about fishing, dates, etc.

Well still can't get it to work so hopefully I can get someone to take a look at it at some point and see what I'm doing wrong. Not too worried about it since I don't plan on using the autopilot for tracking, just keeping the boat on a heading.

So I powered up the unit for the first time last night and didn't get any communication between the two. Tonight I swapped the TX and RX wires around and it didn't change. Are there some settings or something I am missing?

Count Bendin' Rods in.

Thanks for all the feedback, I ended up just wiring in the NEMA 0183 wires. Another question has come up however. In the Installation manual for the autopilot, that the computer does NOT supply power to the SeaTalkNG network. In the installation manual for the P70r control head it says that power IS supplied to the SeaTalkNG network by the computer. Does anyone know which is really true?

Sounds like you have a certain guest in mind Jon

Wondering what others have done for this. I am already using the NEMA0183 connection on the HDS to communicate with my VHF radio. From what I understand, you can only have one device connected via the 0183 port. I have nothing connected to the NEMA 2000 port on the HDS. Is there one cable I can get to connect the NEMA 2000 port on the HDS to the Seatalk NG network for the SPX autopilot? Thanks in advance for any help.

That is one disgusting slob, I like it

The biggest thing I considered when looking at boats was the layout for fishing. My boat is a 100% dedicated fishing rig so I wanted it to be able to be setup as a fishing machine.

Bendin Rods would be in.

Well decided to break out the river gear for the first time in years and hit up the dam in Hamilton tonight. Nothing going for anyone. Might have seen a few fish porpoise down river but might have just been stuff falling in the water too. Lost 3 flies to the bottom and that was it, hopefully the fish show up by this weekend.

I'll put it bluntly, if you are thinking about fishing out of Holland, you might want to wait a little bit till the weather has stabilized somewhat. Ended up 2 for 3 with a 1lb king and and a sub legal laker. Our other fish was decent but never saw it, somehow broke off when it go into our fullcore. Fished 50 to 95 fow and the channel. The only place we marked fish was 70 FOW which is where all 3 fish came. 250 copper with mother of pearl Ace Hi got stollen, Mag Blue Dolphin 35 down on the rigger took the laker, and the king came on the wire 70 back with a Mag Moldy Muffin. Motion Show had one fish they got in 165 FOW and there were some walley fisherman that had a nasty looking king they caught in the channel. Radio was dead for the most part.

The weather doesn't look great right now but in any case what time are we starting this one. I know last year the last tourny started at 7