sherman51

you can get a colman extreme 150 qt cooler on ebay for 125.00 with free shipping. dont know about a hold down kit. but they will keep ice good. sherman

i know for a fact that in indiana they will in fact ticket someone for driving the boat with lines in the water. i seen it happen once. it doesnt matter how many lines are in the water. the driver is fishing if there is one line in the water. i,ve seen people pay 5.00 for a cup of coffee, why would someone not want to spend 7.00 for a fun day on the water. and believe me i do understand that sometimes 7.00 can be hard to come up with. if i was wanting to spend a day on the water with some friends who i rarely get to spend time with i would come up with the money if they didnt have it. if i had to go pawn my car title. how many people are we talking about here anyway?? if its 6 then the total is 42.00, surely someone has 42.00 they can live without. im not even going into what i spent taking my 2 brothers and son up to lake erie last year. but it was a 1 time thing. i think they can pay there own way for us to go this year. JUST GET EVERYBODY TOGETHER AND TELL THEM HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE TO COME UP WITH FOR LICENSE, AND POOL YOUR MONEY. if you dont come up with it just take them for a walk on the beach. we have had to do that a few times after driving 200+ miles then it be to rough to go out. SPEND THE MONEY AND GO HAVE A GREAT TIME. AND JUST FORGET ABOUT THE MONEY SO YOU CAN ENJOY IT. SHERMAN

my first (guess) would be a bad ground. but if you have a way to check the battery, use the same guage and check the wires going to your radio and see if you are getting 100% at the radio. or just try running wires directly from battery to the radio. run both wires, this will tell you if its in the wireing or the radio. i run my radio wires from the battery anyway with a inline fuse. you could just have a corroded connection somewhere. good luck and good boating. sherman

another bump just to see what happens. lowerer camper price to 3000.00

if you can at all, get a regular marine radio and a good antenna. you wont regret it. those hand helds just arent that great in my opinon. you can get a radio for alittle over 100.00 then invest in a good antenna. atleast a 8 ft one will work good. the antenna is the most important thing. and the higher you can mount it the better. about any of the radio,s are good. you just dont get any distance at all from the hand held,s. getting out on your radio could save your life, or just get you some help if you brake down. and at times you can even get some good tips on your fishing. its really worth it. sherman

my thoughts is, do what i did this year. invest in the track system and the ratcheting rod holders for your dipsy,s. its the only way to go. if you can come up with the money at all. your rod holders can make your diver fishing so much better. big jon does make a ratcheting rod holder but i dont know if they have tracks or not. i got the cannon with the single axis. i paid like 65.00 each at amazon.com. then berts has some nice ratcheting ones, the best price i,ve seen is around 66.00 on ebay but i would check amazon.com and maby google them and see what i could find on line. you can get the tracks on ebay also, just type in berts, and you get the tracks and holders. i know this is alot of $$ but it is nice to just be able to grab your rod and stand it up before you try to get the rod out of the holder. i dont really know much about berts but the cannon,s are awesome. they should last forever. alot of guys just get anything for a rod holder. but with the divers when you get a good fish it sure makes it hard to get the rod out. but if you stand the holder to the up position it makes it easy to just lift them out of the holder. sherman

i start out by asking at some of the local bait shops and ask at the marina if there is one. then i go by my past trips that time of year. if i,ve been told there getting them in 72 to 74 fow then i,ll start setting up in 70 fow and troll in the direction of the markers on my gps where i caught fish in that depth last time i fished that depth. i,ll also ask on the radio, you cant get alot of info there but sometimes you get enough to get you started. i remember one trip they had been catching fish in 65 fow. so thats where i started, wasnt getting anything even tho i was marking fish. i asked for help on the radio. somebody came back with 65 fow right on the bottom. so i put everything right on the bottom. it saved my day, we only ended up with 15 fish but all of them was 25 to 29 inches. and we didnt have anything untill we moved our baits. there was 5 of us so we got 3 each. to me thats still a pretty good day on the water. much better than that ol skunk.LOL. sherman

hey brent have you been back out again?? catch any?? you was talking about your friends not showing up to go fishing. to bad i dont live closer to you. i use to fish lake mi from ice out until memerial weekend then move to erie. we fished just about every weekend for eyes on erie through july. now all the guys i fished with then are either dead or moved away. i had got sick about 10 yrs ago and just quit. then 2 yrs ago my oldest son wanted me to go with his family on vacation to erie. and he just doesnt do any other fishing. i told him yes. then i started trying to get out of it. but we all went, my wife who doesnt fish but loves to camp, and my sons family. he had to do most everything but we had a ball. got me started again. so as long as him or my other son will go and we have money for the gold gas you have to buy.LOL. i,ll keep going as long as i can. we like to fish geneva ohio in july and aug. its rough on the old pocket book.LOL. its 335 miles each way. just cant afford to make many trips. i would love to make a trip up to manistee mi around the first of sept. but thats another story. have a great great season sherman

these guys are right if they do anything to assist in any way they are fishing. they cant drive the boat net fish tie baits on or even bait a hook to be legal he cant even hand someone elce the net or bait or rod. they cant do anything that assists in fishing. or thats what i,ve been told. and i know thats the way it is in indiana. i talked to the dnr at one of the boat shows and that what he told me. if they wanted to really push it they could probably get you for driving them to the boat.LOL. just buy the 1 day or 3 day permit. you might not even get checked but who would want to take the chance?? sherman

seems like were all saying pretty much the same thing. i lost about 100 ft of line off my #4 reel last year, so when i put it out i just put out an extra 10 ft of line. i was right back on the fish. if you can just get an idea of how deep your fishing just use that and adjust until you get fish. if your sopposed to go out 200 to get 50 ft down and getting no hits try 220 or 180 just whatever it takes to get fish. but you do really need some kind of guide to start by. get a diver chart or make your own like i did. we all wish you the best of luck. ask local bait shops where the fish are, most of them will give you a place to start. then ask on the radio. most guys wont answer you but there is a few that will help you get started in the right depth. and a few will even give you how far back on which setting. that will get you real close. but dont always count on getting any info on the radio. sherman

i started using gale force tackle last year. now thats just about all i use. the color is a tie between dr death and gale force and reverce muffin. this is walleye fishing only. sherman

totaly right about that. the counter is just a basic idea how much line is out. if its full its off on the low side as the line on the spool goes down the amount of line out changes and the counter is off on the high side. so it kinda averages out. i think i said that right. but its all about repeating the same thing that caught the fish. those diving charts are a nice place to start but it just gives you a basic idea of where your diver is at. the amount of line you have on your spool changes everything. if i go by the chart with a half full reel and you have your reel loaded they will not let out the same amount of line. i couldnt even find a chart with my set up. so i went to 50 fow and let out line until i started bumping bottom with 500 ft of 65 lb braid on my reel at 2 mph on a 4 setting. i hit bottom at 185 out. thats 2.7 ft down for every 10 ft of line out. so if i want to run 55 ft down i,ll go out 200 ft thats 20x2.7 that gives me 54 ft or go out 210 ft thats 21x2.7 gives me 56.7 ft down. but that might be off a couple of ft. but if im catching fish at 210 ft out then i just keep fishing at 210 ft out. doesnt matter if im off a couple of feet if im catching fish. does this help any??

pm sent

my bad! i didnt know they changed it to 3. just didnt want you getting in trouble. i live in indiana and the 2 rod thing always bothered me. its been 3 in indiana as long as i can remember. i personally think you should be able to use as many as you can keep up with. on real slow days with 1 or 2 guys it would be nice to have a couple extra rods in the water. just to see what there hitting on. some days my long flat lines are hot others its the riggers or slide divers. thanks for the pm setting me straught. you sure seem like a great guy. maby we,ll see each other on the water sometime. and like i said, great limit of eyes. sherman

you have an awesome fishing machine. i just love those rigger mounts. and i have never even thought about mounting your kicker to the swim platform, great job. sherman

dont want to sound like a sm#$t as#. but the way you descride your trip it sounds like you may have been using to many poles. i believe you are only allowed 2 rods per legal fisherperson at any time. just thinking outloud. if you were you might want to think about that next time. and dont get me wrong im not saying you were but it does sound that way. have a great season. and by the way a nice limit of eyes. congrats are in order. sherman

thats an easy one for me. i only fish erie, so its the lite bite slide divers and gale force tackle,s tandem harnesses. and my 2 best colors is dr death and gale force. GO GET SOME FISH sherman

thats a great idea, we just need some big company or our goverment to get something like this organized. kinda like back in the old days when snagging was legal in michigan. they were people standing shoulder to shoulder in the rivers where this was legal. i fished manistee lake and if you didnt get out early you didnt get a good spot. maby they should try that on these fish. it would atleast thin them down alittle. or even make netting legal and promote it. sherman

bump bump

yea i think thats what he was saying. its just easy to tell somebody elce to go with the more expensive, when its not coming out of our pocket. but we all think its good of you to make him that offer. jasper has a good rep. i dont think he would be going wrong with that choice. and they do stand behind there motors. hope he can swing the money and get back on the water. good fishing. sherman

just in case anybody is interested midwesthuntersoutlet.com just raised there price to 15.99 from 12.99. but there shipping is still a flat 2.99. so its still cheaper than any other place i,ve found. and you can still check them out at downriggerrelease.com and watch the video. sherman

its really hard to help you make that kind of decision. but if your planning on keeping the boat for awhile, that gives you your answer right there. if you rebuild now or go with one of those jasper longblocks, you,ll be good to go for years to come. just my opinion. when my old engine went bad i went to michigan motorz and bought his silver package. which is a 5.7 vortec 320 hp double pump holley to the oil pan for 3600.00. used my alternator power steering pump and starter. that was 4 yrs ago, and i have been very pleased. but i wasnt up to rebuilding it myself. and i just didnt trust one of those 1000.00 rebuilds on ebay. and i didnt have somebody offering to get me a good price on a jasper long block. as a matter of fact i wasnt even up to changing the motor out. that costed me another 800.00 at michigan motorz. i took it up there one morning and brought it home that night. went fishing the next week end. sherman

michigan motorz has rebuilt long blocks for up to 1986 for 2200.00. they have new ones for 2400.00 and i think 87,s up to the vortec,s for 2800.00 and they have the vortec,s for 2700.00. i dont remember what the rebuilt vortec,s are. but this gives you an idea. and if you are interested you can check them out for yourself. it might be alot cheaper to just have yours rebuilt by someone on the forum. just trying to help in the only way i can. sherman

you have the motor out, half tore down. i think i would either get a rebuilt long block or just rebuild that one. another long block would get you back on the water. or you might even want to check michigan motorz for a new long block. he has awesome prices. just my thoughts. get er fixed. good luck. sherman