sherman51

i say go with electric. i used manuals for years just because i didnt want to spend the money. sure you can get by with manuals. but if you want to enjoy fishing and you can spend the money. you,ll be alot happier with electric. i suggest you get the rod holders that ratchet and have the tracks. you mount the tracks to your boat. then you can put the rod holders in to troll and take them out the rest of the time. berts custom tackle makes them and cannon makes them. the cannons run alittle more money. i dont know if they are any better tho. the cannons make 2 models that ratchet. a single axis and a double axis. im fine with the single and there cheaper. if your useing divers the ratchet ones are great. you set them out the side to fish, then when a fish hits you can just grab the rod and ratchet them to the straight up position and then just lift the rod out. just to get an idea go to amazon.com and ebay.com and just type in what you want to look at. and see what everything looks like. you can also get some great buys on used riggers on ebay.com. the best advice i can give you is to get a couple of friends and invest in a charter trip or two. that will be the best money you ever spent. its cheap school for trolling. they will just about all teach you as much as time allows. you,ll see first hand how to use downriggers and divers. you,ll also want to invest in atleast a couple of line counter reels. for your money i suggest okuma convector line counters. i have a set of the 20,s but i knew when i bought them they were big enough for what i do. you might want to go with the 30,s there more versetal in case later on you want to run copper or wire. you can also check these out on ebay another great reel is the daiwa sg47lca but are alittle higher priced. one more piece of advice if your going to use divers go with lite bite slide divers and braided line. slidediver.com check them out. good luck. have a great season. sorry about the long post. i just get carried away. another suggestion, watch for guys looking for someone to go out with them. you,ll learn alot by going out with others. just be ready to chip in alittle for gas. ....sherman....

hey guys may i suggest you get the flag. we had an oil leak last year from our remote oil filter line. lost all our oil. it was nice to be able to just hang up the flag. it didnt take long before we got help. its worth it to just have it for piece of mind, and not because you have to have it. have a great season. ....sherman....

i havent used them yet but thats what i got them for. i have a real problem fishing lake erie. we get alot of small fish. white perch, yellow perch, white bass, sheephead, and even small eyes. these releases just have to work. i,ll be useing worm harnesses and spoons, so i plan on starting with the litest setting. last year we was pulling lines every 1/2 hour. just to keep the small fish off. if i was you i,d try the lite setting and see what happens. you can still crank your rod way down, should be enough to get the hookset started. atleast you,ll find out real quick if its going to work. please let me know what happens. good luck and have a great season. ....sherman....

hey. this is if you plan on fishing the big water at all. great job on the bonus. my first boat was a 14 ft with 15 hp. the guy kept it while i made payments.LOL. but i got it, i was 23 and working a low paying job. but that boat was for a small local lake and small rivers. if you,ve got the money go for the 19 or even bigger if you can. once you start boating you,ll have one goal to get a bigger boat and or a bigger motor. if you have plans to fish the big water you,ll never regret going bigger. but i can just about guarauntee you,ll always regret going smaller. i went through alot of boats from 15 to 18 ft over the last 30+ yrs. the 18 i had for yrs. i gave 250.00 for it. had to put tires on trailer before i could even move it. i had a great motor on my old 16 footer. i worked like a dog new floor new paint new steering and seats. but she was awesome. she was small enough to go anywhere i wanted to go. and big enough that i fished the big water. i picked my weekends to go. but we fished 90% of the time. i did get a 21 ft when i started fishing the central basin. last year i got some back pay. i now own a 28 ft sea ray. my little brother said i went overboard.LOL. get the 19 and never look back you may even end up with some new friends now that you have a boat. then your going to need the extra room. once you put rods drink cooler, fish cooler, bait cooler, tackle box and even 2 people that little boat is going to fill up fast. and after you,ve been on the water for awhile your going to want to venture alittle farther out. trust a guy thats fished smaller boats most of his life. but i just bought what i could afford and what was there for the money i had. when your out on the water and it gets rough your not going to be worrying about a couple of gallons of gas. your going to say thank you god for the bigger boat. please let me know what you decide. for me there is only one choice. good luck and great fishing. ....sherman....

hey right now you can get the chanberlain at midwesthuntersoutlet for 12.99 plus a flat 4.99 for shipping. also at downriggerrelease.com if you contact keith he will let you have 6 for 102.00 including shipping. the time you spend dragging a few small fish around. is just wasted time. ....sherman....

i do know what you mean. thats part of the reason i quit for awhile. most of my fishing friends had died or moved away. but thank god my son asked me to go back. so now i have my sons.

i can and will do that. good luck

hey everybody i know why im so anxious but would like to hear from you. heres my story i started fishing the big water 30+ yrs ago. i started with 16 ft bt and homemade riggers. over the yrs ive used small boats and manual riggers and the cheapest tackle i could get by with. my health went bad about 8 yrs ago and i gave up big water fishing. 2 yrs ago my oldest son asked if he would do most of the work would i go with him and his family on vacation. so i went,and loved it. we went again last year. the biggest boat i,ve used was 21 ft. most of those yrs i used 16 to 18 ft boats. last fall i got some back pay on my disibility. i bought a new 1986 28 ft 10 ft wide sea ray amberjack boat with twin 4.3 mpi engines. i,ll have it rigged with 4 new big jon electric riggers with the new chamberlain releases. ratchet rod holders for my lite bite slide divers. which increased my catch 50% on my divers that i,ll be useing slidediver.com. got my metallic colors at allseasonssports.com. i,ve got a planer mast with custom duel boards. all line counter reels. and a box full of custom worm harnesses and spoons i got at galeforcetackle.com. and to top that off i,ll be fishing with my 2 sons and there famllies, and my brothers. some of you may think im just bragging. but im really not. i,ve paid my dues over the years. going down the chanel in my 16 to 18 ft boat and dreaming about those big boats passing me. all the beatings i,ve took out on the water to get to fish. well im just so anxious i feel like i,ve got worms in my butt. my dreams are finelly coming true. and i get to share that with my family. and that just makes it so much sweeter. i just look so forward to getting out their this year. i,ll be 60 yrs old in may, my boats name is last chance. because i figure it is my last chance. and if i dont die soon, my dream is coming true this year. now you know why. your story might not be as long as mine. but im sure we would all like to know why your looking forward to this season. wish me luck. and i wish all of you a great and safe season. ....sherman....

hey just curious, but how did you manage to get the stackers. at a boat show or something?? or do you just know keith?? he does seem like a great guy. i,ve swapped a few emails with him. i know selling the chamberlain release is a buisness. but im just glad people like him and randy over at slidediver.com are willing to share their products with us other fishermen. the lite bite diver made a major improvement to my catch rate on divers. i really look forward to getting the chamberlains on the water. with all the small fish on erie now even with the rubberbands we pulled our riggers about every 1/2 hour. you wouldnt believe how many times there was something on the line. from perch to white perch and white bass and sheep head. and even some decent eyes that we didnt know we had. its just going to be a pleasure to use 4 riggers this year. even with the 2 electric,s it was a hassle last year. and i will still check my riggers pretty often untill i get use to the new releases. have a great season. ....sherman....

i just use them like a standard diver anyway. i just tie my braid to the diver and tie an o ring to a short piece of line put it through the trip arm tie it to a snubber then tie on about a 6 or 7 ft leader of florocarbon. works great for me. have a great season. ....sherman....

just my 2 pennies. thats what they make coats for. looks like you can get outa the rain on your boat. but the more lines you have in the water the better chance you have of catching fish. the sooner you catch a fish the sooner everybody gets warmed up. make sense?? ....sherman....

i walleye fish only on the central basin. so i take my daughter n law,s and grand kids. and i dont have to worry about alot of long screaming runs. so i went with small reels. i got sg17lca for one side and daiwa accudepth plus 17lc for the other side of the boat. power handles on all of them. the charter boat that we used when we moved to the central basin used 65# braid. so i did the same. the point is i was having the slippage problem. with the small reels i really didnt have alot af extra room for the mono backing. so tuna tom put the pins in mine. the line slippage is gone. i was useing a 6 ft rod on my down rod untill last yr. i started useing a short boom dr so i went to a plain old black beauty m action 8.6 dr rod that worked great. so now my front rod is 10' middle 9' back 8.6. but im going to 4 riggers this year. with longer booms so i plan on doing 11' 10' and 9'. i have the 9' and 10' any suggestions on an 11'? sorry i didnt mean to steal your thread. but you do need a rod just long enough to clear your rigger. whatever it is. and maby somebody can help me while helping you. good luck to all. ....sherman....

hey you said you were playing with the slide divers. was that the newer lite bite divers or the old diver without the trigger arm?? i use the lite bite,s and just love them. whats your take on them?? i,m like everybody elce, you,ve got to go with braid or your not going to enjoy your fishing. atleast 30# i use 65# myself. i know braid costs alittle more but it last for years and years and years. i change mono every year. i,ve been useing the same braid for atleast 12 years or more. but thats just what i started with and have my depths set up on it. i reccomend the okuma convector 30 or the daiwa sg27lca reels for braid. but the daiwa 47,s will work good for braid or wire. the convectors are about 65 to 70.00 the daiwas are about 100.00. unless you get them used on ebay.com. i bought 6 sg17lca,s on ebay, the most i paid was 64.00. i did get one that had to be repaired. and the seller paid that. if you get a bad one ebay will make them give your money back, or they will give it back. just make sure the item is covered under that plan. got carried away again.LOL. good luck to all. ....sherman....

hey guys and gals its me again. some guys are talking about the price of the chamberlains. if there worth the extra few $$$ then its not that bad. also midwesthuntersoutlet.com had them for 12.99 the other day and 4.99 flat shipping for everything you bought. and you can go to keiths web site(he,s the guy who makes them) if you do be sure to watch the video. he,s going to have the ultamate stacker out in may. the only thing is if you use a bead type auto stop you,ll have to add another bead above where you plan to stack. or just watch for the stacker and stop before it hits the bead. but just bringing up the rigger the release will trip when it hits the pully and just slide down your cable to your bead or your weight if you dont use beads. i only stack about 5 ft above my weight if i stack at all so it wont bother me. downriggerrelease.com and contact keith and he,ll sell you 6 releases for 17.00 each. i think thats 102.00 for 6 and that includes shipping. sorry again about such a long post. im just trying to help. i get fired up and cant shut up.LOL. i,m new to forums so i should burn down alittle before long. GOOD LUCK AND HAVE A GREAT SEASON ....sherman....

hey tim just thought i would ask. did you take the time to check out the lite bite slide divers. if your having problems with your releases they are great. i fish only walleye on the central basin. and sometimes the trash fish are a real pain. we can set the divers tight enough we get hardly any false releases. then adjust the trigger where those stupid white perch will even trip the diver just about every time. im not a salesman for them or anything. they just work for me. and i,ve used the dipsy,s first then heard about the walker, switched to them. then heard about the lite bites, checked them out and then tried them. they are the best. you can get info and the standard colors at slidediver.com if you want the metallic colors check out allseasonssports.com i think. let me know what you think. also someboby said put out your lure with braid and troll towards shore when you hit bottom you know your depth. i suggest you do this about every 20 ft out. keep track of your length out and what setting on your diver. i just did it on my outside rod. because i always ues a 4 setting on it a 3 setting 20 ft shorter on my middle then a 2 setting and another 20 foot shorter on my back rod. so as long as i know where my 4 setting rod is the others are always set up off that rod and not the depth. does any of this make any sense?? i always troll within .5 mph of the same speed and always use the same size braid. so im always close. i fish geneva ohio in july and aug. my boat is last chance. if your ever up there and need help im on ch.68 ....sherman....

i just went to the chamberlain this year. havent had a chance to use them yet. but they sure seem to be the answer to the small fish problem. you can set rod tension then you can set lure tension. downriggerrelease.com check it out for yourself. have a great season. ....sherman....

just bring a hot wire from the battery and touch the wire coming off the horn button to the horn. if they work, your horn button may be corroded inside. may be a simple fix. just a suggestion. ....sherman....

hey just my 2 pennies worth. i dont fish salmon any more. but i use to fish new buffalo in the spring. we used 8# line for awhile for the cohos. and we would hook into a nice king and the fight would last forever. we didnt have any break offs, but just lost to much fishing time. with a big king on and 8# line we always cleared the other lines. if you set your drags right you shouldnt have to worry about breaking your line. but after awhile i figured out we were just losing to much time. and we used 20# later in the season. so we went back to 20# all season. didnt hurt our catch rate, but gave us more fishing time. hence more time more fish in the boat. good luck. have a great season. ....sherman....

i,ve used dipsy,s then walkers and now i use lite bite slide divers. i,ve used braid with all of them. and i just use standard rods and line counter reels. good luck. have a great season. ....sherman....

i would like to thank all you fisherpeople on this forum. for all the good information on downrigger releases. if i fished only big fish i think i would be happy with the blacks release. but from all the info i gathered from this forum, and the fact that my biggest problem with downrigger fishing was the release trip on small fish. i decided to go with the chamberlain release. i love the idea of 2 adjustments. 1 for the rod trip and 1 for the lure trip. i got mine and checked them out in the barn, and they seem to be the answer to all my problems. i do live on a budjet so the extra bucks over the blacks was a big factor. but like one of you said. with what we have invested in our boat and tackle, and then the price of gas. and all the other $$ we have invested. and then you spend all that time dragging around those small fish. how could i let a few dollars keep me from getting what i think is the best release for the type fishing i do. i just bought 6 releases for 102.00 at downriggerrelease.com and then gave him a call. i just paid 65.00 each for some ratcheting rod holders. whats 17.00 for the top of the line release. all of the people on here helped me make my decision. absolutly nobody that has used them had anything bad to say about them. other than that the only negative was the cost. and like i say if an extra 40 or 50 one time bucks is going to make my decision for me i better quit big water fishing. im not bashing anyone here. i just want you to know everyones opinion helped me make my decision to go with the chamberlain release. ....sherman....

hey guys and gals i just remembered one very important thing. the chamberlain release is coming out with a great stacker soon. i seen one of them and they look great. you can put them on the cable with one hand. the way i seen them work is when you crank your downrigger up and when it hits your pulley on your boom it trips the release on the cable then just slides down the cable to your weight. if you use them with big jon,s with auto stop if you put them above your bead you have to stop them before they hit your bead on your cable. if there below the bead your ok. they should be out by may. i had keith put my name on his contact list when there ready. as always have a great season. ....sherman....

i think the chamberlains are going to be great for people like me. i fish the central basin on erie. we get alot of small trash fish like white perch white bass sheep head plus alot of yellow perch. and some small eyes. and these fish just wont trip the releases if you have them set tight enough to not trip in choppy water. i have been useing rubber bands. one band keeps breaking and 2 just wont break on these small fish. but atleast alot of the time with the bands you see the rod tip shake. i just got my chamberlains took them down to the pole barn, hooked everything up. adjusted the rod tension to where i could crank the rod tip down to the water line on my boat. then adjusted the lure tension to where just a small tug would trip the release. if these work on the water like they work in the barn. well there just going to be a godsend for me. and these are based alot like the blacks to start with. so with these i think your going to have the best of both worlds. you can adjust for a hard release if thats what you want. then if your getting shakers or small coho or lakers or in my case small fish, you just loosen up the lure tension. and if you fish salmon and walleye like i use to then you just adjust the lure tension as needed. and still load the rod untill your drag slips. ofcourse this is just one walleye fishermans opinion. but its good to get everybodies take on these. if you happen to get the chance to check them out you have nothing to lose by looking. you can start at downriggerrelease.com and click on the youtube video. have a great season. ....sherman....

hey everybody im home now. so just in case anybody is interested in the lite bite slide divers. i told you that when i got home i would give you the web sites where you can get info and purchase them. the one site i already put in my last thread is the best for info. but he doesnt have the metallic colors listed. but he has a video and package deals thats at. slidediver.com the other site is. allseasonssports.com and you can probably email him and get alittle better price if you get a few. the real nice thing about slidediver.com is he has package deals where you get the divers a set of larger weights a set or rings that has the large and small rings. and it also has a depth chart which is pretty close as long as you go by the chart. if you use the heavy weight and or the big ring you,ll just have to get in the depth of water that you want to fish and let them out until you hit the bottom. then you,ll know how far out to run them to get to that depth with that set up. you could do like i did. i spent about 4 hours one day and started in 50 ft and a 1 setting and then just worked my way out to the deepest water that i,ll be running my divers, and went from 1 through 5 setting at 10 foot depth changes. and i now have my own chart. even if i change speeds i know im going to be close. i know with 65 lb braid at 240 ft on a 5 setting im running 65 ft deep with the 2 ounce weight and the small ring. these dont pull out to the side like the ones in the video in this first thread. but they do make the dipsy and walker divers obsolete. good luck with whatever you use. i dont have anything at all to gain from telling you about these divers. except just knowing i might help someone catch more fish. have a great season. ....sherman....

hey everybody i,ve used dipsy,s then walkers then last year i switched to the lite bite divers. i just love them. i walleye fish lake erie. we use alot of worm harnesses so we get alot of small trash fish. white perch yellow perch white bass sheep head to name a few. the lite bites will usely trip on these if you get the trigger set right. i dont use the slide part of the diver. so i dont have to worry about parts wearing out. i use braid line and tie to the front arm then i lace my leader on the back and tie it to an o ring. then just put it over the trigger. now if the fish are boat shy then you might want to use the slide part so you can have a long leader. as for the dive curve its about the same as the other divers. they do have different weights you can use and 2 size rings you can use to get more depth. i just use the stock weight and the small ring and i dont have any trouble at all fishing them out to the side and still fishing 50 to 65 ft. deep. thats just where my fish are. and you can get all the extra gear and a dive chart from the guy that invented them. im not at home right now so i dont have the web sites for you right now. but i think slidediver.com is one of them. he has package deals and if your a charter capt. he will give you a better deal. there is also a video on this site you should watch. he has the standard colors. there is another site that sells the metalick colors. i will put it on here when i get home to my computer. the best thing about these is the fact that you can adjust the rod part of the diver then set the lure part of the diver. hope this helps some of you. if you have any questions you can message me. im glad to try and help any way i can. have a great season. ....sherman....

hey tim the farther out you run them the farther to the side they will go. and remember if your out say 100 ft your line may only run out a foot or so at the boat. but picture wher that will put your lure when you get back 100 feet. the best solution i found for the release problem your having, is to switch to the lite bite slide divers. you can set them not to trip even in choppy water. then set the trigger where a small fish will trip it. check it out at. slidediver.com i switched to them last year now i dont even take the dipsy,s or the walker,s with me anymore. i think they are awesome. and make sure when you put your divers in the water they start pulling out to the side of the boat you want them on. i,ve been known to put them on the wrong side a time or two. have a great season. ....sherman.... oh yea i run 65 lb braid line. i reccomend at least 30 lb braid. and a rubber snubber behind the diver.