SeaCatMich

Good find Ed. Great illustration of what I tried to describe.

I have not seen my X4 jumping around as you describe. It does vary a little .1 or .2 in most cases. To get a steady speed you do need to keep the boat straight or it will show different speeds when going different directions -- that is the main purpose of having the FH in the first place. It is somewhat rare, but sometimes you can get erratic readings if you have a fishfinder with a low frequency 50 or 83 kHz transducer mounted nearby the FH transducer. Best is to have them mounted on opposite sides of the boat. I have a 8.5' beam boat and can get readings from the probe regardless of which downrigger I hook it to. I would suggest contacting FishHawk (218-454-4760 or fill out the servide form at http://www.fishhawkelectronics.com/downrigger/service-center.htmlv if you continue to have issues. Treavor is great to work with and wants to have happy customers.

Nothing wrong with eater size walleye. Not a lot of fun on trolling gear though.

PM sent.

Because it is stiffer than leadcore, sometimes it is difficult to smoothly deploy the first 30-50' of copper. This is especially true when the copper is first spooled on the reel -- better once it is used a while. Some brands are better than others as well. One way to help the copper to come off without birdnesting the reel is to add one color of leadcore between the copper and leader. The leadcore comes off the spool/rod very cleanly and puts enough weight in the water to "pull" the copper off the reel. I also put the rod tip in the water when putting out the copper -- angling the rod down uses gravity to help deploy the line plus it helps the leader/leadcore/copper knots to go more smoothly through the rod guides. Copper also needs different knots than most people use for leadcore. My preference is to use a small (30 or 50# test) Spro brand swivel for connecting the copper to the leader and backing. A haywire twist knot is used on the the copper/swivel end with shrink wrap over the knot. A regular know such as an improved clinch, Triline, or Uniknot is used to add the leader or backing to the swivel. This is a relatively small knot and goes through rod guides better. I first heard of using the shrink wrap from Ryan Martin (Hondam) of Calumet Marine. Here is a picture that Ryan posted a while back of the completed knot: Here is a good "how to" of tying the haywire: http://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/haywire-twist The other knot commonly used for copper to leader or backing is the Improved Albright. It does not use the barrel swivel but connects the leader/backing directly to the copper. Here is a good video of how to tie it:

Due to the weight of the copper it isn't practical to try to use multiple segments on a single setup. To do this would require 50-100' segments of mono/braid between sections of copper to allow for the lighter line from the rod to the inline board. Generally either mono or braid is used as backing under the copper -- with braid probably more common to allow use of smaller reels and get the needed 150-200 yards of backing. Many will add a section of 30# mono between the braid backing and copper as a place to connect the inline board -- the mono wears and holds better on some brands of clips. What length of copper and the weight/thickness really depends on how deep you want your lure to run. Copper is also very speed dependent. Check out Bloodrun Tackle's dive curve charts to determine how much you would want. Often this results in multiple rods each with a different length of copper. The amount of copper will determine how big a reel you will need. Bloodrun Dive Chart/Curve: http://www.bloodruntackle.com/copper-2-0-gps-depth-curve-dive-charts/

I am often amazed by how much wake a lot of the cruiser type boats create and think that it qualifies as "no wake". I am also dumbfounded at why there are "no wake" zones in many places -- such as the Holland channel -- when waves are often 1'+. Nature's wakes are okay, but boat wakes are not. How about a 5 mph limit instead?

Sorry, you're right... the snap on the clincher is not fully coated with the rubber. The end where it connects to the probe is left with bare metal. Also works better with a standard steel (not stainless) snap swivel as it transmits the electrical signal better.

Check at some of the local small airports. Small plane ownership has gone down significantly due to the cost of planes and the cost to own them (insurance, fuel...). Consequently many of the smaller airports have empty hangers that you might be able to get at a decent monthly rate. Generally they have big doors, plenty of size and will have electric power with lighting... plus there is a decent level of security. Would probably have access in both summer and winter too. A friend just rented one here in the Lansing area for $110/month.

Check out the Keating on Kings books and videos by Dan Keating. Has a brand new book out this year too. He is captain of the Blue Horizons in Winthrop Harbor Illinois, but the techniques he teaches work anywhere. He does a very good job of explaining things too. Very good way to get a headstart on learning Great Lakes fishing. http://www.bluehorizonsportfishing.net/salmon-fishing-books-videos.html

You should post where you and the boat are located!

It isn't really important to "find" a current. The bigger concern is that when you find predator and/or bait fish on the graph, you want to be able to identify the direction and speed of the current at their depth so that the lures can be run at a speed that optimizes the action of the lures. This is where comparing the downspeed to the surface speed on the FishHawk is important to determine the speed of the current. In any case, you want to use the downspeed as the indicator of how fast to go -- assuming that you are fishing for fish at the depth of the probe. Watching your downrigger cables and diver rods will tell you which direction the current is going -- which ever way the wire/line is going away from the side of the boat is the direction the current is going. If you are going on a straight line troll and the lines are all going straight out the back then you are either going directly into or with the current. One way to think of a down current is what you need to do when walking on a moving sidewalk (like they have at many big airports). You are the lure and the moving sidewalk is the current. If you are standing (not walking) you will be moving at the same speed as the "current" at say 1.5 mph. If you want the lure to go 2.5 mph, you will have to start walking at 1.0 mph (1.5 + 1 = 2.5). On the other hand, lets say you are walking against the way the walkway is moving. If again the walkway/current is moving at 1.5 mph and you start walking at 1.5 mph you will stay in the same spot. To go 2.5 mph, you must walk at 1.5 mph (the current speed) + another 2.5 mph... so you must walk at 4 mph "surface" speed to get the 2.5 mph at the lure.

Here are a couple videos from Chamberlain that show the method I have used with the Black's/DuBro and Chamberlain releases to put the twists in the line to attach to the release. I generally put ~9 twists in myself. I wonder if you might be only doing a few twists which could be letting the pressure from the rod pull the line through the release and could introduce the twist you are seeing. 53 seconds in on: 3:06 in on:

They will fit fine. Although I have finally got all Traxstech track on my boat now, in the past I ran a mix of Traxstech and Bert's. Have used Bert's, Traxstech, and Cannon rod holders and downrigger bases in both without problems. Bert's, Traxstech, and Cannon are all the same size -- Tite Lok is a little different.

Used the Black's (actually the Dubro) style for quite a few years and never had line twist. The "twists" you make to put the line in the release would only affect that specific spot in the line -- not the longer section of line as you described. I switched to the Chamberlain release 5 years ago which uses the same twist to put the line in and have not had a line twist issue. It has to be something else. With a fixed point to twist from at the release, I would look at the lure end. Make sure you are using quality ball bearing snap swivels that match the size of the lure you are running -- especially when using flashers. The flashers will spin some, but if you get into a current situation where the flasher is running too fast it can really put line twist in if a bad or damaged swivel is used. I used to use Sampo snap swivels with the welded rings, but due to cost I switched to the Torpedo Diver product. Great quality on the bearings and I prefer the way the snap works. Had some of the Sampo snaps come loose but can't happen on the Torpedos.

Going directly into a current at the downrigger is usually best to catch fish but if the current is less than 1 mph, I have found it does not make a lot of difference. To keep lures running straight behind the boat it is also best to run into or with the current. In any case, you want to use the down speed to determine how fast to run. The surface and/or GPS speed really has nothing to do with how fast the lure is running -- it is just a measurement to help you determine how much current you have below. Assuming you have calibrated the X4D surface and probe as outlined above, using the FishHawk readings to compare speeds is going to provide much better info as far as the speed of the current. If you catch a fish note the down speed and try to replicate it in whatever direction you are traveling. A technique that works well to vary your speed and find out what the fish want relative to the current is to run an "S" pattern when trolling. The rods on the inside of the turn will run slower and the ones on the outside of the turn will run faster. So if you get hits on the outside rods, speed up around .2 mph on a "straight" troll. Hits on the inside rods... slow the boat by about .2 on the down speed. Generally the "S" turn pattern will not have a lot of effect on stern downrigger rods -- it will be the outdown riggers, divers and leadcore/coppers on boards that are sped up. The stern downriggers are close to the boat so they are the pivot point on the turns. The further a lure is from the boat, the faster it will be running on turns.

Even money orders are not safe anymore -- some real good fakes of them being created too. Good that you didn't fall for the scam... too many people do. Someone will buy them. They are very good well built downriggers.

What did you catch?

When I had a Depth Raider I used a Klincher. The rivet that goes through the body to hold the snap swivel was replaced with a bolt (non stainless) and 2" of extra stripped coated cable wire run through the U shaped fitting and terminated on the bolt. All of the stripped wire, the bolt and the snap swivel covered in a couple of coats of liquid electrical tape with the snap open so all of it was coated too. Once dried the snap could be connected to the probe and allow for removal of the probe from the rigger. It worked well for the 4 years I had it. Sold the DR because I was always having to fix the coated cable where the coating would come off and it would stop working whenever the uncoated part hit the water. Even went so far as to replace the cable after year 3 rather than patch it, but the new cable was just as bad.

I do the bead too but also add a couple inches of surgical tubing. It acts like a spring when you reel to the tip and you don't need to keep the drag as tight.

It isn't just here at GLF guys. As many know I'm the forum admin over at GLA. GLA's fishing reports have also been down the last year or two and too often are of the "bragging" variety. I try to post on both sites when I manage to get on the water, but given my role at GLA, I post there more often. In addition to the fishing report type posts, all types of posts are down from my observations on both sites. I also don't like the single line posts of "6 for 8 this morning with a fun team" by charters that come right off of Facebook. Remember though, the target for such posts are the charter's Facebook followers not really GLF members. If it was up to me, they would not be allowed to do that on GLF. It would be great for them to share posts of real value here and not just use it as an indirect advertising outlet. It is also a lot easier to post on Facebook in general and especially via mobile device that it is on web forums. The number of posts in a couple of walleye oriented Facebook groups I'm a member of on Facebook have been staggering this spring. I'm also a member in one that is salmon oriented and it will be interesting to see what happens there as summer progresses. While I appreciate the forum format, I'm starting to think that social media is becoming more useful. Another gripe I have is those that post thank you or atta-boys for posts that are primarily bragging. IMO, for those that are actually bragging, it just feeds their ego and compounds the problem. Maybe the moderators/owners of GLF should start stressing that posts should include more than just X for Y with pictures... and actually share some more details on how/when/where (in general) the fish were caught. On at least one of the FB groups I'm a member of, this is stressed highly and many of the members will follow up with prompts to those that do the brag posts to include some useful info. It even works! In any case, the value of any forum or FB group is only in the quality contributions of those that participate. I plan to continue to participate and contribute as soon as I can get back on my two feet and on the boat in 6-8 weeks. Until then I'll continue to try to contribute and help others with my past experience.

My left arm sure fatigues a lot faster. Reeling does not take a whole lot of coordinator to me. I yank the chain in my bass fishing buddies all the time about casting with their right hand and then putting the rod in their left to retrieve and fight the fish.

Nice start to the 2015 season!

I wouldn't think that a right arm issue should be that big of a problem. All the right hand/arm does is crank the reel... unless you have "left" hand reels. The left arm is the one that gets the work out pumping the rod. I have often thought that us right handed people should be using our stronger right arms on the rod and the left on the reel -- just like I do with a spinning outfit. Never have understood why "normal" conventional reels are setup the way they are. Recently I noticed that Okuma has started making a lot of their reels (including the line counters) in "left" handed models.

I use Thundersticks and Deep Jr. Thundersticks and Rebel Fasttracks (for faster trolling speeds) when fishing offshore for Steelhead. I run them off inline boards as flat lines and 2/3/5 color leadcores. They often work well around scum lines and catch salmon too.