jdh

Don't need much more than a depth finder that can tell you how deep it is - actually could probably catch fish completely without any electronics sometimes. But as long as the post was about "perfect set up" I'm adding in the luxuries!

My comments may not apply to you, and FYI I run a 19 ft aluminum side console, but here you go: I get sea sick easily. I hate cuddy style boats and much prefer open boat setups even in rain and cold. I bring the clothing to make things comfortable. Generally, I prefer side consoles, but not sure who makes them in the 20+ ft range. If it's wavy enough that I'm getting the bow to chop into the waves it's too wavy for me to be out there anyways. I also prefer outboards because they're easier to maintain and you can keep the boat ready to fish much earlier in the year, and fish much later into the year. I would also say I prefer rod trees to a rocket launcher holder setup because with long dipsey leads i have people walk to the front of the boat and make netting easier for the person at the back. Two downriggers. Rarely do I find I would want a third. Electronics? I've gotten used to my Humminbird 10-inch graph. Has a chirp, down imaging and side imaging. For salmon i pretty much exclusively use to simple sonar (either high frequency or low frequency depending. I also usually run with gain maxed out. Fish-Hawk is a must. For setups, I usually have 3 diver rods (2 wire, 1 braid). 3 downrigger rods. 2 w/ 20 lb test. 1 with 15 lb test. 3 leadcore setups - 2 color, 3 color 5 color. Copper setups - 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 coppers.

Went out around 2 pm looking for fish bait for whitefish around the piers. After being ignored for a few hours by all the fish I could find, I decided to troll small spoons in the sand bars. Picked up one nice steelhead on an orange double crush mini streak. Went back towards the piers at dark to look for whitefish, and eventually found a bunch around 7 pm. Fished until 9 and got like 12 fish to the boat - about 5 of them fair and the rest foul hooked. Good last boat outing. Weather's looking cold for the foreseeable future.

Nice work. Wanted to make it out today but had a last minute meeting schedule late afternoon.

Lake is trying to flip. Might be one last flury of mature coho and kings at the pierhead tomorrow.

Canada trip went well. Never seen such a poor bite for walleye though. At least the bite lasted all day. We did figure them out. 1 oz and 2 oz salmon jigs. Find a school and jig aggressively over them. Get a few fish and move to the next school. Fish were deep too. In 40-75 fow and as deep as on the bottom (this lake has a lot of water 80 feet and deeper along rock shorelines). Looks like they were chasing schools of Cisco and other bait fish. Got a half dozen pike from 24-32" trolling evening with big spoons. Picked up 1 lake trout jigging too. Seen a high 40s pike chase a 12 inch small mouth. Lost a 40" fish right next to the boat. Biggest walleye was 23". Most were 14-18 inches. Bigger fish were over the deeper water.

I think I'm done for a while. My coppers are all spliced and my leaders are getting really short. Off to Canada next week to chase eyes.

Fished starting mid sliders working south in 90-120 fow from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm. At 7:30 we started heading in shallower. From then we stayed in 85-75 fow the rest of the night. There were bait balls for miles. Marking a few bigger fish, but not too many. About 15 minutes after sunset, the 150 copper fires with a plug. Then the diver back 110 fires with moonshine crabface. Got both to the back of the boat at the same time... plug fish rolled and spit the hook but we did net the one on the spoon. Both setups fired again a few times, and we picked up a 2 lb king on the downrigger with a plug also. Overall ended 4/7 with a steelhead, a coho, a mature 6-7 lb king, and the small king. The fish we lost were about 5-10 lb range - no big ones this time. I had the LiveScope down and it was pretty fun watching the bait balls lift up off the bottom as it got dark. When we left at 9:30 the bait had spread out and we were watching hundreds of little marks in the 20-40 ft range swim past.

They’re making you work this morning! Keep on em!

Awesome to see they moved in. Screen was pretty blank this morning.

A little wavy, but great evening on the wayer. Picked up another one on a 300 copper with moonshine flounder pounder.

In 85. Got three more hits. Only one in the net. Downriggers at 75 with big green paddle. Diver back 115 with moonshine crab face. 150 copper with yellow ladderback plug.

Marks dried up. Out in 130 again. Moving to go into 80 fow.

Worked back in. Heading towards 100 fow. Not many marks. No other hits.

Out now. A little sporty for my boat. Trolled from 90 out to 140 fow so far on a WNW. Just lost a big one on a 150 copper with a gold super slim rasta goose.