1mainiac

Most tournies say 6ft for sliders so that is where I cut mine. Usually 20lb mono is what I use and I have Alberta clippers for fixed sliders and have also used tube and snap swivels on the line to fix them as well as the old rubber bands. All work most of the time I send down free sliders and they work ok for me the bad thing is when it trips you have to make up a lot of line in a hurry to get the hook set and often the fish is gone. The fun thing is when you feel the second thud while fighting a fish meaning a fish has hit the other lure.

They should put all the wind turbines near Washington DC lord knows that is where most of the hot air and wind bags live. All of these wind farm planners are looking for smaller rural areas to exploit so they can build huge systems to support large cities. Much like the Ludington plan to muck up our side of the lake to help power Milwaulkee and Chitcago. They do this because they can get large support base from the big city to outweigh the small area they feel they can out vote. Many of these projects are going to be imenant (sp) domain cases where you can expect to see the smaller communitees over run if they don't hold their ground.

I like it I have a in out wall board that is a magnetic white board so I may try something like yours no way am I going to take pics of all my lures. But board is big enough I can write down colors or names of what is down and depth.

research research research if you can't fish every day at least study what is happening every day where you fish. What is the weather pattern what are the reports saying do you know someone who can tell you what worked and when it worked. Try and have a map of the water in your mind and what the weather can do to it. It seems like every port has a group that allways start in the same place or close to it unless you know there are fish there avoid that group. Sadly it seems like a lot of guys have a idea that you run out to 70 to 80 ft and drop lures and fish from there as more boats come out they all see someone fishing there and join them. That group allways gets a few fish but seldom has a hot day. Just my opinion but when I see a pack of boats I assume they all have no idea where to fish so just follow each other around. I watch the weather patterns for every day what did the wind do knowing the wind pattern was offshore or from the north east here for several days will often have me looking for pockets of trapped water holding fish. The Salmon need to eat a lot and don't want to be far from a meal so a off shore wind will blow out the warm beach water bringing colder water in and big hungary fish with it. So many times you see guys drive right over the fish on their way out to fish. Summer Steelhead fishing is my late morning program many days and they tend to relate to surface temp breaks so look for slicks and scum lines and work the top 30ft of the water column also go fast cover as much water as you can I don't think there is a speed for Steelhead that is too fast unless your cannon balls are skipping on the surface behind the boat. I often find when I am going to fast for my divers to work is about the proper speed.

Funny how when things actually work they are not allowed under good conditions a aireal flare can be seen for over a hundred miles. As compared to a hand flare that can be blocked by the boat you are in or waves and under great conditions would be visable at most for 10 to 15 miles.

I never get that close to him other than in the channel a time or 2 he does haul butt. I wonder how many lines you could run off it? On the bright side more fish for me as well since we often found ourselves fishing the same water I will just have to pick up the ones you will be missing out on LOL.

This could be a drawback Mike in muskegon you came up and fished then went home now you will be able to do family outings. Spend time with the wife in all the neat little shops and stuff. I hope this does not come back to bite you taking up some of your fishing time. My first ex wife always wanted to spend the weekend with me and the kids on the boat and it seldom ended with me doing any fishing cause as soon as the waves got over 2 ft she wanted to go back to port and watch the sunset or go out to dinner. My current wife understands the boat is to fish in and if she does not feel like fishing she stays home. (well most of the time anyhow) We still end up taking family and friends out for boat rides now and then since the boat is always packed with fishing gear it keeps these trips to a minimum. LOL Anyhow my friend I hope you have a great season and will have to come down and join you in your new port a time or 2. I will miss having you in Muskegon.

I don't run near that much leader Mike 20 to 30ft so that may make a differance again we all do the same things only differant.

I beleive they are measured from the center of the pulley to where the line drops down to the ball. All of the Captain packs have boom extensions that can be added or removed most the other ones are capable of having boom extensions added. Big Jon would be able to give you exact info and can set you up with the correct parts all in one phone call.

I agree completely Mike but you lose the natural lead core action to gain the depth I have found so far that in 60 ft of water with a full core and dive bomb on the leader end it hits bottom every time and I can't run it that way untill I hit 75 of water then it will bump now and then on turns. But put the same 4 oz dive bomb on the front and let it back around 50 ft behind the board and I can pull it in 60fow with it bumping on turns so I know it is working the bottom. Again we all troll slightly differant and I tend to run pretty fast so numbers that work for me won't really work for every one else.

sorry for me front is closest to the rod back is closest to the lure to me the best gain is putting it on the forward section of core or the backer in front of the core. However this requires you to let out much more backer to gain depth. at that point you can use the precision trolling guide as a reference as to how deep the Dive Bomb is and then add for the core behind it much like running lures that dive behind snap weights. Since getting the dive bombs I seldom run my snap weights any more. The further you get them from the board the deeper they run however I prefer to run them more towards the rod end so as to not lose the lead core action. Also I hate removing anything at the leader with a fish on too many bad things happen at the back of the boat to add more to it.

I have used them since they came out it is hard to say what depth they acheive as it will vary depending on setup. I find that added to a core it adds abut 1 color per ounce if the core is used as normal and the dive bomb is near the end of the core however put the dive bomb near the front of the core and let it out 50 ft or so behind the boards and it will act more like the dive charts plus the core depth behind it

No pictures we used to catch so many of them in the river no one ever kept track just figured they all grew big and no one even made a fuss untill it was well over 40lbs. The biggest I have ever had on a legal scale was 43 lbs on the DNR scale in Croton probably around 73 or 74 I really don't remember. Back then the DNR would clean em and buy the eggs was a great deal for us come home with a trunk load of Salmon and gas money. The first King I ever caught in the river was a 35lb female snagging below the dam there were times the fish were so thick you would hook up nearly every cast. I can remember a couple of times that our group would be sorting them before dark because we only wanted big females for the egg money and the 3 of us would try to leave every night with 5 females each most nights we did it. There were nights we dragged out close to 40 fish before we got our limit that we kept. I really don't count that as fishing but it was fun. I should have taken a better picture of the 26lb one I got last summer but it was late I was tired and had to clean fish I will try and get ahold of my aunt and see if she has any of the pics from when my uncle and me fished back in the 70's. Anyone remember the name of the sporting goods store on Laketon in Muskegon they took my picture with a 49 lb Laker we stoped in and weighed there. I wonder if there is still a copy of that pic I was 14 at the time in 73. We had it weighed because my uncle thought it was a state record but it was not that close I think they said the record was 53 or something like that.

My reason for droping 2 riggers was I seldom used the out and downs I can get more versatility out of my wire divers with them out of the way. If I had a wider boat I would add a center rigger on a swivel as it is a very usefull rigger as long as you can get it out of the way to net fish. The only time I like multiple riggers is for harbor patrol but will use stackers for that now.

I just sold 2 of my riggers to go down to 2 riggers I almost never ran 4 however if I had your boat I would run a center riggerand have it on a swivel so you could swing it out of the way to net fish.

For me it is more about finding the temp I want to run rather than actual down speed. I want to know what the current is doing below me and knowing the speed helps with that. But mostly getting out of non productive water makes the biggest difference. There are certain temp patterns I always look for and some temp zones I pretty much avoid even if I see a few fish in it cause very likely they are not going to be active.

I need more rods now as I just bought more rod holders so I am now up to 24 rod holders and only 21 rods.

I honestly know very little about Facebook I needed a way to share photos and stuff with my kids so I set up a account there. It will search your email and address books and invite everyone in them to join you not sure I like that much. Esp since it invited my EX to be my friend I really don't use it personally other than to exchange stuff with my kids.

So are we all going to start a Farmville group LOL or Mafia Wars? I have had a Facebook account for a while and almost never check it. My wife on the other hand is building a farm with all of her friends and most of my Ham radio friends are all bugging me to join their Mafia Wars group.

Frank I have a system I have thought about putting in my boat it is a 12v PC that was orginally built into the dash of a motor home. My plan was to build it into a cabinet inside with the flat screen it comes with and use a smaller display on the dash of the boat. It has a wireless mouse keyboard setup and ran a GPS system as well as being a full computer it is very cool even though it is now several years old. As long as you keep it dry most notebooks will do what you want I have had my Dell on the boat several times with no issues. There are lots of roof mounted flip down display DVD players avail and most have video inputs that you can run to the video output of your laptop so with a wireless mouse keyboard setup and a remote screen you could keep the laptop safe in the cabin. throw a camera on it and film while you fish.

I added this on GLA and Mich Sportsmen hope we get a few from there. I also stuck it on Educated Angler with no links or info other than dates and time But I doubt anyone got to read it as usual Greg Deleted it even though I have a couple of guys I like over there I can't see why anyone would use that site.

Depth Raider about to enter it's 5th season I will use it till it dies no issues. However The new X4 is a great unit and cannon offers actual depth at the ball which is a pls for dialing in your other gear as well. All have their plus's and minus's I have not seen the new Cannon probe yet so can't comment on it I have seen the X4 probe on Mikes boat with the old display and it worked great and have seen the X4 as a complete unit on another boat also worked great. Depth Raider Sub Troll and Cannon all use coated cable which can be a PITA. The Depth Raider kinda rocked the T&S probe world as they came in with the smallest probe (least blowback) smallest digital display, and the lowest price. Those are the things that sold me when I bought it and yep I had a tough learning curve getting used to it but I don't regret any of it, it puts more fish in the box trip after trip.

It was a pretty good swap meet I came home with less than I took mostly because I did not bring enough extra cash to buy a lot early LOL. There were some great deals there. It was sad to think that some people would steal at a church event besides the divers another person I talked with had some parts removed from a couple of his reels and I had a few of my small things taken. No biggie but suprising at a church was also suprised there was no late rush last couple of years there were people coming at the last min looking for bargins this year seemed like after noon most of us were buying and selling to each other.

Frank is correct about not using the hull as a ground return path you need wires going to and from each device with good connections. However the Hull, Engine, Outdrive and or lower unit all need to be grounded. A curious thought is did you try turning off your fishfinder and checking or seeing if there is a frequency on the cable. Since your in OR in your info I assume you are doing this in salt water. So it is possible you are actually picking up the inducted signal from your fishfinder on the cable which could actually vary depending on how deep the rigger cable is in the water.

Having hunted in areas with both deer and wolves and bears and moose ect. Several facts have been left out of both sides of this discussion. First off there were both deer and wolves here long before we were here and unless we distroy the place they can and will be here long after us. We removed the wolf population leaving us as the only major preditor. We have become very lazy hunter since we can control quality and quantity of the herd we hunt. The deer having only us to fear even though we feed them they only have to fear us a few weeks a year. So their survival instincts have been tampered with as the only true fear they have is people with guns and bows a few weeks a year. With wolves back 2 things have to happen and they likely will, one deer have to relearn old survival skills, two bubba the weekend warrior hunter will have to learn to hunt and to limit himself to 1 or 2 deer a season. Since in many areas with wolves there will no longer be a population problem with deer there will be no need to issue lots of deer permits. Imagine that we could have to hunt like we did long ago where if you needed meat you took what you could get and the guys who wanted a trophy often went home empty handed. I still think we should harvest does as well as bucks. That way if you need the meat for your family take what you can get. But one only for rifle season and another for bow and you are done for the year in some areas. If you really need to shoot a lot of deer go to a area that needs the control. I am not sure where we got the idea we could outsmart mother nature.