1mainiac

found you one Terry LOL http://www.jbys.com/main.php?-vessel_detail.asp-&vessel_id=62575&curr_id=7 it is on my wish list

On most line counter reels there has to be enough line to fill the spool for the counter to work correctly so I always run mono to fill the spool cheaply then finish it with Power Pro. A simple test is after you fill the reel pull out 100ft and see what the counter reads the same applies to wire line reels unless you are putting enough on to fill the spool the counter will never work right. This might explain why one guy says his divers are working at 120 back and another says he is 150 back for the same results. On my Okuma CV45D at 1/2 spool the counter is off by over 20% as 80 ft of line out reads 98ft out. In one aspect it does not matter as repeatability is the primary reason for line counters but I like to be accurate.

Hey Terry speaking of rides how is your search coming?

Looks like a nice setup to fish from Mike where are you located I live near Fruitport so perhaps we could get together and go over a few things some evening. Really slow down and make a plan or you may own a bunch of stuff you seldom even use beleive me all of us have hundreds of lures we seldom ever get wet. I bet I have well over 200 spoons alone that never got wet once this last season. The simple fact is it is nice to have a good selection but once you start getting fish to hit a setup odds are you won't make many changes to it. Most of us leave the dock with our gear setup and on a good day return with much of the same gear still setup cause it worked. You really only need about 6 or 8 weather and fishing pattern setups and you can make most of them out of a fairly small tackle box with about 20 to 25 spoons 8 to 10 plugs and a dozen flies and flashers. Please don't let our wives hear this or we won't be allowed to play at the bait shop anymore. The major key to success is finding the fish and putting something in front of them the setup they like best will vary during the course of the day and change during the season however the base idea does not change much. You need to work on the light pattern that matchs the weather and find the fish then work on them change speeds and directions till you find what they want. If they will not hit move on and find active fish but don't be afraid to come back later and see if they changed their minds.

Mike here is what my boat looked like a couple years ago when I bought it. Nearly 500 fish later I can't beleive it was ever that white inside LOL. I am making some more changes this year so who knows what it will look like in the spring when I start fishing. Current configuration was 2 Big Jon Brute down riggers with swivel bases mounted on each corner of the railing plate with a 4ft Burts track down each side railing 2 Fishlander electric down riggers on swivel track mounts in each track and up to 5 adjustable rod holders for each side mounted in the tracks. I also had a set of rod trees that fit in the tracks but sold them this summer as they were too tall and I did not like them very much I am either going to build or buy a differant set this winter. Honestly I want a rocket launcher setup with rod holder on the side instead of a rod tree but will have to see if Santa and my budget can come to terms with all that. I have a Depth Raider speed and temp probe on my Starboard rigger. I can honestly say the Speed and temp probe was the best thing I ever bought for Salmon fishing as it increased my catch rate from day one after 4 years I still feel it was the best money I ever spent even though I don't use it as much now as I used to.

I can run up to 20 rods but have never had enough people on to get past 15. normally 9 to 12 rods is plenty and most of the tournies are rod limited so seldom a issue. I have had some great days running just 6 in fact most of the times I have limited out has been a 6 rod spread with just 2 of us in the boat. I have only had a few 4 man limits in the last few years but lots of 2 and 3 man limits.

Relax and slow down a bit first unless you have a limitless budget. Length of rods is going to be boat and setup dependant if you have the room I prefer longer rods with the shortest rods on the riggers I only run mono on my rigger rods. You will need line counter reels for divers and either wire or braid line on them. However pretty much anything that ever caught a Salmon still will the major difference now is water clarity as such the fish can see better. So a lot of the big gaudy stuff we used to run has less use then it did in the past. Also smaller lures work well now and colors and patterns make a difference. Long lines on planer boards work very well using various lengths of lead core or copper to acheive the desired depth and the planer boards widen your spread. My primary spread is 2 rigger's 2 braid divers and 2 rods on planer boards very seldom do I run all 4 riggers anymore as it is just simpler and cleaner to run the back riggers out wide and use the divers and planer boards to finish the spread. Several of us are in the Muskegon area so perhaps we can get together and help you out.

Honestly there are several of us here who would be happy to take you out and show you what we do which will really help if you have the same gear we do. The thing is you can ask several of us the same question and get a slightly or totally differant answer from all of us and we are all right. On the other put the same group of us in your boat with your gear and we would likely all zero in on a pattern based on what you have that we could make work. Maintaining contact with the fish is key so get good reports and pay attention to what is going on around you. Most of us will not give you exact positions but we will all give you good info though sometimes it is a bit mystic. Don't worry about what the pack is doing there are a lot of guys who like to follow each other around. A Speed and Temp probe would be high on my list of must have things as it will answer a lot of questions about what the fish mood is below you. Except for a couple weeks during the run everything is temp dependant. So when you find fish out of temp there is a reason for it. Unless you personally know the person on the radio you are talking to don't beleive what you hear. If I am in a tourny don't beleive what I say either LOL. Salmon are easy to catch but often hard to locate as there is a lot of water for them to be in and they can move miles in a short period of time. Best bite is sunrise and sunset and the hour before and after as they are low light feeders so if you plan a day of fishing expect to work several patterns a early program with glow stuff and a mid morning program as you change to you mid day program. They also seem to eat on a 6 to 8 hour schedual so if you know where the bait fish are they won't be far away. If you find suspended fish they are resting between meals mark the area and keep looking for hungry fish give it a couple of hours and run back thru em and see if any have gotten hungry yet. Also keep in mind as the season changes so does the gear we use in the spring when water is cold you will seldom fish below 40ft down so you can use lots of light gear and long line setups. As the water temps go up the fish will move out and down so be flexable with your gear. A good spring setup would be a 3 color core and a 5 color core on boards with braid divers and 2 riggers for a 6 rod spread. By mid summer you would want a full core and a 300 copper on boards and preferably wire divers with the riggers and you could use the 3 color as a SWR setup behind one of the riggers as your deepest line. Or you could try my approach which is buy 2 of everything and run it all so the boat looks like a porqupine as it goes by. Let us know what you have for a boat and where you fish someone here will get you in the right direction and welcome to the site.

We used to run a lot of attractors but we only ran a few rods so wanted to maximize the effect. I still will run a small flaser in front of a spoon now and then but with the amount of gear I can now run I pretty much stick to clean spoons as I all ready have a lot of stuff down there making noise and letting the fish know I am here. One thing that works for me is keeping it short and sweet or long and lean so I run black cannon balls as I don't want them as a attractor I would prefer them to go by as unnoticed as possible so the fish can pay attention to the lure. I would hate to guess at how many of my flashers have teeth marks in them and since they have no hooks could not catch a fish this is why I run short leads behind the flasher I also run fairly short leads behind divers so as soon as the fish gets close the bait is coming right up and since I troll fairly fast they don't get a lot of time to think it over unless they want to chase it back down. This works for me I can cover a lot of water and target aggressive fish also I get pretty good hook ups as they tend to hit it hard.

Opps I was wrong about the trolling patterns I could have sworn I read that it had patterns available. I know I am planning on going to Hyd Steering when I find the money and get the Garmin unit which has programable trolling patterns also the ST70 head on the X5 Sport pilot offers trolling patterns which is my back up plan for next season if I can't afford the Hyd steering and Garmin unit. The X5 with a ST70 head is currently about 1700 bucks so still not cheap. The Garmin is one of the best systems for what we do as I really want the shadow drive as it allows you to just grab the wheel and steer without shutting the unit down. Very important to me as the last thing I want is my wife fighting with the autopilot in a emergency because she forgot to hit the right button.

Glad all the hours spent learning how to plot a course and read charts in the Coast Guard have not gone to waste. Not likely I will ever use the manual LORAN classes again LOL.

remember the numbers are deg of angle for the first set min of angle for the middle set and sec of angle for the last set. Unless you are close to the Equator all the boxes made by the coordinates are not square as such the differance between numbers varies the further north or south of the Equator you get and the peices become more triangular. The north south is not as effected as the east west.

Get the 14 it is worth the extra money you will like the trolling patterns. Also keep in mind you will likely have to change your steering cable not a lot of money but a PITA.

The word I received is from Calumet Marine they can't get the AP12R or the AP14R anymore. They said there are a lot of them still avail but they can't buy any thru the distibuter as they are again discontinued. The current suggest is a AP24 with a MSD 50 drive unit this is close to 4 grand depending on where you shop. Was at Mariners Center yesterday and was told Raymarine is dropping the price on the ST 70 head which would get you into a X5 Sport Pilot with trolling patterns for under 1600 bucks.

Welcome Robert.

One of my setups is a 10ft Steelhead rod with a 60 series spinning reel spooled with close to 500 yds of 15 lb Power Pro. A 15 lb King spooled me twice last year before we got him under control and we we backing into 4ft waves to save the fish. It was one of the coolest fish I ever caught but requires the right crew to pull off. I started doing it years ago on my 18ft boat which I could drive and fight the fish but in my 26ft boat it is a differant world which is why I did not try it this year. However I now have a pretty good core crew so will give it a shot again next season on occassion. My best approach was running behind my big boards with snap weights for Steelhead.

I keep 2 10ft Steelhead rods on my boat all the time did not use em this year but used em several times last season. They are my favorite setup bar none but I don't use em as much as I would like. The reason is you lose fish and gear and need to be able to use the boat to fish kinda like marlin fishing you can't stop much of any big fish so you use the boat to wear em out. So I only use em once in a while for Steelhead and usually when I am down to my last couple of fish for a limit as you can't have a lot of gear out when doing this.

they spawn on the rocks around piers so when they show up it is in mass and not hard to hook 30 or more a night.

You might be right Mike we had a good season I thought you one the one when we met in 120ft by the nets when we both said we were headed somewhere else. Oh well great minds think alike at times I had a great time. Just found it ironic our boats met again and had to say something.

Ok Mike the season is over you can stop following me around. Guys I want to let you folks in South Haven know Mike is a bit of a Stalker LOL. I cant say how many times this season I looked up and saw his boat. One time we were talking on the radio and both apparently mislead a bit about where we were and where we were gonna fish. He said he was going one palce and I said I was going another and we nearly collided. During one of the Tournament I played possum and when the rest of the boats all blasted north I blasted south about 1/2 a mile turned right back in and setup knowing I had the spot pretty much to myself we are on fish and all is great and the sun comes up and the GLF boat is right in front of me apparently I was not the only possum in the pack. I did nudge him by a couple ounces at weigh in though. Today I took my boat in for storage and as I pull in what do I see Mikes boat right in front of me again LOL maybe I 'm the stalker this time he was in front of me. In case you did not get a call Mike your boat is in the barn she got her bellly scrubbed with a power washer and she is settleing in for a long nap. Bret also said since I am just about the last boat in this year I will be out extra early in the spring which is great cause I got stuck behind other boats last year and had to wait to get her out.

most of us wait till they are in heavy to report there are a few around but it will be slow for at least a couple of weeks. I was out a couple nights ago and zero bumps there are a few guys going out and some fish being caught.

They better not forget to take my flare gun cause I will use it have 6 tries to set em on fire.

I have used both Sat Bil and Seafoam I prefer Seafoam but that is just me. I leave a 1/4 tank in it and fill up and change the water seperator filter after the first tank in the spring. As for condensation there is little to no humidity in the winter IE very little condensation you get more water in your tank due to condensation during the summer than you ever will in winter. However current fuels break down rapidly over time as the additives to boost Octane are not as stabil as the lead componds used before Unleaded gas vehicles. So the last thing I want in the spring is a full tank of old fuel.

I am pretty sure those lighted J Plugs have caught more fishermen than fish I looked at one thought kinda neat then saw the price and never considered it again.

I stick with conventional oils well racing blends of them Castrol 20w 50 racing or Valvoline 20w 50 racing oil. I have been running those 2 oils for close to 40 year in V8 engines and never had a oil related failure. It keeps good oil psi when hot and is designed to be abused.