1mainiac

While I personally don't like extra lights as they tend to confuse other boats in the dark. Often I find I am nearly blinded by my own lights as it takes a while to readjust your eyesight when you turn them off. I have considered mounting the recessed lights in the bow as they have the least glare and provide good light for docking and low speed running. I am going to wrap all my railings to reduce the glare when using lights at night I am adding more glow tape and paint to my rear deck and fishing gear and adding more blacklights to the rear for night fishing. But for running at night I prefer minimum lighting and stand on the platform so I am above the windshield and run at a cautious cruise.

Yep Dan and the software I mentioned ain't cheap either I paid 800 for the Coral Draw program years ago and my son paid close to 3000 for his AutoCad program.

Hi Nick I have not had any trouble with my Eagle Claws yet but have heard of several complaints about them. So was thinking the Blue Diamonds would be a step up and have not heard any bad reports on them. I got the one with the CV45D used for 70 bucks which is less than the reel costs and it had copper wire so changed it to Stainless 7 strand. I bought a second matching rod a few weeks later and spooled up one of my Magna 45's with wire for it but hated the drag. The guys at The Outdoorsman convinced me to go with a CV30D and 600 ft of wire instead of another CV45D and it works real well. Now I just want to upgrade the rods.

Pretty cool Dan what method is she using to digitize ? I helped a couple customers set these systems up years ago when I had my computer repair business. If I remember correctly the one lady was using Coral Draw and Auto Cad as she could import easier into Coral and then export it to Auto Cad to transfer it to the machine. That was a over 10 years ago.

I have a pair of eagle Claw rods which have been fine but I am Looking at a set of Okuma Blue Diamond rods. I have 600 ft of 30lb wire on each rod and Dacron backer. I have one setup with a Okuma CV45D and the other with a CV30D. The CV30D replaced a magna 45 I did not care for the drag of the magna pulling wire the convector just feels smoother would have gotten another CV45D but had to agree all I would gain was more backing. I use a Albright knot to connect the backer to the wire and a crimp at the swivel. I also run mag divers on the wire so I can get them deep and keep them away from the rest of my gear.

might have to take you up on that Andy Starcraft is for sale have a 26ft Four Winns now. Lots more room to fish than the old 18ft Starcraft can run up to 14 lines now if I keep it straight and don't tangle anything up. Can't wait to hit the water again.

Andy if your not getting tangles you ain't running enough setups LOL. Should have went out with me a few times in my Starcraft running 12 or more lines.

I agree Frank they only time I differ from that pattern is when running SWR setups and long leads I run a SWR on my starboard outside rigger with the probe and hunt for the bottom of my temp range usually around 44 deg with 2 colors and a small spoon. I will run a long lead at least 80 to 100ft back on my other outside rigger about 5 ft above it and run shorter leads off the rear riggers above them then maybe 10ft behind the ball with a flasher fly setup and and 20to 30 ft back with a large spoon. I have better luck and less tangles with long leads off my outside riggers as they start out further apart. This is my favorite mid day setup then add in the divers with flasher flies and send out the core program.

I agree Frank I never saw any sense in tieing 50 bucks in gear to a 10 cent swivel. I was fishing with a friend a couple years ago and he lost a diver setup cause the cheap swivel failed he cussed and reeled it in and started to retie with another cheap swivel. I had my small gear bag with me and made him put on a Sampo coast lock. I also changed out all of his swivels before we were done for the day and gave him a few spares. I also use the bead chain on a lot of setups it works great. I tend to be pretty anal about some things I just won't skimp on tackle so I buy the best I can get I take brand new fly rigs apart and retie them with Gamma Fluoro and Owner hooks. I build much of my own meat rigs and flies I tie my own crawler harness and make nearly all of my own leaders including wire leaders. Most of the lures out there were built by guys like me they were built with top of the line componets and field tested unfortunatly they often go into production with cheaper componets and sometimes get made high end for pro shops and such and low end for chain stores. Discount stores will often accept blems and seconds every manufacture has them and is glad to part with them. My dad worked at Wolverine Shoe for 13 years before he took a job at GM I watched him buy a pair of boots at Pay Less one time and it was funny he had the salesman nearly in tears. He pointed out the defects in every pair of boots they had untill he finally matched up a set with no defects.

Final report after moving the probe setup to my Fishlander riggers nearly all problems went away. I modified the Black's releases so they cannot open and ran Off Shore medium tension releases behind them this solved several issues as I can now change balls and probe setups without changing the release. I talked with Big Jon about some of these issues and they now have a new control for my riggers that will give me adjustable speed control up and down and add auto stop to my riggers. I may get this installed in the spring if I can budget it in. I have also heard a lot of good reports on the shark cannon balls and may try and get a set to see if they really help with the blow back since I tend to haul butt when trolling. I saw a few late reports of guys going way faster than me and doing real good on Steelhead after the Salmon run so have to get the blowback reduced. Anyhow it is Jan 1st HAPPY NEW YEAR and it is time for me to get the season budget pinned down and adjust my wants versus needs list for the upcoming season. Tight Lines Jim

A number 5 Rosco is a 90 lb test stainless swivel but not ball bearing. Shorter length will apply more pressure to the swivel and reduce the size of the action so it would reduce line twist as well. Try a set of Sampos they are worth every penny.

Pretty much how it goes Matt just remember the rating on the battery is a suggestion of what it should be not actual test results. Most New batteries will out preform the rating on the tag as it is a test standard for the battery.

Watts divided by voltage is amps yours comes to 2.875a so on the 7ahr batttery about 2.5 hours.

Have to agree with Bluedevil many of us use too big of swivels and snaps any swivelrated more than double your line test is over kill. I used to use 150lb test gear thinking bigger is better however it can kill the action I use 5D sampo doulock swivels rated for 50lbs and X3C Sampo's with the coast lock rated at 60 lbs. The 2/0 Rosco swivels on most flashers are rated at 225 lbs and were chosen for the snap size not the swivel I put my own swivel before every flasher and install bead chain and a duo lock on most of my flies. Never had a line twist since changing years ago.

Happy New year to all and remember to stay safe. As for me I seldom drink any more so I plan on curling up with the good book ( new Bass Pro Shop catalog arrived) and watching my grand daughter. Tight Lines Jim

I had to look to find them I have never seen anyone use them. Personally I would go with the Multi Set rod holders I have 4 of them. The tight Line holders are spring loaded and supposed to pop up when you have a fish. They are not very adjustable as they only move in one direction.

Boomerang got most of it divide the AHR of a battery by the load and you get the time it will run before requiring recharge. 7AHR battery and 500ma load 14 hours, 3.5 ampload 2 hours based on a fully charged good battery. Batteries will continue to work past their ratings but not without damage. I destroyed a set of batteries running in on my trolling motor a few years ago but we did make it all the way to the dock.

All my gear was installed at the dealership when I bought the boat and have not made any changes below the waterline. Howerver I helped a guy in TX set his up we epoxied a short piece of Oak 2x4 to the transom I think he put a couple screws into the transom for a backup and mounted the transducers on the 2x4.

My list is endless but that is my nature I want it all and to me fishing is a addictive obsession. Manditory is Gimble bearing and transom reseal this will be done before the boat comes out of storage. Next on list is reline a couple rods and recheck all my setups. Then I plan on swapping over to HYD steering I have most of the stuff already so this will most likely get done as well. The rest of the lists will depend on my budget I want a Radar arch with rod holders then a Radar system to put on it and a Auto Pilot. I would also like to remove the bottom paint and restore the gel coat as to me it looks like crap and the boat sits on a trailer anyhow so is unneeded. Other than the gimble bearing the boat was fully serviced before storage so no other work needed. Maybe a few more rods and reels and a couple more lights in the business end. Would like a free fall windlass some day but seldom anchor so more of a luxury item then anything else. Ok that adds up to close to what I paid for the boat like I said is just my addiction.

Pretty much say it all and HAPPY NEW YEAR

I have a bunch of items I am going to put on EBAY soon so will give you guys first shot. Norcold N841IM refridgerator with ice maker works great missing a few plastic peices but a very nice refer. It is 3 years old and I want 600.00 for it. Older Dometic refer has bad cooling unit will still cool but will be a parts unit or maybe a good smoker box makea offer and come get it I have a lot of A&E awning springs and a complete A&E 20ft awning also some hardware arms etc I am also going to reduce my tool inventory not sure yet what I want to keep so let me know what you may want or need I might have it. I have 3 new props I bought for a 40hp Merc never got installed lower unit blew up. 1976 402 merc upper complete I spent way to much on it but it runs great and has lots of new parts. Still have a pile of OMC Stringer mount stuff several boxes of RV parts

TGAFISH are you flashing them and sending them down might be tooo bright. I started storing all my glow stuff in clear plastic boxes and bought a 12v blacklight to go in the compartment with them. I know with the Moonshines and a few others they seem to glow real bright and it takes a while in the water before the settle down and fish hit them. When I started using the Moonshines a few years ago they very seldom got hit right away if they were real bright. So I started laying them out on a board and flashing them several at time and holding the flash unit further away. I see a lot of guys flashing them as they put em out and sometimes I will still touch one up with the flash. But my best results come when they have a good light soak and several min to settle before going into the water. I have also noticed that if I run glow spoons on my high lines in the last light before dark they don't need to be flashed they will pick up enough light to glow as the sun goes down.

Ok I buy that but when I can run 14 lines crew permiting divers are not my choice for running shallow. I only run divers to be outside and behind my riggers for wide I start with 2 colors and a dive bomb behind a board can get that down to close to 25 ft and out 200 ft on each side then send out five colors with a dive bomb on next board to cover down to about 35ft and 125 ft off the sides full cores on boards 60 ft off ea side next run out a high diver on braid and a low diver on wire and four riggers and you are 400 ft wide covering pretty much everything with 14 in the water and still have my 2 copper rods and 2 spare rigger rods that I can use to change out or throw in the mix somewhere.

Lack of stretch using mono on divers down deep there is so much stretch in mono that often you cant trip them very well. So you have to fight them all the way up till you can get them to trip. Happens a lot with smaller fish the diver rod takes off and you begin the fight and feels like you have a whale so you don't want to horse it and break it off. as you finally get it close to the boat the diver trips and you have a small fish to reel in. With wire and braid there is no line stretch so even down deep you can feel the diver and get a clean release. You also feel every head shake as you are hooked to the fish with a 100 yds of mono out you lose a lot of the feel as the head shake and some of the lunges are lost in line stretch. There are charts that tell how far differant lines stretch under loads but with 25 lb test tied to a tree start with 100 ft and connect a hand scale and begin pulling see how long the line is at rated strength my guess is at least 10% longer maybe more then continue till it breaks and see how much the line grows before it breaks. Try the same thing with braid or wire you will be lucky to gain 2 in.

Well after using mono on my divers for years I will never run anything but braid or wire on a diver rod again. I don't know what you consider a very cheap price but the pro tournament models you mentioned in your other post are not likely to show up on the used market for a long time. Simple cause like our boats we tend to sell our gear to friends and family so very little makes it out on the open market. My Big Jons are old and have been sent in for rebuilds a few times and may get auto stops and speed controls this year as a update. They would still bring 2 to 3 hundred ea on EBAY I saw a set of old manual Rivera's like the ones on my old boat in the front yard go for 150 ea and they weren't much more than that new 10 years ago. Even when we buy new gear most of us hang on to our old stuff which would explain the row of old unused tackle boxes that are full in my garage next to the wall of fishing poles collecting dust cause I seldom use em anymore.