Butch

I suggest that you turn up the 'gain' until you have too much clutter on the screen, then back it down just a little so the clutter is mostly near the surface. Depending on how well the thermocline is set up, on my Garmin 240 it will look like a bits of clutter in a somewhat wavy band that appears and disappears and often varies somewhat in thickness and depth, or a distinct band that looks almost like a large downrigger weight across the screen, or anything in between.

Plenty of good advice already but I thought I'd chime in since I also have a Garmin 240(used it tonight;)). Unless I'm in less than 45 FOW, I almost always increase the gain to "+3", and never use the fish symbols. Gain set at +4 is OK if it's calm and the fish are deep, +2 or +1 is adequate if I'm in less than 45 FOW. Fish will appear as discrete marks(not always as arches). Bait schools will look like a large black ball or a mountain rising off the bottom. Thermocline will usually look like a band of "clutter", which often wavers up and down or gets stronger and weaker. I also turn off the "auto range" if I'm in more than 100 FOW, and set it manually on 100, or on 150 if I'm interested in fish below 100 feet down. Good Luck Butch

How did Gen. Disarray end up in a discussion about GLF's boat status? Or in the same post as a comment on the best fisherman:D I've been gone for a couple weeks and decorum breaks down, or so it seems:cool:

I fish solo quite often, and I'll agree with Catfishhoge. I'll just add or reiterate a couple things. For setting lines, making program changes, and (when possible) landing fish, head downwind. I plan my program changes ahead, to make this easier. When I'm fishing around other boats and it's breezy or wavy, whenever I'm not fishing downwind it's almost second nature for me to have a plan for how to get away from the nearby boats and turn downwind, even before a fish bites. If it's rough or windy, I try to fight fish while standing close to the steering wheel so I can easily make minor course corrections. Don't oversteer. When I'm standing on the port or starboard side, the boat will track that way a little bit, so I plan on this when setting my steering while setting rods or netting fish. For netting fish, I usually loosen my drag a bit just before, in case the fish tries some last ditch manuever while my hands are full. For big fish, to avoid them bleeding out line from the loose drag I use my thumb for extra drag, then just let it go if the fish goes crazy. I net the fish by holding the net handle under my arm for leverage, and control the net with my free hand. I prefer to hold the rod in my right hand, and the net in my left, so I usually try to net over the stern or on the port side. If I net on the starboard side, I switch hands. I prefer to net big fish over the gunwhale, and I go against most advice about netting in that I often net them from the tail, scooping up at the same time I let the rod tip drop back so the fish drops back into the net. This way, if you mistime the net job and the fish surges, it will surge out of the net without catching the hooks in the net, and you can just line things up for another try. If you net from the head end and miss, it's easy to catch a hook in the mesh, and watch the fish twist free.

They were 5-8#, and the fish I lost felt to be in the same range.

GLF, I didn't mean anything personal, glad you are having fresh salmon tonight. I just knew that there are a lot of knowledgable fishermen on this site, and they know that mis-IDed fish can mean less in the box, or a ticket. When I look in their mouths, the black part(gray for cohos) is often most noticeable to me on the lower gums. In the pics you posted, even though the angle isn't intended to show the inner mouth, it looks to me like maybe I can see black gums in the 1st, 3rd and 4th pics. Or maybe not, you were there and I wasn't. Also, in my experience, cohos often roll or spin in the line when you bring them in. Obviously, some individual fish are harder to ID than others. For example, I caught a fish yesterday that looked very coho-ish, with no spots visible on the tail. However, at 5# it was bigger than the other cohos I've caught and seen lately(pretty uniformly 2-3#) so I checked the mouth and it was all black inside the lower jaw. I considered that definitive of a chinook, but some chinooks have less black in their mouths too. And I've heard rumors of CO's that weren't good at telling them apart either. In any case, enjoy your dinner. And to Sixshooter and Spawnwalker, if you guys really want to squabble, here's some ammo. Atlantic "salmon" are more closely related to brown trout, and aren't in the same genus with pacific salmon, while (since about 1981) rainbow "trout" are in the same genus with pacific salmon:p .

I fished solo yesterday mid to late morning. I ended up 4/8, all nice eating-sized chinooks. No action for me for the first hour or more, then 6 bites in the next hour or so. Unfortunately, I only hooked 3 of those, and 1 fell off halfway. After that, a little dry spell, then caught my 3rd chinook. The 4th one hit as I was picking up the other rods, and was released. No action for me in 35-45 FOW, moved out to 55-60 and had my action. Lots of bites on tight turns. Mag green dolphin down 38 was 2/3, 1/1 on yellowtail at 42, 1/1 on a bloody nose/freeslider above 42, 0/1 black/gr/glow northport at 42, 0/2 on dipsey back 110 with a kinda frosted pickled sunshine-looking spoon.

Nice fish, GLF and DD. Thanks for the specs on where/what/how, and the pics. I had to chuckle to myself when I saw this report and pics last night, because I knew this would be an active thread:D . It was late, and I decided I would hold my response for today...

I often fish alone, so I've got quite a bit of experience on this question. I have 2 riggers, and always start using 2 riggers (with sliders) and 1 mono dipsey. I have a certain mono dipsey that I like to use to judge speed/currents, so I run it even if I thought something else might be more productive head-to-head. And I don't like reeling in lead-core or worrying about my planer boards and other boats when I'm alone, so that makes my decision easy. I generally start with spoons in the Spring, start with a dodger/fly on the dipsey in the summer, and use more dodgers as the kings stage.

I very rarely fish a rigger(I only have 2) without a slider. I fish alone a lot and consider it an important part of my spread. This time of year I usually run 1 fixed and 1 free. After a thermocline sets up, and/or if I want to run a dodger/fly, I run fixed sliders only. Irish, I run fixed sliders above dodger rigs most of the time, without significant problems. I sometimes run them pretty close together(6-8') when the fish are in tight, also. A big king on the slider can make a tangled mess, and even occasionally break off the slider leader due to said tangle, but... I put up with it.

I fished solo today. Got out about 11am, put down in 75 FOW, trolled to 185, caught 2 cohos. Picked up, ran in to the nice marks in closer, reset in 85 and fished in to 40, caught 2 chinooks(4-5#). I quit about 3 pm and never figured out a pattern. Two fish on a hawg wild, 1 on a blue whale, and 1 on a mongoose on a slider. As best I recall, I caught 1 in 95, 1 in 165, 1 in 73 and 1 in 50 FOW I marked some nice fish from 60-75 feet down in 75-85 FOW, but couldn't catch 'em. My dipsey never got bit, and based on the marks and bites I got I probly could have caught another small fish or 2 on a 1/2 to full core, but I didn't try that.

I did the shakedown cruise today. Steinfishski helped. Two 10# chinooks, 6# steelhead and a shaker. Report on M-S site. Sorry, I don't have time to retype and don't know how to duplicate the post yet. I'll figure it out next time.

We currently have a yellow lab named Otto, and a black lab named Dutch. Otto is what my then-little kids did with Otter(part of his registered name), and Dutch is named in honor of my Dad, who is of Dutch ancestry and bought us the dog.

Thanks, HitMan

Don't be ridiculous, Ken, I don't have columns for that:rolleyes: . That data is in rows, not columns:D