Paulywood

Good job Troy. It always takes a few trips to get things running like you want them. Pretty soon you'll be fishing like a pro.

One of the biggest advantages to inlines IMO is the ability to reset different lines that run different depths wherever you want them in your spread. I have run up to 3-4 inlines per side. If my 5 color core is running as the 3rd rod out I can reset it to the same spot. With big boards you can only reset it as the closest line next to the boat. Now you would have a full core running outside of a half core and that is just asking for trouble.

Good job Ed. Somedays it seems like there is nothing you can do to keep those fish on the line. Must have been exciting going out sunday morning after the good day you had saturday. Better luck next time.

I think that part of my problem was that the previous owner never used the trailer so it wasn't maintained. I never checked them last year, once I got the boat I just wanted to fish. This spring I replaced all of the tires and pulled the bearings off to check them. I noticed that the rotors were rusty so I checked the brakes and the calipers were seized. I freed them up but there was no brake fluid in the system. I had to order a new cap for the cylinder because I couldn't remove the old one without ruining it. Then that was on back order and I didn't get it until June. So I finally started adding fluid to the system and they seemed to be working fine until last week. Either way I got all of the crap flushed out of the system. I'm going to pull the bearings this week to double check them so I'll pull the calipers also. Any idea where to get the calipers? I had to order the cap from a place in Florida. It's a Magic Tilt trailer.

Had problems with the surge brakes on my front trailer axle this weekend. They are disc brakes and the calipers don't seem to be releasing. I had to hit the brakes hard in Holland last weekend and I guess I started to have problems after that. I ended up draining the fluid out of the system because they were causing the bearings in the axle to overheat. I was wondering if I should just replace the calipers or if they can be rebuilt? Any other ideas would be great.

Well, I have some kind of report. We left my house about 5:30 for Manistee. Got to the Sheperd exit and the cover over the bimini had come loose so we stopped. Noticed a warm smell and the hubs on the front axle were hot. Went over to my sisters house and jacked up the trailer. The brakes had locked up. Bled them then drove back to my house to get more grease so we could repack the bearings. Got everything reset then took the back way over to Winn. Same hubs were warm. Added more grease then took off. Got up to US-10 and they were heating up again. Finally said screw it and pulled the bleeder valve out of 1 of the calipers. Took off and checked them again down the road and they were cooling off. Ran about 15 miles and checked again, cool as a cucumber. So we were finally off and running. Got a call from Steve saying he had room for us in a tent so we didn't have to worry about that. Got to Insta-Launch about 12:30 am and decided to sit around the fire drinking beer. Got to bed when Steve got up to go fishing, about 4:30. Got up at the crack of 8:30 and made our way to the water. Set up in 80' just north of the piers around 10 am and trolled NNW before turning around. Called it quits about noon because the crew (me included) weren't feeling so hot. Packed up and headed home without a hit. No issues on the way home so it was uneventful except for not noticing that we weren't on 55 until we hit Bear Lake. Not much of a fishing report but we did mark a bunch of fish in the 95-115' water.

Good job on the fish. That must have been an interesting night. Now if you could just quite dropping things to the bottom of the lake!

One rule of thumb that can help is the 100' rule. The distance down and the lead should equal 100'. 50' down means a 50' lead. If I'm marking fish but can't get them to go I'll adjust. And this is only for spoons and plugs, if you run long leads with flashers it can get ugly in a hurry.

Welcome! Let us know if you need any help, look forward to your contributions.

Nice fish! Is that 1st one a brown? Are the others atlantics? They are nice looking fish but it looks a little chilly.

Good job and welcome back!

Well, Steve had an extra campsite so it looks like the Sugar Mama will be in town. See you guys this weekend.

I am thinking about heading up friday and fishing saturday morning. We would be leaving saturday afternoon. Insta-Launch won't do a 1 day reservation over the phone so I'm not sure, I'm going to keep looking around.

It's in the middle of the state, near Mount Pleasant. But I will be fishing over on the west side the next 2 weekends if you want to meet.

I have a couple of Cabela's Depthmaster rigger rods that I don't need. I sold everything else last weekend. $20 for the pair if you want them.

The antennae is probably more important than the radio. Here is the best "bang for the buck" in radio antennae in my opinion. I use it and have installed it on a couple of my friends' boats. We have all been very happy with it. http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=16014&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=10103&subdeptNum=10278&classNum=10279

Good job and thanks for the report. I think we are heading over on saturday.

Looks like these units would fit your budget: http://www.fishfinderdiscounts.com/product/33659 http://www.fishfinderdiscounts.com/product/36350 I just checked one site, if you look around you might be able to find a better deal.

Good job! Best report I have heard of in a while.

I think that you can get a decent fixed mount and antennae for less than what a top of the line handheld costs. I have $150 into my radio/antennae and have up to a 20 mile range. I have never seen a handheld that could match that.

I have Garmin units and have zero complaints. They perform well and the customer service has been great. However, I do think you get a little more, as far as screensize, with the Humminbird units. For $700 you should be able to get a great combo unit. When buying a combo unit I really do think screen size is important. If you look around online you should be able to find a good deal. Good luck, hope this helps.

Troy, here's a link to a site with info on Onekama. Manistee would be closer if you wanted to go there. And Terry (Dirty Dog) is having an outing in Manistee so you would have some other boats to help you find fish. Plus you could hit the fish fry afterward! http://www.onekama.info/recreationservices.html

Good to hear. Now you can either use a pair of buckets, bags, or get a trolling plate to slow you down. As far as telling speed, I used to use an Etrex handheld. I could set waypoints for pierheads and nets and use it for speed. You can usually pick one up for under $100.

Mike might be on to something with that fin. We had one on our old boat and had some handling issues with it, especially at higher speeds. I would try taking it off and see if your problem goes away.

Yeah, I didn't mean to pull divers. I figured you wanted to run something out further. I ran 2 divers per side sunday, wire on 1 and braid on 3. I only run standard divers, I don't run mags.