Paulywood

Welcome!

Nice to meet you. I agree with Bromley, 100 trips a year would be great.

I would think that you would be able to find something. Where I work we make piston rings. We have a camera that checks for the bevel on the side of the ring. This is very subtle, sometimes it can be hard to see with the human eye. We check a 2 1/2' stick of rings at a time with a camera that travels on a track above it. There are about 300 rings on the stick. It took a few years and a couple of different companies but the one we have now seems to work well. I can't think of the company that makes it off the top of my head but if your interested I can find out.

Will one of these work? http://www.cascadegps.com/store/lowrance-fishfinders-sounders/index4.html

Is this the one you were thinking about? http://www.bigjon.com/store/list.asp?SubTypeID=4&ProductID=63 I think Mike uses the single rod holder for his dipsey's and they work fine. I think your idea will work, just throwing out a few alternatives. You just want to make sure that the pedestal is tall enough to get the holders above the gunnels. Then you can point the first one for the dipsey down toward the water. Just adjust the other 2 at different angles to run board rods and you'll be ready to go. Good luck!

Thanks Dennis! I meant to post this but forgot. I hope to go to the seminar and learn how to catch perch on Lake Michigan. I think it would be a good way to add to my outings on the lake. And I love perch!

Sounds like your raring to go Matt. I'm going to be a little behind you outboard guys. I'm getting mine out and dropping it off to get the alignment checked on the outdrive. Once it's home I have a little rigging to do and an autopilot to install. Hope to get it out once before the Brown Blast.

^^^^Yeah that^^^^^^ Someone just asked me today about hitting a river for steel but it's just not possible with my back messed up. I'm missing all the fun:(

The only problem I see with that Jim is getting a set where the lowest holder clears the gunnel. I've never seen a set that had a bottom that tall. You would still need a pedestal. Also, if you just mounted a set of trees that would be a lot of pressure in a small area. With the track at least the pressure would be spread along the gunnel.

It sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I just have a couple of suggestions. 17" for 3 rods could be tight, although I'm not sure. Mike has Big Jon triples on his boat and they seemed to work well. I don't know what the length measurement is, you'd have to look it up. As far as a backer, I think that if you could get a 12"x4" piece underneath you should be ok. I like to use as big of a backer as possible. I used composite decking for the backing on my new boat and it worked great. You will want to thru bolt it if possible. As far as the Bert's holders wearing out I don't see that as a problem for 2 reasons. 1. I have fished 15-20 times a year for the last 4 years with mine and they show no sign of wear. I understand that it could be a problem for charter captains but for us regular guys I really haven't heard of it being a problem. 2. All of the companies that make the ratcheting holders realized that they could wear out and redesigned the teeth. Now they are actually made to wear a little. The teeth on the new ones I bought last year are a little different than the old ones I have. They should last even longer. Frank posted after I started this but I think I understand what he is saying. An alternative to your idea might be to mount a mounting plate back by your rigger board on each side. Then mount another one up as far forward as you would like to run rods. This would allow you to have a 2x6 sized board running along the length of your gunnels. Then you could mount a long length of track on each board. That would allow a lot more flexibility. To do that you would need: 4 mounting plates 4 risers 2 long pieces of track After that you could start with 2 ratcheting holders on each side. Then if you wanted to run more rods you could add a set of trees later. The mounting plates would be nice because then you could remove them, they just use a set of thumb screws to hold them down. Just something to think about.

Welcome!

Prize List Just so everybody knows our prize list is: Big Jon Sports: 2 Captains Pack Down Riggers Salmon Slayer Charters: Free Charter out of Ludington Dreamweaver: Same things they did for us last year. Profishient Charters: Free Charter out of Holland Hamiltroller: 2 Rod Holders Bretts Place on the Bay: Gift Cards FishdogCompany: Gift Cards Applebees: Gift Cards Grand Rapids Griffins: Certificate for 4 tickets to the 2010-2011 hockey season. Arrow Uniform: Supplies the Team Towels in the captains packs. National City Bank: Supplies the bags for the captains packs. Berlin Raceway 2 tickets and drop the green flag. K & E Tackle Assorted Fishing Rods. Ridgeback Rattler: 50 Dollar Gift Certificate There are about 30 spots left.

Toyota recalled the Tundra's for rust issues in the back end. http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100309/RETAIL05/100309862/1290

Welcome!

Welcome TJ! Look forward to hearing about the fishing on Lake Huron. Not a lot of you guys left outside of the walleye guys on the Bay.

Looks good Dennis. You might want to think about heading farther south in April. Muskegon doesn't really have any coho so the fishing doesn't get good there until the water warms a little. May is better than April. I usually try to head to St. Joe or South Haven if I fish in April.

I watched all of them the other night. He did a very good job. Can't wait to see more!

Great job Jay! How long does it take to get to Manistee from Sanford anyway?

I use the same size. Low divers on 1 on wire and high divers on 3 with braid.

They look like Pro Kings to me. Do they have the fish eye tape on the back? I have a bunch of them but have never really used them because of the taped backs. This winter a few guys told me the colors they liked so I am going to give them a shot this year.

Looks great Jon!

I just got my insurance renewal. Thought I would get some more quotes. Already tried Progressive and they were more expensive and had higher deductibles. I think I'll give the Insurance Shop a call. Maybe call my auto/home guy too. Since I'm still not working I have plenty of time on my hands.

All of my stuff stays on the boat but the boat stays in my yard.

Doing it that way works well for me as I can get them started and then have someone else keep on eye on them while I set riggers. Usually I can get both riggers set while the dipsey's go out. Then I can either start 2 more dipsey's or start setting leadcore. If I set 2 more dipsey's I can usually get core out while the second set goes out. It works good to get other people on the boat helping.