Paulywood

Nice boat! Great job on the rigging and repower. It looks like you have done a first rate job. Maybe you can explain how you troll in the sea over there. What depths, temps and any other info. Welcome to the site and good luck with your fishing. Nick

I have found that Meijer is often the cheapest place to buy the Church walleye boards. A lot of times I find them or $20 each. I check every time I go to Meijer. They are very useful.

Don't worry about fishing out of a cruiser, I fished out of a speedboat for 4 years. You could always get some clamp-on holders like Mike suggested. Or just run the 4 rods for now. If you are interested you could try to catch a ride with one of the guys here. I did that when I first started and it shortened my learning curve immensely. Or you could ask someone with more experience to go out on your boat. Good luck on the coming season.

I think 16 is a Monkey Puke and I caught a fish on it last year. I think it was the only time I had it in the water all year.

11, 12, 18, 23 The Glow Screwball (#11) is a killer for me at low light. The NBK (#18) is good on a fullcore all day. If #12 glows it is especially good. And as Matt said, that Glow Half Frog can be killer. I can vouch for all of those in my boat.

I love leadcore. It is a great, inexpensive, and easy way to add more rods to your spread. Right now I have a 2 color, 3 color, half core, 7 color and full core. I plan on adding another full and half core this year. Everybody has a few good core stories. 6-7 years ago my brothers, dad and I were on a charter out of Ludington. A full core went and my dad grabbed it. I had just opened a full beer when the rod fired. I drank about half of my beer when the dipsey on my side of the boat went off. I fought and landed a nice 10+ lb. king and my dad was still fighting that fish. I sat down, finished my beer, opened another one and finished that beer by the time my dad got his fish in. It ended up being a 18 lb. king. It took him over 45 minutes to get it in. Last year we were fishing in Muskegon after the lake turned over. We were hammering fish in 40 ft. of water and were 1 fish short of a limit. The half-core went off and I started fighting the fish. It just dogged down to the bottom and I couldn't move it. Mike (Redeagle) started pulling rods since this was our last fish. He pulled the other 5 rods on the boat and I had actually lost ground on the fish. So we started slowly working our way toward the fish, driving in circles to keep tension on the line. I ended up reeling the fish in from straight below to boat, nice 18 lber that just wouldn't move off the bottom. Of course, my favorite core story is from the first year I started salmon fishing off my boat. I had bought my first 2 leadcore setups, a full and half core. I went out with Marty (ratchet) on his boat out of Holland. We had our riggers and divers out and I was letting out the half core. I had about half the leader out, 30 ft. or so, and line started tearing out. I thumbed the spool to slow it down enough to engage the drag. Ended up reeling in a nice 12 lb. king that hit the lure in the prop wash. Leadcore is a great weapon to add to your arsenal.

Frank, I'll take 25 50# and 25 25#. Let me know how to pay.

Tell her she's doing a great job and keep it up! I think it's great that she's excited about it. Maybe you could try to educate her about colors, presentations, depths, temperatures and other things. Let her pick out and rig some rods when you go out. Buy a copy of Keating on Kings and have her read it (you too if you haven't). My wife doesn't care much about the fishing but she goes along and drinks beer. I'm just glad she likes salmon so I can fish whenever I want. Encourage your wife, you'll be able to spend more time on the water if she likes it too.

I like the tip-up booms better than the draw cords. I just set my auto-stops so that when the ball stops I tilt the boom up and the ball comes in at waist level. Then I can set it in the cradle or just rig up right then. I might not have been clear when I was talking about rubber bands before. I only use 1 rubber band, just hook both loops into the release.

I have BJ riggers (Pro Tournament) and run either 10# or 14# cannonballs. Depends on how deep I am fishing. I also run the band buster releases. I just half-hitch the rubber band around the line about 5 times and then put both loops into the hook. By hooking both loops you get more strength which allows you to "load up" the rod better and get better hook sets. One trick with any riggers is if you have the thumb screws that hold the rigger to the base you need to put tension on them while you are trailering or the will vibrate loose. A simple bungy strap hooked from the pulley to the trailer or part of the boat works well for this. If you have any other questions just ask.

I was doing a little cleaning today and decided to get rid of some stuff. So I am selling an L 750 fishfinder. The surface temperature function on it doesn't work. I bought the unit 4 years ago used. It worked fine for 2 years and then the temp reading quite. I talked to the repair people at Raymarine and they said it wasn't fixable. I will sell this for best offer. It has 2 power cables, a transom mount transducer, cover, and I think I even have the manual. I haven't used it in 2 years but it worked fine (except for no temp) when I put it away. Make me an offer and I will ship it to you. If for some reason it doesn't work (except for temp) ship it back to me and I'll refund your money. Thanks for looking. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

I would just put a full spool of 1000' of wire on the reel. That way you don't have to deal with backing and you don't have to worry about getting spooled. I have set the rods with 300'+ out and had fish run out to over 600'. It's nice to not have to worry about knots failing or getting spooled. When you put the wire on make sure that it is very tight on the reel. Otherwise it will dig into itself and tangle. I put a one pound ball on the end of the wire and then walk 1000' feet out into the field behind the house and despool it as I walk back to the rod and reel. Then I attach it to the spool. I wrap some electrical tape around the spool and then tie it on with an overhand knot. If you don't want to look like an idiot like I do fighting fish out of a cornfield, you can spool it on by having someone apply pressure to the spool. A pair of leather gloves is useful to keep pressure on the spool without burning your hands. The first time out a lot of guys like to put on a pound ball and let it all of the way out. Then reel it in to make sure it is spooled tight. Wire is a lot of fun and catches a lot of fish.

2 years ago I had wire on a CV30 LC and on a SG 47 Lc and the drag on the Daiwa's is a little smoother. So when I got a good deal on another Sealine I changed the wire over to that reel. I paid $50 each for the Sealines but they normally run around $90. I am interested in trying the tungsten rods. I have heard a lot of good things about these rods. The only downfall of the setup I use is the amount of friction the Twilli Tip causes. Here is the link for the rods: http://www.jrstackle.com/rod_salmon.html

I have 2 wire setups. I use a Daiwa Heartland Dipsey rod with a Twilli Tip. It's about $30 for the rod and $7 for the tip. I have heard good things about using JR's Titanium rods for wire. It is a rod with titanium eyes, they don't wear out. I had a cheap Eagle Claw roller rod that I used one year for wire. It was horrible. The wire kept jumping off the rollers and catching. I lost 2 dipsey/flasher/fly combos before junking it. For reels I would get the reel with the best drag you can afford. I would not use the Magda. One decent fish on wire would probably smoke the drag and cause you to lose your gear. I use Daiwa Sealine SG47 reels w/ 1000' of Malin 7 strand #30 wire. It fits on there great. The only downside to the Daiwa reels is the small handle but I believe you can buy larger "power" handles for them. I need to find some for next year. Altogether my wire setups cost me $120 and I have no complaints. They have performed great.

Matt, If you keep the leads short then they won't tangle. The longer the leads, the bigger the circles they make. Also, the big paddles make bigger circles. I usually run Spin Doctors. I have run Spinnies on 20' leads with an SWR next to it on a boat w/ a 7'10" beam and had no tangles. Off Topic: My uncle is up at Higgins and he said there are shanty's on the drop off on the north end. Are you up for a smelt fishing trip this year?

There is a grub that is known to be in the meat of bluegills. Especially ones in ponds and smaller lakes. It is supposed to be harmless if the meat is cooked.

I never run my flashers that far behind the ball. Usually 10-20 ft. back. Sometimes as close as 5 ft. back.

Glad to have you aboard Steve!

I'm waiting. I never planned on going out in this crap. I also live in an 100+ year old farm house. The wife woke up at 4 am and wanted to know if there was a tornado. I also live on top of a hill in the middle of a field so I am out in the open.

This wind is killing me. It tore a piece of flashing off and it's flopping all over on the roof. But I don't dare get up on the ladder to fix it. My wife's parent's had a alarge tree come down at their house. It is laying on top of the power lines and just missed her sister's car. I'll probably have to go cut it up once Consumer's clear off the power lines.

I know that they sell them in Cabela's. I have also seen people use pieces of Starboard. Just a few ideas, I've haven't used one before.

If you were willing to spend $2000 you could pair this radar: http://www.boatersworld.com/product/319884003.htm?bct=t13046503%3Bcigps-electronics%3Bciradar-autopilot%3Bciradar With this display: http://www.boatersworld.com/product/319883245.htm?bct=t13046503%3Bcigps-electronics%3Bciradar-autopilot%3Bciradar And you would be all set.

I am assuming you were looking at the Lowrance LCX-38C in Bass Pro. That is an 8.4" screen. That would be an adequate size for a multi-display. Mike (GLF) has an LCX-111 (I believe) that was the predecessor for the LCX-113 shown on the same page. This is a 10.4" screen that is very nice. I have 2 seperate units. They are both 5" screens. I would not go smaller than that. They are easily viewable from quite a distance. Now you just have to figure out a budget and I am sure that people would have some suggestions. The websites that I linked also sell radar. You just have to make sure the display you bought is capable of displaying a radar image.

I have the tires mounted on the trailer. The passenger side tire looks pretty good but the drivers side needs to be adjusted. I didn't measure it yet but I can tell by eyeballing it. It's toed out and cambered out. I have Christmas parties all day tomorrow but hopefully I can get it fixed on sunday. I was going to go look at the boat a couple of weeks ago but the guy had to work. I told him we'd come down after the first.

Yeah, I got a $900 GPS 2 years ago for $400. It was discontinued but Garmin still supports it. They even replaced it for free when I dropped it on the ground.