Paulywood

You're targeting different sections of the water column with the different applications. One of the advantages of leadcore and copper is that you can use planer boards to get them away from the boat. You are also running very long leads that get your lure far behind the boat. Not too mention the snake like effect the water has on the leadcore sheathing. Copper is heavier and has a faster sink rate, though it is harder to work with. Wire is used primarily to run dipsey's down deep. They will go a lot further down than mono divers because of the zero stretch and the thinner diameter. Plus the weight of the wire. Braid dipseys will go deeper than mono due to less stretch and much thinner diameter. A normal setup on a larger boat worker from the back to the front would be riggers deep, then wire divers slightly above and behind the riggers, then braid divers slightly above and behind the wire and then lead core up higher, farther to the side and way behind the other lures using in line planer boards. Hope this helps.

I also fish regularly with only 2 people. I usually have the guy who gets his fish to the boat first hold the wheel relatively straight with their leg and hang on to both poles. It sounds complicated but we land about 2/3 of our doubles.

Welcome! We all have to start somewhere. I know a lot of fishermen that have started with just divers and leadcore rods. I've even pulled my riggers before to run more core. The best way to learn when just starting out is to fish with other people. It helped me a lot. Catch a ride with someone else or have an experienced angler go on your boat. It will reduce your learning curve. There are a lot of good people on this board that will be more than willing to help you out. Good Luck!

Nice job Brek! Let me know if you need a rider next week or anytime after, I'm off work until next year:D

Nice job Terry and crew. I'm going to try and get out this week if I can get someone to haul me around.

It's a little different for the League events when you 30 boats coming from as much as 2 hours away. You have to cancel when there's a small craft advisory.

The black and gray areas are clouds. The white area is the correct temp.

I checked the mid lake buoy off Little Sable point earlier and it showed 5.2 ft. waves with 21 knot winds. I wouldn't want to be out there with my boat.

I changed out all of the treble hooks on my spoons to singles so I only have 1/3 the work. I consider them sharp when I hang the spoon from my nail and tilt my hand, if the hook stays, its sharp. If it slides, its not. I sharpened them all in the winter and check them after use. If I miss a fish the hook always get checked if not sharpened or changed. I have had real good luck with the single hooks.

Wind might only change the current on the surface. You have to look at rods, rigger wires or a probe to figure what what the down currents are doing. They are what's important. Last time we were out the wind was out of the southwest and thats where the waves were coming from. But there was a strong current out of the north. You could see this by the downriggers. Wind won't necessarily change the lower currents.

I use a Rapala hook file, there is a contour groove that you slide the point across to sharpen it. Works good.

The SWR has been a big producer for us the last few trips. Works real well once the sun comes up. You can put a spoon right in the face of fish that are down on the bottom. And it's a long way from the boat. We ran the Glow Purple Frog from the DreamWeaver on this the day of the tourney and the 2 times we've been out since then and have taken a lot of fish on it.

I like to have extra rigger rods ready to go but if I was limited I would definitely add a full core. I run different lb. test on my riggers, 15# for spoons, 20# for flashers, and 12# for when the bite dies. This also gives me spare rods. That being said, the first 6 rods I had were a full core, half core, 2 braid dipseys, and 2 rigger rods. Caught quite a few fish with them. Instead of another braid dipsey you might want to think about wire. It gets you a lot deeper than braid. Plus its fun to catch a screaming king on wire. Good Luck.

I do research before I hit the water. I check the internet for reports and water temps. I also will try things that have worked in the past. However, all of that could change when I hit the lake. If the wind is coming from a different direction I might change what direction I troll. If there are a bunch of boats in a certain area I usually try to avoid them. If we break the pier heads and the water temp is changed, then I'll change my plan. Also, sometimes you see something, like a slick or scumline, and might try that instead of what you had originally planned. What I'm trying to say is that I try to have a plan when I hit the water, but am always willing to change if I have to.

You can take me off the list Jimmy. I will be back fishing next year though. Good Luck to everyone.

I tie that knot but put a crimp sleeve on above it for extra insurance. No problems so far.

I here you on the flies Steve. I also noticed the sea fleas are coming back.

After hearing all of the great reports out of Muskegon the last few days I had to go over and join in the fun. Mike, Redeagle, chauffered me around for 2 days of great fishing. We went over wednesday afternoon and set up in 50' around 6:30. Shortly after 9 we had our 6 king limit and were headed in. All of our fish came in 55'-65' 3-4 miles north of the piers. We caught fish on an 8 color core with a green scaly back J-plug, a half core with a Magic Man spoon, a half core with a Moonshine Shelley Snack, a rigger 40' down with a Blue Bubble SD/Blue Bubble Fly and our big producer for both days was the Dreamweaver Glow Purple Frog on an SWR. We ran this about 10' off the bottom and consistently took fish. We missed 2 fish on a wire dipsey out 75', once with Double Crush Glow SD/Green Glow Fly and once with an 11" Pro-Chip Double Fish Scale Pearl w/ a Blue/Green Glow Sigg's Rig's fly. The dipsey didn't release on either fish. I'm still confused by this since it is the same dipsey setup I have been using all year with no issues. I loosened it up after losing the second fish. We also lost a fish on the SWR, it was part of a double we had on the riggers when we first set lines. Our biggest fish came on the Shelley Snack. This fish hit shortly before 9. I fought this fish while Mike cleared lines. I still hadn't gained ground by the time he had the other 5 rods in so we chased it and boxed a nice 16 lb. 8 oz. male. I just couldn't gain ground on it while fighting, it just stuck to the bottom. We weighed all of our fish when we got in and ended up with 64 lbs. of kings, what a fun night. Thursday morning we slept in a little and found out that the fish had moved out deeper. We had to work harder but still managed to box 6 fish, 5 kings and a steelie. We set lines just south of the harbor in 30' at 6:30 and took 2 fish on the SWR in 80'. After that things slowed down and we worked our way out to 120'-130' where we heard the temp break was 55' down. We slowly started picking up fish working north to the nets. A wonderbread J-plug on a 8 color core took a fish, a Glow Screwball on a fullcore took a fish, a double orange crush as a free slider set over a rigger 50' down took the steelie,and the SWR setup down 65' took our last fish. We missed a fish early on a braid dipsey out 125' with a Dreamweaver Evil Eye and also missed another fish on the wire dipsey with the Pro-Chip/Blue Green Glow out 175'. The dipsey didn't release again. We pulled lines at 11:30 and weighed all of our fish again. The biggest ended up being 14 lbs. 4 ozs. and we had 50 lbs. total. It was a great 2 day trip. Thanks Mike for taking me and thanks for the reports this week. When we setup in shallow wednesday night we heard a lot of people with no fish who were out in 150-200'. We stayed in tight and hammered fish. I snapped a couple of pics and will post them tomorrow.

Nice fish!

Jason, I use the clear Opti Stealth snubbers. I like them better because they stretch a lot farther than the L-J's. The L-J's have a cord inside so they can only stretch a certain distance.

Yeah, I know. Maybe having new riggers will force you to turn your boat from a flowerpot into an actual fishing machine:D Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, Steve.

First off I just wanted to thank Rich, Tom, Rob, Jim and everyone else who helped make this a great success. I had a lot of fun as always. I met a few new guys, laughed a lot, and maybe even learned a thing or two. I fished friday night and saturday morning with Jason, Satisfaxion Guaranteed, his friend Jim, and Jarrod, who drove up all the way from Toledo to fish this event. Had a lot of fun with this crew, even though Jarrod seemed to take a lot of harassment. Better him than me!! We fished friday night until about 1 am going 2/2. Worked hard for our 2 fish but at least the weather was nice. Saturday morning we fished the same general area because we marked a ton of bait and fish but didn't have any better results, going 1/2. Here's a picture of Jarrod with his steelie he caught on a leadcore setup. On sunday I fished with my friend Mike and his brother Brian. We ended up going 4/4 with 3 kings and a steelie. Our first 2 kings came before sunup. We fished south and the first hit came in 110' on the Double Crush/Glow SD and Green Glow Fly 70' down on a rigger. Here's Mike with the first fish. Our next fish came on the Blue Bubble SD/Blue Bubble Fly combo on a wire diver 175' back on 2 in 125'. Here's Brian with his fish. Our next fish came north of the pierheads quite a while later. We were still in that 110' of water range and this ended up being an acrobatic steelie on a fullcore with the Carmel Dolphin spoon. I caught this fish but no one took my picture. Our last fish hit at 10:25 in 110' of water just south of the pierheads. It was on the Blue Glow Frog spoon on an SWR 90' down. It was also our biggest fish. Here's the McKean brothers with the biggest fish we've caught all year. We had a great time and the money went to a great cause. Steve, Huntingfool43, also paid me back for a few comments I made by winning the downriggers in the raffle, he bought his tickets right after me and I was 1 number off. Oh well, at least I didn't have to see Steve in the chaps contest. Thanks again everybody!

I have a rod tree like that and it just slides into a Bert's track. There really isn't as much pressure as you'd think. Mine actually attached to the floor since I fish out of a bow rider. I bought mine from Brian (Hunt4ever) but a lot of different companies make them. Michigan Stinger, Bert's, Big Jon, Great Lakes, and Traxstech all do. They work great.

I only run free sliders but I usually go from about hand to hand with my arms outstretched. I'm pretty short so it works for me.

I used to use cheaper swivels but I had one fail. It broke right at the ball bearing. After that I switched to sampo's and haven't had any problems. I figure that after all of the money I have in gear, skimping on swivels is a waste. As far as sliders, I tried a ball bearing on the line end and a plain snap on the spoon end. I was trying to get less weight at the spoon. i had horrible line twist. Went back to dual bearings, and had no problems.