I told the boss I was buying a boat!

[gspsteel]

And a new member to the site.....

It was a rough two weeks but she is over it now.

A 20Ft 1996 Angler with a 130 Evinrude and a 6 hp kicker. Slowly I am getting the accessories. I have two Cannon Mag 10 Riggers with dual holders and a couple different sets of rod holders I have purchased over the past few months. I recently picked up 4 Okuma GLT downrigger rods and the Magda pro reels. I am looking to pick up two diver rods and reels and am planning on running 30 lb braid.

The magda reels hold 220 of 20 lb line will these be enough for kings?

As I am new to running my own boat I am looking for suggestions on how to best set up a presentation. I am thinking 2 rods stacked on each rigger and then two dipsy ?

Hopefully planning at least two to three multi day trips to the west side of the state when the weather looks to cooperate. Any suggestions on good ports to begin and learn at?

I plan on getting all the bugs out, fishing eyes on saginaw bay in the mean time.

Thanks

Troy

[diesel]

i fish out of st joe south haven and saugatuck and have had good luck with copper set ups (300 and 450) also with leadcore from 5 color to 10 color set-ups with clean spoons and the best luck i have had is with dipsies loaded with spin doctors with blue or green flies set back 150 to 185 feet at a gps speed over water from 1.2 to 2.8 mph.

hope this helps and welcome to the site alot of good guys here with alot of info

[Hotdog71]

Welcome to the site. You'll find lots of great ideas for this bunch. The Magda spooled with 20lb should be fine for Kings. I run a couple myself with 20lb big game. As far as presentation, I'll let some from your area give more precise details, but I would add something to your setup. Leadcore and inline boards. May be two setups to start, 5 and 7 colors. These have been working well for me. Just an opinion. Good Luck!

[Paulywood]

That's a nice looking boat. To be honest I don't really stack riggers. There are a lot better methods to add lines. Leadcore and inline boards, as Hotdog suggested, is probably the best way IMO. They get the lures away from the boat. I started with a 5 color and 10 color and caught a ton of fish with them. I usually run spoons and plugs on my riggers and core and flashers on the dipsey's. But that can change. If you can afford it you might want to get a little better reel than the Magda's for your dipsey's. Okuma Convector or Daiwa Sealine bothe have much better drags and you will need them for the dipsey's. You might be able to get away with it on the riggers but one king with an attitude on your dipsey's could smoke a reel in a hurry. I really like the Convector's for leadcore rods, the handle and retrieve ratio are great. As far as ports, all of them can be good. It really depends. I fish out of Muskegon most of the time because it's the closest. But I will go almost anywhere the fish are biting. It depends on where you want to go and how far you want to drive. Good luck and feel free to ask questions.

[Priority1]

A warm welcome to the GLF site. We all talk big when the Boss is not around.

[N II Deep]

welcome to the site. nice boat you will enjoy it, & the boss might too.we fish Port Sheldon most of the time. get a copy of Ketting on kings, a fellow member here loaned me a copy - it is a good read & will give you many ideas on how to setup.

[Nailer]

That's a nice looking boat. To be honest I don't really stack riggers. There are a lot better methods to add lines. Leadcore and inline boards, as Hotdog suggested, is probably the best way IMO. They get the lures away from the boat. I started with a 5 color and 10 color and caught a ton of fish with them. I usually run spoons and plugs on my riggers and core and flashers on the dipsey's. But that can change. If you can afford it you might want to get a little better reel than the Magda's for your dipsey's. Okuma Convector or Daiwa Sealine bothe have much better drags and you will need them for the dipsey's. You might be able to get away with it on the riggers but one king with an attitude on your dipsey's could smoke a reel in a hurry. I really like the Convector's for leadcore rods, the handle and retrieve ratio are great. As far as ports, all of them can be good. It really depends. I fish out of Muskegon most of the time because it's the closest. But I will go almost anywhere the fish are biting. It depends on where you want to go and how far you want to drive. Good luck and feel free to ask questions.

Loads of good people to answer your questions. Nice looking rig.

[GLF]

Welcome to GLF! It's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission. Looks like a fish catching machine you have there. I do not stack the riggers either.

Inline boards and leadcore.

[usmcpaul]

Great another East Sider...Welcome to the site!

And a new member to the site.....

It was a rough two weeks but she is over it now.

I hate to criticize you on your first post, but you went about the wife thing all wrong. You need to buy a motocross bike (YZ450F), spend tens of thousands of dollars on equipment, fees, parts and trailers, and then start riding MX tracks...Then after a broken collar bone, torn rotatory cuff, a few nights in the intensive care unit, 7 or 8 E.R. visits, 1 or 2 crushed disks in your back, a subdureal hemotoma, 3 or 4 broken ankles, 2 broken fingers, a broken wrist, a titanium plate and several pins and screws, and 5 or 6 months of physical rehab, crutches and pain killers.............. she will be begging you to buy a boat, and all the equipment/lures you want!

Trust me... and let me know if I can be of further assistance..

[MY2SONS]

Great another East Sider...Welcome to the site!

I hate to criticize you on your first post, but you went about the wife thing all wrong. You need to buy a motocross bike (YZ450F), spend tens of thousands of dollars on equipment, fees, parts and trailers, and then start riding MX tracks...Then after a broken collar bone, torn rotatory cuff, a few nights in the intensive care unit, 7 or 8 E.R. visits, 1 or 2 crushed disks in your back, a subdureal hemotoma, 3 or 4 broken ankles, 2 broken fingers, a broken wrist, a titanium plate and several pins and screws, and 5 or 6 months of physical rehab, crutches and pain killers.............. she will be begging you to buy a boat, and all the equipment/lures you want!

Trust me... and let me know if I can be of further assistance..

Dang! That's messed up. How can you even operate a boat after going through all that?

[usmcpaul]

Dang! That's messed up. How can you even operate a boat after going through all that?

With my teeth.

[gspsteel]

Thanks guys, Appreciate the support and guidance. Really excited to get out as this has been a dream of mine. I can now repay my dad for carting me all over the state fishing as a kid.

As I have never used lead core when you say 5 and 10 color, you mean I would run mono as backing and then connect 5 or 10 color lengths of lead core?

If I were to run all three as a presentation I am assuming the Boards would be set first closest to the bow, and then the dipsies would follow?

appreciate the details on reels I will check out the convector and sealines.

Thinking about an HDS-5 w/lake insight for electronics any experiences with these?

Thanks Again

Troy

[1mainiac]

Hey Troy congrats on the boat will look forward to seeing your reports. As to setup order if you do it right it won't matter and if you do it wrong you'll have a mess to detangle anyhow. First thing to remember is shallow lines can pass over deeper lines but not vise versa. My normal setup order is based on speed of getting everything set so my riggers go down first then I set the divers and get them started out against the drag so they work their way into place. While they are going out I like to start my short core I just send them out the back and clip on the board and once again set the drag so they work out very light drag by now the divers should be close so check them and set them to fish mode. Then run my longer cores out . Try and keep in your mind where each lure is actually running in the spread so you don't have your divers under or outside of you inside board. There is not much worse than getting a fish on the diver tangled in a full core or copper as you can see your wallet shrink when it happens.

[KJ pluggin]

If I were to run all three as a presentation I am assuming the Boards would be set first closest to the bow, and then the dipsies would follow?

Thanks Again

Troy

Yes, that would be correct. You should have your board rods the farthest foreword followed by the dipsies in the middle and you riggers in the back. Good luck and welcome to the site.

[Paulywood]

Troy, like Jim said you should be able to set any rod at any time. I usually set rods in the morning in the same order as Jim. Riggers, divers then core. But after a fish hits you can reset any rod without pulling another. When setting core I have had the best luck with setting the line straight out the back of the boat. When I reach the backer I attach the board and let it go straight back. When it gets about as far back as I want it to run I engage the lever and let it run out to the side. After a lot of practice and a few tangles I have got it figured out so if I am running 3 boards on a side I can reset the middle one and slide it right in place. I don't suggest trying this your first time out;) You had it right as far as the 5 and 10 colors of core. They are also called a half core and a full core. As far as the Lowrance HD goes I can't recommend it. I haven't run one but people had a lot of problems with them last year. Not to mention the fact that Lowrance customer service is horrible. If you check out the electronics forum there were a couple of threads discussing different units. I run Garmin products but for comparable money and screen size you might want to check out the Humminbird units. They seem to be easy to use and the quality has really improved over the last 10 years. I have heard a lot of good things about them. Looking at the boat I couldn't help but notice there are no rod holders. If you want any suggestions on those I am sure the guys here would be happy to help. They love to spend other people's money:D Let us know if you have any other questions.

[Nailer]

As I have never used lead core when you say 5 and 10 color, you mean I would run mono as backing and then connect 5 or 10 color lengths of lead core?

If I were to run all three as a presentation I am assuming the Boards would be set first closest to the bow, and then the dipsies would follow?

Thanks Again

Troy

Think of you presentation as a V pattern. Both horizontal and vertical.

The point of both V's would be your riggers. Riggers set deepest and closest to the boat. The the divers would go out and be the center of the V. Mid way down and back. The core line would be the back/top of the V. Core lines go way back and don't go that deep.

If you had the rigger at 60' down and 30' back, then the diver would be 120 out on a 1.5 setting (depth around 50'). lastly a full core out 100' out on a board would be running 40' down (a full core is 10 colors).

Braided line is best for core backer. (it uses less space on the real). 40 pound power pro is what most like.

you core setup will be 450-600' of 40 pound braid, core, then 20-30' of 20 pound mono to lure.

These boards both work good for the core lines.

Stay away from stacking rigger rods. Instead add a stacker line to your rigger rod. A stacker is a 6' pc of mono with bb swivels at both ends. Attach it to your main line after you let the rigger down 10+- feet. Use a rubber band to hold it in position like this.

A lot of the guys on the board are willing to take new guys out.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Nailer out.

[gspsteel]

I picked up 2 tite lok three rod trees, 2 single Berts holders that are adjustable and 2 other single tite loks. Found them used and got a good deal about a month ago. I am thinking getting a gimbal mount to mount the riggers on as I have a gimbal slots already on the boat. I figured it would help in converting it back to fish on saginaw bay.

I stopped into Gander tonite just to check a few things out. I was looking at some dipseys are 0's the norm on the big water?

Appreciate the details on running the additional line instead of stacking.

I have got quite the checklist to work off now! Thanks a ton gentleman, you don't know how much this means to me.

Troy

[1mainiac]

Personally skip the LJ dipseys and get the Walker Deeper divers no rings to mess with and much better diver. What most of us do is run sliders on the line what you do is take a leader around 6ft with a snap swivel on each end attach a lure to one end and snap the other end on you fishing line. You can do this as a fixed slider with a rubber band as shown above or you can buy Alberta Clippers which attach to your main line and as mentioned you run your first lure setp down 10 or more ft and clip on the slider then send everything down no you are running 2 baits at differant depths but only using one rod. The other option is a free slider I run these a lot simply because I can add them at will. On a free slider you run the rigger and rod setup down to the depth you want it and just snap on a lure and leader it will follow the line down to roughly halfway to the other lure. The best part is when you get a double as what sometimes happens is you get a hit on the free slider and you have to take up all the line between the free slider and the bottom lure which swims the bottom lure into the fish sometimes causing another fish to hit it. Having 2 angry kings on the same rod is fun and nerve racking at the same time. esp when they go in differant directions.

[Nailer]

I agree with jim on the divers. The walker in the 124mm size, set at 1.5 will dive at a %50 ratio. 100' of line out = 50' down.

Edited March 19, 2010 by Nailer

[jgaul]

I have the HD-7 with the maps and LOVE it!! My father has it too and just got the side imaging. Not to handy for the big lake, but a fun toy to add on if you fish inland lakes. I know the first models of HD had some issues with software, as do most new releases. I have had absolutely no problems at all. I think you will find guys love what they have because they know how to use it so well. I am still figuring mine out, but have had no issues with it. I am out of Holland and am always looking for fishing partners! Let me know, I can show you the HD stuff too if you want. Everyone has great advice on here, I need to get a notebook to start to write down ideas when they are posted so I can remember them all on the water!

tight lines!