Yankee Troller

I would not recommend that transducer. Airmar B60 thru-hull is going to be the way to go. Shoot-thru are OK for measuring depth, but I have not seen what type of detail is lost having to send a signal through a fiberglass hull. I would assume different thicknesses of hulls would perform differently.

No problem, and this info was learned with my Smart Troll system. So, I'm not just talking out my rear end....lol However, currents dictate dive curves more than anything.

That's a good starting point. I'd say in the first 100' it's closer to 2.5:1 and as you get farther out it moves up to 3:1.

We run DW Deeper Divers in size 4 about 95% of the time. I may go to a mag, or #5, if currents are bad and my #4 isn't diving great.

I sell Smooth Moves at Krenzer Marine. I will say it changes the experience and ride of the boat. Smooth Moves are a little more expensive than the option you posted, but they can be adjusted to your body weight.

I had a game warden try to get me on this a few years ago. Skin must be kept on all fish if filleted on the water. Carcasses for Lake Trout and Atlantic Salmon need to be brought back to the dock with the fillets.

I understand that. I've been doing some 30-40 mile offshore trips with buddies in the Gulf of Mexico the last few Winters. The thought of being that far out with no cell service, and being out of range of VHF help was intimidating. I went ahead and purchased one of these - ACR Personal Locator Beacon. Check out the videos on how this works. Might be something to give you peace of mind when fishing solo.

It depends on time of year. In May/June when you're fishing surface breaks down to 30/40' they really like the bright gawdy colors. I typically like the Dreamweaver Super Slim size this time of year as well. Colors for this time of year are Chilly Willy, Mixed Veggies, Martel, Get-R-Dun, Rodfather, Watermelon, NBK, and Green Jeans. July/August when you're fishing thermoclines 40-80' down the same things Salmon are eating the Steelhead will chew. We're also typically running regular and mag sized spoons. Colors for this time of year are 42nd, Martel, NBK, Rodfather, Frog, Moon Cricket, Sea Sick Waddler, and Green Jeans,

Right now the guys in Rochester are heading out to the 27-30N lines and getting 20-40 chews a trip. Temp out there is a little more stable, and currents are generally not as bad.

In my opinion, it's when I'm not fishing that inside 80-200' water. When you're fishing 400-600'. The distance to get there varies by port.

I'd call Lowrance and ask if the Airmar P66 is compatible with your unit. If so, go that route.

Finally getting caught up after running the Orleans County Open event this weekend. Boy did that sneak up on me! My apologies to everyone for that, but I would say it went off pretty well. We already have people offering to help with next year’s event. My hope is that we can get a little more money into the event with help from sponsors and local businesses. Anyway, our Spring tourney season has been lackluster and frustrating to say the least. Regardless, that all changed this weekend! I'm not a huge fan of Friday events because I'm more interested in eliminating water utilizing sonar instead of beating up on the fish. We never turn on any bites on those days, so putting a big box together can be tough. Friday’s event saw 33 teams competing, and we finished in the money with a 6th place finish. Better yet, we had a decent plan going into the event. Saturday (Day 1) we made a 8 mile run to the West and set up in 280' of water targeting mostly Salmon. Those bites seemed to come easy. We took Salmon on a 40' Cannon Downrigger pulling a DW Rodfather and as deep as an A-TOM-MIK 400' copper pulling A-TOM-MIK meat. We spent most of the day looking for a few Steelhead. At 1pm we had 5 Salmon and 1 Lake Trout in the box. The decision was made to run in and grab our three Lake Trout. We stopped in 150' of water pointed Southwest and by 120' we were boxed on Lake Trout. From there we pointed it North and trolled out. On the troll North we grabbed a Steelhead on a sliding cheater with a DW Mixed Veggies. Shortly after that we upgraded our smallest Salmon in the box. That last hour was good for 4 tournament fish! We ended the day in 3rd place, but we had the heaviest box of fish weighed in with 9 of our 10 tournament legal fish. Sunday (Day 2) we went back to the same water but stopped short in 250' because we marked a lot of bait in there running in from Day 1. We deployed a 100% Salmon spread to get that filled ASAP so we could concentrate on Steelhead. We had a major case of the dropsies. Our Salmon box could have been MEGA! Around 10am we were sitting on 4 Salmon. I was sick of looking at marks down 250' over 300' throughout the morning. I asked for a 20lb Shark and sent one of our Cannon Downriggers to 250' loaded with A-TOM-MIK meat. 5 minutes later and we were into a teenager on that rod. That gave us our 5 Salmon, so we picked rods and headed for Laker land. Took us a minute to find them as we trolled from 120' into 85' and then back out to 130', which is where we found them. Once we did, they came fast on Hammerhead Cowbells and Gambler Rigs like the day before. Once we boxed our 3 Lake Trout, we pointed it North. Once we got back out to our Salmon water, we hit our second Steelhead on that same DW Mixed Vegies SS. We had our 10 fish in the cooler, and it was time to upgrade. That 1pm power hour started again, and we made 4 Salmon upgrades with one being a low 20's Salmon. They all came from A-TOM-MIK meat! We knew going in our box was heavier than the previous day AND we had our tournament box filled for the day. We were pretty sure we had this event licked! We were one of the first teams to weigh in and indeed our box was bigger than the previous day. My excitement was raging given our record the last few events. Then came the Dublin' Up team captained by Carl Martin with a West End hammer, Roy Letcher, and they dropped the MEGA ULTRA box down on the scales. In the end, we settled for 2nd place in the event, 2nd place in the Calcutta, and won 2/3 brackets.