Fishstix

DATES

SPRING DERBY - MAY 4TH - MAY 13TH

SUMMER DERBY - MAY 26TH - JULY 15TH

FALL DERBY - AUGUST 17TH - SEPTEMBER 3RD

Anyone that has followed my posts over the years has heard me talk about optimisers. They have always been hard to get. Well I just orded my favorite colors and I got a email back I cant get what I want. Most of the optimisers are sold out and he doesnt know if he will make anymore. I got 2 of the silver copper blacks ,I ordered six. The last two. They will be like gold at my marina. My biggest rainbow ever came on a optimiser21lbs.Last year my biggest salmon came on a optimiser. So you can imagine Im devistated. I still catch fish on other stuff but when Im really fishing hard for a big one optimisers go down . When Im pulling flies its a little slow for optimisers.The Honeybee line up will still be available and certain optimisers will be available.

That sounds great just dont pick a date that falls during the spring,summer ,or fall LOC derby. Or Memorial day weekend. Ill donate my entry fee.

Ive always wanted to figure out a way to run a derby and not have to keep fish. {everyone needs a scale and poloroid camera] best I can come up with.

How about "YOU THE MAN" derby.

Im fishing a invite only derby in April out of Sodus . Ill see how they run it.

Im currently looking for a couple rods . I just purchased a couple Tekota 500lc reels. Ive been to Gander Mtn and Bass pro.Walked out of both places rodless.Rods will a dual purpose. Spring planer board and heavy summer deep trolling.17 to 30 lb test line. I like cork. I like a long grip between the reel and rod,so you have something to get ahold of. I hate those little plastic inserts they put in the guides ,they fall out eventually.I hate the reel seats you have to keep tighting up. I hate trying to figure out the model numbers of rods on lists on the computer,you can never get the numbers to match up.Enough of the rant. The guide series rods seem to be as good a looking rod as any of em. They are a whole lot cheaper. Anyone running them?

Its to late this year but next year Ill probably have to add rod building to my portfolio.

Honestly I dont know how it would be jig fishing. But I know it would show if something was down there.It shows fish on the bottom real well. It has ten different depth ranges that you can set manually .Im sure you can control the screen speed also.I think the shallowest I have mine set is 0 to 30ft deepest is 0 to 250. It will go to 1000ft but I have no need for that. I usually set it for the depth im fishing and leave it at that. It has a zoom, bottom lock and several special features that I have never figured out. Ive never really needed them either. I set the gain on mine manually also. You can see the thermalcline, clouds of sea fleas etc. It is a heavy unit it probably weighs 8lbs or so. Its like a little color TV. I dont believe its waterproof . Its splash proff though.I know of several boats running them . Ive heard they are hard to see in direct sunlight . Mine hangs from the roof so the sun never really is directly on it. Also Ive heard of them loosing brilliance. Something that may be going on with mine I have the brilliance turned all the way up . I have no idea how old my unit is I bought it used. Another thing about these say your in 300FOW and you have your depth set at 0 to 120. Your depthfinder will not tell you how deep of water your in . The depth is out of range.If you set it 0 to 350 it would tell you your water depth. This is probably not an entry level depthfinder. It takes a little while to get it figured out. I figured the ball track color thing out myself from just observing when I was catching fish and when I wasnt. Mine shows fish in the color red most of the time. I dont really like to see big red arcs. the fish are stationary. I would reather see red bips. I think its telling me the fish are moving and only in the cone for a second.

If someones looking for a boat that will take the waves and is easy to trailer check this one out. I dont know this guy but I have an arima.Its a Super machine.Actually thats not a bad price.If someone on this board is interested you can see mine I dont imagine they have changed.Mines not for sale but it could save you a trip to Virginia.

L&M ....cant see the cannon balls ,to fast......,red or yellow cannonballs ,to slow,...... Thin green line you catch fish . Ive got down speed and temp but the probe stays in the cuddy It only gets used for temp checks when I cant get anything going. A little more "old school"

Ask that question in early May. Who knows what the hot ticket will be this year. As far as spoon size goes.medium size spoons and stickbaits. You could probably hold off on buying stuff till you got up here. The local tackle shop guys should be able to fill you in on whats working.

Furuno FCV667 They have made this model as long as I can remember,and they still make them.its a CRT. If the one Ive got ever dies I will replace it with a new 667. Just like my old one. If you search around the web you can pick them up new around $600 bucks or so.

I would like to make another point. I awalys run my stuff a little above the fish.Ive been told the fish look up to feed.Seems to work.I figure if I can go down 80 they can come up 5. If you think about how they feed fish when they are babies [Throw it on top and down it comes]. Probably why you catch so many seting up.

If anyone has the picture of LL statue in front of the LOU building post it please. I lost mine when my other computer crashed.

On my 2nd tundra since 2000. I use up pickups. Ran 160000 on the first one got almost 80000 on this one. Never even changed a lightbulb. The 4 wheel drive is bulletproof. I use it most everyday. Not only does it pull the boat ..It stops the boat.Look in ocupations s of LOU members . He is towning me up to the woods with a log skidder so I dont have to carry saws.Just another day.

How Ive been getting to work. Snow is up to my a--.

If a guy didnt have to eat ,he could do alright.

Great subject. When I had a trophy boat I had a 115 honda on it. Probably to heavy of a motor for the boat but as you say get a couple heavy guys in the back and it would submerge the scuppers.I had the rubber flaps. I ended up replaceing the flap scuppers with a new style scupper. They were a tube with a checkball in it . Sealed real tight when they submerged. I dont remember where I got them . You also have to keep an eye on them making sure you keep seaweed ,leaves and other kinds of junk out of them. But they did the job. If I remember right I think I had to drill the scupper holes out larger....

https://ssl10.securedata.net/gapen/tackle3.html

They would definately save a lot of messing around.

A couple good linecounter tekota reels and med rods . I bet it would be fun. Drop em down and go.

Back in the mid 70's when I was stationed in Biloxi Mississippi. We rented a boat and fished the back bay. There was a sewage treatment plant there and well you can imagine back then how the water quality was.We anchored in the discharge and my buddy goes to cast and the rod flies right out of his hand. It was a new rod and he decided to go in after it the water was only a little over waist deep. After about a half hour of feeling the bottom with his feet he decided it was gone. I pulled the anchor and the rod was caught on the anchor line. Those Kentuckey boys are tough.

Ive never heard of anyone having much trouble with them. They are real snotty. Thats some good advice on the 4 stroke kicker.

Chinook I was thinking more like a one day get together thing.Take out some members that dont have boats.Bring your own crew whatever. But are interested in big lake fishing. Im not a charter guy . Ive never been to port bay[.Habinero haven] I hear good things about it. I hear its not to crowded.Maybe no ones interested.

We could also do a derby for biggest fish during the summer derby.That is a great idea.Put it together and count me in.

Sounds like a good idea. Taking it one step further .How about a LOU member fishing derby?Just a one day thing.For bragging rights. It would be nice to come up with a format where we didnt have to keep fish.Set it up Billie V.

balls, thought long and hard about ridgeback rattlers though.Ive got about 10 cannonballs to lose . Before I buy anything else.

If you take a sutton spoon and bend it lenghtways,right down the middle you can run them faster.But you can never get them to runslower again. At least I cant.

Straighten out the nose on a optimiser and increase the bend in the cup and you can slow them right down.

If anyone has had much luck tuning metal dodgers I would like to hear it.Some of mine swim horizontal and I cant figure out why.Some of the same dodgers same colors catch fish . Put the same out on the other side and they dont. Its something the fish see and I dont.

I run that blue high on bright sunny days in clear water. The Little boy blue fly that got mentioned a lot on the old board got me thinking I should run more blue stuff.

The brn. we got in the red cross derby came on a little boy blue fly.Go figure that out.

You could be right on the split ring stuff also I never gave it much thought.I dont really like to mess with something thats working.

Probably because they dont come with them.They are all R&R's . They swim ok without them. In the right hand colum 3rd one down is the ole grape dot watermellon. Killer spoon. Ray I know your not to far off. I read one of your posts last yr. You said you were running 2.6 . That was my target speed also.

Ive found that when you are really rockin and rolling up there say threes and up you just cant get your speed right. Its optimiser time. Ive caught fish up to 4mph on optimisers. Very speed tolerent.I just ordered some more . black n purple and silver ,copper, black.

As far as the line color goes I know guys that run that high visibility green and catch just as many fish as everyone else.I have not had good luck with the florocarbon line ,but others have.

Ive been running a little red deep and didnt realize it.I didnt put up any pictures of chewed up red hook spoons.But I have caught fish on most all of these.

Ive ran some of the weenie stuff in the finger lakes. I got it to late for the big pond. Great stuff, great colors,well made. They also catch fish..

Ive got a couple and they work great for planerboard fishing as mentioned above . They are a big pain to let the line out during flea season.