Iceman

MD;

If you are seeing a voltage drop, the current rises to offset this voltage drop, so the amperage increase could be burning out the board.

John

FilletKnifeGuide.com you will find the best fillet knife, the best electric knife with reviews

byrle:

Thanks for the link, looked over the knives shown there & is a very good list.  I am looking for a cordless electric knife for perch & walleyes, will probably now go for the Rapala noted there.  One thing I noticed on the regular fillet knives  was that it says the Victorinox 47513 is carbon steel, which is incorrect, this knife is high carbon stainless steel, carbon steel would rust, & the 8 Victorinox knives including this one do not rust or stain.

Thanks;

John

Several years ago I was watching the egg stripping effort in Altmar & was disappointed to see them exclusively grab the smaller fish to strip egg & milt from. IMHO, they wanted the genes of the smaller fish, I asked them about this & just got a big blank stare.  I believe that they want smaller fish that spawn earlier.  If you want the big guys, you need too take the elements from the best fish!

John

Jennings:

Very nice!  hope you still have all your appendages!

John

YT:

You are feeling feisty, I like it!  Easy to see that winter has been around too long for you!

John

Sounds like they need to tumble the diver blanks in an abrasive media prior to assembly.  Should be able to accomplish the same thing using successively finer grades of metal finishing sandpaper till smooth (100, 180 & 220).

John

Congrats, & good luck with your new baby, clearly a keeper!

John

I have always been amazed with the stuff that comes from Lake Erie on the West end. One year we saw a dead adult milk cow floating off of the Bar.

John

SD;

I second the Traxtech trees, I have had a triple set on each side of my Hewescraft for 2 seasons now, & would not leave the dock without them. They ratchet 180 degrees & have rod straps if you want to put the rod tips in the water & not worry about loosing a rod.

Good luck with which ever brand you choose.

John

PD:

I use my TD to calibrate all my junk lines (dipsey, lead balls, copper, & lead core) The unit tells me exactly how deep each set goes so I can use them for the depth I need to go to with confidence. The TD is a great tool.

John

Need a photo of the J's, & stick baits please.

FO:

I run braid until the fleas show up, then I break out my wire diver rods. The nice thing about braid is it wont cut off a fish on mono, so I don't reel them in when a King goes crazy on the rigger rods. Agree with Bandrus1!

John

I believe you can get a standard transducer for about$130 and it has an internal GPS antennae

It depends on where you plan on mounting the unit, you really need to have a pretty clear unobstructed path to the heavens to receive the GPS signals well under all conditions. Plus, having an external antenna gives you a backup for the internal antenna. This total for the unit would still be approximately $150 more than budgeted.

John

Then you have to add in from $250 to $750 for a sonar transducer, & another $120 for the external GPS antenna, a little over Pie's budget for the low end stuff by about $390. Also the navigational base map is the continents only, so you would have to buy a mapping card to have any resolution on the plotter.

John

TL;

See this is what happens when you can't fish!

John

You could still get the bottom hugging LT in the usual spots, but there seems to be a percentage that dont follow the playbook. You could have caught a LT at any place at any given time when NOT targeting them.

I did notice that the Lakers were in unusual places last year, however we were able to get away from them if this happened at any time using the above options. So it was not an issue for our team at any time.

John

Furuno is a sonar unit only, you will need another unit for navigation.

John

mid summer, targeting the top 20, steelhead/king spread, and speed.... LT LT LT   what do ya do now Iceman?? because that was the case.

As I said, you need to move, you can get away from them if you want to. Was this an upwelling condition?

John

Nice work on the cameras! Enjoyed the show! Looking forward to the next one. Hope the warm rains get here soon, last Spring was a bust out West.

John

If too many lake trout are grabbing your offerings, there are several things you can do, first, speed up your troll, second move away from their concentrations, & raise up your deep lines if they are hitting on them. Can't let the lakers deposit laker pate' in the bottom of the boat.

John

Is there really a big stain on the dress, it must be blue then?

OTL;

I don't troll @ 25 mph, however I could see where it could be useful for looking around. Typically, we are working way points from the previous day, or from friends out on the water before us, so I don't need to have the ability to search @ high speed. Plus, I trailer my boat & would not be comfortable dealing with a large fairing block getting banged around when loading in rough surf conditions.

John

FR:

Thru hull transducers have their place, & they do a good job, but are not necessary to get good sonar performance. I use a transom mounted ducer, & have all the resolution I need. Good luck with your installation. I can see my weights, bait & a streaker or two chasing my spread. By the way the streaker was a 22LB King.

John

A number of folks have previously stated on here that they NEVER clear their lines for kings so I was just underscoring stuff I had previously stated on that issue.

I tend to pull my wire diver on the side that a big rigger king is on to eliminate cutting him off on the wire. I run braid divers until the fleas show up, & don't tend to pull these at all when a rigger king is on. To each their own. It is good to keep as many lines in the strike zone as long as you can, doubles, triples & quads are very cool!

John

what breaks the lite bite arm?

BO;

There is an arm with an open eye on the back end of the diver (lure side) that you put your line through, & it trips the diver from the lure side.

John