I had a 27lb king almost spool me a couple seasons ago. It was hooked in the dorsal fin. Before I could get the boat turned, I was down to 100' of backing! I have had a couple hooked in the top of the head that were hard to slow down too. I would rather have a little bit of insurance than get spooled.
IMO, 150 yds of backing is only a good idea if you run the rod down the chute. If you run it off a board, you are asking to get spooled. I have had a couple kings hooked funny and almost get spooled with 300 yds of backing off the boards.
I am selling bulk sinkers. I have 3/4 bank sinkers, 5/8oz bell sinkers and 5/8oz drop shot sinkers. They come in bags of 50. Right now I have a good number of bell and bank sinkers made up. I'm waiting on more drop shot swivels. Prices are as follows:
3/4 oz bank sinkers - $20.00 / 50 + $5.00 shipping
5/8 oz bell sinkers - $18.00 / 50 + $5.00 shipping
5/8 oz drop shot sinkers - $30.00 / 50 + $5.00 shipping
I got the chance to hunt the depot six years ago. To say they stick out like a spot light is an understatement. I could see multiple white deer walking through very dense brush like the brush was not even there. The regular brown whitetails that were walking with them were unseen until they walked out of the brush. They would be decimated if they were in the wild.
There is way too much food in that lake. The dink gills and perch in the lake make for a lot of competition! I hope we are not done for the season on Honeoye. I have a bad feeling...... The forecast after Wednesday looks OK but that could change. I would stay up north and have your buddy come join you Kevin.
Spudded my way out to the trench from the east side today. Shore ice was far from stellar but the main lake ice was good. 3-3.5" of black ice. 33 keeper perch came home. Tips downs and tip ups were a waste of time. Jigging was fast and furious. Lots of dinks with keepers mixed in.
About fifteen or so years ago there was a hill billy bragging in the bait shop down there that he was dumping pike from conesus in there because he was sick of catching so many small bass.
I keep bottom contact and raise it up 3-5'. I always keep dropping them to make sure I'm close to bottom. If my ball is dragging bottom, I raise the rigger up 3-5', I'm not far off the bottom. With my graph zoomed on the bottom, I will mark arches that the top off the arch is level with the ball. I do not run a probe that close to the bottom. I run a third rigger with a probe off the bottom that is clean (no rod). At the speeds I run, blow back is not an issue. The cable angle is next to nothing unless there is a ton of current. I run mostly .8 - 1.8 ball speed. I run 12lb weights. I don't have any pictures of what I'm talking about. This summer I can get you one.