GAMBLER

Nice fish Mick. Thats the way it always happens. A couple days before or after you catch the big one. Oh well. Congrats on your personal best.

Fish Hawk X-4. No coated cable, reads to 300', small probe, runs on 4 AA batteries that last a long time, Probe electronics are sealed so it will not get ruined if it fills with water, compact monitor. It is all personal preferance. Depth Raider, Fishhawk, Subtroll or Cannon.

Malin 7 strand. Expensive but the best IMO.

Thanks Mark.

Chowder, I believe A-tom-mik sells torpeda shaped rigger weights.

Is there a youth division in the Orleans Derby? If so, what is the youngest that can enter? My 7 year old nephew wants to fish a derby. How much is the registration for adults / youths? I can't remember from last year.

Carl, Nice report. It sounds like the entire lake is on fire right now. A lot better than last year at this time for sure. Hopefully it holds up for the weekend.

Stan, Check out this site. This is a real eye opener about BC's salmon problem.

The Sealine Diawas have been awesome for me for 16 years. I have 8 27 lc's (all 8 are 16 years old), and 10 47lc's (2 - 10 years old) and the only problems I ever had was the drag clicker wearing out on 4 of the 27's. I called Diawa and they sent me new drag clickers as they broke free of charge. How can you beat that? I had the old Great Lakes 47lc's and like Tim said, the drags were choppy. They are long gone.

Pops, Nice brown. Too bad it was not caught during one of the derbies.

Sliders = cheaters that are not fixed. Clip it on the line and just let it sink down to the bow in the main line. It is hard to duplicate the same depth after a release but they work good when the fish are spread out in the water column.

Any pics of the tents?

Electric Fly swater from Harbor Freight Tools. It works great. It is also is very entertaining. Nice report.

Me Too!

I tried a spool of it and was not that impressed. It does not kink as easy but still kinks. It is no better with the fleas. The only positive (over to the Malin 7 strand) I have found with it is the price. A lot cheaper.

That would not work out in there favor or ours!

Congrats Spoonfed. That picture does not do that fish justice. Good luck in the fall LOC.

I was wondering why the past derby stats have not been posted since 2007? I like looking back to see what the bottom of the board was the previous year to give me a ballpark figure of what goes in the cooler and what swims to catch next year.

Seagar. The best. It is pricey but worth every penny. When buying florocarbon, make sure you buy leader material not florocarbon for stringing up a spinning rod. There is a big difference in quality. The leader material is also more abrasion resistant.

It is all personal preference. If you do not want to change out your rigger cable, go with the X4. If you don't mind changing the cable and worring about fraying the cable, go with the Depth Raider. Both units work great. I have the X4 probe with my old 840 unit and it has not hick-uped yet. Same 4 AA batteries since the begining of the season.

Gambler, do you run them on that high tension setting? Seems like they might be hard to trip down at 100' if you want to change out? Run them on the heavy setting when you are fishing deep of running flashers. Lots of extra drag on the line as you go deep. With fleas building on the line, there is a lot more resistance. Find the sweet spot in the pinch pad. Don't bury the line all the way in the back of the release.

Thanks Ray. Musky, good luck on a speedy recovery.

Bass Buster, Is this an open Tourney? I will be up there this weekend with a bass buddy camping. We were going to fish a tourney but they cancelled the entire tourney trail.

It is not the FF. It sounds like you got a bad transducer. Lowrance has had some issues with the duel Freq. transducers.

Buy the Heartlands. The are cheap and great rods.