Miss em

FWIW there is not a lure that goes over the side of the Fish Doctor or the Miss em without Smelly Jelly on it.

Hey Jerry, Can you give your magic 8-ball one last shake and tell me how Team Fish Doctor will fare in the Oswego Pro-Am!

Of course at this point, I can't even remember what team he was with, or how they placed. My point is that I thought it was BS and that I am a fan of closed communication. Just my opinion. I know that this past Oswego Pro Am, we found fish on our own that extra boat traffic would have messed up big time if the observer had spilled the beans.

Our observer last year in Olcott had a "secret code" worked out with his team. He calling them to let them know our status and location, as we were hitting the cohos really well. I could hear the whole thing and finally told him "Why don't you just read the lat/lon right off of the gps?" Open communication is a joke!

Chris,

Might want to look at the Penn GTO 230 levelwind too. Reasonably priced, the right size for core. We ran some last year and they are a solid reel. Plus you get the Penn drag that can not be beat by anybody.

McCoy Mean Green is awesome line. If we were not affiliated with Maxima, that is what I would be running.

Howie's and the Fish Doc sell 600 footers.

Fish307.com, Howie's Tackle, or Fish Doctor Charters are other sources. Fish doc will be selling sections that are premarked at 50 foot increments this year. Look for a Super Copper coming out from Howie's Tackle this year too. I believe that the Super Copper has a solid strand of stainless monel in the center of it. We tried some and it helped minimize the memory that the copper has.

Heard nothing but good things about these guys too:

www.atlantictowers.com

I use them off and on and would recommend the Church Tackle boards. They are the red ones and they are the easiest to rig and remove in a hurry. They come in three sizes and the smallest ones work fine for pulling stickbaits or flutter spoons. The downside on the middle size and largest one is that you need to use fairly stout rods because they pull pretty hard. Kind of need like a med rigger rod and maybe #15 test to avoid breakoffs.

Being in the rod building business I have a couple of preferences. I personally like roller guides over standard guides. Some of the testing we have done shows that they are slightly smoother and have a little less friction than regular guides. Regular guides, which are typically aluminum oxide, are subject to varying friction due to moisture or temperature differences. The differences are slight but may make all of the difference in the world when a king smashes that dipsy rig! No matter what reel you use, the guides play a major part in the net effective drag that the fish is pulling against. That being said, we still make a ton of wire rods with regular guides that stand up to years and years of abuse.

My other preference is to use twilly tips, even over roller tip-tops. When stowing or rigging, they always act as a little shock absorber, help keep the wire tight and minimize potential kinks.

I use 7 foot roller rods on my boat, they are much easier to handle and are much more easier for landing fish. You can land fish a lot quicker and with less effort with the short rods. Would you rather hold a 10 pound weight at the end of a 10 foot pole or a 7 foot pole? I know my wife, kids, (and me) would pick the shorter one every time!

Dave

I think you lost a team mate one year becasue of senility - on his part! Ha-Ha