CBish

Red tape is good, so is black on purple tape or glow on green If you really want to catch fish make a window lure with them -- go to at the oak and look for my window lure on the popular lures page. CC

Blaze, The hummin is the sound of the cables slicing through the water. NORMAL CC

Billy V, I do not believe my report on the function of the side imaging was biased. I spent $3000.00 on the unit. It lacks the quality that we are acustomed to in our (Raymarine, Furuno, Sitex) fish finder units. The side imaging was cool you could see the rocks on the breakwall as we exited the port on one side of the boat. The lack of transducer technology made using the unit impossiable on the type of boats we use on the great lakes. The only way to fully use the side imaging would be a different transducer system. When the boat was not under way the side imaging was awsome, it would be useful in many other fishing applications, just not our..........yet. I wish you the best with your new Cannons....... I am glad they gave them to you to use; it shows their interest in perfecting the units. My first choice for downriggers would be CANNON Digitroll IV built in the 90's, just cant fix them when/if the go bad. Respectfully, CC

NO DOUBT!!! Nice fish CC

BB, Don't confuse stained water with dirty water. What you are looking for is water with dissolved nutrients that darken the color vs. dirty (muddy) water that has undisolved sediments that are suspended in the water. Tom is right if you can see the bottom in 10 fow you are going to be hard pressed to rack up the numbers. Clear water hints: small lures pink step up the speed CC

Ray, There were only 2 pockets of water warmer than the temps you mentioned, they were about 100 yards accross and in 6 - 9 fow just east of each feeder creek. CC

Are you sure that you need a license to fish LO?? I thought you only needed one for freshwater fishing.

Oh what a beautiful morning!! Did the shakedown thing with the big boat and all is well. Engine and systems all a go. The water at the Oak is still cold and very clear. We could only find very small pockets of colored water and when we did it was 40.5 to 41.2 degrees. We did manage to pull a few fish, all on small baits #7 rapalas in cold steel was the best. Mixed veggies in both the kaboom and on a small spoon also took fish. Biggest mistake of the day -- not resetting my rigger releases for spring fishing, twisted one fish off that couldn't pull the release. Had 3 boys on board, all caught fish; my 9 year old started things off with a nice little Atlantic, should be a fortelling of good luck -- first fish of the year = name of the boat. I feel good!!! A little wind and rain should set things up nicely for the beginning of April. CC

Dave, The pulley system on the end of the rigger has flipped and jumped a couple of times, the counters have to be constantly re-adjusted and for some reason every time I do that with my FAT fingers the springs jump off and go flying into the lake. I will take most of the blame for the above issues and a little more attention to detail and slowing down a little would avoid them. The big Jons are very well made, great value, strong, fast and fantastic rod holders! You can't beat the captains pack. CC

Stinger is the good size. Used to be sutton 31, clearwater 101 and the like were staple BT spoons in the spring.... the 4X4 rig is my favorite. 4 foot back and 4 food down with an all silver spoon in this size the fish will come right into the prop wash and nail it, all you have to do is net it!! I prefered the ones with a single hook on them. Put the other riggers back 30 - 50 ' with color pattern spoons on them frog, goby ect. you will do fine. CC

Dave, The worst thing you could do would be to not contact me and swap some trout and salmon time on the south shore with some pike and walleye time on N/E side. Only stipulation would be that you have to bring several of your 10th mt. boys from the desert with you when you come to fish with me. Other than that just go fishing, don’t over think it, put down black and silver with some glo spoons or white and green/glo flasher with a green/glo fly and catch fish!! Catching fish really is that easy – it’s the catching MORE fish that challenges us!! CC

We went through the downrigger replacement game last year. I upgraded to all new CANNON 20DT/TS, added the Humminbird 1197 SI combo and the CANNON LINK to control them. Rigged them on the boat and they looked sweet! After 26 years of using CANNON products exclusively (from the dual crank 6 to digitrol IV) I was excited about the prospect of using my fishfinder to bottom track and control the riggers from the helm. It turned out to be quite the opposite. Before spending over $6000.00 on the equipment, I contacted CANNON to see how the product worked and to talk to someone that was using the system. I called a couple of their pro staff people; they all had old (Prior to Humminbird ownership) equipment. None used the whole system. LIKE A FOOL I purchased it anyway, after all Humminbird + Cannon they must be producing a solid, fine engineered product. WRONG The First problem was with the 20 DT/TS (I replaced 2 older-perfect working- 20 DTs and one bottom tracking DTIV with new ones that were compatible with the "System") while trolling in 60' of water for June Lakers one rigger would take 78' of cable to get to the bottom and another would start bouncing at 53'. --What the Heck!! I called Cannon and the tech on the other side of the line started to explain to me how downriggers work with blow back and using the same weight canon ball ect. Like I did not know this already in my 21st year of charter fishing!! I could tell more, but the icing on the cake was when the tech called me back (3rd week of July) and told me that they certainly were having some problems with "SOME" riggers and mine must have been from that group. All I had to do was send them back and they would fix them and get them back to me in 6 weeks. 6 WEEKS TOOK ME TO LABOR DAY and the end of my busy season. Well I dumped them and the Humminbird (Side imaging is a crock) and bought BIG JON's. Big Jons are alright, but if I had to do it again (or if you want to buy my big Jons) I would get Scotty’s!! If you are ever at the OAK come by and I will bore you for hours on the summer of 2008 CANNON horror stories. (THE "fishing system" does not work either final instruction from humminbird "don’t use in a wet environment"!!!) I have never seen a good product ruined so fast as the CANNON downriggers when they were bought by Johnson's Outdoors - humminbird. SORRY TO RAMBLE, CC

Blacks on the bottom & Roamers for stacking. Should be able to figure out the roamer once you get one and study it for a second. The only thing different I do is after clamping the line at the top I bring both tag ends down one side and then thru the clip going the same direction rather than a cross. A big king on 30# big game can destroy can cut up the release pretty bad if you cross them. CC

Thanks guys, I got some on the way http://www.xtackle.com/

Where can I buy some shallow running Kabooms on line? Thanks, cc

Mick, After reading your post on the other forum, I realized it way you we saw out there on Saturday. Beautiful morning, good to get the lines and net wet!!! CC

After sleeping past the alarm, trailer problem, no lights and final rigging (14' tiller boat). Greg (from Capt. Cove) and I got on to the lake at 10 am. Set out the 2nd line went to place it in the holder and FISH ON -- nice 7 lber on black and silver stick. A couple dry passes that went for lunch at the new Lighthouse Resturant. Not much stained water, big boat next week!! CC

Anyone have their boat in and fishing yet?? What is your ETL (estimated time of launch)? Mine should be in the middle of next week, shake down on the 28th then open for business on April 4. I was unable to fish the spring last year so I am making up for it this one. Can't wait to slime up the deck. Good Fishing, CC

Don, I run green 30# and clear 20# only so I can keep track of which pound test is on which quickly. Big game has a new bright green out, don't use it, but their traditional dark green line is very good as is their clear. Very strong, very forgiving, very durable. CC

For browns in shallow water the big boards are the way to go. Set lines 100'-150' back, either all the same or < the outside line. Place rods in rod holders with the outside rod forward. Get 30 release clips and hope you have to pull the board at 9am to retrieve them. I use smaller boards out deeper, for copper and in close with J's for the salmon in these application the leads all change in accordance with presentation depth. Hope this answers your question, CC

I have the following for sale: 2 Shimano Charter Special 2000 lever drag reels, just serviced by Captain's Cove $80 Each 2 Penn 320 LD Reels new last summer $85 each 1 Talora Lead core rod 7' like new with one broken eye $30.00 TEKOTAS SOLD 3 Diawa 47 LC $50 each Send me an email at [email protected] or pm me or call 716-560-2878. Pick up COD in Batavia or Pt. Breeze. For direct sale now but will auction on ebay 3/20 Thanks, CC

Yep -- Pairs. Generally you want to just borrow them or observe them on other boats. I tried "BUYING" them once and found that "ownership" was very expensive and maintenance was a nightmare. Best advice -- keep "your own" away from boat!! CC

30# big game works fine too any color. $5.50 a reel at wallyworld

Capt. Put a Brute on my stern last season and drug the 25 stinger around a bit. DONT DROP on toe! Would hate to see one of these fall to the bottom with my fish hawk on it. OH NO. Never ran a shark, do they swim straight? Do they need to be tuned. That is a good price on the weight, the stinger cost me all of that!! Thanks for the heads up. CC

You will find that trolling with jugs has a real natural feeling to it. The advantages are that they preoccupy the guys on the boat making the passing of time seem quicker on a slow day. The disadvantages are that on a good day guys miss strikes because their eyes are on the jugs. I have also had guys fighting fish, turn their focus to the jugs and tangle lines because of this distraction. I have not been able to be as consistent trolling with jugs as I would like to be, but I continue to try. I have seen some charter captains trolling with up to 4 sets of jugs and I am amazed whenever they troll by. Perhaps some other guys could be more helpful on this subject. It is a most fascinating topic and technique. CC