Mickey Finn

We'll see how long it takes to get the transducer before I head out to get that ticket. I'm up in the air on what to look for for a unit. I like the furuno 620 but a couple things I'm not sure about. Verticle pixel count is 320 compared to 640 I think on the Humminbird 788. I've always thought that greater pixel count gives better target seperation which is important fishing lakers in deep water. The other thing is to get a combo unit from Furuno, you gotta put up some big bucks compared to $650 for the Humminbird. I could just go with the stand alone fish finder and keep my Lowrance for the GPS but then I got to find room for both of them and I wouldn't be able to get some of money back by selling the Lowrance. Maybe someone will jump in with some input on the Humminbird 788. Oh..what to do? I wish I could add all the hours back to my life that I've spent contemplating on equipment for my boats! Nothing worse than spending big bucks on something that's not what you wanted or doesn't perform up to expectations.

Ok, that wasn't as bad as I figured it would be. Maybe all the bad publicity has made them make changes there. Only on hold for 17 minutes...not sure if that is satifactory or not but better than I expected. They actually had the transducer I needed and are sending it to me. Hopefully it will be here soon. Still not very satisfied with only being able to get one season each out of the previous two transducers. I'm thinking I might put a new unit on the boat and sell this one. Really wish I could get some input from someone about the capabilities of the Humminbird 788c. I'd really like to know how it works picking trout off the bottom in 150 feet or more. Also would be nice to know I'm going to get more than one season out of the transducer. This must be a new unit because I don't see much info on here about it.

On hold right now. Listening to Rod Stewart: "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" ! Funny... if I wasn't so frustrated!

Wow, I guess I didn't realize all this happened. I just found out yesterday that my tranducer was bad for my LMS520C again. Linda sent me one last June and it has failed again. I sent her an email last night and it was returned so I did a little search on the internet for her name and found all this stuff. That sucks. She's the only reason I stayed with them. Does anyone have another contact like her that I can use or am I going to have to sit thru an hour of elevator music to get someone who probably can't help me?

I just confrimed that my transducer was bad today. I temporarily connected one I had from my LCX 15MT and it works fine. No temp but I already knew the temp doesn't work if you use the transducer from the LCX15 on the LMS520. So it looks like I have to get a knew transducer every year. That makes me happy!

First make sure all your connections are clean and tight. I assume your new riggers are faster and probably draw more current than your old ones. They may require larger wire than your old ones. The higher current will cause a greater voltage drop if the wire is too small or if there are corroded or loose connections. If the voltage is too low at the rigger when its running, the motors work too hard and overheat. I ran cannons for a long time and if they stopped it was almost always connections or the short-stop board. Seeing as yours are new, I doubt its the short-stop boards. Also, my older cannons had reset buttons on them that had to be reset if the motor got overloaded. Not sure if your have this or not.

How about the Humminbird 778? Anyone have this unit? It looks like this is a new unit from Humminbird. Just wondering how they will hold up. I've had so much transducer troubles with the Lowrance units, I'm ready for something else. Is the 778 the same thing as the 788 but w/o GPS? I've never been a Humminbird guy but the units I've seen them put out in the last few years look pretty good. Just would be nice to know how they work at picking trout off the bottom in 150 of water and how they hold up year to year. I like the looks of the Furuno too but more money, especially if I want a unit with GPS. Any thoughts?

Lowrance should be good at shipping out free transducers. They sent me 4 new ones for my LCX15-MT and it looks like I need the second free one for my two year old LMS520C. Never again will I make this mistake!

I had a 230 Baha Fisherman and a 255 Penn Yan Intruder. If you can find a Penn Yan, and the survey looks good, I think you'd be much happier with it over the Baha. The Penn Yan was the much better built boat of the two.

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name:

==============

TRIP OVERVIEW

==============

Date(s):4/30, 5/1

Time on Water:7:00 AM to 4:00 PM each day

Weather/Temp:

Wind Speed/Direction: not much

Waves: 1 foot or less

Surface Temp: 49 to 53

Location: Out of Stony Creek

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

===============

FISHING RESULTS

===============

Total Hits: 16

Total Boated: 14

Species Breakdown: Brown Trout, Lake Trout, Northern

Hot Lure: Various

Trolling Speed: 2.3 for Browns, 1.7 for Lakers

Down Speed:

Boat Depth: 5 to 8 feet for Browns, 100 to 125 for Lakers

Lure Depth:

====================

SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

====================

Took my boss and cousin with me to fish the sands south of Stony Creek for three days last week. Thursday was a blow off day. We tried the Harbor at Henderson for a few hours with no luck. Appearently a few browns have been taken from the Harbor. Friday morning we put in at Stony Creek and very slowly made our way to the lake. Had to back up once to get off the mud flat but we made it. Fished in front of the creek for about an hour but water was clear and there were quite a few boats. Pulled up and headed south and put lines back out between the Park and the estuary. Color was good and we did 7 for 8 on Browns up to 9 pounds in a pretty short time. Then just like that, it was over. Tried depths from 5 feet to 45 feet and only managed to catch and release one Northern the rest of the day. Hot lures were the Jr thunderstick in the brown trout pattern and a couple NK lite 28's that I got from Pike Hunter and taped up myself. One was silver on the bottom, chartreuse prism on top with orange spots. The other was one my wife taped up while watching me take some. She put it together with pretty colored scrap pieces of tape I had. It was mostly siver with pink, purple and green in it. You can see it hanging from one of the browns in the pictures. I promised her I'd run it and it ended up our best lure. Go figure! We went back to the same spot, starting right in front of the park on Saturday morning and only managed one brown and missed a couple. Trolled all the way to North Pond entrance and back. Never saw another net move on any of the boats that were there. Most everyone vacated by noon. Tried different depths and finally late in the afternoon we ran to the finger off the light and made one pass for Lakers. Had four hits and landed three up to 11 pounds. They came on the fire tiger bells and the yellow/orange spot peanut run 5 feet off bottom. Took one in 100 feet and two at around 120 feet. Overall it was pretty slow but we had a great time. Can't wait to get back out there in July.

You'll notice that some of them take off fine and some can't get off the water. I was told that they eat so many bait fish that they can't take off. Not sure if that is true or not.

Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind. The forecast looks better now than it did when I checked it this morning. I haven't looked at the Marine forecast. Hopefully there will be some nice colored water for a few days now.

Steve

Heading out to fish the Lake for three days tomorrow. Will start fishing on Thursday. It looks like it might still be a little windy on Thursday from the West. I hope to fish the sands south of Stony Creek but was wondering if there are still any fish to be caught in Oswego Harbor in case its still blowing. Is there any part of the harbor where I should concentrate? Any areas off limits? Also, with a West wind, would I be able to get shelter enough near shore if I fished west from Little Salmon or Catfish Creek towards the power plant?

Steve

I think thats the same unit I used to have about 10 years ago. I don't remember the model number but that sounds like it. All I had to do was hold a steady course and then engage the unit with the black lever on the side. It then held that course. It didn't have any connections for a GPS or anything. It did work well though. Keep an eye on the set screw that connects the unit to the steering shaft. Mine loosened up and I couldn't steer the boat. I think that company went out of business but I had a phone number for a place in Florida that still had parts for them. Maybe they would have a manual if they are still open. The number was 727-530-3411. Here's the address I had written down:

King

5601 70th Ave. North

Penellas Park, FL 33781

Hope it helps.

I just got some Attomik flies http://www.atommiktrollingflies.com/ the other day and even got a free one thrown in. Thanks for that! They have flashers too. I also got some flashers from Cabelas. I wouldn't go overboard buying these things though. You could get some of the better ones that guys on here speak of so that you'll have a few but I find its better to see what is hot just before you get ready for your trip and then pick some up at a local shop when you go. It might cost a couple dollars extra but at least you won't have a box full of stuff you never use.

How about Stony Creek? Has anyone launched there yet? I'm headed to Henderson Harbor on Wednesday and was planning on launching at Stony Creek to fish the sands, rather than have to go all the way around the point with the boat. Anyone launched there yet? Anyone had any luck on the sands or anywhere up in that area?

Thanks,

Steve

The one in the picture is the one that just flips over and doesn't lock into position. For me, that one doesn't lay over far enough. Tite Lok makes an adjustable one that will work better. The Big Jon ones are definately stronger but you can get away with the adjustable Tite Lok one if you don't fish all the time. Just check it once in a while to make sure everything is tight.

We all have our favorites when it comes to colors. My better spoons are the NK28's in Lemon Ice, Natural Born Killer and Green Dolphin. I also like some of the black NK28's like the Black/Purple with silver or white bottom, black/orange with silver bottom and the black/glo green. For flashers and flies, last summer the chrome hot spot with the Pro Am fly was probably our best. I also had good luck on a blue flasher that had kind of a hammered chrome on both sides with the Mooneye fly behind it. Mirage and the Hammer fly are also good for me. I use the white spin doctors alot too. White glow and white/mnt dew work well. I wouldn't go overboard buying a bunch of this stuff because it adds up fast. I'd get myself two or three flashers and a few flies and if you don't have any salmon spoons, I'd get a half dozen or so of them to start. The NK 28's are good but there are lots of others that will work equally well. Hopefully some of the other guys will jump in here and give you some advice on their favorites.

Most guys now are running wire line for dipsys, especially in the summer when fish are deeper and fleas are bad. I set my dipsys on a 2.5 setting to get them out to the side and figure 3 to 1 ratio. So 100 feet of wire to get down 30 feet or so. As for the riggers, usually I set back about 25 feet behind the ball with flashers or spoons but that can vary. As for speed, for me its 1.9 to 2.5 with flashers. Usually a little over 2.0, I'd say would be average for me. The most important thing for a beginner is not to over do it. Just keep it simple. Like I said earlier, stick a flasher/fly down on one rigger and put a spoon on the other. Do the same thing on your dipsys. Adjust your riggers and dipsys to the depth that you see marks and you should be good. Don't try to get to fancy.

You can run your flasher/flies on your dipsys too. With your set up, I'd start with a flasher/fly on one rigger and a spoon one the other, as opposed to stating with two flasher/flies. Sometime the flasher will bring them in and then they will peel off and take the spoon from the other rigger. Every day is different, so you just have to see what works that day. Depending on your experience, you might also want to run sliders or cheaters to get another lure or two in the water. In addition to your riggers, I'd run a dipsy off each side of the boat. Again, to start, I'd put a spoon on one and a flasher/fly on the other. Then switch to whatever is working.

This is just like asking which downriggers are better or which down speed/temp is better. Everyone has a different view. I looked into the Toyota and really like the Tundra but their cash back right now is not as good and again, can't get the 6.5 foot bed in the crew cab.

I'm told that Ford was the only one who didn't take the bail-out money so that they could pay their executives large bonuses. That along with they are the only ones of Ford, GM, Toyota who have the crew cab half ton with the 6.5 foot body is why I hope to have one in my door yard this week. My last three have been GMC's but for the two reasons above, I'm switching. I had two fords before the GMC's and liked them so hopefully, I'll be happy with my decision.

You can fish with the same downrigger.

Bump

I use gps speed over ground in MPH for shallow water trolling and a combination of that along with down speed (Depth Raider) and cable angle for deep water trolling.