jekyll

Is Rainbow Bright back? He is sickening. I change channels and take it off scan when he is on the Lake. I would like to pull his bilge plug.

Fish studies for the Nuke plant. They are based out of Catfish Creek Marina.

The Obama spoon is my go-to spoon when I want to change my set up but, I don't have a clue on how to do it. I usually put in the water and hope somethng will happen but, I soon realize the previous set up was working well after all.

Should the mature kings head up stream early, there will still be thousands of 3 year olds and steelhead to target.

I run cheaters, fixed and sliding with all the above. Tangles aren't bad unless you popp the release to retrive a line. Use your rigger to retrieve the line and you won't get tangles. It needs to come up anyway. Once you have a fish on, the flasher normally stops spinning and the sliding cheater will just stream beside the fish. Catch one on the cheater and it slide to the swivel on the flasher and that will also stop it from turning. You only really risk tangles when the cheater falls to the flasher without a fish on the line, hense, using your rigger to raise the line for tending. In the end, the cheater is just a short mono or flouro leader of 5-8 feet. I'm more than happy to cut it away to clean up after boating a nice fish. Leader is cheap.

15 lb will cost more, yield less blowback and likely come up a bit slower. They will also be a bit more difficult to work with. You might consider a 15 on your probe rigger and 13 on the others as a compromise. I use 15 all around but, that is my prefference.

I look for bait and hooks when brown fishing. I usually go where I think kings are. If I see bait and hooks in the suspected king area, I'll throttle back there. Just one guys method.

Just teasing Ray. It is a nice bass. Semper Gumby

My what big fingers the guy holding the bass has.

Tom: Is your boy tied into the boat?

Andie and Big Game are both fairly popular. with many guys using between 17 and 30 lb. I've learned the hard way that a Sealine 47LC doesn't hold much 30 lb Big Game and I've gone to 25 lb. In fact, I spooled up this year with 300 yards of 30 lb Power Pro terminated with 90 feet of 25 lb Big Game. This gives me some stealth, some elasticity and lots of line for big king runs. You can use your same main line for trout by adding a lighter leader say, 8 feet of 12 lb flocarbon. No real need to respool your main line.

Sometimes the fish like a longer leader than can be easily run on a dipsy. You hear of days when the dipsies are quiet and all the hits come on riggers? This is likely because they want longer leads. You can accommodate this by adding a slide diver or 2 to your kit. You can stretch the leads as far as you want. Also for speed, you can run a mag spoon off a #1 dipsy and see the spoon's action on the rod tip. This also acts like a minnie thumper.

Amber Lee, Welcome back.

Lite Bite slide diver with a ring and the heavy weight will outdive a #1 dipsy and about the same as a mag dipsy. I don't have charts to back this up, just some vauge experience.

I try to only use swivels named Sampo or Spro. Quality swivels are a must. I use snap swivels at each end of the leader between the dipsy and flasher but, that's my choice. Use a good stiff mono for that leader. A stiff, larger leader combined with quality swivels should stop the twisting. Don't use Power Pro for this connection - it will twist. Not all swivels are created the same. Opti-Tackle has good swivels as well as good snubbers: http://www.optitackle.com/terminaltackle.shtml

Sorry. I didn't notice you asked about running these on the Finger Lakes until after I submitted my replies. You probably don't need snubbers there.

Ray and I both forgot to remind you not to set the hook on dipsy hits. They will bury the hooks themselves and with wire or super braid, there is NO line stretch. It is easy to break the line if you set the hooks - bye bye to $30 to $40 of tackle. Lack of line stretch is what makes fighting fish with them so much fun. Consider using a snubber on the back end of the dipsy. This acts as a shock absorber to temper hard hits. Snubbers are a choice, not mandatory. Many people use snubbers and many don't, opting instead to use the stretch of the mono mid leader as the absorber. Use a good 30lb mono for the mid leader (dispy to flasher or spoon). The solid heavy plastic snubbers seem to be the best. They come in single and double strand varieties. I like the clear single strand, 12-inch versions when I can find them. Daiwa Sealine 47LC reels are good and the Okuma Convector reels may be better. The Daiwas are nice and smooth with really nice drags but the Okumas have a better handle and seem stronger. Their drags leave some room for improvement though.

Ray gave a VERY detailed description; he had more info about using Lure Jensen dipsy than can be found on the Lure Jensen web site. Some more/differing thoughts: You might consider 30 lb Power Pro or other super braid to start with as you learn. Stainless steel wire (30 lb) is very unforgiving of abuse or careless handling. Power Pro is nearly idiot proof however; it can be hard to untangle messes and it gathers fleas easier. Luckily, the fleas are on their last legs for the year. The leader lenght between the dipsy and the paddle (or spoon) takes some experimenting. 8-foot is on the long side of the norm. If you have a short boat, short rod, short net handle, and/or short arms, you might want to try 6 feet. Many guys use the lenght of their rod from tip to reel as a guage. Don't be afraid of turns. If you are running salmon depths on lake O, you won't tangle your rigs unless you turn the steering to the stop and hold it there. You should be able to turn within a 100 yard radius. Just ensure your rigger set backs are not too long - less than 30 feet. Dipsies are a less tollerant of tight turns than riggers with short set backs. Just understand that the dispy on the outside of your turn will pull much harder during a turn while the dipsy on the inside will pull much lighter and can -almost go slack in a really tight turn. Dipsy rods work best off the side, in front of the riggers. Don't be afraid to lay them right out parralell to the water, they can't fall out of the rod holder. And yes, rod holders are important.Best to install something metal and adjustable. If you use rigger rod holders, make sure they are nice and 'toight' so they they can't spin under the strain. There will be a lot of pull on the rods. Few things are as exciting as a dipsy hit when a large king slams the rod. That sucker will scream as the fish takes 100 yards off the reel. Power Pro or wire is essential for Lake O kings and dipsies. A 47 size Daiwa can't hold enough mono for a king dipsy but,they comfortably hold 1000 feet of 30 lb SS wire or Power Pro. You will start with up to 250-350 feet of line out and then a nice king can easily strip another 300-400 feet of line on the first run. You would need a really LARGE salt water reel to hold sufficient mono. Also, with 300 feet of line out, you can't trip the dipsy using mono because of line stretch. You will really hate retrieving a set dipsy when you can't trip the release. Mono divers are normally reserved for high dipsies where you don't deploy long set backs. Ray's advice to experiment is good. On your first trip out, experiment with the release setting. It needs to be tight enough to hold through turns and waves. It will be set right when it occassionally releases due to waves when trolling with 3-4 footers. Wave surge on a captain's troll can push the release to its tripping point. Let the rig run back with the reel locked and the drag loosened. This will keep it pulling to the side to clear your rigger lines. There are a few advanced tricks to deploying dipsies that keep them out of your other junk but the best method if running just 2 riggers and 2 dipsies is to "cheat" a bit to the side you are setting. This means that you enter a slight turn to the port when setting the port dipsy or starboard for the starboard dipsy. You only need to cheat the turn until your dipsy is back behind the rigger lines and you can then straighten out. Consider setting all your lines while trolling with the waves and wind (captain's troll) as this is much easier. Have fun and, screaming drags to ya. Semper Fi

Is anyone using Fishing My-Cast by Garmin? I just added Weather Bug but, the Garmin app looks good.

Hummm. Was it the water? Saturday and Sunday, my DR worked to 125-135 feet (as deep as I went). Come Monday, I only got 75 feet before my attempts were "dashed".

Lots of browns in the area you mentioned. The salmon are a bit more dear at the moment. Your camp and boat looked OK last weekend.

Ray: Just had to replace one myself. Some yahoo rammed my Penn Yan and cleaned off 2 riggers and and 1 shear/lock pin. Semper Fi,

No problems with the 4 I've had. They could use a better menu structure IMO. You will hear from some guys who have had bad luck from them but, the ones with good luck are not as vocal.

How about an unused 28 inch Buggy Bag? $43 and I pay shipping.

Cut the section out and reconnect using a haywire twist. Dress the joint with a small piece of shrink tube if desired. The shrink tube is not necessary and, if you use it, don't forget to slide it on before you do the twist.