Mike M

Another great report Gill-T ! You finding them east or west of 18 mile? How many FOW?  I'm still a month away from 1st trip. Jealous.

Cograts on a great 1st day !! Looking at your pics kinda looks like your boat is an I/O with a dog house in back floor area. Mine is too. Now that water is in your block (not antifreeze) are you worried about below freezing temps that will still probably see in days ahead ? Or maybe you have heated storage or do you drain your block ? I'm also assuming your a trailer guy like me. Just curious

Great post! Worry about you being solo this time of year but i take my hat off to ya!

There is no dropping of lead weights on lake bottom in (Russell G. Salmon Candy) pump handle method. I did find it on Youtube. He explains it in detail.

I probably watch to many Youtube videos this time of year waiting for spring salmon fishing to start. Salmon Candy (Russell G.) talks a lot about Pump Handles for Trout & Salmon. Looks like he's running Heavy lead balls attached to main line using OR-16 clip. Lead balls could be 10oz on a dropper line of about 12 inches. His bait is usually a Flasher Fly looks like 20-30 feet behind the OR-16. Sends it back 90-110 feet and attaches to Inline Board. If anyone could give me anymore info on this technique I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Mike

Yes its a 3 blade. Also a mistake in previous post motor is 4.3 liter. Good luck.

Bad Habit- Went to visit my 225 Outrage in barn today. Prop on it is 14.5 x 19P. Bought from Pier Prop in Tonawanda NY 716-875-1777 back in 2013.  Been very happy with hole shot and WOT is in that 4400-4800rpm range. I believe its a Michigan Wheel prop and its aluminun. Like i said i don't like SS props had bad experience years ago. Hope this helps.

I also have a 97 Pen Yan 225 Outrage. Bought it from a guy in Sanduski back in 2012. He had the wrong prop on it and didn't know it. I was suspicious it was wrong prop even though i'm no expert. It was a S.S. prop with wrong pitch. I hate SS props. Anyhow we have a prop shop in Buffalo area called Pier Prop. They let me try a couple aluminun props they thought would improve performance. They were right. My boat is in storage right now at friends barn. I'll get over there and get prop specs and get back to you. BTW someone said WOT should be 4400 to 4800 rpm for that 4.6 motor. Without looking it up that does sound right.

What mapping chip do i buy if i want to upgrade my chart plotting on my HDS carbon unit. Right now I'm running on what came with uniit when I bought couple years ago. I fish western Lake Ontario and Eastern Lake Erie. Want more detail. Thanks

A 2nd Shout Out to Fish Hawk Electronics !

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Gator- I had the same experience this spring with Fish Hawk. My prope was 5 months beyond the 2 year warranty. Would show speed but no down temp. Called them on a Monday morning had new prope in my mail box on Thursday. Did't even have to pay shipping. They are a very customer friendly company. Thankyou Fish Hawk !!

Agree with almost all said here. Bottom line is direction  of the troll is hugh.  Don't be in such a hurry to turn the boat around cause you had a flurry of action, It could be good for a couple of miles. Trolling direction good be the key to that good action. We try and use the Trails feature on my Lowrence carbon.  We're saving less waypoints and more trails to stay on fish. Good Luck.

We troll with em probably 90% of the time. Boat and speed control just seem better. Auto pilot works better and we seem to catch alot of fish going with em. If its getting rough but were catching fish we won't even attempt to troll back to a good waypoint. We'll yank all rods and run back against the waves set down and troll back thru productive area with waves at our back.

I have a Lowrence Carbon FF/GPS mounted under my Penn Yan Outrage hard top. No problem with GPS signal strength.

Amen brother !!

Call them. You’ll be surprised how customer friendly they are. They have a problem with the counters on the 2116. They know it. Don’t have to tell them you bought riggers used. I have 3 2116’s and have gone thru about 12 counters in 3 years. All free. Finally the last ones are working fine. My only complaint on the 2116’s in 10 years.

'Should be covered under lifetime warranty. You have to call Scotty headquarters in Canada 1-800-214-8141. I've had the 2116 HPs for 10 years and have replaced the counters a bunch of times. Scotty sent me new ones every time no charge. Its the only problem I've had with my Scottys. The riggers are made in Canada but the counters are made in Maylasia. Overall happy with the Scottys. Had Cannons before with many problems.

On my boat I went with 48” track. My boat is 22’. No regrets.Riggers are mounted at end of track almost in back corner.Forward from each rigger is a ball cradle and 4 traxstech adjustable rod holders. Rod holders get lots of use. Sometimes we run 2 diver rods per side. Also there used for board rods. Be sure and use backing plates with your track. Good luck.

Worst I ever seen. Been using 30 lb mono this time of year for many years. It did not keep the fleas off yesterday. It was like clothes line rope on a rigger rods after 10 minutes in the water. The rope of fleas was 5 to 6 ft long. Fastest way to clean it was to cut line at top of swival retie and put back out. Repeat every 10 minutes. I've tried Bloodrun seaflea 30lb and feafliicker 30lb neither did the job . I've heard some are going to 40lb on riggers , might try that. We were on fish out there, but I felt our presentations looked horrible because of the fleas. Best rods by far were my 300 weighted steel rods off boards.The thickness of the WS kept those rods fairly clean. The 30lb 7 strand wire diver rods were the worst, the flea rope on them would be 10ft long. Usually my wire diver rods are my best rods. I guess we could of picked up and moved 5 miles to try and get away from them. Will take any advice. Thanks

You got me all excited. Went looking for news release couldn’t find it. O well won’t be long. I check satellite shot of Erie every day . Still some out there put it looks real loose. It’s Gotta to get to 250 sq. miles to yank boom. I think April 1 - 5 is average when they start pulling it. Coming soon.

Creek Rd Bait & Tackle ,4419 Creek Rd, Lewiston. #716.807.6111. You'll find them on FB. There right on your way to the Ft Niagara. Very friendly.

Wet Net Fishing charters. Matt Yablonski,716-550-0413.Theres a # of good ones out of Wilson & Olcott. Matt will work his butt off to show you a good day. Mid August is  a  great time to come.

Scotty customer service(in Canada) was great to me with faulty counters on my 10 year old 2116's. Apparently they outsourced the counters to a company in Malaysia. In 2 seasons i had about 10 counters fail on my 3 riggers.They admitted to me there was a bad batch of counters on some of there riggers. Each time replaced under warranty 100%. So the last batch they sent are holding up. Overall I'm a pretty happy Scotty customer. 

Vision Quest Sportfishing, Wet Net Fishing charters and Torpedo Fishing products all have good videos on setting up and using weighted steel. All on Youtube

Torpedo Weighted steel much more user freindly then copper . Check out Youtube videos. Some captains running no copper just weighted steel.

Chris will take good care of you.