FSNmachine

about 6 feet of 25 lb mono with # 7 Ball Bearing snap swivels on both ends. If you go with bigger snap swivwl they slide down onto the spoon when you reel it in so I like them #7 or smaller.

I wish I could help you. I have been there but only as a day stop on a cruise. Took a shore excursion for some snorkeling. As a result having seen under the water down there I conclude there has to be some great fishing.

I like Stren! Overfilling the spool casn cause the birdsnest problem. Leave about 1/8 inch to tip of spool. Old line has a tendancy to retain coils which also leads to this problem. Change line every year or whenever you notice this happening.

Stren has been good to me a well.

and of course this wasn't just a free promotional spot/advertisement for Matthew's products (torpedo divers) masquerading as a tip

Tim

NO IT WAS NOT.

I am a friend of Matt yes but that was a tip that works for me and has put fish in the boat. I do not get sponsored paid or anything from Matt. I do not need to promote his product other than it is another tool in my fishing asenal that has worked for me.

We found that after 4 colors of leadcore the presentation has been maxed out and there are more efficient methods of achieving depth.

We only use 4 colors of leadcore on the boat, then we use Torpedo Divers for precision to get baits to any depth. Our leadcore rods do double duty instead of being stuck at one depth.

It didn't make sense to us to spend over $350 on a dedicated 10 color leadcore rod setup and then be stuck at one depth when most times the fish are at different depths.

So....you're saying a 4 color leadcore achieves the same depth as a 10 color????

If I may so bold as to speak for Mathew. He is saying you get the hypnotic or dancing action of the line when you use 4 colors. You do not get the same depth as 10 but after deploying the 4 colors you add the torpedo diver for depth control to take it down to 35 40 50 or 60 feet. I have fished with Mathew and have now done the same on my boat. No need to have to reel in a 10 color widow maker.

I took them up north last summer. The launch and docks where too small for my boat so we rented an aluminum. We made the leader board for the biggest walleye of the year for the camp. We where able to do it because we had the depth control of the divers.

I have been using them for a number of years now. There are many ways to use them off the boat or off planer boards or in combination with lead core and down riggers.

I went with the Traxstech stuff myself for rod holders, Tracks and Downrigger mounts etc.

I ended up shortening the rails. They are still there but cut them shorter. Remounted the holders and caps etc for the rails. Then in the area I took the rails from I plugged the old mounting holes and mounted some Traxstech tracks in that spot. I am very happy with the results.

I store mine up in the top of the shed. Made a shelf out of steel that is just under the roof of the shed so the hut is 6 feet off the ground on steel angle iron supports that they cannot climb. Been doing this for 3 summers now with no sign of mice.

I used some glue on air matress patches. I don't trust that iron on patches will last through the cold and dampness and extremes that these things go through. I hate the way these thing wear the material. I try to take care of mine but it rubs and moves on the seats and other parts. Last week we went about 10 miles out and back in on rough ice as well as moving 3 times before we found the fish. I am sure I will have more wear spots as a result.

use a drill pump out the dipstick?

I tried that, but it didn't work very well for me. Some friends say it works great, but I couldn't get it to work well at all. Even had those friends try to get it to work and they couldn't. Have no clue why. I got the oil pan drain kit from West Marine over the weekend and hope to install it this weekend when I start to winterize the boat.

The oil has to be hot or it will not suck it up the tube. I was just doing mine the other day to get it ready for winter. I had to run it for about 15 min to get it hot enough.

I have fished both Erie and Ontario in an 18 foot boot with no problem. It was a closed bow which is great if you get in some heavy waves. nothing like taking a wave over the front on an open bowrider. As someone said it gets hard to travel with high waves though. We got caught in a good wind last year when we where 10 miles out. If you can only make 5 mph it will take 2 hours of banging to get in. That boat I could bang it in by standing up and do 15 mph and at least get in with some descent speed (not the normal 35mph though) We usually get soaked though as we splash waves over the front and over the windshield. The new boat is 22 foot and it sure makes a difference as it handles 5 or 6 footers. But then I can't troll in those conditions anyway. Its just too much work trying to setup etc. Its just nice to know that you can get back comfortably without worry should the wind pickup more than expected. Dramamine is standard issue and stocked on board for newbies to rollers.

No need to stack.....just run a fixed or sliding cheater.

That's what I do. Stackers are too much trouble. Sliders work great either fixed or loose and they do not require more rods you you can actually get more lures in the water as well with out breaking any laws.

Actually Monday these 2 fish came off a rigger rod with a slider for a real fun double header on one rod.

Hey you are just down the road from me. If I had $600. I would come see you but I spent too much on other fishing gear this year so I better lay low. You may want to put an ad on skunked.ca to clear this out

I would be looking at trim tabs as opposed to putting more weight in the boat.

I have Walkers but I just put a set of Canon Mag 10 HS's together for a friend. They pretty nice and we will be fishing with them Thursday on the Big O.

I use this one. Set your state and city.

http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/ ... C&state=NY

As stated above I would buy a manual. Actually I have one from my old boat that I could sell but I would have to ship it. You need to remove the outdrive which is not hard. there is a shift cable that needs to be removed and then you can take the bearing caps etc off to remove the outdrive. This is based on the assumption its the old style not a Cobra.

I just bought a new to me boat this spring. I looked at some really nice Grady White walk arounds that I fell in love with but they had the 470 or 490 in them. I stayed away from that motor. It is a Mercruiser aluminum block with a head from a Ford 460 (1/2 or one out of 2 heads from the 460. That part may not be bad and performed well but most or maybe all use a closed cooling system. Early models had a 3 inch heat excahnger which was undersized. So check if it has the newer 4 " round exchanger. The other problem is due to the closed cooling there are 2 water pumps on the motor double stacked on the front. They arr notorious for leaking seals and expensive to fix as it requires the motor to be lifted to get the pumps off and seals changed. Check for antifreeze in the bilge or bottom of the pumps at the front of the motor. The 3 problem is they use some kind of generac to make 12 volts instead of an alternator. They are also very expensive to fix and you can buy a kit to convert to a regular alternator.

Yes do as the others before me have said. You will want to particularly scrape and check at the welds where the weight is like the tongue to frame and where the spring shackles are welded to the rails.. I bought a used boat this spring and always like to know what I have so it got new bearings and bearing buddies on all 4 wheels. My tires are good but unless ti is 10 miles or less to the launch an investment in new tires would be good insurance.

Trolling for Musky we got 4 muskies. No trophy takers and all where between 27 and 33 1/2 inches and safe released to grow bigger.

We weren't bass fishing last weekend but rather trolling for Musky on Lake St Clair. I have 2 pics and both these fish came in on an 11" bucktail musky bait. On the samallest you can see the bait is still hooked up.

The outer most connection points. The closer to center the straighter of truer they run so in this case the opposite is true.

This weeks tip is on how to retie frayed wire.

http://www.torpedodivers.com/videos.asp