kayaker919

Solo today, went 4 for 7. 15lb king, 5lb king, 4lb atlantic, and 19lb laker. All hits but two on dipsys out 280-320ft. All fish but one on flasher /fly. White/Green protroll w/ green fly did best. Atlantic hit NBK spoon 100ft on rigger. Lots of bait and a few hooks 150ft-250ft. Strong surface currents. Thermocline very tight about 100ft. 42 degrees to 50 degree in about 5 ft. Difficult to maintain speed with surface currents and stay in temp. Probe earned its keep today.

Had another great weekend for quantity….fished 90-250+ FOW …12 for 20 on Saturday, two 8-10lb kings, and 2 decent lakers, mostly steelhead which accounts for losing so many; had several doubles which is fun fishing solo! …9 for 14 on Sunday, a couple 1-3 pound kings, one laker and a lot of small steelhead…got into a couple nicer (8-10lb) steelhead in 250+ ft water; again several doubles; had a double on a single rod with a skippy king and a small steelhead (using slider on downrigger); They hit almost every color I put out, but mixed veggie and flo red/silver was dominate. Leadcore was the key…over half the fish came on a single 7 color leadcore rod, another 3rd on my light line downrigger rod and the rest on the other downrigger rod. Tried copper for a while but no takers. Did not try Dipsys. Don’t know where the big kings went….I was marking some larger fish 90-110 FOW, but could not get them to hit. There are a few kings still there, but not like they were in May.

I caught one with a tag yesterday also. I turned it in to the DEC survey guys at the Ibay inlet. Hopefully it will get to the right group. Don

ttt

If the entire probe is shutting down (not just speed not working) check the small silver contact on the top for corrosion or contamination. If you touch the end of the "ground tail" to the contact, the probe should turn on even out of water....great for testing the probe (when it works!). If the probe turns on you can spin the wheel and see a speed reading. My probe went bad. Erratic temperature readings and speed would not work reliably. Cannon discontinued them, so I could not get it replaced or repaired. They did provide me an even exchange in other Cannon accessories for what I paid for it.....although I would have much preferred another probe. It was a really nice system when it worked!

Please PM me if you have one for sale or trade. Thanks, Don

Another option is the Airmar P79 in hull (shoot through hull) transducer. Your hull must be solid fiberglass with no wood/foam core or voids. I use a 50/200kHz P79 with my HDS8 and have had good results. No issue what so ever in waves at trolling speeds marking fish, bottom and downrigger weights. Also no problem with tracking bottom at cruising speeds. Might be worth a try before drilling a hole in your hull. Also the P79 is adjustable to deadrise up to 22 degrees and you can dial it in to match your boat's deadrise exactly.

Interesting article. Here is a link to another with some more photos: http://www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/articles/t/auv-journey-on-lake-ontario-photo-gallery-great-lakes-boating-marine-trades-news

There are actually two bouys one in about 160ft of water and another in about 320ft of water. I almost snagged both this spring and I marked hazard waypoints for both (they have not moved all year). But I always seem to end up near them when I am fighting a fish or not paying attention where I am going. Almost snagged the 320 one today.

I got started about 20 minutes later….and confirm the temperature readings. I kept going deeper though and caught a nice 22lb king in about 395ft of water on the 150ft rigger (green SD and matching fly). Around 425ft caught a 10+lb Salmon on NBK mag spoon on 130ft rigger, and believe it or not, a brown about 8-10lbs on 235ft wire mag dipsy with white/green protroll and green fly. A fair amount of bait and large marks, but tough getting them to bite. I did have more releases with no fish than any other trip this year….maybe they were just not hitting aggressively.

PM sent

Well my probe just failed after less than 30 hours of use. Cannon does not have any for replacement and it can't be fixed. I too purchased Digitrol downriggers to use with the probe. The system worked great until the probe failed. Does anyone know if anyone has a stash of working probes or where I can get one? Don

I know this is an old thread, but thought I would share the answer I found that worked well and had no smell or mess. I tried this on a half dozen old Northern Kings that were moderately to heavily tarnished. They look as good as new after just a few minutes. Wish I would have taken pictures, but I did not expect this to work. 1.) Fill a bowl (I used a glass bowl, but doubt that it matters) with hot water from the tap 2.) Dissolve as much salt in the bowl as possible 3.) Add strips of aluminum foil to the bottom of the bowl (you could probably just line the bottom with foil) 4.) Clean any debris or film off the lures with tap water and a paper towel 5.) Put the tarnished lure in the bowl. You will see the lure brightening within minutes. 6.) After lure is the desired brightness, thoroughly rinse to remove all traces of saltwater and dry off with a paper towel 7.) Dispose of saltwater and foil I tried moving the lure in the water, but it did not seem to speed up the reaction. I had a lure that was a little stubborn and found it had a film on it. Wiped it off, put it back in the bowl and it cleaned just like the others (this is where step 4 came from!). There was another lure that was not brightening in the crevices, again wiped with a paper towel and put back in the bowl and it brightened right up.