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One of mine fell off a 7' shelf to a concrete floor and busted into a couple pieces. Ray's suggestion works. I went with the high grade 2 part epoxy and a couple strips of fiberglass. I put a fresh coat of orange paint over the repairs. I had to drill new holes for the keel because of where it busted, but it's three seasons later and the board is still in one piece!

The old 5 gallon pail with holes drilled in it comes to mind It's hard finding a good durable bag small enough to run 2 of them and still keep your RPM's on the motor down.

In addition to tweaking the throttle and/or putting a bag in the water, powertrim/tilt can be a wonderful thing for adjusting speed. Me, I'm in a 19' skiff with a 90 merc on the back. At idle, I can adjust my speed from about 1.8 up to 3.0 just by tilting the motor up and down. Bags work great, but make it challenging to stay on a straight track with these smaller boats - there's no stepping away from the wheel for a sec when you have a bag over the side. I friend has a big boat (30+ footer) and when he shuts down one engine to start trolling, he puts the bag on the same side as the running engine and it actually helps with tracking. I generally only put a bag in when I've got a tail wind that won't let me whoa up enough.

to attach them... just a plain old dropper loop to clip them to?

Anybody?

I'm wondering about mooching during the summer. For someone on a budget, without downriggers, who wants to get some salmon during the summer, it seems like mooching is the perfect tactic. After doing a little research on it, I found most of the info related to the Pacific Northwest, and not a lot of info on mooching in the Great Lakes. This got me to thinking (always a dangerous event), and now I have some questions... Do any of you guys use mooching as a tactic? If you do, any special tips/tricks to help a beginner be more successful (if I decide to try it)? Where can you buy good quality herring for cut plug bait? How ticked off would guys get if someone were to set up for mooching just outside or inside the "flotilla" of trollers?

I noticed the conspicuous lack of boats in front of Fair Haven on Memorial Day Weekend too. Not just an absence of fishing boats, but there weren't the big cigarette boats flying all over the place either. There were actually parking spots at the launch all weekend. Any of the guys with the big 2 engine inboards are probably pretty picky on how often they go out because of what fuel costs right now. a Couple-3 C-notes in the tank hurts. Maybe a lot of folks stayed in because they figured there would be a circus out front on the holiday weekend (it used to be nuts out there). I'm wondering how much had to do with conditions. Lots of rain that weekend, high water, low temps, lotsa driftwood. I know we came real close to saying the hell with camping that weekend when we saw the forecast. Took me all day Monday to clean the mud off everything after camping through all that rain. Now, on the bright side, it was a lot easier to navigate with planer boards out, without all the extra traffic to deal with.

Thanks guys - both are helpful replies!!!

Browns are not a species I've seriously targeted before. I've tried trolling for them on Memorial Day weekend for the last few years without success until this year, when I came to LOU and asked questions and read reports ahead of time. So now that I've got a bit of a grip on spring browns, I'm starting to think ahead a little bit. Being a coldwater species, I would imagine that as the nearshore temps go up, and the thermocline sets up out deeper, the browns will no longer be found in 10 fow. Is this a correct assumption? That brings up the question of, where do they typically spend the warm months? I don't hear about a lot of browns being caught on deep water programs used for salmon during the summer. How deep do they go? Do they stick in a certain temperature zone, or tend to hang in specific depth ranges? Do they stay near the bottom like lakers, or suspend? I cooked up one of the browns we got this last weekend, and it turned out freaking awesome. Now I want more, and don't want to wait until I get out my waders and hit the rivers in the fall. Any suggestions on a summer brown program is appreciated.

I've tried both Power Pro and FireLine, Both seem to be pretty tough, but I think I give the edge to PowerPro. My main application for warmwater species is on my "frogging" rod. I Love topwater bite from bass and pike, and have found that a Ribbit dragged across salad is a great producer. For frogging I use 40# Power Pro on a 6.5' MH baitcasting rod with an Ambassadeur 5 reel. The braid litterally "cuts" through vegitation, helping get the fish up after a hit. I've heard good things about using braid on diver rods too, so that will be the next application I use Power Pro for. In addition to not having stretch, braids also have the benefit of being about half the diameter of the same weight mono line, meaning less drag, deeper with the divers than mono.

I'm a newbie too, and the couple times I've been out with other folks, you can pretty much tell where they're getting them if you look at where all the boats are. This year, is the first year I've ever managed to get into spring browns after trying for the last three years and never even having a fish on. This year, I went armed with what I've learned here and we boated 5 of 6 fish Saturday. Some stuff I've learned so far that I plan to apply this year: Read the reports here and anyplace you can find reports for the area you're going to be fishing - a ton of good info on what depth, what speed (up and down), what lures, what colors and more can be had quickly and easily just by stopping in here on LOU. The local tackle shops can be helpful too. Ask what the hot lure is. They'll point you right at it in hopes that you'll buy a half dozen of them. And they won't steer you wrong, because they want you to come back and buy more tackle from them. Now some other things that will help you. read the "homeport" line under names of folks here - find ones out of the place you'll be fishing and become their friend. A lot of the folks here are charter captains, and they can help you out a ton just by getting you pointed in the right direction. Finally, before asking too many questions, I did one other thing... I started reading through the two forums here on LOU that are a huge resource for us newbies... the questions about trolling board, and the tackle and tactics board. I've still got to figure out where I'm mounting my downriggers, but will have them on within the next couple weeks. Another good thing to keep an eye on is when the thermocline sets up. That will make finding them easier.

Nice report! glad somebody is getting out!

More details... Went west out of the Chute, the first 5 fish hit before the fog burned off in 8-11 fow. Once the fog burned off and the sun came out, the bite in close stopped, so we started working deeper to 15, then 20 fow. Finally got the last fish on the way back to the dock, just west of the chute in 20 fow. A special thank you to all the folks here on LOU who have patiently answered all the questions I've posted over the last couple months. We've camped at Fair Haven and gone after browns for the last 3 years, and have had exactly ZERO fish on the line. About the only thing I was doing right was using planer boards. Everything else about my program was completely wrong. This year, having asked the right questions here on LOU, We had our first successful spring brown outing ever. Here are a few photos... getting ready to hit the water in the fog fog - somewhere out there is the shoreline My step-son with a fish My son with a nice football Me with one

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name:The Bubman ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):5/28 Time on Water:6:00am - 9:30am Weather/Temp:fog, 60's Wind Speed/Direction:calm Waves: <1 Surface Temp: 50 Location:Fair Haven LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 6 Total Boated:5 Species Breakdown:5BT, 1Atlantic Hot Lure: silver/black Jr. Thunderstick Trolling Speed: 2.2 -2.8 Down Speed: Boat Depth: 8 - 20 fow Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== 1 atlantic-released (too small) 5 browns, one came unbuttoned at the boat. [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I stopped at screwey Louies and picked up a couple stingers (alwife & tuxedo). Trouble sleeping in a tent in the rain - anxious to hit the water early. Will post a report later on. [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Got home and looked through the spoon box my father-in-law gave me. the Blue Fox spoons are the Rattlin Pixies in several colors, some Krocodiles, some Locos and tree old Rebel Arrowhead TS. I've got a few different colors of Silver Streaks and a half dozen Northern King Mags. I think I'm going to do a lot of experimenting and let the fish tell me what they're after! Thanks for everyone's help!

Thanks guys - not going to go out and buy any for this weekend, but will start the collection over the summer.

thanks for the quick reply - I've got the blue/silver in both the TSjr's and the F7s, that is a good start I also have these spoons from blue fox - does anybody ever use them?

I'm sort of a newbie at spring browns> I've gone and tried trolling for them several times with no idea what I was doing - and had the kind of no-success that one would expect. This year, I've been reading these boards and have a bit of an idea where I want to go, the spread I'm going to put out, the speed I'm going to go., that sticks and spoons are what to use, and lots of things that I was clueless about in the past. I'll be Camping at Fair Haven will be and hitting the big O this weekend, and am wondering about lure size. I've got a box of F7 floaters and another box of Jr Thundersticks. These are all in the 3" - 3.5" range. Is this the right size for spring browns, or do I need the bigger stick baits (F9 size)? I've also large (5") and small (2.5"-3") spoons, what size spoon is typical for successful spring brown outings? Any help is appreciated!

That big red blob (blue around the edges) on the right of Mark's photo is typical of what a pod of bait will look like. Depending on your particular graph, the colors will be different (or if it's gray scale), but that's essentially what you'll see.

here's the latest news I could find: http://outdoornews.com/new_york/news/ar ... 03286.html

Those are some NICE fish, I need to get up there for my shake-down outing... SOON! How's the launch at the state park? or better yet, what is the water level like on the bay and out in the lake?

SWEET!!!! If my shakedown goes that well, I'll be one happy camper!

7 in the boat in two hours - gotta love it! Congrats!

Great outing!!! Any particular color working better than others?