Sk8man

Sounds like a nice trip. " It was kind of funny seeing a seal (sea lion) surface about 100 ft behind us as we were fishing" - Once fishing near San Diego for tuna we had a bunch of them behind and along side us on a charter and they dove down and took the bait right off all our hooks without getting hooked themselves....they can be a real pain but they can be pretty funny too.

It can also be beneficial to have a DC cell phone charger kept on the boat if you have an plug in outlet.

Sweet! That is a beauty Stix...congrats!

WTG Brian. I haven't seen a year like this since the late eighties. Lake O has been on fire this year and especially so with the kings, and I'm sure the "armchair quarterbacks" that didn't get a chance to get out there are more than a little regretful

I'd finish the full break-in process before trolling for any length of time. The computer on it will track/record everything so the break-in data could become important (e.g. warranty etc.)

The Chamberlains are the way to go for walleyes because of the light bite type setting but the max tension on them I believe is 4 lbs which for running large attractors and active lures behind riggers down deep for salmon can be too light. If the Blacks are set properly for what you are running they aren't usually a problem for either species

The one pictured above is one of the OLD Blacks release. Back then they were attached directly to the cable itself. They also had an outrigger version that had a heavy metal rod through it with rings on each end of the rod that I put a large heavy duty swivel on and then soldered the split ring shut and I used it when I fished on other folks boats (with their permission) to hook on to their existing snap....guess I was a bit ahead of my time because they then later came out with the one with the integrated snap so that you didn't have to cut your downrigger wire to install it In the pic below on the left is the Oldest version of the Blacks that was actually white in color, then the version shown in my earlier post, then the outrigger version I modified back in the eighties, and finally on the right is the recent version.

I prefer the old school method including a safety line for my probe. The old Blacks didn't haave the rod through it. You hooked it directly to the cable above the weight. What is pictured here is the old version Blacks which I still use and a second 90lb test wire with heavy duty snap.I attach both snaps to my probe so that if the probe cable or the downrigger cable terminating at the bottom of the main snap gives I still have the 90 lb wire and snap on the probe which is attached to the Blacks release. It hasn't been tested but I figure it is better than nothing although deppendent of the integrity of the crimp on the Blacks as I have seen the other usual hookups fail on friends boats.

Hard to keep a good man down

Great bargain right there.

If you watch some of the underwater videos of salmon trying to catch up with spoons - let alone an attractor/fly it becomes evident that although they are fast powerful swimmers they often have trouble actually grabbing the objects and sometimes they even may grab the wrong one, and sideways movement seems sometimes a problem for them. The wave action on the surface can also be a factor bouncing the setup up and down while it is going sideways or revolving. The fish may be following the setup for quite aways trying to nail it and/or they may just be checking it out because it or something about it doesn't look quite right to them. The situation is a good reason for always messing with your speed slowing down, increasing briefly, putting in neutral, occasionally giving the gas a jump, making turns so the inside setup(s) slows while the outside speeds up. The change itself may be the trigger that is necessary to make them grab the bait because it imparts a different action to the bait and where the following may have been curiosity the change in action generates an impulse to strike so it relates to a different behavior origin. Popping the rigger and letting it flutter as ifishy suggested may be doing the same thing and it often does work. The distance of the setup from the rigger weight may influence this as well as if placed close to the weight it may be seen as a unit vs. when the weight is followed at some longer distance by the setup it may either spook the fish initially attracted by the weight and its movement through the water from striking at the bait, or it may just lose their interest or curiosity and move away before the bait arrives. The deeper the setup is run it can pay to shorten the distance to the weight. The last time out one of them hit the rigger at 115 ft down and the flasher fly was running 3-4 ft behind the weight the other rigger with same stuff set much further back never saw action. Just some observations to think about not necessarily a rock solid answer to the situation