Sk8man

Mike I suspect that the water temps will go down considerablty over the next two weeks and this is directly related to disolved oxygen levels inthe water and also affects fish metabolism. They are more fragile in this exceptionally warm water right now (with reduced oxiygen) and I suspect that Pequod's method may be all that is necessary by the 15th as that water should be sufficiently cooled down. If not, the aerator combined with just putting a couple cubes in the water gradually every so often should keep the water suitable in a decent sized cooler without a ton of other fish in it using up the oxygen. Just keep the other fish to be kept in a bucket or something.

Yeah Rollie...what is the scoop on the brown beauty?

Pap I don't actually use any of the front releases I tighten them down to the max (carefully) and sometimes if rough water I wrap the braid a couple times around the release so it doesn't slip and release and then I take the boards off as they come in whether fish on or not. If you bring them in fairly quickly they won't "dive" on you. If they do - point the rod downward right at them and they will surface. The flags on my boards are only for visual aid to keep aholes from running over them.

Sometimes helps to gradually put ice cubes in water to bring down water temp too

Mike get one of those $15 aerators from Walmart in the fishing section and run it in the cooler

Pap - I have sets of the TX44 (larger inlines from Church) and the smaller Walleye boards as well that I have used for quite a few years now instead of the big boards. The Walleye boards will pull a 10 color leadcore or a 300 copper just fine with spoons or regular sticks but not sure about large aggressive divers. You can to a degree compensate for weight with the walleye boards by loosening two screws on the weight and moving the weight along the bottom of them forward or backward. The Walleye boards pictured above can work fine for salmon, trout or Walleyes. I don't use the tattle flags as most of my fishing with them is for trout and salmon but for the eyes they come in handy as I have used them before. They will let you know light biters and these eyes that just cling to your line without doing much and may look like weeds on the board from looking at the rod tip. They make the flags for both the Offshore and Church boards and it is possible to make your own as they cost nearly as much as a board when bought separately. When running them from braid you'll want to replace the plastic pins in the back with metal ones because the braid can cut through the plastic by see-sawing back and forth.

Nice going....now you'll be vulnerable to someone playing a tape of a screaming drag going out when you alll asleep and laughin at you when you jump up to grab the rod....welcome to the brotherhood

And the winner of this years perch derby is: ?

Incredible trip Sean and the ultimate father/son experience. Congrats to both of you

Good one

I believe it...surprised he didn't bring fish back from LA

I don't thnk even a bad cook could f up a walleye..my favorite freshwater fish to eat. Looks like you and Jim cleaned up onthem Brian Real beauty of a laker and mount John... Congrats!

It is truly sad when something like this happens, but it should be a wake up call to each of us. We all tend to concentrate on the fishing stuff down to dotting all the I's and crossing all the t's and then fail to routinely check out things on our boats...just assuming everything is working OK....I am as guilty as anyone. A good time to thoroughly check out everything is before putting the boat away and then again before using it again as winter can sometimes create its own problems even when the boat is stored inside.

Another good example of why our LOU guys should receive our support. Thanks Brian

Something I have carried for years but have never needed is a portable D cell battery operated bilge pump just for emergencies. They are about $50 and although maybe not as powerful as the regular one it could help and certainly better than trying to bail out a bilge by hand that may be difficult to reach or with a dead main battery and it can be placed anywhere in the boat. Supposedly they cab throughput 200 gals. per hr and up to 5 hrs on alkaline D cells. A short section of garden hose can be attached to hang over the side

The one I now use is a baggage scale similar to the one pictured above for less than ten bucks and I have used it before air flights several times and it is within tenths of a pound when I compare with the digital scale at the airport.