Sk8man

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.

A lot of possibilities at work here. The rigger ball problem may be related to the weight of the balls, the boat speed and down speed at the rigger weight which in turn will influence the degree of "blowback". If significant underwater current is present that may also be a contributor to taking your weights out of the cone range of the transducer. Not all transducers are recommended for the straight down position so you need to follow the transducer installation instructions for your specific trandsducer. I'm not familiar with your particular unit but many have multiple frequency capability with recommendations for shallow or deep water use. Sometimes it is useful to try different selections of frequencies in your menu (e.g. 83 khz vs. 200 khz in mine for example) to see what impact that has on seeing your rigger weights. You should however be able to see at least one I should think in 57 ft of water regardless of setting if the transducer is angled properly. Usually the setting with the lowest KHZ setting has the widest cone angle so at depth this one should display the weights but as you go deeper and deeper at some point you will probably lose the weight on the display anyway regardless of setting because of the above mentioned factors. As far as the lack of arched marks with the fish - it could relate to your speed or fish moving along with say current etc.right along with your boat speed preventing the "arch" shape or the fishes position within the cone angle of the transducer.... if your transducer is mounted correctly.