BAZOOKAJOE

I do leader down when pulling sticks in the early spring. But last year I was out of floro so I bought a spool of 12 lbs viscous fluorocarbon line and didn't notice any difference in amount of fish caught. I usually tie new leaders on before every trip.

I ran floro leaders on my down rigger rods for several years. Then last spring I had back-to-back Kings break my buddy off with 15 lbs leader. I decided to just run straight 20 lbs big game right to the spoon. The water we were fishing was pretty dirty. Fish kept hitting and we didn't lose anymore. Then we caught Browns a few weeks later in clear water (on a sunny day) without leaders. All was done in the upper 20 ft of the water column. I'm not such a believer anymore. I will say the floro is more abrasion resistant. But I think a heavy duty mono ties knots easier and has better knot strength. And you eliminate extra knots that could fail and be your potential weak spots.

Buy some bay rat's!!

You can put 600 feet of 32 lbs copper on a Daiwa seagate 60 with 150 yds of 40 lbs power pro. That's about the longest "fun" copper you can fish. Those Solterra's are like farm equipment. Slow, heavy and not fun at all to reel in, You'll be drawing straws on who takes the next fish off that rod.

Get big boards and run one per side. That 300 will work down the shoot in the spring or early summer. But you will have a better chance of tangling it up down the shoot! This comes from my own personal experiences.

Find what works and duplicate it. Losing 50 ft is nothing. I ran my wire rods the last 2 years with probably 700-800 ft of wire. The problem is when both your rods have big differences in the amount of line on the reel. Then they are going to read differently and will be hard to duplicate.

Great reels!!

If your only fishing till mid May I would buy mainly spoons. Maybe a few paddles/flies.

Buy a new pair!

10-14 lbs mono is too light in my opinion. I would go 20 lbs big game as a minimum. You want the smaller size dipsey divers or (preferably) slide divers for the shoreline. You can catch fish in the spring on them too. I would use 40 lbs power pro for your slide divers with 30 ft of 25 lbs fluorocarbon as a leader.

Small slide divers. Or buy a spool of 27 lbs lead core line and spool up a couple rods with 2 and 3 colors. Use ample backing (700 ft min). I would go with 40 lbs power pro or just 25 lbs big game mono.

I fished solo yesterday from Hughes to the trailer park. On the water at 11 am-4:30. Ran 20-40 fow. Had a good rip on a bloody nose j-plug and he broke me off. Took a hit and run on a 3 color with greasy chix wing. Water was ice cold from 43-48 on the surface.

Sodus is dead. Go to Port Ontario!