TyeeTanic

It's late season ... the bite is always more difficult this time of year as the salmon stop feeding due to their bodies morphing for the final phase of their lives. So, don't be too hard on yourself if you don't catch much. If you do catch some good size fish ... it's a bonus. Generally, this time of year, salmon are biting less to feed, and more out of agitation/aggressiveness. So, setups that bias agitation is what people start to use now. You are looking for more erratic movement (like flies and plugs) and colors that induce their aggressiveness (like purples, reds, orange, etc). Having said that, you never know ... so it's always good to have a variety of things out to test the waters ... maybe an NBK spoon ... maybe a green fly. If you have 2 people onboard with fishing licenses, I think the rod rule in the USA is 3 per person (I'm from Canada, and it's 2 per person here). With 6 ... 2 downrigger for sure, one with a plug, one with a spoon (green?), and then the 4 dipsies ... well, if you haven't used them before, I'd probably just start with one on each side (so use a 4 rod setup), and get used to that before you go with 2 dipseys per side ... tangles are not fun. I'd put paddle/flies on the two dispeys, and probably one purple setup and one red/orange setup. Now, if you don't know where the fish are, you're not going to catch much. LOL. It's important to form a network so you can get in on the comms. Until then, look where other boats are, and keep an eye on whether people are catching or not. Last thing is speed and depth. If you don't have a downspeed indicator ... then go with 2 mph on your GPS, but be aware, your lure speed (with currents applied) could be much different. If 2 mph doesn't do much and you are marking fish, try speeding up to 2.4 mph and 2.7 mph (in sessions), and then down to 1.7 mph (in a session). A session is an entire straight length and a circle to go back to your starting point (probably 10 to 15 minutes at least). Temp is less important this time of year, but I'd still want to know where 52F water is and where 42F water is ... and put the riggers in that band, but then I also pay attention to the fish marker, and adjust to target depth at the top of the fish arches. Good luck, and be safe.

I'll bet $1 and a snickers bar that the DEC will not reply to this version of the question.

2 paddle/fly and 1 spoon. Flies on the dispeys, spoon on the rigger. Use glow.

I've used this guy before, he put us onto some goliath grouper in the bay. I met him at John's Pass, about 20 min south of clearwater, straight down Gulf Blvd. They also got us into Hog Fish and reasonably sized Red Snapper. It was a fun day out for sure. Captain Kyle Applefield John’s Pass Fishing Report – February 2024 - Old Salt Fishing Foundation

Well done Darrell. Great that you stuck with this idea, and continued to evolve the product. It seems like a very robust system.

The economy sucks right now man. It is not good. We have properties going for 20% less than they were 1 year ago. Severe price cuts are needed. Affordability has finally showed up at our door steps. If you need it moved, I don't think there's much more you can do than a SEVERE price cut. It doesn't matter what else is listed. They aren't selling either ... they'll sit for years too. For a boat, I would think you need to be at least 30% lower than other listings. The one thing you have to be careful about though is to avoid perception you are giving the boat away because it has problems. So, what might also help is to (a) provide access to the boat and have all the documentation ready to try and prove it is in good shape, and (b) offer some kind of guarantee ... I know this is tough, but it helps reassure the purchaser.

Awesome video. Thanks for posting this.

As others say, start at 2.0 to 2.5 mph ... but ... don't track straight all the time ... navigate in an S shape ... if the inside rods hit ... you need to slow down, if the outside rods hit, you need to speed up. Once you are dialed in ... you can set that speed and then start tracking straight.

15 lb spoons, 30 lb dipsies.

Morning will always be best. But if full moon (or close to it) night before .... I find the late morning bite is better. The theory is that salmon take advantage of the moonlight to see bait fish and eat all night, so they're not that hungry first thing in the morning. The bite normally starts up at 10 am to 11 am.

No more than 20 to 30 minutes ... 20 minutes, no bites feels like 4 hours no bites ... its SLOOOOOOWWWWWWWW.

Great video man!

Actually ... that could be a better idea ... to connect at the leader end .... only thing is you'd have to disconnect the torpedo as you are bringing in the fish ... and depending on the circumstance, it might not be that easy, without the risk of losing the fish ... you might end up hand lining the leader in? But the benefit is you don't need to let out another 100 ft of braid to get the torpedo down, in the instance it is attached AFTER the copper (on the braid).

Use the torpedo charts ... it will give you the amount of line out for a given depth. It's not going to be 100% accurate, but close enough. So say the copper get's you down 50 ft ... and you want to go down another 15 ft ... use the torpedo guide to tell you how much line you need out to get that additional 15 ft. I would go with the heaviest torpedo you can get though (Cuda) ... also, you need the right diving charts, I think the ones that come with the Torpedo are at much slower speeds (like 1 to 1.5 mph or something).

After you release all the copper, it should be attached to the braid.