TyeeTanic

A longer leader is better, but if it results in having trouble netting, you can (and probably should) shorten it up. The leader shouldn't be longer than your rod. So solution 1 is to get a longer rod! LOL. I think your leader between flasher and meat is a little long. I would reduce it to somewhere between 4 and 5ft. Purely because I prefer getting some of that action from the flasher moving through the bait. If the lead is too long it kills the action transfer. After that shorten the lead between the dipsey and flasher. 8' is WAY too long. I don't think I have one lead between those components that is over 4 ft long.

tech, you can clip your line close to the ball, with a very short say 5 ft lead.

Good job. Nice fish!

Coho.

We use 30 lb big game mono main line, and then double uni to a 20lb fluoro leader. I can't remember the last time we had a break off. I only use Seaguar or P-Line fluoro leader. We are thinking of going down to 12 lb leader next year, as I've heard from some very reputable charter captains that the catch rate increases.

How do you know when a fish hits the spoon? Assuming your drag is not set tight (it should almost just creep out slow due to the dipsey drag, 1 click every 5 seconds), then you will know as the line starts peeling out. There will be no mistake. Do they normally just hook themselves? The fish strikes the spoon and hooks itself. Do they pop the dipsey front clip when they hit? Yes, the force of the bite pulls the latch open. How close to the boat should the dipsey be? That is not the important question. How deep should my dipsey be is the better question. Here we target a temperature range about 44F to 48F in Lake O. Sometimes it's 20ft down, sometimes it's 80ft down. Once you know your target depth, you need to let out enough line to get your dipsey to that depth. Use the charts the dipsey came with to figure out how much line to let out to get to the right depth. I'm assuming your reel has a line counter on it which tells you how many feet of line you have let out. How fast do you troll? I've read 1.5 mph but now was to go that slow. For Salmon/Trout that is way too slow. You need to be going more like 2.5 to 2.7 mph. How bendy or stiff should the dipsey rod be? The one I have is pretty flexible. I think it's 1st gen. fibreglass.I would describe the tip as "floppy"/ It should be medium to strong action - so not that bendy, as the dipsey puts a lot of force on the rod. When you see a bunch of marks on the screen at say, 100 feet, do you try to run the dipsey at their eye level? or slightly above maybe? Firstly the fish are at the highest point of the fish arc, assuming they are right under your boat. If I see lots of marks at a particular depth, I set my lines anywhere from that depth to about 15ft higher than that depth. I don't set my lines all at the same depth, and stagger them about 10ft in height apart, to cover more water column. Dipseys are good from around 30ft deep to 80ft deep. After that it gets difficult. Yes you can go shallower, but I feel that gets the line way too close to the boat. Yes you can go deeper, but the risk of tangles and drag on your rod is massive!