TyeeTanic

90% of the time we leave the rods in the water, even in tournaments. When you hit a fish, there's a greater chance that other fish will hit. You may be in a good zone, and getting that extra fish could win the tournament. We do however watch our lines and pull those that could threaten landing a big fish. We never reel in all the lines, that's totally not necessary, especially if you're rigger lines are still down.

I'd go for a raven. You're close enough to the canadian boarder to get one.

Oh, and I've bought stuff from this site, and always been treated great.

Gambler I get what you are saying, but I for one can tell you I am not a pro member and give a lot of advice on this site. I don't always have the time to put reports on all three forums I follow, but I do answer a lot of technical questions. I don't think you want to cut that contribution out. And like Mortigan says, after enough use, there's a good reason to go Pro. If we can't see the benefits, then it's harder to sell the Pro status.

I had a snap off unfortunately with the albright knot this year. Lost a good 4 oz torpedo and spoon. It seems the wire cut into the leader right where the wire clinches - which on the provided link would be on the very right of the knot. I managed to find a micro swivel that fits trough my rod eyelets and reel guide. So now I have the wire and leader tied to the swivel. Haven't had a problem yet. As for a twilli tip - yes, as a minimum you need something on the top guide of the rod to either prevent sawing through the eyelet with the wire, or damaging the wire via kinks. The other eyelets are fine.

Last year the following colors were beasts for me: - purple thunder or bloody death fly - hawg wild - chrome froggy, spotted frog patterns This year: - purple didn't work at all on spoons. Only had a few hits on the bloody death fly. - hawg wild was 100% dead on spoon and fly - hammertime and mirage crinkle flies took a lot of hits - blue and white spoons took a lot of hits - probably by far the best colour for us was chartreuse - spoons, flies and meat. A very, very strange year. It was difficult to hone in on the working bait/color from one day to the next. Weather never stabilized, so it was changing from day to day - last year a color would stick for at least a week or two once we figured out the program. Not this year.

Great, great video! That's the way to enjoy life bud. You're girl has a real talent there, good way to package up the memories!

Okuma Convector 30D is a good starting point - great value for money, and about the lowest quality I'd accept. Shimano Tekota after that.

Where will he want to troll when he gets hooked. OK, take my advice for after you get hooked.

As far as gear the minimum to me is: Dipsey divers size #1, at least 4 in black to start. 11" Spin doctors and matching atomik flies - screamer and frog, hawg wild, bloody death, hammer time Spoons size 3" and 4" - same colors as above, monkey puke, nbk,, purple thunder Now this might be a hard sell but I would buy wire dipsey rods if you don't already have them. Put 30 lb, 7 strand on your reels and you won't look back. Assume you have a decent fish finder. Having down temperature is a good bonus. Simplest is the fish hawk TD. But you can go smart troll which works on any type of rod or down riggers.

It was a slow start but is becoming a strong finish.

Thanks for the info. Was this done on a standard, #1 dipsey diver with regular ring?

I have an HDS 5. It is great. I would like to have an HDS 8, but no more room at my helm!

I replace mine also. BUT! Now that it has been shown that torpedo wire drops the same rate as leadcore, that 300' of wire can be used to spool a separate rod for free line fishing. Will get you around 30 to 35' deep. Put some braid backing on the reel (about 500' or so) and you should be good to go.

We use Church Tackle Boards. Walley Boards are okay for light weight such as a 4 oz torpedo weight. However, any over that like the 8 oz torpedo or 300 ft of copper will require the TX44 boards.

I've had my fish fighting belt for 3 years, and it still looks brand new. It is an easy to use, velcro fit belt. Just put around the waist and velcro to the right length.

Blue .... it's been a while. Just joking. Someone was bound to do that to you. My canon balls are black with silver flasher tape on the tails. It is well known they act as attractors. Somedays I hear colors work (silver), and others not. Black is viewed as a neutral color, which is my preference, to take one less variable out of the equation.

My settings came directly from a Lowrance guru (he sells them for a living, and has regular seminars at fishing clubs teaching people how to use their sonars - see video of him on youtube link below - Jocelyn Leung). Just about everyone in my marina is going to these settings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqCaCgLkMFE Several parts to the video due to length of presentation - this guy knows his stuff, I have an 83/200 ducer. 200 has better penetration due to the narrower cone angle. I can't say how the 50 Hz works. You can always split screen the sonar. However, I find you do lose clarity when the ducer is switching between the two frequencies to display both. I can pick up my canon balls on 83 Hz, I use a 12 lb ball, and have around 50 or 60 ft of blowback. The settings are a balance of picking up detail, but rejecting noise. So the highest sensitivies and ping speeds are not always recommended. General use is recommended for depths above 100 ft. Below 100 ft, Joc recommends shallow.

- Auto Sensitivity - Range = Auto - Frequency = 200 kHz - Chart speed = 2x - Fishing mode = General - Ping Speed = 15 - Noise reduction = low - Surface clarity = off - Palette = 13 - Transducer: make sure you go to Installation and under sonar settings, select the correct transducer. - Network: make sure you go to Data Source under sonar use the temp from the Lowrance unit, not Global (via network).