TyeeTanic

Storm Warning has it right. Precision Trolling Big Water Edition II. The paper the dispey comes with is useless for braid or wire.

I agree with Bottom Feeder's setup suggestion. You want to play with distance away from boat and depth to keep them apart from one another. I've done it the other way around with the mags on the outside and then a standard or even a smaller No 0 dipsey on the inside two. What works the best if you go with the smaller ones on the inside is to use a No 1 and No 0 on the two inside lines. This puts the No 1 deeper and closer to the boat, and the No 0 shallower and farther from the boat. If a king hits the No 1 it can basically swim under the No 0 line. Anyhow it's all good and easy to keep under control until a big king hits. You'll have to get use to potentially reeling in one or possibly two of the lines if you can't control the king away from the others. This is where it is good to have a spare set of hands onboard.

I use just about every color. I match my dipsey color to my flasher color. Blue on blue, green on green, purple on purple - etc. I do pretty well on the blues and purples.

Yup, when I see this kind of stuff, I think ... we are on a big friggin lake. I mean its like 50 miles wide or something, and we have all this space. Why in the bloody world do these guys feel the need to come so close? Maybe they are lonely or something, but comeone, it's not like we're in a small confined zone. Basically, they are retarded ... just accept it.

Huh? What are you boating in, a canoo fitted with a radio control airplane engine?

I don't ask for gas money but everyone still pitches in one way or another. Some guys bring lunch and others will offer gas money. However no one ever offers to stick around and clean up the boat!

I use Torpedo 30 lb, 7 strand. 19 strand is a lot more expensive, and I don't think it's necessary. I never had one break off all of last year on this wire line. It is flexible and spools nicely. 1000 ft on each reel. I agree with what the other guys are saying. Braid is okay from May - June. July to mid August the fleas will render your braid useless. You will not be able to reel in your line and lose everything. After mid-Aug the fleas disapear and you can use braid again. If you have wire, you have no problem all season long. Mark

Ducks, I cracked two 9 foot starfire rods last year. One pulling up a 20 lb laker, and then other pulling in a violent 22 lb king. I switched to 10' Rapala RSC's. Both the starfires and RSC's have roller guides, which I swear buy. I couldn't recommend the starfires based on what happened. It wasn't a crazy amount of strain, but both rods exploded on seperate occasions about 12" up from the reel. I could recommend the Rapala RSC's though - they are 100 times better to work with.

To tie it to the real you actually tape it down using duct tape. Go around the spool with it once or twice and then use a piece of duct tape as wide as the whole spool and wrap it right around over itself. This gives the wire you now are going to wrap around the spool something to bite into. Remember keep the wire on the reel and off the wire spool always tight and straight - no loose ends, no kinks. Do this right and the rest works like magic. For the fishing end of the wire line, use a swivel tied to the wire, probably a quick connect will be the best so you can snap dipsy's on and off quickly. This is what I use to tie the swivel to the wire and it has never failed me, and it never will. It is as simple as it gets: http://lotsa.org/Wire%20Line%20Knot.htm Mark

Hey JBoock. In the first set of numbers, that range for Rainbows (60 - 70F) looks way too high. The range under steelies for the charter targets looks more realistic. Also they say big kings (tyees) will be in the 42 - 45F, but there aren't many, so it will be about size vs. quantity of hits.

You will know why we want the lead the length of the rod and D what fleas are all about and why use wire by the end of the season.

Just throw rocks at his boat next time ... And then take pictures of his reaction with your camera.

I couldn't have said it better myself. 2 wire lines on dipseys and 2 mono's on downriggers. I also like to put spoons on two lines and flies on two lines with Spin Doctors. Colors - blue/silvers, greens are good. Monkey Puke and Hawg Wild are also awsome producing colors. BTW why are you going out only for BTs? What about kings?

I have to disagree here. If people didn't have to take tests to get their driver's licenses are you saying there wouldn't be as many accidents, or even the same amount of accidents??? People learn a lot studying and taking their driver's examination. Yes it isn't perfect - there are still idiots out there. But, look at the masses, it does make better and safer drivers out of us. Without a licensing system there would be complete chaos and carnage on the roads. Now I agree, there fewer boating accidents than car accidents, but will this mean anything to you if your wife or child is killed in a boating accident because some idiot didn't know or care to learn about the rules of boating safety? I don't think so ... licensing boat operation is a very good thing. And it actually doesn't take much effort or money to do. We are talking about a week or two out of a person's life, and less money than it takes to fill our car up with gas. Mark

There's another common solution amongst experienced fishermen. I was fortunate enough to learn this early on. Basically take a thick drinking straw (like you get at McDonalds) and cut it in half. Then roll the leader around your hand loose enough that you can eventually get it off. Once looped together take it off your hand and squeeze it together to a pinch so you have the middle together and the ends looped out. Now feed one end of the looped line into the middle of the straw. Push it through until the straw is in the middle of the looped line. Now you have a leader line all nice and neat in a 4 inch x 1/4" gathering, and it won't kink. Mark

Here's my new ride - 2011 Rinker 260 EC. The shop is doing the bottom paint right now. Fishing gear all installed at the stern.

Nice! How heavy do you think she was? And the others, bigger fish, or about the same? - obviously a guess based on the run.

Flies - greens, blues, purples Spin Doctors MC Rockets Watermelon and monkey puke lures and finally ... lots of patience and a good sense of humor!

Make sure you get a rod with good roller guides or ceramic line guides or you will end up spending money twice.

I used a live well last year and all the fish were dead within 20 minutes. I think unless you have a massive live well with crazy aeration, then they are basically useless. This year I am going to just kill them and put them in a cooler box on ice, if I'm planning to keep them.

I think I read in the "Up to the Gills'" report that the fish samples are actually a slice of meet taken from the fillet - and not the entire fish.

I wear oversized waders (my foot is a size 8, I got an 11 boot for my waders). I put winter boot inserts (its a grey wool type insert about 1/2" thick). My foot then fits snug in the oversized waders. I have never come close to being cold with this method. And I fished on below freezing days!

I run 3 or 4 dipsey's most of the times. Don't want to put riggers on my boat. Anyhow, generally it is fine while trolling. But you have to be very aware of your setup. The deep divers (1 or mag) on setting 3 on outside, and then shallow dispeys (0 or 1, on short line) in the middle, with setting 1. I normally keep one middle a bit closer to the boat, but deeper (so say a #1 dipsey around 40-50 feet deep) and then the other middle rod farther out and shallower (say a #0 dipsey at around 30 feet deep). This means the two middle lines never actually cross each other - which is the main risk while trolling. Remember, the Lake O currents are high, as mentioned further up in this post. So you end up with times where all the dipseys are bunched together due to current and it takes a while to correct. If you stagger the middle two dipseys right, it is not an issue. Lastly, and this is important, everything is fine until a fish hits. The worst is when an outside dipsey takes a hit. The dipsey pops open and then the line travels straight towards the middle lines. If you don't reel these lines in, it can sometimes cause a complete mess. So you need extra hands on deck to help. Using 3 rods on a boat like that should be a lot simpler.

NEVER let any slack when dealing with wire. ALWAYS keep pressure on that wire to maintain itself so it wont coil or kink. A lot of people new to wire break off rigs because they aren't anal enough about this. Also use 7 strand wire, it is far more foregiving and easy to manage than single strand wire.

July is a good time and your boat is fine for Lake O, but use caution please. Weather can turn ugly and quicker than you think (it caught a few of us last year). Largest waves I've seen not too far from shore were 8 foot rollers. Was a bit scary. But I've had some absolutely awsome days in July, water like a mirror. My best day went 12 for 16 or something like that in mid-July. Also caught a nice 25 lb chinook around that time too.