TyeeTanic

Guys,

I thought I had made a deal to buy an old mac jac temp probe to read down temp, but it fell through.

I am now looking at a fishhawk TD. I like the unit because it takes and records readings every 5 ft on the way down.

I can also hook it up to my line to get an accurate indication of my trolling depth and temperature - this will help me figure

out what my dipsey's on wire are doing.

Anyhow, can anyone provide a recommendation for this product before I go spending $150 + taxes.

Thansk.

J&J were you using a no 0 or no 1 dipsey?

I am general talking about steelhead, coho and king salmon.

I think a good fishing day is high numbers, with one or two big boys (+15 lbs).

I am generally talking about morning (6 - 11 am).

Let's keep it to July/August.

Thanks,

Mark

Well, I managed to find a Mac Jac Temperature Probe thanks to WWIV who pointed me in the right direction.

It is being mailed to me, so hopefully I'll get it next week.

So now I will be able to measure temperature every 10 ft down to 150 ft.

So the next question is what temperature zone am I looking for?

I posted 55F as a good temperature based on the advice on some other messages in the forum.

A few guys said that was still way too warm or something.

So I'm going to do a pole to find out what people define as the thermocline that they like to fish in, just below and just above.

With wind, it will definitely make it harder. What about current? Is there a current pushing you?

There's some good instructions on you tube - just search for videos on "how to dock a boat".

Are you docking on your own or with help?

If you have help, then you could pass your dock and turn around so you then come in with the momentum towards your dock, not away from it.

What I do is coast in with my nose pointing at the middle of the dock, with someone ready to walk off the nose. I then lightly touch the reverse a few inches from the dock and the boat essentially stops dead making it easy for my helper to get off. The only trick with this technique is your back will be a foot or so away from the dock, so the helper must basically pull the front nose to keep the bow from hitting the top of the dock and then quickly pull the back in so you can get off and take over this rope. Then you tie the back end down, while the helper ties the from end down.

If you are on your own you can still do this, but you have to come in a lot closer to the dock and hit reverse (lightly!) before you reach the top of the dock. You have to have the ropes ready in your hand, before you enter the dock, make sure the back rope is outside the bimini frame and the front rope is over the front window. Both ropes should be in your left hand. As you reverse to stop the momentum, quickly put in neutral and cut off the engine. Then walk off the boat by the front passanger seat and control it with the ropes off the dock. Do a temp hook up on your middle dock anchor and then tie the back up, after that go back and tie the front properly.

It takes 3 or so tries and then you will master it.

Open or closed??

Closed makes no difference. I'd imagine if there was alot of wind and it was open, it would push the boat a bit.

Yes, blue balls are painful to use...

It doesn't bother me - the diagonal lines have only happened twice in 30 hours of trolling.

The other image - the 30 foot deep, 150 foot long mass is interested - again not important - but if it is a huge bait ball - it would be worth marking and circling over several passes. If it is only plankton then I should just move on.

Yes my motor was running. However the diagonal line has only showed up twice in several hours of fishing..

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I was trolling around 2.5 to 3.0. Not that bumpy. Have a feeling there were big underwater currents.

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Nothing done with the lines, boat straight as an arrow, no speed change. Just a massive 25 foot deep, 150 foot long .... something or other. I can't tell you how wide it was. The top of it was at 20 or 30 feet deep.

All,

I cannot tell you how much time I wasted trying to get the Dipsey Mag 3 to work this Friday. The drag it produced popped it out every time I was at the level I wanted to be at. Then reel in, reset, back down, pop ... over and over.

I tightened the screw to basically the maximum on the popper - and it still didn't work.

Has anyone else had this problem with the Magnum 3 dipsey??

When someone says, "I was on wire, 150 ft out on #3 setting." does this mean

they were using a dipsey on the #3 setting (left or right) with 150 feet of line out?

If so, the real question is, what size dipsey are they talking about a 0, 1 or 3 Magnum??

Thanks.

Hello all.

I just bought my first boat recently, a 20 ft Taho with a 4.3L merc cruiser IO engine.

The book tells me I have to service it every 100 hours - that would be like every month for me!!!!

Is this for real????

Most of my time is idling while trolling - is it really necessary to pull the boat out of the water every 100 hours, or is this overkill??

Thanks.

It might be a plankton line - I have noticed plankton residue on my wire line (where I twist it at the swivel).

Is plankton a good thing to fish through?? Are there fish around, or is it pretty inert?

I use a uni knot to tie my swivel quick connectors to the lead.

What I do is go through the swivel ring twice with the fish line and then do a uni knot, with 6 or so wraps before I pull it tight.

I think I know what went wrong. My drag was waaaaaaay too tight. I didn't know I had to tighten it only until the reel clicks every 20 to 30 seconds. I had it much tighter than that. Anyhow, I also have the 40 lb floro on now with the drag set much lighter.

I figured that out on Saturday - went out fishing Sat and Sun and guess what??? No bites. So I got everything setup properly, but now no fish that want to bite!!!! This sport can drive you crazy ....

We had a bit of a SW wind andi started spotting fish at the 40 to 50 ft mark sonthings are getting back to normal.

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Thanks WWIV.

I bought the thermometer before I posted this topic. Have been trolling for only 2 weeks and learning as I go.

Will definitely check out the add. Thanks.

It is not really the money. I don't want to screw anyrhing else down on my boat as it is more a ski boat than a fishing boat.

Something that will attach to my rod is perfect.

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I have a Lowrance Elite 5 Gold. It is a decent unit.

I was thinking the first one might be a school of bait, but it would have been incredibly long (several hundred feet) and it was almost too uniform stay + or - 5 feet on the top line and bottom line.

Second one I never fish close to any one else but have to admit I never actually paid attention to seenif anyone else could have been close by.

Next time I will take pics with my phone and post.

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Oh that is hilarious. Sorry, but that would win Americas funniest home video.

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I don't use down riggers.ni only use dipseys which are far from the boat. This is definitely a phenomenon happening under the boat.

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Okay, I have seen two strange things on my fish finder - does anyone know what these might be??

1) A long thick line - around the 20 to 30 foot depth, and is around 10 feet thick, running for a long stretch, about 1 to 1.5 screen lengths, probably 100 feet long. Is this the thermocline or a fish swimming under my boat?

2) A very straight diagonal arrangement of dots - starting high then going lower as you move from left to right across the screen. It is extremely straight, just on a diaganal.

Thanks,

Mark

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name: Pirate's Cove

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TRIP OVERVIEW

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Date(s): July 2, 2011

Time on Water: 7 - 11 am.

Weather/Temp: some clouds, calm

Wind Speed/Direction: South

Waves: 0.5 m or less

Surface Temp: 69F

Location: Bronte, Hamilton

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

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FISHING RESULTS

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Total Hits: 2

Total Boated:

Species Breakdown: 0

Hot Lure: Dartee Blue, Syclops Blue

Trolling Speed: 3 mph

Down Speed:

Boat Depth: 120 ft

Lure Depth: 20 ft

====================

SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

====================

I had a crazy fishing day, in a bad sense. With the new moon, and slight overcast this morning, I thought the fish would bite like crazy. We spotted a lot of fish at the 20 - 30 ft depth, and some large ones at the bottom at 110 ft. We only had two bites all day. Holy smokes, what the heck is going on - the fish just didn't want to bite today.

The fly was a green with some blue. The lure was green with a silver christmas tree in the middle.

The 20 lb is Floro. I am now using 40 lb Floro.

Yes, I think the drag was too tight as well. Now I set the drag to just keep it from turning under trolling drag.

I can't lose the dipsey's. I don't have down riggers and don't want to put them on my boat (it is a bow rider ski boat). I have a snubber to take on some of the shock from a big bite.

It is suprising that even with the snubber it still snapped the 20 lb lead - they must have been big fish.

I don't know about you guys - but on the north shore, all the fish were sitting high in the water today (July 1). They were all at 30 ft of water and sometimes less, in almost consistently 130 total water depth. I couldn't believe how high they were, almost didn't use the dipsey's as it wasn't worth while. Well, actually didn't on two lines - put 3 oz weights on instead and put out enough string to make sure they were at the 40 ft depth, and got several hits with these.

2 biggies - I figure 20 to 30 lb fish, broke my connector line and lead (20lb floro). I was a little frustrated ....