fieromx3

believe it or not i use a 6'6'' very very light rod (even fairly light for pitching to bass lol) loaded with 20lb powerpro and it works AWSOME. i have caught sooo many fish with the setup including a 23 pound king and has been flawless.

just because your running dipsies doesnt mean you need heavy rods or line. though many im sure will say something against my post it is by far the rod i like catching fish on the most, it is fun and i have never lost a fish on this one either it has always had solid hook ups!!

went out with my mom and bro yesterday and left the docks at lakefront promenade park. we motord in front of the island but offshore in 250FOW. set out both riggers and 2 dipsy divers. we marked no fish, no bait or anything but ended up with a nice 8 or 9 pound rainbow trout in which was a very hyper fish, fought really well for a rainbow! i got this one on a NK watermelon spoon. watermelon always works great for us everytime were fishing and we want a trout we throw the old faithful watermelon spoon and every single time we land a rainbow.

after that we went to 90FOW in search of some lakers as i have never caught any. i sent both riggers down, 1 to the bottom with an orange spoon and 1 to 60 feet deep with the watermelon. marked lots of bait fish schools. trolled for about 20mins without a rod moving and decided to pack up and go home. i reeled one of the riggers back up and behold!!! i had a small maybe 2 pound atlantic salmon on the line i was dragging around for i dont know how long. poor thing i felt bad for it but i was able to do a real nice lively release with it. that was my first atlantic ever as well.

overall the fishing was slow but was still a beautiful day but the lake had some pretty good rollers in the A.M but started diminishing in the evening. we cruised the island for a while and docked up to it to grab some food and drinks..... was just nice to have a day with my mom and brother as it has been years since the 3 of us had a day out together

there really is a ton of debris out there!! alot of times you dont even see it till last minute. i was headin in and out from the deep waters and i was standing to be on the lookout and even then i still didnt see it till last second but i was able to swerve out of the way fortunately. be careful!!!

very nice yankee!!! im actually fishing out of toronto island tomorrow with my mom and possibly brother!! it is a nice area, lots of scenery and bars to dock up to and great fishing. boating toronto is fun but driving to the launch in toronto traffic sucks!!!!

the weather reports for lake conditions are usually very wrong (in my experience) and man dont sweat it!!! what i usually do is just look at winds and direction of it.. i will look at the U.S side and the canadian side in different cities. the average wind during the day in summer is usually what? 15-20kmh? i have been out many times in those conditions whether its sunny or not and the lake is fairly smooth. with a 221 islander i wouldnt worry to much, just have all your safety gear and think ahead. though it does have its days i find lake ontario a pretty smooth lake. i havent been on erie but georgian bay/lake huron is a pretty rough lake, a good day on huron is a rough day on lake O

doesnt matter if its 2 dollars or 2000 dollars. a scumbag thief is a scumbag thief!!!

what kind of tackle are you using and what depths?

i have another downrigger with the base made of heavy duty plastic to insualate from the hull and the cable spool along with the pulley is made of plastic. i will try it out next time to see if that makes a difference?

it is an eakins manual rigger. it looks like crap but extremely stout lol. i have tru-trac klincher to attach the ball so the ball is insulated from the cable.

i havent tried touching directly at the battery yet to the cable, just the engine i have.

the electronics were on which is only the fishfinder and 1 gauge and the engine was running i was in gear trolling when i decided to test it.

i will test all of that stuff out again the next time i go out. thanks for the tips everyone!

boat is a sterndrive i/o. it is also trailered not kept at a marina. i will ground the outdrive and replace anodes and see how it is. there cheap enough anyway

i have made a seperate post months ago but didnt quite get the information i had hoped for. i been researching again and just not sure what to do?

i was out yesterday for the first time of this year using downriggers for my first time ever to. while trolling i was curious and connected my voltmeter pos. cable to the rigger wire and neg. to the engine ground and measured -.05 volts. from what i see thats a bad thing as ideally a POSITIVE charge of .5-.6 volts is wanted. does anyone have tips to get a positive charge on my rigger wire???

i dont have a 'bonding' wire attached to the outside metal parts (drain plug, transom tie down eyelets etc.) the anodes are in pretty rough shape.  my hull is fiberglass and the downrigger is mounted to it with no insulator. the whole entire rigger is aluminum and steel no plastic at all.

headed to the lake hamilton bridge for the first time this year in my new boat with my bro and 2 friends!!!

we started at around 10am and set out a 4 rod setup 2 of the dipsy and 2 stacked on 1 rigger. set out at 110 feet varying depth from the bottom and half way around 70 feet with riggers and approc 30 feet down with dipsies pulling spoons, meats, body bait flasher and flies and got NOTHING not a single rod touched.

after a couple hours of nothing we headed into the harbour and grabbed lunch and cruised a bit. at a cafe with WIFI i looked at reports and saw someone was slaying coho at 250FOW 55 feet down so off we went for a 2nd try.

we motored to 250 FOW and set a hammer time SD with a-tom-mik green crinkle fly 60 feet down and a green NK spoon 30 feet stacked on the rigger. a gander mountain orange spoon on the dipsy and a meat on the other dipsy.

trolling about 2.3mph after 15mins the 60 foot rigger fired with the F/F setup and WOW this darn thing peeled 450 feet of line :0 :0 we ended up having to chase this king down otherwise i would have been spooled!! after one hell of a run it got so tired that it floated to the surface. as soon as we got it near the boat it swam around the rigger cable and the fishing line got tangled up with the cable and as soon as the cable cut the fishing line my brother just grabbed it and boated it!!! got are hearts pumpin for sure. no official weigh in of it but she was VERY chunky and fat and all of us felt it was a good 30 pounder! nice first fish of the year!!!

5mins later we hooked into a nice coho on the gander orange spoon approx 30 feet down. fought fairy good and boated it.

10mins later hooked into another coho? king? not sure had a green back and dark grey mouth almost blackish but not quite. this was a short fight as it hit the 30 foot rigger green NK spoon and popped up beside the boat was a quick net job.

all in all we got 3 for 3 and was just a beeeeeeeautiful day!!! couldnt ask for better and new to me boat ran perfect!!

my friend/coworker and his green back

my brothers g/f and her coho

this is me (which i wasnt ready for the camera yet lol) showing my little boy the catch of the day

very chunky it was!

so i just upgraded my mc-1 drive to an alpha 1 gen 1 lower unit. there is a little hole on the botton near the skeg. its leaking gear oil... on my grandparents driveway yay. my mc-1 lower did not have this. it doesnt look to be threaded for a set screw or anything. from what i have read it seems to be a vent hole?? i have no idea i cant find much of anything on it. anyone know what it is???

i have a 1977 mercruiser 140hp. 

gert i think you might be thinking of SEI which i am considering highly right now. but i figured i post here as maybe some local shops can get rebuilt ones for a decent price as well. 

thanks soggy right now im trying to find one for reasonable price from a shop/store with warranty... i plan on keeping this boat for years to come and want that extra 'peace of mind'

i suddenly need a new lower unit for an alpha 1 outdrive... my boat is a 1977 and it is the #1 lower unit. looking for a place either here in ontario or close to the border state side to buy a new or remanufctured unit. if anyone knows a place let me know!!!

well... to be honest i dont think ive ever got so excited... now thinking of it i cant believe i reacted so strongly lol

it was last year may two-four weekend. me and my brothers first day on lake ontario and first time fishing for trout and salmon. we used dipsy divers and spoons only and were slamming fish all day but all coho and rainbows. one fish hit the rod and started ripping line and bending my pole like hell, the fish was way out abot 350 feet and it started swimming toward us and diving DEEP within about 20 seconds it swam probably to 150 feet below the boat. i reeled it up and my brother went to net it and he was like OMG this one is huge compared to the others!!!

the fish was to big for the net and he struggled to grasp it with his hands but he did end up getting it in the boat! 

we got the fish in and it would not fit in our cooler at all the thing was sticking out it was so big. i got so excited and in shock i pretty much collapsed to the floor of the boat and through up!!!

now i have caught way way bigger fish than that mostly from saltwater (a few pounds shy of florida state record sailfish!!) but something about this one because it was only me and my brother that got with our own boat/rig/knowledge was really satisfying!!

i will never forget it!

would you ever be closer to guelph area in a few days??? would you sell only 1 of them? i dont mind driving to get them but i want to justify the cost of them while spending money on gas to get one lol

interesting. i never thought a simple change in hook could change alot... there really is more to fishing than people think huh?

i dont know. it seems everyone has problems with fleas. i used 20 pound sufix fuse last year with my dipsy all year in lake ontario and huron and never ever had a flea problem. i loved the braid over the mono for dipsy's as they seem to run much better in the water and when hooked up it was alot more fun fighting the fish as i could feel EVERYTHING plus believe it or not i had better hook up and landed more fish with the braid.

everyone always says use mono for more stretch but i had better luck with braid but just dont have a tight drag, mine was set just a tad tighter so the dipsy wouldnt be taking line on its own. this is just my personal preference and was MY experience

im using 20lb sufix again this year for my lighter action rods and small dipsy's and possibly 40lb for my bigger dipsy rods/dipsy's

i just bought some #2 size gamagatzu or however you spell it lol trebles... in the package when i was looking at them they looked decent size until i brought them home and compared to my current hooks on my spoons then they looked fairly small. using mostly dreamweaver 4'' spoons

hey everyone.. im just replacing some hooks on my lures due to some rust or are just very dull now. was curious the hooks on my trolling spoons seem really big... is there a size preference you guys like?? after all this is the most important part of the rig!!! im thinking that some of these salmon and trout will actually follow and observe the lure for quite some time and that if they see the hook or it is relly big that it stands out could cause less strikes?? but on the other hand dont want them so small that it cant hook into the fish at all.

what brand and size hooks do you all like?? im just replacing with trebles on my spoons 

no offense but that is one of the most vague for sale posts ever.... the more info and pictures the more interest and bites you will get.

posting up as much info as you can and pictures will help you alot. again i dont mean any offense im just trying to help you get more interest in her. i have always loved the trophy walk arounds. good luck

thats what i would do... just put a plug in the livewell and fill it with ice instead and use it for storage lol.

i will use epoxy. i suppose i will get the extra peace off mind knowing it will be very strong and wont have to worry about water intrusion. 

the only problem is that uscomposites is in the states and shipping across the border would not be cheap. im going to try and find epoxy at some local body shop supply stores

i researched and i read that epoxy is the most superior adhesive, strength and all that jazz. i read that polyester isnt best which i already know.. but i am asking.

the floor in my boat was just done and is coated with epoxy to seal it and i want to put glass cloth over the seams just to keep water out for waterproofing, it is not structural. if the epoxy coating is sanded rough and cleaned with acetone would the polyester bond to the epoxy well? i dont want to have to worry about it delaminating down the road or should i just spend the extra coin and get epoxy resin?