DJ 17

How big are your swivels?  If they are too big they may hurt the action of your lure presentation.

Bass Pro carries it as well, but my experience is they don't have much of a knowledge base when it comes to trolling and I would rather buy from a local shop, if you have one near you.  You will get better info/advice and support your neighbors.  I went in Bass Pro just looking at reels awhile ago and the guy asked me what I wanted it for and I told him copper. He didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

I have made this with perch, walleye, laker, and brown.  I like it the best with perch, but I made it with lake trout for lunch at the school where I work and the ladies cleaned the plate and asked for the recipe!

If you are using thick filets I would suggest cutting them in half horizontally so they cook all the way through before the topping burns.

Greased baking dish

layer of fish, drizzle w/ lemon juice and  a "few" pats of butter

layer of uncooked spinach (trim the stems off)

layer of tartar sauce (preferably your secret homemade recipe, but you can substitute mayo if you don't like tartar, but its better with tartar, trust me!)

layer of sliced tomatoes

cover with diced red onion and diced garlic (as much as you like)

cover with parmesan cheese

A second layer of fish

more lemon juice and pats of butter

cover with crushed ritz crackers, dust with seasoned italian breadcrumbs to cover the little gaps that will form.

Bake at 350 uncovered for about a half hour or until fish cuts easily w/ spatula

Enjoy! Let me know how you like it.

Beauty. Nice Job Paul.

I agree with what Chris said above. I run the 18# and 27# leadcore because the smaller diameter dacron sheath sinks faster. The higher test ratings refer to the dacron sheath strength, not necessarily the amount of lead in the line. Maybe buy a full core and split it into a 7 color and a 3 color or two 5's, etc...and see how you like it.  The cores are deadly on the boards, when the fish are up in the water column.  Since the copper sinks faster, you reach depth quicker with less line out, thats a plus for deeper fishing. Maybe try the split cores and a 300 copper and see what you like.  IMHO they are both a good stealth presentation. Like anything else its all personal preference!!

It depends on what your target depths are.  If you want to get deeper than 40 feet or so I would say copper is the way to go.  A full core will get you to about 40-maybe 50 feet depending on what you are pulling behind it.

I was thinking about it, but like you said, I am not real excited about that west at 15mph. Which always seems to turn into more than they called for!

Make sure you have the drag set so it just holds the dipsy at depth while trolling. When the fish hits it better be able to peel drag or you are going to break things IN A HURRY!  Good Luck, nothing like hearing your first big king rip on a wire!

Chas,

I am a teacher as well, you didn't miss much, the weather was pretty poor overall. D@%n wind!

Just picture 50 feef of snot made out of super glue and you can get a pretty good idea of what they are. 

Good Luck.

Ralph,

Have you been out with the big boat yet? If so, how did you do?

If you buy flea flicker get the 20 lb. The 30 Lb is a nightmare to work with, it twists faster than a tornado in a trailer park.

Nice to see you popped your cherry and wrote something Dave! Maybe Castastrophy  or maybe JINX???

I have been teaching Phys.Ed. for 14 years and am still nothing but a kid at heart ( like most of us on here!). I think I have come up with a name. When you were a kid what was your favorite part of school??  Besides Gym class anyway!   RECESS!!!!!!   I'm always ready to play (i.e not work!), so my boat is my adult version of  RECESS!  What d'ya think?

Tim hit right on the head! Get trolling bags, not drift socks, they are a different animal. I tried trolling with drift bags just for the hell of it and it was a total waste of time, not too mention they started to rip! If you wanted drift socks for jigging, panfishing, etc..., I would definitely say get one or two sizes larger than recommended for you boat size.

Read online this morning that they are in fact going to "suspend indefinitely" the 7 round magazine restriction.  I guess it was included as an"ammendment" of some sort in the budget.  Like was said above, It's not the best, but it's a start!

Kuba,

If you were only catching steelhead, my guess would be that you weren't in cold enough water. "MOST" of the time the kings prefer much colder water than the steelies. IMHO try the colder water, below the thermocline.

Was there any discussion on lake levels and their management strategy of them?

Alex,

PM sent

Alex,

I have had "some" success catching trout and salmon on Cayuga and Seneca with the 4" pro trolls with approx an 18" leader to a standard or scorpion size stinger or small honeybee.  Pro trolls were mostly Chrome, white w/ crackle tape, and green w/ crackle tape.  I never ran tham as cheaters though. Either off the riggers, or behind a tru trip diver under an in line board. 

Puma,

I would not be overly excited to CATCH THEM BY HAND    .  

For the sake of repeatability and consistency. If your outside rod with a firetiger thunderstick back 150 fires, wouldn't you want to replace it in the same position? For you guys that say just slide the inside ones farther out, are you running all the same length leads? I have been staggering them from longer on the outside to shorter on the inside, so if a fish hits the outside rod it "should" swing back into the chute and you can fight him up the middle without having to clear anything. Thoughts?

waiting on mine as well.

I am running 12 lb on spoons rods and heavier on the F/F's. That is until the damn fleas show up. I don't know if the smaller diameter line adds stealth or not, but if it gives you more confidence in your program catching fish, go with it!