Hooked on Kings

Bought two cold water Okuma 453D and put 300ft of 30lb mono backing with 1000ft of 30lb wire, fit nice. Only reason for 300 ft, I wanted to fill the reel, line counters work way more accurately when full. I used the 19 strand torpedo wire last two seasons with no twilly tip, it is way easier on guides than the 7 strand. Although many don't like the 19 strand, they say the finer wires break more easily then the 7 strand. To be honest that is not my experience yet, not sure how many years it should last. I was planning on changing it next year, I reversed it on these new reels and it is like new, didn't notice any problem with not having backing coming off my 30 Okuma.  

The wire dipsy spinny/fly combo just gives an action that can't be duplicated, the wire has no stretch, so it imparts an action that some days the salmon can't resist,

Got two in Nov. for my dipsy poles, they look great, can't wait to try them out. From what I've read about the drag system, it should be good and stout for the dipsys rods. Good luck with yours.

Going to buy something for down temp, just wondering instead of buying the Fish Hawk TD system, should I buy the X4D system? The X4D is high priced, but if you tell me it's worth spending the extra now, I will, or will I be happy with the TD. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Wire will go deeper, the math I use when setting wire pulling dipsys with a spin doctor and fly is 2 to 1 minus 10%. Now this can very depending on size of dipsy, trolling speed and current. Plus, things I have read say wire gives off a hum that the salmon find attractive, so for me, the more attractions on one rig I can have out there the better.

We did well last season with dipsys. I like the 30 lb 19 strand torpedo wire, easy on guides, especially if you don't have rollers or a twilly tip. My best setups were white glow with white crinkle spin doctor and white and green fly or little boy blue fly. The other was black dipsy with mountain dew spin doctor and green fly. I run 9' 6 " poles so I keep my over all lenght from dipsy to fly at 8' and 24" from flasher to fly. One good tip is when you make your first trip out go to deeper waters and let as much line out as you can, this will give you a nice tight consistent spool. Hope all this helps, good luck.

If I run that many lines off each boat how do you stagger them so they don't get tangled and how much line from release to lure? I also would like to know how fare to run board from the boat. Sorry for all the questions, Can't wait till I have more experience so I can give back and help others instead of asking a million questions. Thanks again.

Nice, thanks for that, I'm thinking I will definitely buy the extra half weight for the Otter boat. Can't wait, I'm soooo looking forward to this season.

Thanks for the info.......

Last year we started in March, we didn't have boards so our brown catch was not that good. Hoping with the boards this will improve this season. Hoping to run 6 poles, two off each Otter boat and two straight behind boat.

Last season I purchased a Ranger with 24" by 28" opening and it has 32" depth, plenty for the 25lbs and 28lbs kings we caught last season. The bigest reason for me buying a new net, was the lenght of the handle netting a big salmon in rough waters while working around the person on the pole, it's nice to have extra lenght, The Ranger I bought Is over 9ft from front of hoop to end of handle. The ranger also is hook free, if you have ever messed with hooks piercing through the net, this is a nice feature. Just my two cents, good luck.

I've purchased Otter boats for this season and want to know how to best use them. Can I run two lines off each, can I run Dipsy divers off them if I get the second keel or is the second keel not necessary. I was also thinking of running copper lead core off them for king season. I was also wondering if I could run spoons or would I need extra weight to keep spoons down. I've learned so much from LOU and thank all members for help you have offered. One more thing, what are the best releases to use. Thanks again.

Do a search for a thread " hey you bunch of new guy's" lots of great info here, should tell you much of what you want to know. Second thing is you can't beat experience so take a charter or take someone with you that has the knowledge. I'm still learning every time I go out and I have learned so much from this site, it's been a huge help. Guy's here are great and always willing to help. Just a suggestion but a better time to hit the lake is around 5:30 am or so, early bit is usually the best. Good luck.

This is something that has happened to me, when going out in rough water, like the big "O" usually is. If you have your rig all set to go in your pole holders the heavy rocking back and forth from the dipsy will fray the line. This happend to me my first time out with wire, I no longer keep them in the holders as we drive out to depth. Hope this tip helps, good luck and good fishing.

Fishing Report

Your Name / Boat Name:

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

TRIP OVERVIEW

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

Date(s):7/25/12

Time on Water:6:00 - 10:30

Weather/Temp:84

Wind Speed/Direction:

Waves: 4 to 2

Surface Temp: 74

Location: fairhaven west of chute

LAT/LONG (GPS Cords):

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

FISHING RESULTS

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

Total Hits: 6

Total Boated: 5

Species Breakdown: all kings

Hot Lure: white crush spin doctor and little boy blue fly

Trolling Speed: 2.6

Down Speed:

Boat Depth: 250 to 330

Lure Depth: 70 to 90

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

SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS

At the start, coming out of the chute, lake was rough but we weren't stopping, we started out at 200 feet and dropped riggers. Two riggers down 90 feet with spoons and two dipsy's out with spin doctors and fly's. After a half an hour we had our first shot on the starboard dipsy, this was the white crush with little boy blue fly, this was 6 lbs king. second fish taken was on the same rig as soon as it got back out, this was a 5 lbs king, we didn't know it yet but this was a good warm up for the next three fish. after about 20 min the port 275' dipsy with a mountain dew spin doctor with a white atomic fly took a shot. I couldn't do anything to stop it until the line counter reached 425', I was able to turn him around and start bringing him in until he reached 150', he then ran out another 100'. After that I was able to work him in. Wow, by the time the counter reached 75' my left forearm was on fire, loved it, , this one was a 28 lbs king. As soon as that fish hit the deck the starbord 290' dipsy took off again, this fish did almost the same thing, took 125' before we turned him and then at 75' ran another 75'. When he got close to the boat he cut straight across to the port side catching the port rigger fishing line and broking it. This King weighed 24lbs, luckily the release held the rig on the port rigger and we didn't lose the set-up. As soon as we brought up the port rigger the starboard rigger with a antifreeze stinger spoon took a shot, this fish wasn't as big, weighing in at 20 lbs. Took one more lightweight at 4 pounds, then we took one more big shot on the little boy blue fly, this fish was another good size fish, got him to 40' on the counter and he broke off . This was our best king day out, being greenhorns and hindsight being twenty twenty, I think after bringing in two other big fish on this same rig I should have retied my knots. Any advice, thanks in advance.

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

Will the wire and diver setup work on the home made 27" boards.

Thanks gambler I will check there, thanks again for the advice.

If I buy a set of rod and reel combo's that will handle copper, what would be a good set and were is the best place to shop. Love the LOU sight it is great to have people to ask questions of, thanks.

Wow, takes up that much space, was think about having two rodes with 1000' of #30 on each, unless there is a better cheaper way to go. looks like I will be buying new rod and reel setup.

I don't have down riggers right now and probably won't have until next year. I am trying to set myself up for summer fishing without riggers. I have bought 4 Okuma magda 30 D reels with 9' poles, stick bait, spoons, dipsy divers, spin doctors and flashers and flys. I am thinking, I will need to get down deeper with at least two poles. My plan is to run two poles with copper. First how much copper per pole, how much backing and can I run dipsy's off copper to get even deeper or will the copper get me deep enough and how do you judge depth with copper and dipsy's on. I really love trolling, there is nothing like the feeling when the drag starts screaming and the pole is bent over hard, but I'm definitely not enjoying the cost of getting started. That is why I'm looking to you to give me the best bang for my bucks, thanks for any advice you can give.

AAAHHH ..... got it....... makes complete sense. Thanks.

This is porbably a stupid question but I bought a new spool of 1500 ft braided line and when I went to split it between two poles, one pole I put on 750 ft and the other took 1000 ft and it looks like I might have enough to do a third pole. I guess it would have been nice to know this before hand , I would have put 1000 ft on both, is this common (spool length vs. counter).

Thanks for the advice,Just checked Amazon, found Precision Trolling AKA The Bible, it's a little pricey, they want 140$ used, also found a used copy on ebay for 75.00$. Think I stick with your adive for now and see how it goes. Thanks again

Thanks Pete

How can I get touch with Hank. I did change the gas filter last fall....thanks for the tip though

I didn't mention that I've had my boat out twice this spring and only boated three small browns 3 - 5 pounds. I put in at sodus and fished about 6 miles in both directions from there.