vetting

I clean a lot of fish on the boat and Im looking for a good knife shapener. Anyone have any suggestions? I have a few of the $10 quick sharpeners where you just run the blade through a few times, but wondering if there is something better. I konw the best way is a stone kit, but that isnt the most partical for quick shapening while in the waves.

I was thinking on adding the SPX-5R over the winter. I was going to go with P70R control unit. The entire package can be found for less than $1300 online. So in order to use the zig zag features, do you have to hook it up to a GPS or not? I only have a humminbird GPS/Fish Finder on board.

Typically spoons are run without a flasher. If you are going to run flasher/fly, a good number to start with is 28" from the end of the flasher to the tip of the fly. User 40lb test berkley big game - its a bit stiffer to give more action to the fly. Distance back from the ball is usually around 20 feet. You dont want to go too much further than that because if your running a fasher of each rigger, they will tangle if you arent heading straight with the underwater currents.

I found a source for a smaller box and for UV leds in the correct wavelength. Once I get everything in the mail, i'll start contruction and see if everything works the way it should.

Its in the works - I've been trying to find better and more reliable sources for black light tubing in the correct voltage and at a lower cost. I dont want to use just LEDs, because the wavelenght is too high for purple/blue spoons. You need a good old fashioned black light at 365nm for that.

So do you find that purple glow spoons are the best color to use? Hardly anyone makes them since they are so difficult to glow and to make the glow last.

Here are the 4 led square lights http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-module-strings/lbm-x4-series-led-module-string/144/ Any blacklight will do, just have to make sure it fits in the box that you have and is 12v if you plan on using it directly wired into the other lights. You could also just use batteries. For the mirrors I got them from a local store - link below - you can also get sheets of mirrored plexi on eBay. http://www.sciplus.com/p/PLASTIC-MIRROR_44628

Did a test last night and glowed them up for a few min. Put them in a dark bathroom and they were still glowing with a steady glow a hour later. The blacklight/UV glows the lures differently then flashing them with a camera or throwing them infront of a spot light for a few min. I personally think that the nuclear green tends to scare fish away until it dies down a bit. So green spoons just get a brief charge. The blues and violets are really hard to charge and get a smooth constant glow after that lasts. Thats where the UV light does its best - it makes the blues and violet spoons glow up really nice.

Well since winter will never end here in WI, I decided to build a glow box to charge glow spoons. Its made out of a plano ammo/tackle box with plexi mirrors attached on the inside. Once side has a 365nm tube black light and the other side has 410nm UV leds. To hang the spoons, I used a 1/4 metal rod with shaft collars on the outside of the box to keep it in place. The whole thing runs of 12 volts and uses a cigarette plug. The entire cord can be retracted into the top of the box for easy storage when not in use. When closed, you cant even see any light coming out of it. I always had issues with getting an even glow on purple and blue spoons which are the hardest to get a glow. The best part about the full UV is that you get a full even glow that seems to last longer than using a flasher.

I'll take 3 of the 12.5lb torpedo weights - sending you a PM.