jigstick

I have a cottage on chautauqua and have fished it for 15years and not once have I ever had luck catching a muskie on that lake.  My lures get fouled with seaweed in about 15 seconds.  What is the technique here?  I have downriggers, planer boards etc...Ive tried trolling the deep water with my downriggers, the weed edges with deep divers and riggers, etc....and everytime my lures foul almost instantly.  whats the trick?

First off, throw those halogen lights in the trash.  they get blazing hot and pull a crazy amount of amps.  If you are running a lot of electronics, ie big sonar display, autopilot, temp probe, radio, vhf, flood lights, deck lights, running lights, cell phone charger, etc...i bet you are getting low voltage for sure, even if your alternator is large.  that is a tremendous rapid drain on a deep cycle battery.

replace those halogens with some of the newer LED spreader lights.  They are just as bright, and pull about 1amp, which is nothing. And they dont get hot.

If you insist on keeping the halogens, I would be looking into a larger deep cycle battery, new 4g wire, new Blue Sea Systems fuse panel, and updated thicker wire to all of your electronics, especially those lights.

The breaker most likely tripped because they pulled too much power or the amperage fluctuated so bad that there wasnt enough juice to run anything else.

I target lakers almost exclusively, unless the walleye bite is on.  I fish the east basin of Erie between Dunkirk and Barcelona.  Hammer them every time.  Cowbells + Peanut fly is the gold standard.  It always catches fish.  Bounced right on the bottom, 15ft behind the ball.  Ive caught them going slow as 1.5mph, and as fast as 2.5-3mph.  This past weekend I put out a 42nd SpinDoctor + Frog fly and a Double Pearl spindoctor with Green Hammer fly, trolled about 15ft up from the bottom, and it absolutely hammered them as well.  Big magnum spoons also work great.....greens and orange colors.  Catching lakers really isnt that hard.  Ive had days when Im running my dipsys up high for steelies, and my cowbells and magnum spoons on the bottom for lakers, at the same time, going steelhead speeds, and caught lakers and steelhead.  That makes for an armbusting day.

I am usually fishing the 90ft - 180ft range, so its easy for me to get the balls bounching on bottom...unless blowback is extreme.  If you find cold water you can also fish them up high in it.  Ive had lakers hit my dipsys so hard that I thought my rod was going to snap in half.  A 30-35lb laker hitting a wire dipsy hard is awesome.

When it comes to the ball bearing swivel / coast lock snap, is there one brand in particular that is most durable?  Sampo or SPRO?  I am thinking of using a #60lb one.  That should be plenty strong enough for #1 dipsys and king salmon hits correct?

Should I cinch down that overhand knot as close to the swivel ring as possible, or keep a loop in between there?

ok wow.  that knot looks easier, especially to do out on the water.  Any idea on the green plastic bead?  Does it come with the Twili Tip?  I know its not necessary, but it was a nice feature.  It basically would prevent the crimp and swivel from getting caught up in the Twili tip

I use a #3 spro coastlock snap with a crimp sleeve for the wire.

With the ball bearing swivel?  or the power swivel?  They look just a tad bit different.  What size crimps?  The Mason 7strand wire I have has a diameter of .015.  The smallest crimps I have are with an internal diameter of .84.  I should be able to crimp it down tight enough right?

And another stupid question.  When I bought these rods pre-rigged, they came with a bright green plastic ball about the size of a "pea" that slid down to the crimp, so that you could not accidentally reel the wire too far into the rod it….it fit perfectly inside the twili tip.  where do I find that ball?

This is probably a basic question, but I have never had to deal with it myself.  I snapped off a #1 dipsy yesterday. Lost everything from the wire back.  I need to crimp on a new connector to my 7 strand line.  What type of connector do I use?  What size?  I keep seeing to use a "clevis" but don't know what that is.  And I have heard to use a 100# SPRO ball bearing swivel.  I understand how to crimp it all together, but don't know exactly what connectors to use.  Any help?

Yes that is the school i am talking about. It moves east and west a bit but once u find it u will have a nice 3 mile troll of constant walleye action. Last i heard it got pushed deep with all the south wind. Thats where i found it last weekend

Yeah I just talked to the buddy I fish with up there.  He lives in Amherst.  He's kind of hearing the same thing.  Go east past the 3rd stack towards the power plant, and hit 550 FOW.  But no "hot" action.  I think Im going to wait off on the salmon trip and just hit Barcelona on Erie.  Last weekend we hammered steelies, lakers, and walleye.  There is a massive school of walleye approximately 3miles long out in front of Dunkirk, and the walleye bite has been insane.  Ill hit that up until Olcott turns on.

I don't have numbers for it.  It was my first time out fishing from there.  If I remember correctly I went straight out of the harbor about 5-6 miles, probably even farther.   I just kept heading out until I hit depth over 600ft.  I turned east and went probably 2 miles.  Almost instantly started marking fish 100ft down, and had chinook and steelhead action that was phenomenal. I vaguely remember seeing a bunch of smoke stacks off my starboard side while trolling east.

Thinking about making the trip to Olcott from Pittsburgh this weekend.  Has the Chinook fishing picked up at all?  Last year this time I had to hit 650ft of water to find a school.  Ended up limiting out, but was WAY out there.  If its slow, Ill push the trip back till later in August.  I only get one chance a year to fish kings, and I want to time it when its on fire

I stumbled onto a completely rigged and ready to go 9ft okuma GLT dipsy rod, 30dx reel, twili tip, and 1000 feet of 7 strand 30lb mason wire for $135 at a local tackle store.  Couldn't pass it up.  Also picked up the Daiwa at Dick's.  So I'm going to test both rods with that reel w/wire and see what I like best.  I'm glad to know that running multiples of the same length aren't an issue.

That is exactly what I bought.  I found package GLT's at Dicks and GanderMountain up by Amherst NY.  Bought all 4 there.  For that price you can not beat it.  If you were to buy the GLT, reel, Twili, wire, and connections all separate you would be pushing $180-200.   You will love the GLT rod.  super comfortable handle, plenty of backbone, and they look great.

I run 4 of the 9ft Okuma Classic Pro GLT dipsy rods with no problems at all.  Great rod.  Add a Twili tip and you're GTG.  No problems running two on each side of the boat.

Id definitely look into the transom and stringers for water intrusion.  If those need replaced, figure on spending 3-4000 just getting those redone.  Even at his asking price, if you were to get them redone, you would still be way ahead of the game.  That boat has crazy potential to be an awesome fishing machine.

Northwoods appears sold out.  Anywhere else to get a good price?  $749 is a lot to choke down.  

whoever doesnt have a beer in their hand

I live in Pittsburgh PA and drive up to fish the eastern basin of Erie and out of Olcott at least every other weekend.  If it wasn't for the extreme liberal politics in NY, I would be looking to live in the greater Buffalo area just to be close to world class fishing on both lakes.

The slider weight on the back of the dipsy diver. It can be adjusted to make the diver plane to the right or left. The settings determine how far out it planes from the boat. For example: a setting between 1-2 will keep the diver planing closer to the boat...say maybe 10-20ft out from the side of the boat. A bigger setting like 2.5-3.5 will allow the dipsy to really plane far out from the boat...say like 30-40ft...way far out like your inline planer boards. The settings allow you to tweak how far out your spread is. The amount of line out and dipsy setting will both influence achievable depth as well.

If you run your inside dipsy on a wider setting than your outside one, the inside dipsy will plane out and tangle up with outside one. That's why you have to run then like I mentioned before. At least this has been my experience.

_{The new Simrad NSS EVO units are pretty awesome.  Lots of features for the price point as well.}

_{How does it compare to using the 42nd Spin Doctor?  Ive had a lot of luck with it deep pulling a purple or froggy fly but im looking to try something new}

Little update on the new Evolution 200 Sportpilot.  This thing has been performing fantastic.  Trolling at slow speeds like 1.5mph is no problem at all.  Holds course great.  Not loud at all.  Steers great under power as well.  Its definitely saving me gas by allowign me to drive in much straighter lines going into and out of the harbor to and from our fishing spots.  no more zigzagging all over the place .  I just cant believe how much more enjoyable the whole fishing experience is since I have installed it.  Everyone on board is much more involved with fishing now.  Nobody is tied to the wheel.  The only time I touch the wheel is when docking. 

Mityvac Fluid Evacuator.  use it to change my engine and outdrive oil all the time.  Works great.

I run four dipsys usually.  two on each side.  early in the season it was hard to get them to run shallow enough for high up walleye without getting them tangled.  I had to take the rings off and run them on very low settings with not a lot of line out.  it sucked.  I wished I had leadcore at the time.  BUT, I usually dont fish up high like that for walleye.

I am usually running my 4 dipsys for steelies, kings, lakers, coho...The ones closest to the stern on a lower setting like 2-2.5.  The ones closer to the bow on a higher setting like 3-3.5.  Always run the ones closest to the stern shallower and tighter to the boat.  The ones closest to the bow get run deeper, and farther from the boat.

You wil have to play with the amount of line out and settings based on what species you are going after, and where they are in the water column.  I dont think the color of the dispsy matters.  I only use clear ones now, but I have used black and purple as well.  The color never seamed to make a difference.

I am not a believer in the expensive "leader material" products.  It catches more fishermen....not more fish.  I have always spooled all of my downrigger and planer board rods with Berkley Trilene 100% flourocarbon line.  14-17lb test usually.  When I need leader for my dipsy rods, i just pull off some line from one of the rods and make one.  I have NEVER had a fish break me off because of a bad leader or knot strength.  The only time I ever lost one was because I cranked the drag down at the exact time a steelie went on a run.  If you use your drag correctly, and tie a knot properly, you shouldnt be having problems.  Now if you are using OLD line, thats been sitting in the sun for hours on end, sure, it will lose integrity.  But under normal conditions, it just shouldnt be happening.

Save your hard earned money and dont bother with "Leader" products.  Buy a spool of the Trilene Flouro for half the cost, and it should last you more than a few years.