dgfidler

Homemade boards. I’ve been running big boards for years and wanted taller masts so I built these and added the ability for the Mast to be a tree. My kids want to run little boards so I obliged but wanted to keep the flexibility to use big boards which I prefer


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I can run three dipsy divers per side all day on Lake Erie using 3, 1, and zero settings. Tried running two per side on Lake Ontario and had nothing but tangles. I think the combination of longer leads and stronger currents makes it more difficult on Lake Ontario. This year I plan to give it another try running two per side when I visit in June or July


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I built a pair of masts over the winter that double as trees by attaching Scotty rocket launchers. Making the Mast from 1 inch aluminum round lets you attach rail mount bases to the upright. I used Cisco reels and pulleys so it was not inexpensive. I made mine tall enough so you can attach the tow lines together and hang your inline planer boards to keep them off the deck when not in use




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Sk8man, you make a good point about Airmar producing a variety of transducers. I was not successful getting the results I wanted from a transom mounted transducer that came with my sonar gps combo, so I go out and spend $300 on an Airmar thru hull chirp transducer and love the results. Does this new transducer work better because it's a thru hull transducer, or is it simply because it's just a better transducer? It's entirely possible the transom mount equivalent (TM150 in this case) would work just as well. One thing I know for sure is that I was never satisfied with the performance of the 'out of the box' 83/200 transducer that came with my old sonar.


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Yeah, I can't wait to use the TR1 this spring. I've been using a bow mount for my autopilot and I'm tired of worrying about keeping the trolling motor batteries charged. Now, I'll only use the TM for inland fishing which is infrequent.


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Here a pic at 15mph. In this pic there are still arches but it's shallow water. This works up to about 100fow, but I'll admit you're not going to see individual fish running on plane in 200fow



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Thank you. I've found that you really have to 'pick your days' when operating a small boat on the Great Lakes, so I'll decide to embark on a weekend fishing trip only when conditions are ideal. By the time I decide to go, I can usually only find non electric campsites. When I had to rely on a trolling motor for autopilot, I'd have no way to recharge. You confirmed I should be able to fish a couple days without having to recharge batteries. I hope this TR1 works out as well as I think it will. I couldn't find a single negative comment from anyone that actually owns one


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I didn't notice you were planning to get the Lowrance outboard pilot. Having TR1 and a main AP would be overkill. I'd join kicker to main with a tie bar. Sorry for not noticing that.


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Here's one way to avoid installing a second HDS unit at the stern. It's an iPad in water resistant case with RAM mount to a Scotty electronics mount in a regular Scotty rod holder mount. Connects thru a wifi connection to HDS Gen3. It'd only be cost effective if you already have an iPad. In really hot weather, my iPad shut itself down to stay cool which doesn't help. In normal weather, this works great

There is an autopilot for kicker motors, TR1 Gold by Garmin. I have the xi5 integrated with HDS-9 and love it EXCEPT on the Great Lakes in waves over 2 ft. My boat is heavy (Grady white 208) and the xi5 becomes overwhelmed with winds over 10 mph on big water. Inland it's ok. I'm adding TR1 this year but if I could only have one, it'd be the xi5. Inland, you can pass over a school of fish or bait ball then scroll back thru the sonar, click 'goto' and it will navigate you back and spot lock right over the fish. Amazing technology.


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I use chamberlain releases. At the ball, I have a standard release. If I'm going to stack, I just let the first line down 10 feet or so, then I attach a chamberlain stacker release attach the second line then drop the ball to the desired depth.

I can't help with a Lake O springtime spread. The spread I was discussing is for deep water summertime fishing with an established thermocline.


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Look at me creating duplicate and partial posts.

Anyway, I am switching over from using a trolling motor in conjunction with my kicker to using just a kicker with TR1.  I made this switch for two reasons: 1) My trolling motor really could only steer my boat with the wind at our backs unless it was REALLY calm and 2) We always had to find a camp site with electric service to recharge batteries if we planned to fish two days in a row.

My kicker is a 2008 Yamaha F15 which puts out 6.5 amps at 1000 RPM and 10 amps at 3000 rpm.  I will run the TR1 off the battery hooked to the kicker.  My question is this:  Do I need to worry about that battery going dead on a long day on the water or will a charge between 6.5 and 10 amps keep me going all day?

I have a Garmin TR1 Gold system waiting to be installed on my boat. 

I think you're pretty well equipped.  I'm from Ohio and try to make a weekend trip to the Olcott area once per year.  I recommend waiting until you see people here posting that they are having success.  I like to make the trip in late June or July when the walleye slow down on the western basin of Lake Erie.  I pick a weekend where we can fish all day Saturday and in the morning on Sunday.  We got 5 kings 14 - 21 lbs the first year and 7 kings from 12 - 23 lbs the second year.  We DO have a Fishhawk that I think improves our chances.  We target the water column from 42 to 55 degrees.  If there is not a thermocline, I wouldn't know what to do.  A sustained northeast wind prior to your trip can bring in cold water and eliminate the thermocline.  The local bait store seems to be a lot more helpful helping newbies than I'm used to in Ohio.  ASB tackle hooked me up with spread recommendations and sold me some tackle that they said was 'hot'.  The tackle they sold me ended up catching most of my fish so thumbs up to them!!  We fish from a Grady White 208 which is a little trailerable walk behind cuddy.  We use an Xi5 for autopilot with a kicker to propel the boat.  (Have a Garmin TR1 system  in the basement waiting to be installed so no more motorguide on big water)

We run a seven line spread which is really easy to manage consisting of:

1) 300 Copper on a TX-44

2) 10 Color Leadcore on a TX-44

3) Dipsy Diver 10 ft above line 4

4) Dipsy Diver 10 ft above line 5

5) Meat & Paddle on the downrigger with the fishhawk probe

6) Flasher fly stacked 15ft above #7

7) 2 color leadcore on bottom of stacked rigger with glow spoon with the ball 10 feet above the 42 degree water line.

This spread is super easy to manage.  The 300 coper and lead core lines are in another zip code.  There is no way they'll tangle with the dipsy lines.  Running two dipsy divers per side is really easy to do.  We used 1 setting.  We tried two dipsy per side and the current on Lake O tangled them.  We have zero problems running two per side on Erie, but can't pull it off on Lake O.  We use chamberlain releases for the releases and to stack the downriggers.  We run a mixture of flasher/fly, spin doctor/fly and clean spoons.  We have cabelas depthmaster reels and rods.  For one trip per year, they're adequate and can land these fish.  It's a blast and like I said, the only thing I'd add is a fishhawk.  The fishhawk has improved my walleye fishing as I am able to replicate down speeds in any direction.  It's not a waste to run a fishhawk on Erie, especially on the eastern and central basins.  We are a testament that you can go out on Lake O with the right equipment, put a bunch of lines out in the temperature zone and pick up some fish even though you have zero experience with this lake.

I use a Motorguide xi5 36v on a 20ft walk around that weighs about 5k with people on board. I added a kicker because I could only get 3-4 hours running at 2.0 to 2.5. With the kicker, I set the TM to 30% for steering and use the kicker for primary propulsion and it lasts all day. This dual motor setup works great.


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I went with an Airmar B150M thru hull chirp transducer this season. With this transducer, I can clearly mark fish and bait balls while cruising around in the 15-20 mph range. The ability to mark fish while on plane is the 'pro' with this setup. The cons are: transducer resides in a two inch hole in the hull and could contribute to sinking if jarred. It's more expensive than a skimmer transducer. If the transducer fails, it will be very difficult to remove because it's sealed with 5200.
There are people who are very skilled at adjusting a skimmer type transducer to achieve the same results as I have with the thru-hull. I was not successful in doing that so I went with the thru hull and am happy with the decision.




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Technology is really progressing. Maybe you can have your FishHawk both places if you have the 4xd. Over the winter, I fabricated some gimbal cross plates with Scotty bases. I know many people consider Scotty to be plastic junk, but I love the flexibility. I rigged up a way to place an iPad in a water resistant case in lieu of a rod holder


FishHawk app repeats the 4xd display using a free app with Bluetooth.


Lowrance HDS Gen3 repeats the display using a wifi connection. You can toggle between the two apps


I have my FishHawk and sonar at both the helm and the stern


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I bought a x4d prior to my first trip to Lake O. On that first trip, my sonar would not work over 100 fow. We went 4 for 6 on kings by just running our spread between 42 and 50 degree water with no idea how deep the water was and whether there were marks. The depth feature let us exactly know the upper and lower boundaries. Never had fished for salmon before or been on Lake O and pick up four kings with a broken sonar using just the FishHawk. Now I also read all three of Dan Keating's books and ran a seven line spread so it wasn't just dumb luck but I think it's impressive how well it worked just running the gear in a temperature zone. It's a useful tool for sure


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I have a recent experience to share. We were trolling for walleye in the central basin of Lake Erie using a bow mount trolling motor running on electric only at 2.0 mph using dipsy divers and downriggers pulling worm harnesses near the bottom in 40 fow. We were getting skunked and the trolling motor batteries ran out of juice. I switched over to the main motor and the fish turned on despite running the same speed. If we'd gone faster on the main motor, I'd say we were going too slow with the trolling motor, but this was not the case that day. We picked up six fish in the next two hours. I have no idea whether the propulsion method is what made the difference, but I assume the TM is much quieter than than the main motor.

I read shorelunch's post last Thursday and was in denial that he could be right. At that point, I was still planning to drive to Olcott Friday morning from Ohio. I got up at 6 am on Friday and iWindSurf was showing 25 knots sustained winds. Went back to bed and cancelled the trip. He called it before it happened.

I think this would work: Attach a 2 ft piece of mono to the leadcore with a Willis knot. Next attach the other end of the mono to one of those SPRO swivels. The type that is just two little rings. You could tie the leadcore to the swivel whenever you wanted to use it. Just make sure you have room on the reel. Also, you'd want a leader on the other end of the leadcore. I run my SWR within a couple feet of the end of the leadcore

Hey Lundy, I'm not saying I saw them there, but if you haven't checked out the new field and stream at Polaris, you should. They have a surprising selection of trolling gear including slide divers, torpedo divers, track adapters for downriggers, church tx-44 to name a few. If those rod holders are available in central OH, that'd be the place I'd expect to find them

4 for 8 on kings ranging from 14 to 18 plus one steelhead. Totally exceeded my expectations. Turns out my sonar (200/455) loses bottom in 100+ fow and I had to rely on lake master contour charts for depth. Used the Fishhawk and just spread the lines between 50 and 42 degrees which ended up being between 50 and 100 down. The next piece of vulnerable equipment was this plastic triple rod holder. I kept the drags loose to prevent losing three rods, but I think that contributed to my 50% hookup rate.

First time fishing Lake O. Normally fish Western Basin of Erie for walleye.

Friday, didn't hit the water until 7:30 pm. Went out to 200 and set a course back to port. Just wanted to practice setting the gear. Planned to run 2 riggers, pair of wire low divers, pair of high divers, and a pair of full cores off the boards. The current tangled my divers almost immediately and I decided to scrap the idea of running two divers per side. Was able to run seven lines cleanly by removing the wire divers and added a 2 color secret weapon rig stacked 15 feet below a spoon with no issues. Discovered my depth finder doesn't work over 120 fow and relied on lake master for depth. Disappointing to not have sonar. Skunked on Friday shakedown.

Saturday hit the water at 9 am. Started at 100fow and ran riggers at 80 and 90 with cut bait deep and black green spoon shallower. Ran divers at 175 and 225 on 1.5 and two ten color on boards. 50% spoons 50% flasher fly. About 10 mins after setting the spread, there was a splash by the planer board tow line. It was the 10 color board release violently releasing. We landed our first King ever! 15 lbs! Went 2 for 4 on kings on Saturday plus a 5 lb steelhead that hit the secret weapon rig below the ball at 100.

Sunday, hit the water at 5:30am. Started again at 100 fow and headed Northeast with the waves. Went about an hour with no action and had four strikes in quick succession, had a double on with the biggest fish of the trip except I forgot to tell my dad that it's ok to let it peel line. He cranked down the drag and before I could say anything, the leader at the end of the 10 core broke. We ended 2-4 with the largest at 18lbs and full of eggs. We were off the water by 8:30 as the south wind started to kick the lake up and we needed to get on the road back to Central Ohio

I was finding 42 degree water at 100 down and about 50 degrees 50 down on the Fishhawk. Fished by temp only as my depth finder wouldn't work over 100fow. Very few boats out. I'm used to packs with 50+ boats on Erie and it was nice to put the boards out nice and wide with no worries. This was an outstanding weekend for us landing the biggest freshwater fish of our lives. ASB tackle helped me pick out popular spoons and flies. Probably would have been skunked without his advice

I'm not the greatest fisherman, so I'd say if I can manage to pick up four kings all mid to high teens without sonar, it must be game on out of Wilson!

Wow! Thank you for the recommendation of ASB Tackle. Visited him Friday evening and he hooked me up with the basics and gave me tips on where to start and how deep to run the downriggers. Thanks again.

I will stock up as ASB. Thank you for the responses!