FishingFool34

I ran 8hp Tohatsu for 5yrs no issues. Tohatsu makes all Nissan and merc motors 15hp and under I believe.

I've never been a fan of the triangle grips, but that's just personal preference I suppose. I just ordered new DR this year as well, I went with 8' M Okuma Blue Diamond rods. Read a lot of good things about them.

I use blacks and like to replace them every year. With a $300 probe hanging off a $10 release, seemed like a small price to pay for a little extra confidence of it being a new release.

I'd recommend upgrading both ends to the new style with solid pins. Those hollow pins are notorious for breaking off inside the female end.

I had an ipilot link TM connected to a Helix on my last boat. You will need a Link compatible Lakemaster map card for your Helix as well, if you want the Link features. I enjoyed the heading arrow displayed on my maps when in AP mode and the follow a contour feature with my link. If you're gonna have a Link TM and looking for a new sonar, you may as well go with a Helix unit.

I can't help you with April fishing up there, as I've only been up there fishing in the fall. But the trench is basically the area between the mainland (R.W. State park area) and Stoney island.

I have an 06 Trophy Pro 2352 with the Alaskan cockpit, I tow it with a 1/2 pick up. I slip mine in Mexico, but towed it for the first year (45 mins each way) and tow it to Olcott (4hrs each way) twice a year. My Ram 1500 tows it no problem, but I wouldn't go any bigger than that if I had to tow it frequently.

I have almost all coldwater reels at this point minus a couple convectors for setups I don't use regularly... had some accudepths at one point and would compare them closer to the convector model from Okuma rather than the Coldwaters. I would say CW are more comparable to the sealine model from Diawa imo. I used to have trouble with adjusting the drag on my CW reels, that issue was solved by a reel repair guy out of Rochester/Buffalo area (I can't remember his name). You had to flip some washers and replace another plastic washer (theres a big post on here someplace about it). But since then my CW reels have worked flawless and I believe the issue has been resolved by Okuma in newer CW reels. That said I would buy CW over the accudepths personally.

No, I have the TR1 gold without the throttle actuator and it works perfect.

Someone posted last week I think it was, that the parking lot hadn't been plowed yet. But no ice in the little Salmon, so if you can get to launch after the snow melts in the next couple days you should be good to go.

Depending on what brand of rigger you have, switching from wire to braid can affect some functions of your downrigger. Specifically Cannon down riggers with the auto/short stop feature. Changing to braid will disable this feature, just something to keep in mind.

Wow I'm jealous... My boat is still in storage for another month lol

Airbnb... I have always had good luck finding places to stay near where I wanna go with them. Their fees are a bit high, so I always check a couple other sites (trip advisor, etc) before I go with Airbnb.

How long is the track?

Teams will occasionally post on here and FB looking for observers... some even offer to pay you for doing it. Not much usually like $100 but can't argue with getting paid to go fishing!