FishingFool34

10 hours ago, jmyers8 said:

 

Looking for a left and right side of offshore sst boards will pay for shipping.

 

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I had a similar issue a few years back when I would fish depths over 90ft down. I switched to heavier rigger weights (15lb sharks from 10lb torpedos) and this brought everything back into my sonar cone.   

If they come on the spoon I use them, if they don't come on the spoon I use them without it. If they came on the spoon I just assume the manufacturer saw a need for it so I use them and vice versa. I've caught lots of fish on Dreamweaver spoons with split rings and lots of fish on Michigan Stinger spoons without split rings. 

On 6/22/2021 at 11:34 AM, dane said:

We are planning a trip to Lake Ontario to fish for salmon and/or brown trout in the 15-18 September time frame.  Will be driving up from Maryland.

 

Would much appreciate any advice on where, from Oswego area to Pulaski, would be the optimum place(s) on the lake to go for Kings at that time of year and a good place to put our boat in (22').   Any information on good choices for rigs would  be helpful, e.g., j-plugs, flasher-fly, spoons, etc.  both for Kings and browns.

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

Gonna be combat fishing that time of year in Mexico area, if you're fine with that head to mouth of SR and jump in the pack. Otherwise you could head about an hour north to the Henderson Harbor area and fish the trench. Less traffic and fish that are still biting.

2 hours ago, ErieBuck said:

@FishingFool34 what temps do you use as as a starting point?  I've heard 45 degrees for kings, 55 for chrome?  

Yeah, 45-48 is a good starting point. I'll find that temp and start spreading lines around from there, have had goodluck with a meat rig well below temp. Once I start seeing marks I usually adjust to the marks even if they are out of those temps. 

23 minutes ago, Super G said:

I normally troll dipsies on Erie for walleye and steelhead and I’m planning to give copper wire a try and  spool two convector 45 reels with it for an upcoming fishing trip for salmon on Lake Michigan.  I’m thinking 300 feet of  45# copper (may have to go less)with the appropriate amount of backer and leader per the LOU posted guide.   As I understand it, I’ll need to let the full 300’ out  to get to the backer to use planer boards and this will run 55 to 112 feet deep Depending on trolling speed. 

Here’s where I need some experienced help!:

What are your target trolling speeds for salmon and trout through the year?

Recognizing the fixed amount of wire and it’s depth limits with the copper wire rods, i assume I use the downrigger and Dipsy divers to vary the depths of the rigs on the other rods? 

 

What depth variation do you typically run across the rods? (I’m planning to run 6) i.e. how much deeper/shallower should I run the rigger and dipsies?

 

Appreciate any advice and recommendations you can offer this copper newby!

 

2.2-3.0 down speed for salmon, I usually start at 2.5 and adjust from there. Some days they like it faster other days slower. Spring time trout 2.0-2.5, lakers 1.5-2.0.

Personally my downriggers are usually my deepest lines as they can get there with much less line out than anything else.

I start out with a pretty wide depth spread and adjust it as the day goes on. Marks on the sonar and bites will help you narrow down the most productive depths on that day. Hard to give exact numbers as it depends on what depth your fishing and the water temps at those depths.

Something to tell you down speed and temp will really increase your catch rate imo. Down speed is the most crucial I think, finding the thermocline is a good place to start but not as important as knowing if your trolling speed is correct. I set my spread initially according to temp but I adjust based on where I'm seeing fish on the sonar. Lots of good reports from just about any port on here, which should give you an idea of where to start but things change fast. Where ppl found fish yesterday, isn't necessarily where you will find them today. Cover ground, change things up until you find what's working. Goodluck!

I use Star Brite gel hull cleaner. I'm bottom painted but since installing the kicker and bracket one side of the boat sits lower in the water now and I get a scum line like 2-3" above where the bottom paint ends on the kicker side. Gel is easy to control and doesn't run as much (that stuff will remove bottom paint just and instantly rust a galvanized trailer just fyi). Wear gloves when applying and have a hose handy. 

11 minutes ago, Mrm31790 said:

Do you guys run them with. Rubber bands or clips? I’ve always just done a slider but would like to try fixing it.

for fixed cheaters I use the clips that a member here makes and they work well. I forgot his name off the top of my head but if you search in the classifieds you should be able to find the clips. I only use cheaters/sliders when I'm running spoons on my riggers, if you use them on FF or meat setups (anything with a flasher) you're gonna have a mess to deal with after bringing them in.

paypal sent.

 

PM sent

On 6/8/2021 at 8:25 AM, NortheastHardcoreSportsman said:

Still looking for a Fishmaster, Lund Baron, 20ft Lund Sportfisher, Crestliner Authority, Crestliner Commander. Open to other models in the 20-23ft range as well. 

That's a solid list right there! I had pretty much the same list when I was considering going aluminum (Lund Tyee and Sport Angler were on my list also). Those are all hard to find models but goodluck! 

4 hours ago, charb said:

Thinking about attaching some braid to my wire and running a slide diver any thoughts?

 

I do something similar but clip my dipsey onto the braid and then remove it as I'm reeling the fish in just like you would do with an in-line planer board. Seems to work well, tried slide divers but the lack of an accurate depth chart and the issues I had with the divers not sliding down the braid led me to my current setup. Also makes rod storage a lot easier.

Find a nearby boat that you can pace, that's what I did on my old boat a lot of the time before I got my fishawk. Another option is to do S turns, if you get hits on the inside of the turn then you need to slow down and speed up if you get hits on the outside of the turn.

1 hour ago, minion said:

 

To the point if I had a full spread out I’d be worried about board lines and divers touching . But I also have not played with settings yet ... I just push standby and straighten it out manually then engage again .



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You should look at the settings and see if there is a "sea-state filter" option you can adjust. I have the Garmin TR-1 Gold AP on my kicker and had the same issue when I first installed it. After some research I turned down the sea-state filter sensitivity and it completely eliminated the over-correcting issue for me. Factory setting had the kicker turning very fast and almost wildly in response to waves, I adjusted the filter down and slowed it down the kicker movements significantly. Goodluck!

On 5/19/2021 at 11:02 AM, Fishgrappler said:

Is it easy to install to the Dragmaster washers?

 

I thought it was pretty straightforward when I did it on my old Magda reels. Just get yourself a good size area to work and layout everything in the order that you take it off. I took a bunch of pictures along the way just in case I needed something to refer back to. There's a couple helpful videos on YouTube showing the process and having a parts diagram on hand (easy to find online) can't hurt. 

I remember reading a big write up on facebook from Rochester Reel Repair about changing the orientation of 3 curved washers, that supposedly solved the problem ppl had with needing to fully disengage the drag and then re-tighten to make adjustments. I think someone even posted the write up on here as well. Its maybe 1-2 years old now and depending on how old your reels are they may or may not have that issue. But you will be removing those washers during the swap so its something to check while your right there.

We had good looking screens all morning in 160-180. Getting them to do something more than streak thru the gear was the hard part. Went 3/5 Twinkie rig with Socco bait strip (we forgot the real stuff in the fridge) took 2 fish down 80, other came on a 10 color with NBK stingray. Bugs were annoying but not terrible, thermacell in the cockpit helped a little I think. 

2 minutes ago, Scalloper 1 said:

Good to know. If I am going to drive 12 hrs i may as well go further. How far should I consider?

Thanks

I'm headed to Olcott tomorrow for the rest of the week, I hear they are catching a decent number of salmon in the Niagara bar area lately. idk where to go for browns but further west you go the better the chances of finding salmon right now IMO.  

Fishing has been real slow on the East end, I would go as far West as you're willing to travel for better fishing.

18 hours ago, Hounds said:

I'm new to this, never tried it.  We want to run one color of leadcore off boards on the rear boards 110 ft back.  Do we run mono , then spliced in 30 ft of lead core followed by a leader?  Running full leadcore the entire way is gonna hit bottom for sure right?  in 10fow.    Just want to try something different see how it goes compared to split shot weighted rods. 

I have 1 color of lead with flouro leader on my leader spool with a micro swivel on one end and a snap swivel on the other. I'll usually run it on one of my full mono BT setups. I'll tie the mono directly to the swivel, reel it on top of the mono and attach my lure to the snap. Simple and I don't have to have a reel dedicated to it, anything 3 colors or more I have dedicated reels for.

On 5/4/2021 at 7:17 PM, Scalloper 1 said:

Man those are on my bucket list for sure. Being from Down east Maine I have never seen one before. I did try for then last August in LO out of Henderson but not a nibble. 

Now is the time to fish for them in Henderson, we fished BRB and Chaumont in May last year, 2-8lbs and an 11lb that day. Numbers weren't there like you'd find fishing walleye on Oneida Lake, but the size sure was!

15 hours ago, geoice said:

 

I have 1000’ wire I always use for dipsey, but there is no backer on it.. do you guys have backer on yours? And how much if so

 

 

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Depends on the reel you're using... easy way to check. Measure off 100ft in your lawn and walk it off and see what your line counter says at the 100ft mark. If it reads higher than 100 it means you need backing. 

On 5/1/2021 at 7:18 PM, rickv0315 said:

What would be a good trolling rod for browns in terms of length, action?

8' ML Shimano TDR

14 hours ago, alloutdoorsman said:

Is it a combo unit?

If by combo you mean sonar/gps then yes it is.

$250 + Shipping

29 minutes ago, Bad_Influence said:

I believe he is referring strictly to his rods not his riggers?

 

sorry I mis-read it.