Nameless Fish

Correct to a degree, your sonar puts out a cone and depending on the frequency of your transducer and the water depth. This will determine the size of the area you will see on your screen. It is very easy to not see fish but still catch fish. Planer boards are almost always outside of the sonar cone and depending on what settings you use, the same can be said for dipsey divers. Fish can easily be outside of the sight of your sonar but still inside your lure spread or drawn into your spread. I've had many good days fishing while not marking nearly as many fish as I caught.

The thermocline is a good place to start if you aren't marking fish or once you first get out there. But if you are marking fish then you would adjust and fish the marks instead of water temp.

300yds of backing is a lot... if you're deadset on having that much backing you couldn't go with more than 200ft of copper on that reel. downsizing to 200yds of 30lb braid would prolly let you fit a 250 copper, but a 300 copper should really go on an 800 tekota

Anyone have or have used one of these? Curious to know what size you got for a standard trolling rod. I’ve seen videos with the “big game” version and it looks huge! Prolly more for ocean fishing rods imo but I could be wrong. I’m thinking between the “all species” and the “big bass” models.

I run lead on inline boards so no need to attach it far behind the board, maybe 5ft. As long as the lead is under the water you should be fine.

Couple years ago I was fishing salmon river and watched the guy next to me fight a salmon with a J-plug still hooked to it... the fish ended up breaking him off unfortunately.

I tried dipping an old net I had in plasti-dip a few years ago... the kind you use to coat tool handles. Didn't turn out well, made a big mess and the cost of plasti-dip needed was over 1/2 the cost of a brand new coated net. Don't waste your time or money

If you don't know how much backing you're going to need that is the best way to do it. With the backing on top initially you can make sure you get the max amount of backing and completely fill the reel so your linecounter will be correct. The correct linecounter part applies more to wire/braid diver setups than copper, but it's still a good idea to try and fill the reel either way. Then simply transfer it to another reel.

Yup, that is a big flaw with the older Magda reels. Upgrade your reels, never had that issue with Convectors or Cold Water reels I use now. I remember trying to take my Magdas apart on the water with 100s of feet of line in the water to remedy this... huge PITA.

300 weighted steel is going to be a really tight fit on a 45 size reel. If you're going to do that I would recommend using 30lb braid as backing but a 45 reel is better setup as a 200 copper/WS. You really need a 55 size for a 300 setup, I'd recommend a high speed reel once you get into 300 setups as well.

I just picked up a set of Ziggy boards (copper version), ran them with a 10 color and 300 weighted steel and they ran very well. They make another even larger board they say will pull a 450 copper and several smaller versions as well. My only complaint is they don't have a flag and can be tough to see in the water sometimes but other than that they performed as advertised. https://www.hookeduptackleshop.com/boards-lights Doyouevenfishbro carries these as well, I messaged them on facebook and got quoted at $82 for the two copper boards with their "Zams Pro" releases (a knockoff of the Sams Pro release) and a set of back clips. They come with no front or back releases normally just fyi.

I usually run meat on my deepest setup and spoons on the highest, you can mix it up in between.

That about sums it up pretty well... I like glow colors early in the morning and then change up to more "flashy" colors as the day goes on. FF setups work well on longer copper lines as well.

I sent a bunch of reels to Chris Kempf at Buffalo Reel Repair this spring. He did a very good job and it was a quick turn around, I wouldn't hesitate to use him again.

You ever try pouring water into the bilge while it was on the trailer (with the plug in) and see if you can find where water comes out? might help narrow down the location.

I used to run 10lb pancakes and was never able to mark the balls below 50ft... switched to 12lb torpedos and I'm good down to 90ft now. Same sonar unit for both setups.