Nameless Fish

I doubt anything you have now will perform much better with just a new transducer. Most of the benefits of the new units are a combination of better/faster processing along with a better transducer. CHIRP is in the headunit so a new transducer wouldn't get you CHIRP in an old unit. However, MEGA imaging is in the transducer, but a MEGA transducer will not provide a non MEGA headunit with the MEGA imaging.

Got to try out the blacks releases yesterday... gotta say I'm impressed. No issues with false releases, I was able to crank down my rods more than usual, released everytime a fish hit with no issues. The biggest thing I noticed was how easy they manually released if I wanted to change a lure. With a quick snap of the rod they released even down 100ft, I could never get my pinch pads to release like that. Super simple to hook up the line, not sure why everyone hasn't switched over to these from the pinch pads.

I would look into a Humminbird Helix 12 MEGA DI CHIRP for the full $2k, If you wanna save some money you can look into the Helix 10 ($1300) or even 9 ($1000)... But MEGA DI CHIRP sounds like what you want. Both the 10s and 9s are offered with the MEGA DI transducers and both are CHIRP units.

What kind of boat/motor? What kind of fishing? Any other functions you want (ie. side/down imaging, autopilot, engine monitoring)?

Same deal here left PG around 7 dropped in 90fow marked fish for the next 4hrs. Went out to 120 with fish on screen the whole time. Picked up 3 on FF off riggers down 75ft and 85ft and 1 on meat rig off dipsey set down 70ft that we lost at the boat. Was def busy out there today, wind picked up around 11 and we called it. Ended 3/4 biggest fish at just over 26lbs.

I hear fishing is still good out deep (200+fow), be careful out there Sat though. South wind means further out you go the worse the conditions will be. I'm holding off until Sun/Mon personally, I'd rather fish in the rain than 3 foot waves.

I looked at the chamberlains and liked the ability to adjust rod tensions as well as release tension. It would cost me $60 for chamberlains vs $16 for Blacks... being I have never used either and both seem to be reviewed very well, I figured I would start with Blacks and upgrade to Chamberlains if I liked the concept.

Just an FYI the backing needs to be the 19 strand torpedo wire to have the same sink rate past the weighted steel line.

I have been getting alot of false releases with my pinch pad style releases so I decided to try the blacks releases. I ordered the style with the loop on top and snap on the bottom, my question is on your probe rigger do you install these above or below your probe? I'm a little concerned about a $10 release supporting my $300 probe. I'm unable to install a release directly to my downrigger cable as my boat and riggers are close to the water level and there is only maybe 2" of cable left between the pulley and the rubber stop once the autostop stops the riggers. I would need to install risers on my riggers if I wanted to attach directly to the cable.

Another one caught today...

Saw this on the DSR website, guy said he landed 2 salmon and lost a 3rd.

Fished 180-250 this morning. Temp moved around a fair amount but for the most part we had 50* down 70-75ft. Ended 4/4 all 4 came on meat well below temp. 100-110ft down and they wouldn’t touch anything else.

So much wrong with that whole comment, I don't even know where to begin... Lets start with "Ghost Gun", please don't use that term! It's a made up political term like "assault rifle" that politicians use to entice an emotional reaction out of uneducated people. You realize that every long gun sold in NY could be LEGALLY sold and re-sold 100s of times with no record of any of the transactions? Also all the NICS checks run for anyone to purchase a firearm are supposed to be erased with no records kept. That means there is no way to accurately trace any long gun as it could have belonged to dozens of different people during its lifetime. So what good is a serial number on them? Also most pistols used in violent crimes are stolen, so what good does a serial number do if it is registered to someone other than the person using it?

We are headed out tomorrow am, I will report back on how we do.