cnyh2ofowler

I love to fish. Troll, cast, ice, bobber, lake, river, ocean. We eat a lot of fish. Salmon, walleye, tuna, halibut and it is nice to catch it yourself and give it to people to enjoy. There is a decrease in the number of anglers everywhere and I agree that everyone, but me, seems to be getting older. Caught my first salmon on the Platte river in Michigan 51 years ago when I was 8. Not as many kids fishing today which is not good for the future of the sport.

Personally I’d rather catch a bunch of fish rather than a few big ones. That said, everyone fishes for different reasons. The biomass of bait fish certainly affects the size of the kings but the number of years the salmon spends in the lake is the biggest factor. Those 40+ pound fish were 5 year olds. If we want those big fish, the workers at the hatchery need to take eggs and sperm from the biggest fish and mix them. Or better yet, get some eggs from some Pacific fish that are 5 or 6 year old spawners. The Kenai River has lost its huge fish because for 50 years they have taken the biggest (oldest spawning) fish out before they can spawn. This has been a great conversation with everyone being respectful. Part of what makes this site great. Hope everyone has a great season.

The 3 blade prop seems to be doing fine. Have fished 3 days with 2 planner boards and 3 riggers out and have had no problems. Troll master is working great, love the motor. May try the 4 blade prop when the bank account gets rebuilt. Thanks for all the advice.

Thanks for the info. I have a 19 foot Lowe and am replacing a 2006 Johnson 8 hp that was belt driven it was loud and vibrated like crazy. We are planning to fish on Sunday or Monday so we will see how the new motor pushes the boat.

Just bought a Suzuki 9.9 for trolling. It came with the standard 3 blade prop. I see a lot of guys have the four blade props on their trolling motors. What is the advantage of these props for trolling?

They run those thin fins in Michigan a lot for coho in reds and oranges. Thanks for the report, great day.

We catch a lot of fish with the torpedo divers on the boards, run 4,8 and 12 oz. Not a exact science, we run them on 15 pound braid, if you watch the angle of the line, your depth is very speed dependent. We run them on our big boards, we start the outside rod at 60 feet, middle at 90, inside at 120. If one goes a couple of times we will run all three at that depth, typically the 60 will be good early and as the sun gets higher the fish move down and the deeper rods go better. This is before the thermocline sets up and the fish are spread throughout the water column.

For our fixed sliders, we just half hitch a rubber band around the down rigger cable, hook the slider snap around the line to the rod and through the rubber band, close the snap. When the fish hits, it breaks the rubber band, releases the rod and you are on. Once had a wicked hit on the rigger then nothing. Brought the rigger up and found I had snapped the cheater leader directly to the down rigger cable. Not much give there, spoon gone.

When running sliders or fixed cheaters I put a bead on my main line, above the swivel, 6 foot leader to my snap. This prevents the slider/cheater from sliding all the way to the swivel on my main line and puts both spoons about the same distance back. The swivel on the slider does not screw up the swivel on the main line and if you double on that rod, which happens, you can net both fish at the same time.