ErieBuck

Thanks Gambler good to know Stinger has an e-chip line.  I ordered several Stinger paddles recently in some great colors (fat nancy, green jeans) but they didn't have the e-chip unfortunately, I must have ordered the wrong ones.  

10 hours ago, ifishy said:

Spin drs are very speed forgiving so they work well in a lot of spreads they are also adjustable for action this versitility makes them a favorite other styles work well but if I only had one it would be spin docs

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On your Spin drs. which hole do you hook your fly 1) hole closest to fins = less action, 2) other hole = more action?  

Do you guys see any real difference between all the brands out there?   What have you found to be your go-to for divers, long lines, riggers?  I like the pro-troll e-chip stuff for big paddles for meat on riggers, but they don't seem to have the fancy color options that some of the others have to use them in 8 inch -- anyone out there custom painting them?  Spin doctors seem to be the standard people use for 8 inch it seems but just curious to hear what people like out there.   

^^^ eriebuck, thanks again for selling me the items I paid for here on the classifieds which you said you shipped just to refund my $ and renig on the deal.

Bty if you read Yankees previous posts he has graciously written for us so we can have the success he's having- that he normally runs the coho stuff off boards on fishusa stealth leadcore up higher. Almost like what you were going to sell me.

#1 lure of 4 Musky Inc National Champions in last 3 years.

 
Been a great couple of weeks tourney fishing the West end mainly with a Coho/Steelhead program. We won the Niagara Pro Am, and had a great comeback this Sunday to sneak into the top 10 at the Orleans County Open. These baits were our rocks. We fished these on our Cannon Optimum downriggers in the top 60', wire divers on 3 settings from 35-60' out, and on FishUSA Stealthcore from 2-10 colors. Fishing ain't easy right now, but the Coho and Steelhead on the West end are plentiful at times.
 
I heard a quote today from a buddy who fished with us this weekend. He quoted who he thinks is Michael Jordan. "You never lose. You just learn!" Tournament fishing is just that. The days your the bug are the days you pick something up and put it in your bag of tricks. I did that this weekend! When you're the windshield your don't take much away from it. But it's a good time, and a lot of fun!
 
Niagara Pro Am:
We put about 42 miles on the boat in practice and had a good pick most of the day on Coho and Steelhead. We ended up working the coldest surface water we found, and that had the best class of fish.
 
Friday, we fished 50-51* water in 370-400'. Only 1 king bite all day. We boxed by 12:15. Took us 20 bites to box our 12 with short fish and dropped fish.
 
Saturday, we were surprised to find that cold surface water still there with the wind that was blowing. Again, we finished our box by 12:15. On this day it took us 24 bites to get our box. We only had one short fish. We dropped a lot! We got very lucky and had 4 king bites.
 
Orleans County Open:
Saturday, we made some bad decisions and just kept pushing to find better water, or "the juice" as they say in Bass fishing. We put 52 miles on the ol' girl by the time we hit the pier heads at 2pm. We saw 70' of water, and we saw the Canadian shoreline. There were signs but we ignored them going for the gusto.
 
Sunday, we settled in and had our 10 fish by 9am. We spent the rest of the day looking for matures. 7/8 rods loaded with Familiar Bite Pacific Herring and a Team Dreamweaver Rod Father mag generated 5 mature bites. We landed 1! Cracked off two rigs, and dropped the other two. We could have had the monster box but in the end it was a great time, with great friends, and we learned something.
 
Ok, I'll end with this. Keep an eye on FishUSA's website. The Rod Father, a color we ran a lot in the past on Warrior blanks, will be a custom DW at FishUSA. The Coho and Steelhead LOVED the SS and DW the last two weeks, and the Kings chewed that mag all spring. The DW 6" spin doctors can all be found there as well. The flies were A-Tom-Mik Mfg. Coho flies in green/blue, green Crinkle, and hammer.
 
Coho Spin Doctors
 

 
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Been a great couple of weeks tourney fishing the West end mainly with a Coho/Steelhead program. We won the Niagara Pro Am, and had a great comeback this Sunday to sneak into the top 10 at the Orleans County Open. These baits were our rocks. We fished these on our Cannon Optimum downriggers in the top 60', wire divers on 3 settings from 35-60' out, and on FishUSA Stealthcore from 2-10 colors. Fishing ain't easy right now, but the Coho and Steelhead on the West end are plentiful at times.
 
I heard a quote today from a buddy who fished with us this weekend. He quoted who he thinks is Michael Jordan. "You never lose. You just learn!" Tournament fishing is just that. The days your the bug are the days you pick something up and put it in your bag of tricks. I did that this weekend! When you're the windshield your don't take much away from it. But it's a good time, and a lot of fun!
 
Niagara Pro Am:
We put about 42 miles on the boat in practice and had a good pick most of the day on Coho and Steelhead. We ended up working the coldest surface water we found, and that had the best class of fish.
 
Friday, we fished 50-51* water in 370-400'. Only 1 king bite all day. We boxed by 12:15. Took us 20 bites to box our 12 with short fish and dropped fish.
 
Saturday, we were surprised to find that cold surface water still there with the wind that was blowing. Again, we finished our box by 12:15. On this day it took us 24 bites to get our box. We only had one short fish. We dropped a lot! We got very lucky and had 4 king bites.
 
Orleans County Open:
Saturday, we made some bad decisions and just kept pushing to find better water, or "the juice" as they say in Bass fishing. We put 52 miles on the ol' girl by the time we hit the pier heads at 2pm. We saw 70' of water, and we saw the Canadian shoreline. There were signs but we ignored them going for the gusto.
 
Sunday, we settled in and had our 10 fish by 9am. We spent the rest of the day looking for matures. 7/8 rods loaded with Familiar Bite Pacific Herring and a Team Dreamweaver Rod Father mag generated 5 mature bites. We landed 1! Cracked off two rigs, and dropped the other two. We could have had the monster box but in the end it was a great time, with great friends, and we learned something.
 
Ok, I'll end with this. Keep an eye on FishUSA's website. The Rod Father, a color we ran a lot in the past on Warrior blanks, will be a custom DW at FishUSA. The Coho and Steelhead LOVED the SS and DW the last two weeks, and the Kings chewed that mag all spring. The DW 6" spin doctors can all be found there as well. The flies were A-Tom-Mik Mfg. Coho flies in green/blue, green Crinkle, and hammer.
 
Coho Spin Doctors
 

 
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Thanks guys, “B” is how I’ve been running them but I recently ordered some Rapture fixed coho flies and they were set up at “A” in the package. And then i was watching the tangled tackle guy out of Michigan on YouTube and thought I heard him touting “A” for King flies so I was thinking I better check to make sure I wasn’t screwing it up. Certainly have caught lots of fish with “B” but as fisherman we are always wondering… could I have caught more??


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What’s the “right way” to rig a trolling fly…

A)

OR

B)

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3 minutes ago, TyeeTanic said:

I'm more concerned about having the wire clipped at a certain point, and then you get bending back and forth due to wave action. Kind of like taking a wire in your hand and bending it back and forth, eventually it will snap.

I see what you mean -- maybe, but it seems soft and malleable like braid, not rigid like 7 strand.  I'm not a fanboy yet of the stuff -- just experimenting.  We'll see... 

I've done it on two trips so far and haven't had a problem at all with the scotty clips and 19 strand.  Time will tell but I don't think the scotty clips will cause much wear as they are smooth plastic and the 19 strand is slick like braid.  I know people use a bunch of different clips out there so experience will vary.... could always half hitch a rubber band if need be.  I had big waves yesterday and just had to put the line a little deeper in the clip.  with braid or mono i like to create a loop to clip to by twisting the line about 5 times (like you do for black's downrigger releases).  Obviously you can't do that with 19 strand but it still works well just clipping it.   As I said in a post above, you just have to be careful to keep clicker on or keep thumb on a free spool or you're screwed.  

While thickness of the 19 strand is similar to 50lb braid -- it does weigh a little more so you get a big more of a sag in your lines going out to the planer boards which can dip in the water.  Even with all the bouncing around in the waves, the scotty clips help up well -- no false releases.  

I think I’m going to run 1 300 copper line off the big boards on each side, a wire diver on each side and 2 rigger rods one with a slider.

If I have enough help on the boat, maybe add another pair of wire divers but, the more I think about it, 6 is enough!

For late July trip, im thinking my initial setup will be:

Rigger 1: 11” pro troll paddle with atomik Twinkie meat rig

Rigger 2: moonshine mag spoon with smaller spoon on a slider above

Wire Diver 1: 8 inch spin doctor with fly

Wire Diver 2: 8 inch spin doctor or 8 inch protroll with meat head

300’copper 1: mag spoon

300 copper 2: 8 inch flasher with meat head

Do you guys prefer to run the meat heads naked behind the flasher on wire/copper or the setup with twinkie flies in front


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I used the 19 strand backer for 1 season. It's not all it's cracked up to be. First, it absolutely doesn't have the same sink rate as an equal length weighted steel. Meaning 200 ft of steel and 200ft of 19 strand does not equal a 400 weighted steel. I had the same plans as you, 1 rod for every application but the truth is it doesn't work. Also after some testing in shallower water (under 100ft) I know that weighted steel does not have the same sink rate as copper. I do think the steel is more user friendly. I'm still using it this season. Another issue with the 19 strand backer is if it tangles with anything the wire is junk. The first trip out we had a fish cross the steel rod before we could get it in and there went $45 worth of wire. If you were fishing for smaller fish or walleye you could just cut out the bad spot but with salmon you need to have the full 1000ft or you'll end up spooled. I took the 1 reel I had with the 19 strand and removed the wire. I went back to braid backer and will try running a torpedo diver and see if I can get it down to the 60ft range. I'll use my 400 steel the same way. Hopefully I'll get the results I'm looking for or I'll be going back to the copper.

I’ve done a couple walleye trips with the 19 strand as backing on a 3 color… mixed results… first trip I slammed some extra fish because I was easily able to let out more line ( I have enough 19 strand backing to make it a 10 color equivalent) and get deeper on my planer board lines. Second trip, big waves and I got cocky and let the clicker off while trying to speed up the process of sending down the planer board line and just like a wire diver, you’re screwed when that line nests up… frustrating.


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Picked up a bunch of vintage white back NkS on ebay. Can’t wait to run em


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Awesome, glad you guys had a great night!


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You can, but often times the riggers and wire divers work better ... so guys are focusing on those setups.  The ACTUAL strategy is to create a pattern that draws the fish into the riggers (due to ball turbulence), if they don't take the rigger lines, they drop back and have a look at the diver lines, if they don't take that, they have a look at the copper lines further back (and stealthier).
 
For walleye what depth are you normally targeting? I think guys get worried when they have 300 ft and 400 ft copper lines out on the boards ... we already see enough tangles (one is more than enough) with just two lines out, especially when a king takes it, and sweeps across from port to starboard (or vice versa). Can create one big mess really fast.

excellent point @AnglingAddict!  

thanks, makes sense.  It's a lot of money to risk losing on a turn or big king.  Do you run regular copper or weighted steel?   Think it's okay to run 2 leadcore lines?  

1 hour ago, TyeeTanic said:

I assume you've run an 8 rod spread before?

 

It's one thing having the equipment, and another having the experience to deploy and retrieve and not end up spending half your day untangling lines.

 

Assuming you have done this before ... for sure 2 downriggers, probably a cheater on one of them (to target steelhead), 4 dipseys wire divers, and 2 off the boards one on each side of the boat (depending on where the 42F to 48F depth is, it'll be either leadcore for shallower depths, and copper for deeper).

 

If you haven't done 8 before, I'd probably cut 2 wire dipseys from the stage.

I've done it before with big boards for walleye/steelhead/lake trout on lake erie many times but not for kings... have only used 4-6 rod setups without boards on Lake O in my previous trips.   Why does it seem like many only run one line off the boards?  Usually if I go through hassle of setting up the big boards, I want to run more than one line.  I was thinking 4 of the 8 rods in my setup would be on boards and out of the way, 2 wire divers, 2 downrigger rods.  

Is your spread targeting kings only at those depths 50ft +? Steelhead and cohos usually are higher up earlier in year right? My thinking was to run some stuff in the 30 ft range to put more fish in the boat with the kings less prevalent so far this year


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@Super G I recently spooled up some 453 cold waters and they worked well for a 300 copper set up.  I used 50lb high viz braid for backer to hook to the boards.  FYI most people seem to have switched over to Weighed Steel these days, easier to work with, similar results.  

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

yep, I fished the bar area the last weekend of the derby and had a tough time with the flat lake and boat traffic.  It wasn't until we got out of the traffic that we started to hook up and got 2 20lb kings in 250 fow north of the bar.  People with boards and long lines were putting more fish in the boat even if they were cohos and chrome at least it was more action.  That's why when I go back I'm going to have a wider/stealthier spread.  We ran high/low dispey on each side with riggers off the corner.  

What baits do you normally run off your copper and lead long lines?  

I never ran a shoot rod before due to fear of tangles but recently started experimenting with the Church stern planer.  https://www.fishusa.com/Church-Tackle-TX-007-Stern-Planer?quantity=1&L-Size1=1094

Easy to use and worked really well!  Can sail it back as far as you want to keep the shoot open