Billy V

Yup, that was up headed East! We fished down by the 5 stacks from about 9:30am on and had a really good day too. Sounds like you had a good day too...congrats!

I was just answering your question Rod. I'd like to see more tourneys have packages like the one we got at the Fat Nancy's event too! That was a sweet deal. It's a matter of economics for the manufacturers. I agree that if a manufacturer wants to get the word out about their product that donating to these events is a good way to do so. But so is advertising in magazines like GLA, trade shows, visiting tackle shops, pro staff, etc. They gotta make a decision about where to spend their time & money. Shoot, no one had even heard of Savant spoons a few years ago let alone run one. They made a lot of headway in the Great Lakes via the tournaments. So I agree with you; it works.

There are literally hundreds, maybe even over a thousand, tournaments on the Great Lake each year, and if a manufacturer was to donate to all of them I could see that costing them an awful lot of money. There are lots of great companies who DO choose to donate to an awful lot of those tourneys, some of whom you've already named. But I can't see how a company could donate to all of them. Most tourney donations are raised by someone who's involved with the tourney asking someone they know at a particular company to donate. I know for a fact that Sigg's Rigs, Dreamweaver, and Northern King donate tons of product to the Pro-AM's and other events. My guess as to why you didn't see them donating to the various one-day Challenge tournaments is that they weren't ever asked to donate. I know that when I asked all of them to donate to the now-defunct Shawn's Marina brown trout tournament both of them sent me plenty of donations.

After we spent nearly three hours working a real slow pick East of Fair Haven we ended up pulling lines and running even further East today and ended up having a good day in 80-110 FOW. White Spinny or E-Chips pulling Sigg's White Crinkle and Glow Ghost flies off the riggers down 65-82' took the majority of our bites today, but we also took several shots on a Green Spinny/Sigg's Green Hypnotist fly and a Chartreuse E-Chip/Sigg's Mtn. Dew fly. The fish wanted it slow today: 1.6-2.0 down speed was our best speed range. Here's a pic. Notice the much improved arm position :

We always measure from the tip of the fly head to the top of the loop and we prefer 23". I was taught that by the Fish Doctor Ernie Lantiegne himself a long time ago.

Congrats Gray! Looks like all your hard work looking finally paid off. I look forward to seeing it out on the water next year!

Hey Jeremy, CONGRATS!! Like Yankee said, memories that will last you a lifetime! So are you TOTALLY HOOKED on it now????

I might just try and drag Jay down there with me to see plan C this year Jerry! No need for PPV, just a simple mis-understanding.

Ray, I'm not accusing you of posting false reports, nor do I doubt your fish catching abilities. You've certainly proven yourself in the tournaments you've fished in. I didn't take your comment in the context you intended when I first read it , but now I see that you were just picking. My apologies.

I'm sorry you don't like the picture Ray. But coming from someone who never takes pictures to back up his reports I'll take that little barb with a grain of salt. :? :? Nope, no freak-outs from Jerry today. Just a relaxing day on the water catching some fish with friends.

Today I had the pleasure of fishing Sandy Creek for the first time since I was in college thanks to an invite from my good buddy Runnin' Rebel. We were also joined by Trout-n-About and his wife today and we all had a great time together. We ran out through the fog and set the boat down in 380 FOW and worked our way North as we set up. We had a nice steady pick of steelies all day long in anywhere from 400-430 FOW. Best down speeds were 1.8-2.0 mph and best depths on Jerry's super six downrigger setup were 42-58' down. Most of our bites were on Jerry's super-secret spoons fished off the riggers, but we also had three diver bites and took a shot on a 10 color core too. Today's box would've been filled with cookie-cutters like this one had we not thrown them all back but one bleeder: Thanks so much for the invite Jerry...I really needed a change of pace today and this was exactly what the Dr. ordered! Next time lunch is on me!!!

Mmmmmmm SPAM!

If you go through Seatech, you'll want to see if you can get Dennis Daniels as your instructor. He's incredibly funny and is a great teacher. Do exactly what he says and you'll be fine. Most guys get all wound up over the chartplotting stuff cuz it has a lot of math in it, but you really, really need to spend the majority of your time preparing for the rules of the road stuff. You have to get a 90% on that exam and the others you can get a 70% (if I remember correctly) on. I know that Dennis has had some issues with paperwork, organization, etc. recently, but my experience with getting my license after I passed the exam was that it was the USCG that took almost three months to process my application. Seatech wasn't an issue for me at all. Ruth got things processed pretty quickly, but then again I was calling her every day to check in...the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Definitely don't set yourself up with the expectation that you'll have your license in a week or two after you pass. Plan on two-three months. I know a couple of guys who are renewing their licenses and they're sitting on 4 months waiting for the USCG to process their paperwork. There is a lot of memorization but if you listen to Dennis he'll get you through it. When he handed us our first practice quiz and said that we should all score a 40% on it he was dead right. When we got closer to exam time he started telling us we should get 60% scores...he was right again. The days right before the exam he was telling us that if we did the work we should be getting 90% scores....right on again. The first weekend of the class I was sitting there with Yankee Troller thinking "what have I gotten myself into"? It was pretty overwhelming the amount of stuff they threw at us. I've been boating most of my life but this was way more in depth than I had ever gotten. But slowly, week by week it got better and better. And when exam day came I totally smoked it. It's a lot of work but if you're willing to buckle down and do the work it's not all that hard to pass and its been worth the hassles for me personally. Oh, if you have any sort of health issues like a hearing loss or impaired vision you really need to talk to Dennis before you register. One of the guys YT and I went through class with had a hearing issue keep him from getting his license even though he passed all the exams.

Here's a couple of quick video clips from this past week: These two women did a great job with these fish: Way to go ladies!

Anywhere from 8'-75' back worked for us this past week. Just keep in mind what else you have down there near your riggers. Long leads might end up tangling in other lures depending on what else you have down there next to it. We generally run our flasher/fly setups 8-20' back and save the longer leads for spoons & plugs.

I'm with YT on this one. We always change to the hole opposite the way it comes out of the package.

30-40 mins depending on the seas

I'm headed up to the lake tonight and will be out for the next 9 days straight trying to do just that! Glad to help.

You'll notice a difference in pixel count for sure. The higher pixel count in the 777 will allow you to see more detail. The 777 has speed & temp built into the transducer too, and that's nice to have. Surface temp is really useful when fishing browns & steelies when you're looking for a temp break on the surface. I mentioned the 747 initially because of the price restraint, but if you have the extra cash, go for the 777.

I just ordered two from Cabela's....on sale at $69 each.

OK, that's it...I gotta get one or two!!

More power is only part of the equation. It'll definitely help you get better readings at deeper depths and it'll provide more detailed readings. The units you see out there with 200 watts RMS just won't cut the mustard when you're targeting fish that are down 100 ft or more. They're designed as shallow water finders and are probably pretty good when you're bass fishing, but I wouldn't want to rely on one for every day salmon fishing. The other part to the equation is the transducer that you run all that power through. I've been running an Airmar thru-hull triducer on my boat and there is no question that it gives me much better detail than I ever got with a factory transom-mount transducer. Given your budget a thru hull is out of the question though. I'd go with the most power that you can afford, a color screen, and try to get a dual frequency transducer. Put your money into those three things and I think you'll be very happy you did. Be sure that you're looking at the same power ratings between units too. Some manufacturers quote peak-to-peak ratings and others quote RMS. If you find a unit that quotes 2400 watts peak-to-peak, that only equates to 300 watts RMS. To convert peak-to-peak ratings to RMS just divide by 8. So what I'd be looking for if I was you is 4,000 watts peak-to-peak which is 500 watts RMS. If you're ever in the Fair Haven area, feel free to stop by the boat and I'll run our Furuno for you and show you the kind of details that we pick up that a lower powered unit won't.

I'm at the end of season #2 with these particular rods and no sign of failure on either tip. That being said, I will replace both tips in the near future as they both have some grooves in them, but nothing that remotely worries me that they'll fail.

The higher the pixel count, the better the images on the screen and the more detail you an see. BUT, the difference between color and mono is so great that I'd definitely say go for a color screen even if it has a lower pixel count than a comparable mono screen. You'll be surprised at the things you can see with color that you can't see with monochrome. And definitely go for at least 500watts RMS, 4,000 watts peak-to-peak.

Any guesses as to how big the winning fish will be in this year's Fall LOC?