Billy V

It sounds like my old Raytheon autopilot has officially died and I'll need to start thinking about a replacement. What little research I've done leads me to think that it's probably going to have to be either a Raymarine or a Simrad. I have twin inboards with hydraulic steering. Anyone have any insight into one or the other of these AP's? Is there another brand that I should be considering? Thanks!

This stuff works great: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... lassNum=34 Just be sure to apply it on a CALM day or the wind will blow it all over everything and it's a mother to clean off and it's SLIPPERY!!

Check Narby's, Captain's Cove, or Fat Nancy's. That spoon is brand spanking new and just hit shelves recently.

We run them on riggers, dipsys, copper, and cores. On some days they're all that we have in the water. Our rigs are 8' or so behind the diver...mostly to accommodate rod length. For us, lead length behind riggers depends on what our spread is on other deployment devices. For example, when we're running two wire dipsys per side with spinnys and we're fishing all of our set-up deep, we keep the leads fairly short...say 10-15 ft. so that we can avoid tangled messes. If we were running spoons on the dipsys we could stretch them back a bit more. The short answer is that you gotta mess around with them some to figure out what works for you and what the fish want that day. That's the best part of this sport...we all have different ways of doing things and there's really no right or wrong way. As for colors pre-dawn...we love a white double crush glow spinny pulling a white crinkle or glow fly.

We run our spinnys up on Lake Ontario different than that. We leave the snap in the front hole where it comes from the factory, but we always change the rear setting to the MORE action setting. We add a duolock snap like you have pictured to make removal of the fly easier. As far as the fly goes, we like 23" measured from the tip of the fly head to the top of the overhand loop on the leader. I'm not sure how this'll work on the Fingers, but on Lake O, it's deadly.

The SS spoons are a great addition to the DW lineup. They're shaped more like a Stinger, and are a bit lighter than their regular spoons. The paint DW is using these days is incredible too! We have a bunch of them on board and really like them a lot. We've taken quite a few fish this spring on the Area 51 SS:

Try it now Tom.

Clarke, Is your inbox full? I think that'll keep you from getting new PM's.

Try here: http://www.greatlakesplaners.com/ I've seen some of their stuff recently and it looks to be very well made.

Longline hit the nail on the head. On my old Penn Yan we ended up changing the prop for one with a little less pitch and we were able to troll down a lot slower, plus we had the engine operating at it's optimal upper RPM range. The mechanic that we used down here in Ithaca recommended the prop change after he did some work and needed to sea-trial it. What a HUGE difference. Best bet is to check with a qualified marine mechanic before making and change in props.

Thanks guys. We worked hard for 'em, that's for sure. There was no set pattern, just stick-to-it-iveness!

We're thinking of you and your Dad today Ray.

Try this thread for the info: http://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishin ... php?t=4634

This morning we headed out before sunrise and set up a bit inside our waypoints from last night. I wanted to check the skinny water before committing to going out deep. We found tons of bait and hooks from 50-70FOW and we worked that area hard for a bit and were rewarded with a couple of hook ups. After that dried up we headed back to out waypoints from the night before and began picking away at them. Nothing fast and furious, but we kept ourselves steadily entertained and managed a very nice mixed box by the end of the morning. A new Northern King Glow Kermit took a couple of beautiful steelhead fished off of the riggers down 75 & 90ft over anywhere from 120-200FOW at 2.4-2.6mph down speed. We also had a Dalmatian Spinny/Siggs Rigs Blue Dolphin Pulse fly fire a couple of times on some Kings & a Steelhead, and we had this guy destroy a Dreamweaver Steelie Cane spoon that we had free sliding on a rigger set down 45ft: All in all a very good day!

Tonight I actually got to do some fun fishing of my own. Jay & I went out with our friends Jim and Mark for a short trip tonight and had a ball. After we assassinated about 5000 nasty ankle-biting flies, we found a nice Steelie and a small King out over 180FOW. The Steelie took a Northern King Seasick Waddler fished off of a 600' copper rig at 2.4mph down speed, and the king took a Siggs Rigs Mystery Pulse Fly behind a Green Spin Dr off the wire out 210' on a 2.5 setting, same down speed as the Steelie. The Pulse flies have been getting bit every time out lately and we're liking them more and more as the season progresses. Not a ton of marks tonight until just before dark in about 120FOW. We found some bait and a lot of hooks in a really condensed area and we worked them hard for the last few minutes of our trip but to no avail. Maybe they'll be there again in the morning?? Here's the pic:

RR, Sorry to hear about the boat....that's awful. Glad no one was injured. I bet your adrenaline is still through the roof!

Mark, No editing software...I've just been loading the video clips from my camera directly to Youtube. Any suggestions as to editing software??

We use this: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/buf/ Reliability is another thing.... :roll: :roll: :roll:

At this point (2:15pm on Sunday) it's looking like Cold Steel is gonna win it unless someone comes in with a killer box.

They've been doing well on the browns down near Nine Mile point in anywhere from 10-40FOW. It's been fairly dependent on the wind though...get the right wind and they've been killing them, otherwise it's been a slow pick.

We've been having fun with the camera this year....I don't know if I'll ever get as advanced as Mark is with this stuff, but it's been a fun extra!

We run a Depth Raider and couldn't be happier with it. Re-spooling the rigger with coated cable is at most a 5 minute job, so don't let that deter you.

Screwy Louies in Fair Haven is a Cannon repair center. (315)947-6348

I think it looks like a really great new idea. 'Bout time someone came up with something truly new in boating. How it ends up being accepted by the public and how it ends up working in real-life situations remains to be seen. I've read some fantastic reviews about it where they HAVE conducted the tests in both currents and high winds and it's performed beautifully. I'm not about to go out and buy a new boat with the system in it, but kudos to Mercruiser for taking the initiative to make docking easier and less stressful.