When we fished amateur division it helped us to a 3rd place finish in Sodus running a mini green spinnie and fly on our center rigger. It's got it's time and place.
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I know you well, and you're not Ray Ramano funny bro! You are a white haired grumpy son of a b*tch. Especially, as of late. Actually, ever since getting the shaft from that FK tourney.
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Holy Moly John! Thanks! Now I have to read that whole thing!
A Canadian angler who observes for us brought me that blank at the LOTSA expo. I have messed with it a little. He wants to build it for me something fierce, but I just don't want to catch the custom rod bug!
You want to go as light as your rods can handle. This is very important. I like 8-10lb Fluoro in the Central/Western basin, but my current rigger rods bottom out at 12lb test. Therefore, I know with clients I am not going to leader down to 10lb test on those.
Another important factor is your main line. We like to run 15lb test or more, and then leader down with a double length of the rod Fluoro leader. The heavier main line will float your baits a little better, and allow you to get in shallower when that water starts to clear and stacks fish on the beach.
In the clearer Eastern basin guys are going to 6lb leaders fairly common. It's important you have a rod that isn't so powerful that it will crack 6lb test.
Thru hull ducer is the way to go hands down. That B60 referenced is the cats azz especially if you trailer. However, a thru hull with a faring block will give you a little better picture. Running out each morning watching my graph for bait is key, and it can save you both time and gas. You don't want to run over bait that has moved in with the break because you caught them out there yesterday. Many times the fish may not be on the leading edge of that bait, but they aren't too much further. With a transom mount ducer you cant see these things at 15-20mph.
High teens Salmon from 100' down 23 seconds by Mr. Casey Prisco Memorial day about 3 years ago on the Yank. Fish hit the rigger he set the hook hard 5 times, and cranked. We all pizzed ourselves laughing.
I've got to ask.....How do you know when you hook a large WILD King Salmon!?!?!?!?
That reminded me of when FK Sportfishing knew they lost a fish over 30lbs 100yards from the boat.
Check out the new Humminbird Helix units. VERY affordable Humminbird technology which can be portable. Guys are using it now on the ice.
http://www.humminbird.com/Freshwater/Product-Category/Series/HELIX-Series/
In this case bigger isn't better. Don't make the mistake of going with a 1k ducer. 600w is all you need. With the 1k ducer you will lose a lot of cone angle.
If we're chasing trout only we'll use McCoy Fluoro 100 in 15lb or 20lb, but 95% of the time it's McCoy Mean Green 25lb test.
Leader length for me is as long as I can get away with.
EXACTLY!
Oh, and our baitfish level isn't great, but we're gonna dump an extra 300,000 Lake Trout into Lake Ontario that: 1) live 10+yrs and eat Alewife like popcorn 2) No one really wants to target 3) They are only doing because the fed are giving them the money 4) No one really wants to target
We have 6 wire diver rods on board. 2 are roller rods, and 4 have Twilli Tips.
The diver docks are nice but you have to store them when not in use, and winding the line around them with that narrow arbor can be slow. Otherwise, they are a great idea.