Tim Bromund

I would run em swiveled 45 deg out off the corners, should't be a problem. Tim

Rod, I had a Ray Sportpilot+ that never worked right, I had seen many reports of people that were totally thrilled with their Simrads, so that's what I went with. Actually, I don't think I ever saw a negative comment made on the simrad. The S1000 is for hydraulic steering isn't it? Tim

Glen, Don't know if I needed to. I did it anyways and it calibrated just fine for me. Regarding hooking up the NMEA, make sure you have the settings correct on the GPS or the GPS won't talk to it..... ask me how I know Tim

I installed one on my Thompson in 2006 also had the R&P steering so I had to replace the cable. All in all it was a piece of cake, the worst part of replaceing tha cable on my boat was the fact that I had all of my electronics wires wire tied to the old cable so I had to cut all those wire ties. You really do need at least 10" of space behind the dash for the new AP Helm assembly to fit. I have it tied into the GPS with the NMEA wire and boy is that a nice feature, punch in a waypoint on the GPS turn on the AP and hit the nav button and it'll take you to that waypoint. I don't know how I ever lived without it, you're gonna love it. Not sure what kind of tips I can give you, it's really straight forward. Did you have to get a new bezel assembly to mount it in your dash? I did and ended up getting it right from Simrad as it wasn't available anywhere else. Make sure you use a regular compass and very carefully check to make sure there is no electrical interference where you want to mount the fluxgate compass. I had to mount mine on a front to back bulkhead and tell the unit it was rotated 90 deg when it was initially started and calibrated. No problems with that though. tim

I love the fact that my Depth Raider Probe still has the same duracell 9v that I put in it when I started fishing this year back in April. Tim

I was out with Adam and his dad yesterday. Yeah, the fishing was surprisingly good despite the snotty lake conditions, we boated at least a dozen fish, all juvenile and teenage kings (except the one nice adult female coho). Adam, it was good to see that Diversion II hasn't lost the fish catching mojo with the rebuild work. Good fishin with ya again, see you at the LOTSA meeting thursday. Tim

snifff...sniff.... who's cooking spam?

Adam, It's real easy out of Olcott, the harbor is right at the 20 line (give or take) so that's 7-9 miles offshore. THat's why I set down in 240 fow at the 22 line and trolled out. no need to burn the gas running if you don't have to. Burn a lot less trolling out and we did have a steady pick on the way out. Tim

depends on what you use for backing. I have 300 yds of 30 lb power pro behind a 10 color on a Penn 330. you won't get enout backing on if you use mono. Tim

floating lures have to have trebles that are affixed to the lure by a ring or swivel, so the free sliding harness on a j plug would NOT be acceptable, Lymans would be ok though. here's the great lakes special regulations section from the guide, take a look at the "floating lures" section about halfway down the page. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/31420.html Tim

throw on the waders and fish steelhead, rabbit hunt, pheasant hunt, squirrel hunt, crow hunt, ice fish, (some deer, but I'm a pretty indifferent deer hunter, I perfer small game). I might try fall turkey this year, never done it, but spring turkey is one of my favorites, it's always something of a moral dilemma in May for me, do I turkey hunt or salmon fish. besides, my season isn't quite over yet. I've got at least one more trip left when I drag the trailer up to pull the boat out for the season. Tim

Hey, if you want to get out this weekend and need crew, give me a shout. Tim

oh, and congrats on finally getting the boat back. As you know, I lost the entire summer of 2003 having the same work done on mine. I feel your pain my friend. Tim

Water at the 27-29 lines was 300-450 fow. The fish (temp) were fairly deep. Temp was 57-61 deg with 90 ft of cable out. Riggers were at 65 to 90 and the divers (wire and power pro) were 185-225 back on a 2 setting. Some fish came out of temp on the free sliders off the riggers and the 200' copper also fired 2 times and it's running down 45 feet or so. Tim

We hit the harbor saturday morning to see if the perch were in. Got a couple but the run isn't in very heavy yet, we put a dozen or so in the bucket. They were a nice class of fish, most were 11-13". I would guess were a couple of weeks away from the perch action really taking off. Sundy we went offshore to fish for silvers. I set down at the 22 line right in front of Olcott and we started trollling North. hit our first around the 25 line a nice 15 lb teenage king. fishing got better as we wnt north, 27-29 lines were smoking. We ended up 17/21 with a mix of steelhead to 10 lbs and juvenile/teenage kings. Everything was working. chrome green Spindoctor/mirage atommik took a couple, but it was mostly a spoon bite. NK watermelon in both mag and 28 took multiple fish, gold back kevorkian, stingray NBK, R&R spook. We even went old school and had hits on both a chart fire dot luhr jensen flutterspoon and a green/chart black dot alpena diamond (both on sliders). Doubled up 3 times, in fact one was technically a triple because the rigger rod ended up having steelies on both the main line and the slider (10 lb on the main line and about a 4-5 lb on the slider). getting both in the net was a challenge. both riggers, wire diver, power pro diver and 200' copper all took multiple hits. Oh yeah, the fleas were still out there in force. Great day out there and we were all alone. beautiful 1' salmon chop on the water the 15 lb teenager we boxed out with 7 steelies and 2 kings kept. probably have 1 last trip this year when I drag the trailer down to pull the boat out for the season. Tim

Adam, see my report

I think perhaps a better way than eliminating the observer would be to keep it as it was this year, with 2 man teams possible. However, as with this past year, since the Am observers were required to have a fishing license so the 2 man teams could still run 6 rods, why not make the box 9 fish and let the AM teams keep the observers fish as well? He/she's a licensed person so their 3 fish could legally be taken under DEC regs. That would allow the box to be put back at 9 fish without handicapping smaller boats/teams. Tim

I think the reasoning behind elimination the observer on the AM side is that if you go back to a 9 fish box, that means an AM team has to be 3 people, so that's 4 on board with an observer. Lets face it, most smaller boats just cannot comfortably fish with 4 on board, so the guys in smaller boats will be less likley to get involved. I have 24' Thompson and it gets a little crowded on mine with more than 4 on board, I wouldn't want to have done it when I was fishing in my 19' Bayliner. Tim

you want the soft stainless which is seven strand wire. The monel is single strand wire. Never used it but from what I understand it is prone to kinks. Tim

chugbug, we had a wire diver bite while prefishing for the Fairhaven Challenge a couple of weeks ago that had the counter over 700 feet on it's first run and still going strong when unfortunately the fish came undone. Besides, like the others said, 1000 ft fills the reel perfectly and you don't have to worry about additional knots in the system to fail (at backing). Tim

most definitely a coho. Tim

these from big papa sportfishing are also quite popular. I haven't used em so I can't comment on the quality first hand. http://www.bigpapasportfishing.com/trolling_bags.htm My opinion, either the beefy bags or the buggy bags from Amish are probably a more durable product. I know my beefy bags are so overbuilt it's not funny. Tim

if you can't find em in the store, you can always order them direct from Eppinger http://www.dardevle.net/dardevlecgi/index.pl?init=1 Tim

GB, the Cabela's Pro Angler Bags are drift socks, not trolling bags. They are meant to hang over the side of a non-powered boat to control a drift, not trolling. I don't believe they will ever hold up to the strain that sustained hours of trolling wuill subject them to. Tim

yes me too. Thry have the buggy bags and the heavier Beefy Bags. I got the heavier duty Beefy Bags from Amish Outfitters (2 28" bags) and they take me almost to a dead stop at idle. http://www.amishoutfitters.com/beefybags.htm Tim