Tim Bromund

no need. Copper wire is soft, wont groove up the tip like SS wire will. Tim

Not to disagree, but you might want to ask some Canadians about that. Tim

What kind of fishing are you looking to do, boat, pier, wade? Are you looking to fish up in the creek, in the harbor or out in the lake? If you are going to fish up in the creek, you can take a small boat quite a ways upstream as long as you stay in the channel. Years ago we used go upstream a bend of two from the marina, anchor along the edge of the channel (toss the anchor into the weeds at the edge of the channel) and drift chunks of cured salmon skein under floats in the channel and do quite well. I always did well with skein chunks cured with the flame orange fluorescent pro cure. The new Pautzke's cure looks very good as well, but of course, first you need to catch a hen to get some eggs . You can also cast large stickbaits like thundersticks, rebel fastracs, j13 rapalas, etc. Anchoring out in the lake at night and casting glow spoons can be really effective, as will doing the same off either pier. Tim

lots of us have our 10 color core on a Penn 330 with 300 yds of 30 lb power pro backing. Tim

Why is it every time someone posts a picture of a bowfin, someone ALWAYS says they think it's a snakehead? Just curious... Tim

Happy Birthday Hank!!!!

Dave, Pretty sure there are fish (bass, bluegills etc.) in Lake LaSalle right there on the North Campus (formerly known as the Amherst Campus when I went there) Tim

Sounds like it needs some muffler bearing grease Tim

Mostly due to poor fisheries management policies in the past, between the 4 states bordering Lake Michigan, at one point they were stocking something like 20 million trout and salmon a year in Michigan, add some significant natural reproduction and there were more predators than the forage base could support and the fish faced disease and reduced size. They have seriously reduced the number of stocked fish in recent years and the forage base gas had a chance to recover somewhat. Lake Huron was far worse and the salmon fishing in that lake completely collapsed for a while and the kings that were caught were small and skinny/malnourished, looked more like northern pike than salmon. IMO Lake Michigan isn't any colder and doesn't have any shorter growing season than Lake O and in the 70's and 80's consistently produced high 30's and 40+ lb fish before the crash in the late 80s from BKD (bacterial kidney disease) from the stressed fish in the system. it is a little bit more sterile of a system than Lake Ontario because we have that wonderful nutrient sink called Lake Erie pumping fertile water into our lake. I fished Lake Michigan, well Green Bay actually, out of Marinette Wisconsin (Dad's home town) in the early/mid 80's and can tell you that back then, the salmon and trout fishing (Lake Michigan was where the term "football brown" was coined) was out of this world, both in size and in numbers. Tim

Don't need a shore division, you can enter a shore/pier caught fish, just need a witness who's also registered, same as boat anglers.

I'm with Paul. 8-12 feet is typical for me for leads with flashers/flies, I can't remember the last time I ran longer than a 15' lead. My Scotty Riggers deploy faster than you can imagine and I never get tangled. Hold the rod in your hand with thumb pressure on the spool as you lower the ball, hold the rod tip low to the water and off to the side so it's not directly in line with the flasher. This both minimizes slack line/belly and keeps the line out of the path of the descending flasher. Are you powering the riggers down or backing off the clutch and letting them free fall. If you are powering them down there's no way speed is a factor, I had Mag10A's and they are good dependable riggers, but they are slower than whale er.. um.. stuff Tim

I actually slowly start collecting the winterizing materials now as they go on sale at West Marine, the -60 antifreeze, oil and filter, fuel/water separator, lower unit oil, stabil etc. I usually don't pull the boat until some time in mid October right when I'm ready to winterize it. As early as the nights get cold out here where I live in ski country, my engine is much safer with the boat sitting in the warm marina water than it is sitting on my trailer until I'm ready to put it to bed for the winter, and besides we've had some killer days out there in October on the steelies and teenage kings . Tim

yeah, but it is probably much harder to find 2 people that can successfully fool a polygraph.

that depends on if you are talking about the original accudepths or their replacement, the accudepth plus. The original accudepths were junk from what I understand, but the ADP's are perfectly fine reels. I have 4 of them doing braid and mono diver duty and have absolutely zero complaints after 3 or 4 seasons. <> I also have 2 sealines that I run my wire divers on and they are both 10+ years old and have never given me a lick of trouble either. Tim

I think you'd have a hard time getting deeper than 45 or 50 feet with a mono diver, no matter how much line you let out. 30 Lb mono is too thick and has too much water resistance and it also has too much stretch to get deeper than that. Tim

Hey now, I'm not an expert, nor do I play one on TV I think e-chips are a marketing tool as well. I have a lot of pro troll flashers, both the old style that used to lose the e-chips all the time because they were just glued into a depression in the flasher body and the new style with the chip holder, and the pro trolls that no longer have the chip on them catch just as many fish as the ones that still do. I think it is the action of the flasher that is the attraction. Tim

Yup, that's a nice coho for sure.

Started East of Port between the microwave and the plant. Only had a couple hits inside in 60-80 fow, both on the 120 diver. First one was a big hit with the rod pounding and then gone, apparently I must have inadvertently overtightened the drag because it straightened the snap and took my only green/glow opti inticer that has been one of my better paddles over the past couple years. Put a green/glow protroll out in its place and that fired a couple minutes later with an 8 or 9 lb domestic rainbow, nice thick chunky fish already pinking up nicely. After a while with no further action we pointed it north and trolled offshore. hit steady action between the 25 and 27 lines, all coming on a gator spinny and big weenie's version of the hammer fly (blue weenie I think) on the 70' rigger, ended up with 2 teenage kings and 9 or 10 additional cookie cutter 6-8 lb steelies. No other rod took a hit despite having other stuff in the same general area. I'll be glad when the derby is over and boat traffic will die back to nothing. I hate combat fishing. Tim

the #8 spro power swivel is 50 lb test, yet small enough to slide right through the guides and most level wind openings right onto the reel. i have about 15' leaders on my coppers, not for any "mystical electric charge", but because a longer leader dampens the rise and fall action of the copper as it snakes through the water. It is the erratic action imparted to the lure by this rise and fall as the boats changes speed slightly, on turns etc, that makes both copper and lead core so effective. Tim

you run a flasher/fly with a 6 lb leader???? Really??? Recommendation would be min 20 lb fluorocarbon with a #8 spro power swivel between the copper and the leader. Tim

because people cheat when there is money on the line. That has always been the rule in the derby.

Malin is softer wire, which is exactly what I like about it. Tim

Or you could just get good wire like Malin, Mason, AFW, etc. that no one ever has a problem with in the first place.....I'm just sayin' Tim

dewey, FWIW, not 100% certain, but I believe an unsecured battery is a CG violation if they ever boarded you for an inspection. You should really have the battery in a battery box and securely strapped to the floor or immobilized in some way.. Tim