GAMBLER

Know your equipment. I go out and let the rigger ball out until it hit the bottom and let it settle and do it again. This will tell you how accurate your counters are. Having 400' of cable spooled up on your riggers will screw up your counters. You can also tilt your transducer back slightly and turn the gain up on your fish finder and see your weights on the screen.

Thank You Mark! This has been my B*tch for the last couple derbies.

For plainer board line, trash the line that comes on them and go with 250lb. Power Pro. Put 150 yards on each reel. Your releases will slide down the line a lot easier. For you boat, I would go with the single tower with dual reels. The Otter boat boards are awesome too. Just make sure they are adjusted correctly or they will dive like my one does.

I run my peanuts anywhere from 24 - 32" behind my cowbells. I find 28 - 32" leaders are better when the lakers are in an off mood. Good luck.

The temp is going to be way down after the wind we had yesterday.

My rookie season out of Sandy Creek was a good one. Only one trip with less than 10 fish in the boat. A day in June featured a seven of eight rod going off at once fire drill. July brought great fishing and a very weird August. It is hard to believe that the season is winding down fast. Time to get ready for hunting and icefishing. Good luck everyone.

Pat, The winning laker in 05 was not 21.11 it was 24.11. That will make the gap even bigger.

Kerchner, I run a 30' leader off the end of my copper.

To get those kings to go, you need to trigger a strike. J-plugs or flasher/ fly rigs 5 -10' off the bottom and kick the speed up a little. We took 2 kings last Sunday that were hugging the bottom. All the guys on the radio kept saying look at the schools of lakers on the bottom WRONG! At this time of the year, they are more than likely kings. We saw most of the bottom huggers in 40 - 90 FOW.

Captains cove did have some in stock until a guy purchased every single jointed j-plug in the joint when I was out there with Jax the other day.

Ande 30lb. pink for the main line and a 6' leader of 20lb. Seagar. If I'm running a flasher/fly on a rigger rod, I don't use a leader and just tie straight to the 30 lb. Ande. The Ande is cheap (around 30 bucks for a bulk spool through Cabelas) but the Seagar is a little pricey.

Motoman, To cut the fin, use a hacksaw and cut 1/4" off of the fin on the back side of the flasher (usually about 1/2 the fin). Take a file and file down the sharp edges so it does not cut your line. This is on the 8" models. Diversion, I cut down all of my fins even on the newer style. They run better with half the fin.

Tbromund, Do you cut down the fins on your e-chips? If you don't they will not run correct over 2.2 mph.

Tom, I'm not going out Monday. I'm working the C shift starting 23 minutes ago. Good luck out there guys.

Thats correct Tom. Walleye are in the spring and summer derbies only. As for Yankee Troller, once again he shines when Jax is fishing with him. Hmmm. :shock:

Fished from the creek to Light house point and ended up 12 for 16. Started fishing @ 530 in 50 FOW. Had one wire rod out (could not see the rod it was so dark) and it fired. Landed a 20 lb. female that looked like it had been in the creeks for 2 weeks. Fished all the way down to Watoma in 50 - 75 and dumped a slob on the wire. Things were a little slow so we slipped out to 100 -110. As soon as I got out to 110, we doubled. The fish were coming down 45 - 55 over 110. Ended up with 8 kings, 2 steelhead, 1 brown and 1 laker. The biggest fish was 28lbs. 2 oz. That fish took Green Spin Doctor with a Atommik Green Hammer fly with a rattle. The fish took out 800 feet of wire and died with 500' of wire out. The hook was deep in the kings mouth and ripped it's gills to shreds. NBK in the stingray and Mag was hot once again. The other spoon that was firing was the froggy glow. The wires were hot early and shut off around 9 and then the riggers took over. I will not be out tomorrow because I'm sitting at work while I type this. Good luck to everyone and I hope one of you guys finds that $20,000 fish.

I am a huge fan on the Penn Yann boats. They are very good in rough water and they are built to last. The only problem is finding one. They do not make them anymore and people that have them hang on to them. I would go with an I/O over an outboard. You can rebuild a motor and a lower unit cheaper than buying a new outboard motor. Outboards also get in the way when landing fish. You do not need a kicker unless you want to save on gas and wear and tear on the big motor. I just use bags to slow my boat down.

I will be out Saturday and Sunday morning. Give me a shout on 72 - boat name is Escape. Good luck.

If you buy the Diawa's I recommend the Sealine SG47LCA's. I had some of the Accudepths and did not like them as much as the Sealines (the drag does not seem as good). The Shimano Tekotas are nice but out of my price range. I have been running the Sealines for years and they have been very dependable. Good luck.

Magda pros have been know to do that. I have heard that Okuma will replace them. I would get a new one and then get rid of all of them you own.

Slickmick, Try this link http://www.mistinger.com/colors2.htm It is halfway down the page NBK Natural Born Killer

If the unit is a LMS 350A, it could be the transducer is on it's way out. I had the same problem, and had trouble getting new transducer. It now sits on my dash as a GPS with the fish finder part turned off.

I have never had that problem. If you need parts, call Diawa. They will send you new parts for free most of the time.

What brand of Floro? I stick with Seagar. I tried P-line, Ande and others and went back to the Seagar. It is the toughest floro in my opinion. I Run 15 and 20 lb. leaders for kings (rigger rods with spoons). I make the switch in early August to 20 lb. For dipseys, I run 30 lb on spoons and 50 on flasher/fly rigs.

I use my probe and fish finder together. I put rods were I see fish no matter what the temp is. Lately, I have caught a lot of kings in 70 degree water.