UpGrady

I've done a number of cruises, including one 2 years ago in February. I spent a bunch of time trying to find a decent boat out of Cozumel, in the end I was not satisfied with my chances for a billfish during that time period, Late March thru June appeared to be more likely. The next problem was Cozumel being ravaged for the hurricane the previous Fall, so the port was being rebuilt. It may be rebuilt now, but we had to be tendered in, which is not a huge deal, the cruise lines do it all over including Grand Cayman and Belize, but it added another dimension to booking a charter and trying to get back onto the ship in time. I would advise booking thru the cruiseline and saving yourself the hassle with time constraints, but you may or may not be able to guarantee that you will not be the charter with 4 other people. I had a few links that I found, but I can't put my hands on them right now.

There are guys alll over Michigan looking for the same thing... none to be found... I sent mine for refurb at this place last winter: Marathon Tech Inc 8280 NW 56 Street Doral, Florida 33166 U.S.A Tel (800) 558-1607 Tel (305) 592-1340 Fax (305) 592-3591 I know for a fact that they cannot get their hands on any probes, just the circuit boards for the probes. I posted on a Michigan site two years ago and even got a response from a guy in Holland looking to buy my probe! Good luck.... and maybe just call Marathon to see if they have a line on any probes...

Another vote for Steve's... he redid my cabin cushions last winter for a very reasonable price.

Iceman, You have the perfect rig to fish IBay right up until Ice Fishing! Take a boaters safety course. Best advice that I was given at the age of 8 when docking the boat don't get moving toward the dock any faster than you're willing to hit it and you'll be fine! Practice the backing up thing in your driveway for a bit and then head to the launch... Stop and get a couple dozen fatheads at the baitshop. Go south thru the channel markers toward the slew of boats you'll see stop near the markers on either side in 8-15 foot of water and drop anchor. It drops sharply from 15-70' at the end of the channels markers. Rig up a rod with a couple snelled hooks above a 1/2 oz sinker on the bottom, put a fathead on each hook anyway you can, no need to be picky... drop it over the side or cast it out and hold on... you can't miss, the perch may not be very big, but will be VERY plentiful! I'll be around there and a few other hotspots in the bay until the end of October on weekends in the 25 Grady that will look really out place Perch Fishing!

Nothing wrong with filling the freezer with perch during October and November!

I cannot agree more with this posting... the stance taken by the LOC is very short sighted and is not targeting the true customers of the business (aka the average recreational fisherman). I can speak for any person willing to put in the time and money to fish these derbies for the chance to win something... the least that can be done is to be able to capture some glory in seeing your boat name. Typically, I am fishing with some friends during the derbies and generally do not even catch many of the fish, so my name likely will never appear on a leaderboard, although my friends have on my boat... The LOC needs to come up with an amiable solution to benefit EVERYONE involved in making the derbies a success. The ability to highlight a charter in bold or red to differentiate from a rec is fine by me, but my money is as green as the charter money, just allow US the glory as well. And of course, the LOC should have the right to not publish a name deemed offensive by the staff prior to posting an update.

www.biglakeoutfitters.com Heartlands are on sale for $25.19 a piece, just ordered 2- 10 1/2's to match up with my 9 1/2's and replace my old 9' Great Lakes Systems which will move over to mono divers after I repalce the twili tips. Shipping was $10 for the two rods. Fish USA wanted $36.95 plus $6 shipping for the 10 1/2's. Just my two cents to add to this thread as well. My Great Lakes System rods are now about 20 years old with the same twill-tips and the ceramic eyes have never been replaced... I don't believe for a minute that roller rods are necessary. I used the Heartlands this year and loved them and I need a pair of 10 1/2's to be able to run two per side. My old 9 footers served me well, but with 300' of wire out they were a bit short against my 4' boom out and downs on turns with any wind and current.

He has all RayMarine Prdoucts, so he'd like to stick with them.

Just revamping this post. My brother was up a few weeks ago and is now sold that he wants one, but he has been unable to find one down in Charleston. So, ANYONE out there?!?

Mark, I ordered drag washers for all of my 27's, 47's, 47LC's and SG47LC's last winter and a few other spare parts then rebuilt, cleaned and lubed all of the reels last winter. He also has downloadable schematics online too. www.mikesreelrepair.com

Setup in the morning around first light off the river and checked out 40-60 fow. Marked a few good ones, dumped one small fish (Probably a brown)off a rigger at 35' before we headed north. Ended up working 80-100fow. Wire at 190' w/Green E-Chip with Glow Frog G-Fly took two kings, busted one fly off and dropped another screamer. Fireline diver with a Black Spinnie and Antifreeze G-Fly took two kings as well. Largest king was only about 14 lbs. We had some decent action until about 9:30, then the screen cleaned up, wind started howling more and we headed for the barn.

Frank, Did I hear that your back couldn't handle all of the fish you caught over the weekend? I've never fished with Jerry... just heard stories thru the years. I'm sure you have plenty, if that boat's gunwales could speak! Sandy guys always snubbed us Oak guys, esp. on the rare occasions we drifted down to the Nose and started stealing their fish. Always were funny conversations on the radio...

Jerry, I didn't know you retired from the chartering ranks... fulltime tournament trail now, right? This how rumors get started, be caregul! I guess Frank has picked up a few things from you over the years, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again...

The most important part of the wierdness is the slider bite. You NEVER know what a slider fish is going to do while the slack is being taken up down to the mainline lure. In fact, when running sliders on the out and downs, there should be two people running for the rod, one to grab the rod, the other to grab the diver and go up an over the fish b/c half of the slider fish will hit and run under the diver... wire on mono wins everytime! This is even more likely when trolling with the waves and currents as the fish will generally try to run with the current ahead of the boat.

Anthony, You were a brave soul flying solo Sunday morning in that chop. Always a challenge to net a big king by yourself, nevermind in the wind and waves!

Frank, sounds like you found some fish to. Good job! We fished hard for a derby fish, but no luck... we dumped one steelhead in two days of fishing that was leaderboard material, but that's it.

Sorry for the delay, got side tracked last night. Fished from 6:30-2pm. Spent most of the morning in 180 fow and then slid out from 220-250. Much better class of fish in this water than offshore on Friday. Boated about 15 fish and dropped another 15. Mixed bag of two year olds, matures, steelhead and a coho. Boated 4 matures (18-21 lbs), lost another 4. They were tearing us up on sliders on 50 and 35' riggers until about 10am, then the mainlines took over. Orange crush and froggy yecks on the sliders, NK NBK on mainlines did the damage. 300' wire took a few kings, yes they were down deep as well. Not out on Sunday, brother is headed back to SC around noon, but it was good to get him back out on these fish after a 10 year hiatus.

Fished a long day with my brother in town from SC. Stopped inside the cold water off the river to check it out in 30-60 fow first thing, was a bit timid with sparks showing up off to the SW. Ran out to the warmer water in 150', setup and trolled north. Worked out toward 500 fow and back into 150 fow before pulling lines. Good action most of the day, fish were in pods which were moving constantly. Mixed bag of steelhead, Kings and coho, nothing bigger than about 10lbs though. Riggers at 40 and 60' with sliders did most of the damage. A few fish on leadcore, divers were dead. Probably boated 15 fish and dropped another dozen. Back out tommorrow if the wind cooperates for the AM.

For IBay: 8 1/2' beam or less at Mayer's would be about $1200 for you if paid before March w/o power or water. He won't support a wider beam than 8 1/2' except at his satellite dock for the charter boats which has a waiting list. I'm $1300 at Sutter's for a 25', 9 1/2' beam with electric, no water, it would have been $1800 for amenities at the cruiser dock. Southpointe would be about $1600 for you with all amenities if paid early.

I was out with him over Memorial Day and caught a bunch of mahi and wahoo... no pump and reel there... just winch 'em in the best you can! I'd give him copper if I had a setup.... maybe leadcore w/ a meatball! It's been about 10 years since he's caught a king, so he's pretty psyched to get back at it for a couple days.

Ugh...

I'll be out Fri and Sat... my brother is flying in from Charleston,SC to fish... it's been alot of years since he's done this... gotta whip the ocean boy back into shape with some wire divers and lead cores! I'll be sitting on 08 or 16.

Brian, It was cloudy last night, so I don't think the satellite imagery could obtain the temps correctly. We did have the NE since Sunday Afternoon, so I'm sure temps are up and an upwelling has begun, but those temps cannot be real. Just my two cents...

Frank, Temp begins to mean less and less as August wears on. I had to keep 3 yesterday b/c they literally swallowed the flies and/or spoons and bled themselves to death. They were all gorged with alewives, even had some hanging out of their mouths. These fish are feeding wherever they can find bait in their staging grounds, but will stop anyday now to start searching for the river mouths. Temp is a place to start, but from now on, fish your screen which somedays will mean fishing 10-50' above temp... everyday is different...

My post is floating around someplace on the forum under Sunday I-Bay Report... but we did 8 kings in the morning, mainly before the NE started huffing. Dumped a few more and had one laker, biggest was a hair over 24lbs, most 19-21lbs. Wire diver at 280was smokin all morning, riggers from 85-110'. Also, believe your probe, I ended the day with a king in 160 fow 85' down, drifted into 130' before we landed the fish, but my probe at 110' was reading mid 60's in 130fow. So, I'm certain that in 110' it was mid 60's right to the bottom.