Fishtails

Hmmmm.....good point about line twist, but it has not happened to me. I'm guessing that's cause I use a real small spro swival to connect my floro leader to the main line. C'mon guys...help out a brother here! It's a landslide so far and now my teammates are gonna really push me to start using swivals. Maybe this poll wasn't such a good idea

During the Pro Am last week, I took some flack (In good fun....I think :? ) about rigging spoons. I tie an improved clinch knot directly to the spoon....however it came out of the package. I don't use swivals cause I tie a really fast knot and that's just how I've always done it. I seldom have a knot fail, but of course last week I had one fail and It cost a fish and a spoon. Maybe I need to change my ways and start using small swivals. I had to agree that one knot has less chances to fail than 10 knots. How do you terminate a spoon?

Bravo Hans.....I wish I could have worded it so well!! Yes....very discouraging to put out the time, money & effort for many teams to only get such a short amount of fishing time in. That being said, we all are well aware of this years shortage on stocked kings. It's very unlikely we will experience a similar situation next year. It happened....lets not overreact and see how it plays out for the remainder of the season. Things can't always be perfect every time out for every team. Maybe we should just revisit this discussion after the Wayne Pro Am ?

Called the shop this morning......they say it sounds like a seal or gasket took a dump. I'm pulling the drive and taking it up to them. Had no plans to use the boat in June anyway..... Thanks for the pointers guys!!

I wasn't thinking there for a moment.....I'm still sleep deprived and scatter brained from the pro am week.... I pulled the prop.....no fishing line.

Thank guys....I will pull the prop before I make a call. It was definitly more than a teaspoon of water. These guys have been nothing short of great to me so far. If it's not fishing line, I'm pretty sure they will take care of the problem....whatever it may be.

Thanks Ray.....I don't plan on doin nothin though. I just paid a few grand so I'm expecting them to get it right. I'll see what they say tomorrow, but I'm guessing I'll have to pull the drive and take it up there. Guess your right though....there is probably oil above the water. I have oil at the upper plug. I'll get back on how they handle it. Hopefully they will take care of it quick for me :? I'm worried about damage that could have been sustained, but not show up for a year or so....what do ya all think?

I just had both outdrives redone. They worked well all month...no issues that I "noticed". After a month of being in the water, I brought the boat home and a day later I notice oil seeping out the upper fill hole on one drive. Enough so that it made the lower side of the drive wet with oil. I pulled the lower fill screw to see what the oil looked like....no oil.....just clear water :shock: :shock: :shock: No signs of oil at all.....looks like tap water, it's so clear. I put the screw back and I'll call the repair shop that did the work tomorrow morning to see what they say. I can't believe the lower unit didn't blow up....or at least make noise of some sort?? Any thoughts?

A bare lead weight can react with the stainless steel wire and create a problem voltage right in your fishing zone which repels fish. Bare lead downrigger weights usually produce a harmful charge. Impurities that are present in the lead can cause the problem. To be safe, I've read that you should use coated weights or paint them yourself. If you use uncoated weights, you should not use a metal snap to connect the downrigger cable to the uncoated downrigger weight. Use a nylon snap hook or connect the weight with a short piece of monofilament to insulate the weight from the wire. If the lead weight is hooked directly to the steel downrigger wire, a harmful electric field will be set up that again.....can repel fish. If you want to do it right, use this type of powder paint. You can drag bottom and it will hold up much better. http://www.luremaking.com/catalogue/cat ... _paint.htm The dip coating Clark mentioned is okay, but it peels as soon as it touches the bottom or gets banged around the boat. Regular enamal works fine also, and is more durable than the rubber dip coating. All that matters is that the bare lead is not exposed. The thickness of the coating is purly a durability factor.

I can't even vote....I did all of the above and still got dink's. Thinking back, we should have fished higher in the bait pods I was marking early....like rich says. I didn't......I went deep right away. First fish was a dink on the dipsey wire ( white spinny w/ little boy blue fly). Second was a deep rigger 155 down on a mag Denny glo frog spoon. Third was a "slightly better" small king on the 500 copper on a spinny/fly. That was the way it went for us. Live and learn. Even got a dink to end the morning on the 600 copper....go figure? Maybe just bigger bait rigs ??? Anyone run 11" flashers instead of the 8" ?? If so....how'd that work out?

There are some great points made here from both sides of the fence. This was a big topic all weekend. I liked the way it made us strategies in a way we normally would not have, even though it backfired on our team on day one. I just hated killing those little fish when I didn't really have to. I appreciate all the effort the committee puts forth, and accept the rules for what they are. Next year will probably be a very different situation. How many times do we go out and try not to catch fish? Our team tried to keep the little ones off the hook and just couldn't do it....some teams did and that means they did something we didn't. Day one there came a time in the day we wanted dink's and couldn't get one. We need to figure that out and step it up next time. Still...it was interesting being in a situation I'd never encountered before. Personally...I'm leaning towards liking the 24' limit on kings and keeping the 18" limit on the coho. I'd rater see more empty boxes than full boxes. There's just no need to kill all these 1 year old fish in the spring....regardless of whether we need them to fill our box or not. Just my 2 cents.....not ****ing....not even suggesting....just an opinion.

Ditto....great event!! Thanks for everything Kevin.....see you next year if you'll have me back at the marina. It was a fun month! To bad we picked the first day of the Pro am to have our only bad day fishing of the entire month Everything was top notch!! Guy....it was nice speaking with you over the course of the month. Don't think I ever got that cigar and beer though?? Same goes for Rich (Yankee Troller), Paul (Free Spirit), Bob (Salmon Bound), Eric (Striker) Mark (Reel Jerks), CrazyFish and the meathead crew from Canada, Glen and Chris (spoonfed) and the many others I got the chance to spend some time with. We can't make Orleans, but Oswego and Wayne are still in the plans for us. See some of you there and best of luck @ Orleans!!

We had a LOT of fun, but a lousy showing! We fished the same water on Sat. as you Mark. We thought we'd stay away from the dinks by waiting for them to fill their bellies in the am. All our big fish the previous week had come later in the morning and early afternoon. We decided to hold off on the riggers for awhile and fished wire and copper only. Turned out to be a big mistake, by the time we decided to get serious, I guess the bite was off and we only caught one legal fish the rest of the day!! :x We maked fish, but instead of waiting for them to turn on....we should have gotten out of there! Won't make that mistake again !! Day two was better, and we boxed out early, even though we tried everything we could think of not to. I didn't have the balls to start with a light spread after day one, so we boxed a few small ones real early 150 down over 150 - 180 on mag spoons and on the dipsey out 330 on a 3 setting. We were lucky to loose a bunch of small ones.....but they just kept on coming. We got our best fish on the 400 copper, so we ended up pulling everything and ran only two rods...500 & 600 copper. As fate would have it....we hit another small one on the 600. We took our time hoping the 500 would rip before we landed the one on the 600, and it did take a hit but it was gone right away. All in all, we had a new team that never fished together, but we got along great and with a little time I think we'll be where we want to be. Greg and Jeff....it was fun fishing with you guys. We'll get them in Oswego! Congrats to all of you who did well !!! It was nice to meet the many of you that I got the time to talk to. All in all.....a great event!!!!!!!!

I like to fish

I agree with you on 68 Tim.......I usually can't take it for very long. I'll have it on my scan this weekend though...for as long as I can stand it I'll give some of you guys a shout on Saturday. Best of luck to all!

Okay.....so who's gonna be on the water this weekend? I'll be out of Wilson (god willing) most days from this Sat thru next Sun. Anyone else from LOU gonna be out there?

Our plans have changed and it's looking more like a fish fry My friend can't bring his truck (in shop), so he has no way to the bring the roaster plus he's driving at night now due to a work conflict and the roaster does not have lights. I'm bummed....but what can ya do ?? Anyone that will be around though should give me a shout or stop by. There will still be plenty of food and manly beverages!! Site # 108 @ 4 mile creek. Call me on the boat phone @ 610-217-4516

That bass tracker is fine for inland lakes, but I would not suggest you take it on the big O......It's way underpowered with a 25hp. My first new boat was a 16 ft 98 Grumman single console, very similar to the tracker. I ordered it with the 25hp to save $$ and it was a huge mistake! Put a few people & gear in the boat and with a good tail wind you may do 15 mph....long as the people are small. On Lake O, you need the ability to get in fast in a smaller boat....the waves can build with little notice and you can find yourself in real danger if that happens and you have no power to handle the conditions..... Anyone who has spent anytime on this lake knows that even though the weather folks are calling for 1-2, you can easily be faced with 3-4 or worse. Happens all the time.

Excellent report Rich!! Can't wait to get back out there. Sounds like your keeping your customers happy

Nice pics Mark. Good to see the big ones are still around. See you guys on the weekend.

Same here Nick. Will you be back in Wilson with the boat? I'll be up with two buddies Memorial day weekend and we'll be fishin hard. We'll be out early so give us a call or I'll see you in the marina. Glay you got into decent numbers.... It was hard leaving

Shade/Tim, Someone had alrady pm'd me......sorry. Best of luck to everybody!

I have someone who would be willing to observe for the Niagara Pro Am. Our team already has an observer lined up, so If your in need, pm me and I'll pass along the contact info.

I know it's a golden shiner..........just placed an order yesterday with them and Ryan pointed it out saying it was a brand new pattern.....wtf ?? Someone's not being strait with me Anyways....Had to order some more Miami Green froggy spoons cause my last one got tore off last week. Been a great spoon for us.

Paul....Great job getting this together. This pre fish tourney, the Wilson slam, The Pro Am.....What an exciting weekend!!! Question: Is this an all weather event? Our team looks forward to participating in all of them. Good luck to all!