I already got mine as well.
Pre-enrollment online takes 5 minutes. The time you spend in the office the first time is less than 10 minutes. My card was ready for pickup in less than a week. It takes 10 minutes to pick up the card.
With a enrollment office in Rochester the total time spent driving, and office visits for me was less than 1.5 hours. It is very minimal time IMO
If you are eligible be sure to pay the reduced rate
here is the site that you want to us http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/twic/index.shtm
it is very tough....all memorization
They have a book at barnes and nobels with nothing but USCG tests it is probably 1000 pages....or you can look online. Neither will help until you have the material and taken the classes....read some of the questions and you will hardly understand what they are asking
everything is commercial....they do not talk about sailing or operating your 30' vessel. Just about everything pertains to you being on a commercial vessel. if you choose to get your sailing endorsement which requires additional payment to seatech and you have to have 180 days of your sea time on a sailing vessel --- hopefully next year i can apply for the sailing endorsement upgrade
have fun and study a lot
We run ours opposite of the fin in the back and the first hole in the front. I think this is the way they come out of the package.
Like said before you are going to get a wide variety of answers. The best is to give it a shot and see what works best for you
Wow...we finished in December -- just got my license was issued Aug. 5
Very frustrating...One guy that I took it with the coast gaurd was holding it for a medical reason. They recieved the application in Toledo 3/2008. After he talked to them and got the problem straighted out they said they would review immediately.....this was a little over a month ago and it's status is still under review :roll:
this one was the best - when sending in application's to the USCG sea tech charges the students the application fee and then sends a check/c.c # to the USCG --- they check from Sea Tech bounced and the CC# was declined. i ended up paying the coast gaurd myself
Like I said.....keep track of your own paperwork when that time comes
We run spin doctor on the main line and a free slider spoon. We have had great luck with fish hitting the slider. More so than the rigger with a spoon/spoon
www.seatechmarinetraining.com
Just to forewarn anybody that will take the class through Sea Tech. When it comes time to send your paperwork to the USCG --- SEND IT YOURSELF. Do not trust sending it to Dennis/Ruth.
I took the training last year Oct.
They teach a great class however their paperwork is not very organized. I took the training last year with 4 other guys that I know and 2 of us just got our license's and 2 have not. Mainly due to lost paperwork at Sea Tech office in Buffalo. One guy that we have stayed in contact with from the class - Dennis lost his paperwork somewhere in the buffalo office. The paperwork includes original Birth Cert., Original Social Security Card - everything you send must be original, no copies or certified copies
We stated in 150fow trolled NW to 200fow - temp was down deep 120. We only gave it a short time in closer like this. Marked nothing and without wasting too much time we pulled the gear and head further NW and set up in 300fow. Much better down temp - 80 down was 44deg, 100 down was 42 Ran our riggers at 100' and 50', wire 175 and 225. We trolled between 300-440fow action was best between 320-360
Deep rigger caught the first fish teen king on a Dark Green Spin Dr with a Siggs Green Hypnotist, moments after our 50' fired with a 4# steelhead on the cheater - NK28 spoon GFBLW. Ended the day with the deep rigger getting a 11# steelhead - once again Dark Green Spin Dr w/ Siggs Green Hypnotist
Ended the day 3/3 -- not bad we fished about 2.5 hours
we use a Tekota 700 with 300 yards of 50# power pro, 10 colors and then 20 feet of 18# leader
use an albright knot to join the line...we also use a dap of superglue on the knot
hopefully this helps
We try set our deep rigger in the 40-44 range and our shallow in water 48-52 and try to get the 1 wire setup in the same temp range depth and 1 wire running higher in the water column.