mr 580

I have a Simrad autopilot with Seastar steering and the install took less than a quart of fluid to bleed and fill. IMO with the small amount of oil used there is little savings or reasons to use anything other than a manufacturer oil or a manufacturer accepted spec oil. Not worth risking a pump or system failure.

Jann’s Netcraft is also a good source of single replacement guides. I’ve matched up replacements from them. Double footed replacements can be a bit more limited in choice. The old Ugly Sticks are worth keeping going.

When you “click” on the original posters name you can see the number of posts and most recent activity on this site by that poster. In this case OP has 4 posts and not visited since October 2017. Poster and Boat are long gone. Issue is with posters who only use sight for classifieds- NOT regularly contributing users of the forum.

I think the 1st Spring ESLO I fished was 1979 with my 16’ StarCraft and 3 buddies. We pretty much had no clue what we were doing. Sent two of the guys up to weigh a fish while me and the other guy held the boat off the concrete wall on the Genesee River. The guy who caught the fish comes back PO’d that they kept his fish. I go up to see what was going on and come to find out the guy was in 2nd place. A fair amount of beer had lead to the confusion and by the end of the Derby he finished 1 place out of the money. A lot of good times and stories from those days.

Your diagram is fine- but you would want your set back and weight the same for all three rods per side. That way as you reset you just slide down then put a rod in. That is a typical big board Lake Erie walleye setup with leadcore. We’ll use three 3 color on one side and three 5 color on the other. Now if your target is steelhead you might want to only do two per side- a hot steelhead can wad up a bunch of lines in a hurry.

Not exactly sure what the question is here. Can you use in line boards from a 26’ boat- yes as GF describes above. Can you run three lines per side from a mast and planer board system - yes with distance limited by the height of your tow line. Once tow line hits water that is about how far out you can go. Can you mix an in line board in with a mast and planer board system- that is not a good idea- would be pretty hard to reset lines. So pretty much an either or situation. All in lines or mast and planer boards. Either is effective and depends on preference, boat layout and experience of your crew.

Bought a 4 year old Lund Pro V and ran it for 18 years-guided with it for 5 of those years. Never a leak or loose rivet. Sold it this fall to make room for a new Lund. Yesterday ran into some local guys that were interested in my charters-told them I was getting a new boat. They were surprised as they thought both my boats were “late model”. I believe how you take care of things makes a difference. Start with something good, take care of it and it will treat you right.

I’m agree with SK8 that there are a lot of tools in the toolbox and you use them in different circumstances. I’m a big user of slide divers but I also know there is a learning curve with them and the same goes for wire. For people starting out learn one tool at a time-doing otherwise can result in lost gear(took me a while to learn this). To me slide divers offer the advantage of being able to adjust your leader length to whatever you want to slide the diver to. Really helps with spoons-flasher flies not so much. For Lake Ontario where you don’t have the small fish that won’t release, you don’t need the Light Bite version so if you setup a fixed leader on a Slide Diver it is the same as LJ dipsey. Use the tools for what they were designed for- slide diver works well higher in the water column with a longer lead as it’s dive curve is less than a dipsey. There are many ways to do things and learn what works for you- jumping from one tool to the next can get frustrating. Keep things simple change one thing at a time.

Sherman, for someone getting started using wire like Hounds IMO introducing other variables like using a slide diver just adds to the learning curve/frustrations. On Lake Erie I fish slide divers exclusively and go to the “Ultimate Weight Kit” on my inside divers usually in late August. I also use the Light Bite version for Lake Erie. I run 45’ to 50’ behind the SD’s. We don’t have flea issues out of Dunkirk so I use all braid all season. Lake Ontario is a different deal-you need to fish deeper, faster and with heavier gear plus the fleas are a much bigger issue. Lead length is less of an issue especially with flasher flies. Most days a regular dipsey will do as well or better than a SD. So for the majority of people using a dipsey and using wire is the best way to go. Once someone gets their diver program dialed in then slide divers can be explored for specific applications-example outside diver higher in water column with a spoon. SD’s have a learning curve of their own and I’ve seen a lot of people try them a trip or two then give up in frustration. Can get expensive trying to learn too much too fast. If you are losing gear take out variables don’t add them.

Hounds, don’t try splicing diver wire. Cut out pig tails or bad spots. Wire comes in 1000 foot roll so you have plenty to remove before replacing. Most wear usually at end of the wire anyway- keep an eye on it. If you figure the cost of a roll of wire vs the loss of a diver, flasher, fly and terminal tackle then the wire cost is peanuts. With just 5 trips with wire, use the advice you’ve got from this thread and continue the learning curve. The benefits are worth it.

It is worth the time to learn how to use wire. Keep it under tension and cut out kinks. Keep drag loose when setting- just at “line creep”. If you are breaking off on release loosen drag or add a clear snubber. Use a reel with a good smooth drag. Stick with a regular dipsey while you learn how to use wire. Get comfortable with a basic wire setup before trying options like slide divers-another learning curve. Kings find the weakest link so focus on where the problems are coming from. With some work and time on the water, you should see the value of wire.

Don’t believe you’ll find many people using mono for divers. Before braid and multi strand wire were available, we used to use mono and even 30lb was a PIA due to stretch. If you want an alternative to wire go with 30lb braid- it is more forgiving than wire with the downside that braid and fleas are not good partners. You can leader from the diver with your flasher with mono or preferably fluorocarbon. For depth wire is the clear winner with divers. Braid divers work well higher in the water column.

Probably the angle of your photo made tongue appear longer. I have a Venture tandem a couple models up from yours I’ve had since 2008 that has been fine. Are their “ better” trailers out there -yes, but the Venture has worked for me. If I had a situation like yours I’d suggest taking the time to weigh your setup fully loaded as you tow it to make sure load center is correct and not overloaded. Printed spec sheet weights often are understated and don’t include full fuel/water plus what we add in trolling gear puts on the pounds. Weighing takes some time, but might save a second problem. Hope you don’t have future problems.