chowder

Welcome aboard! Lots of FLX info on the FLX forum. See you on the water!

'All Seasons', across the street from Fat Nancy's in Pulaski.

How about a bit more detail? From the statement above I take it you generally run 2 riggers at 35 and 50 down w/ 3" spoons and 2 Lead core rigs. I'm not sure what you mean by saying "2 lead core 200 feet". You will not get down 200' deep with any amount of core, especially with a flasher on it, because the flasher makes the core kind of float up. Tell us how many colors or feet of lead core you are letting out -you will get about 5' down for every 30' of core you have out. After 12-13 colors though the stuff won't get you down much further because it 'blows back' up. Just off hand I'd suggest you consider the idea of getting setup with 1 or 2 wire dipsy diver rigs and run the flasher/flies off them. Then you could put spoons on those cores and run them off to the sides off inline boards. You might also want to run one of your spoon riggers down past the thermocline, like 60-70' or so. We could probably help a bit more if you could tell us what depth water you are trolling in, what species you are most interested in targeting and approximately what your surface speed is. -Andy

Good talking to you out there Chris! I did re find the band of 45 deg water @ 160-170 FOW on the way in from 250' and got another 25" King in there on a diver + a couple more Steelies up above him in that same band of water. Here's something, but I'm not sure it means much; Kings were all packed w/ what appeared to be partially digested alewives & the Steelies all had basically zero stomach contents.-Andy

Tell us what kind of program you are running (2 wire divers, 2 riggers,etc & what kind of lures & what depths you are fishing, over how much water & what speeds you are trolling at). Once we know what you are doing we can give you specific advice.

Congrats Mr & Mrs! That's a humdinger!

I use the big Scotty releases pulled out to the 'extra' tension position for coppers off my Auroralite big boards. These boards pull really hard and I have very few false releases. Occasionally in real rough water my 500' & 600' will pull out if I'm hauling the the big paddles.

Yeah, I run a 2' leader after the bead as well.

Deep line to the inside but be bloody careful, multiple cores/coppers off the same side planer line can be a recipe for some major issues!

Super job Glen! Thanks for the pics.

Jeez guys, I'm a bass fisherman. Oh, and I've got a sailboat too. -Andy

Sure looks like the Kaho. I got pretty close to it a couple times last summer.

Outstanding fish! You got the big one with the pressure on, NICE JOB! -Andy

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):7/12 Time on Water:8-11 Weather/Temp:hot Wind Speed/Direction:SW Waves: 2'+ Surface Temp: Location:Port Bay/Sodus LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 6 Total Boated:6 Species Breakdown:4 good steelies,2 good browns Hot Lure: SS frog & alewife patterns Trolling Speed: Down Speed: 1.9-2.6 Boat Depth:110-180 Lure Depth: best was 50-60 down ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== Got out for short run this morning and then got settled into our "Summer slip". Couldn't get the Kings to go but the Steelies were full of energy w/ some spectacular air shows, and the Browns were fun too! We had a great time and want to thank Hank for the help in getting the slip squared away! Here's a pic of one of my trusty fishing partners (youngest son Elliot) w/ decent steelie.

I use the SD lite bite on wire the same way Tim is talking about. I like it so well that I don't use regular dipsies any more. One thing I do different is to use a regular Mag dipsy bottom and mate it it to the large SD top. Then I use the SD mag size ring and you have a SD w/ the same exact depth curve (and numbers) as a Mag dipsy. Best part is you can reel right up to within 2' of the flasher, no more trying to net a fish that's 7'+ away from the rod tip!.

Hey, I gave a short but accurate post last week w/in 6 hrs of the run . Anyway, I'm gonna be slipped on L.O. for a spell but will make every effort to get back down for the LOU-ALL & I hope there will be a T-Storm @ 4:00 am that day, it always seems to crank up the C. Lake fish.-Andy

Sounds like a darn good time Greg! I hear you on the names. My kids always want to run spoons w/ names like 'monkey puke', or 'bloody death'. They are very intrigued w/ a new flasher I got from John King called the 'King Leland Puke' ( I gotta admit, it's truly an outrageous name, and I can't wait to use it in a post ).

Great post. I strongly support the idea of using the wineries as navigational landmarks, not to mention that they must have a favorable effect on female's attitudes towards spending the day fishing! Good going

Latest installment; kicker is putting out what appears to be adequate voltage but I'm wondering about amperage. Started the main a couple times while fishing today, maybe I'm just gonna have to do this or maybe I've solved the problem by pulling the batteries and tightening stuff up?

Launched solo at LP went N in 125-150 lots of med. sized lakers on the wire divers. Headed back S in 225-250, better class of lakers w/ most on spoons, some on cheaters, got quite a bunch of sub legal and just legal salmon (released) on sliders (ran some of the 'retro' Honey bees which seemed to attract their attention). Powered down to Sheldrake and worked skinny water w/ just riggers, slide divers & core, got a couple 16"+ bows (released) on spoons & bunch of big lakers on deep spoons. Weeds were massed up on the N side of the points & fleas were a PITA.-Andy

Tim, sounds like a great weekend! I'm gonna be heading up to the big pond soon-keep me posted. -Andy

Thanks Mackerel, checking voltage tomorrow, should have the verdict soon.

Flasher/fly combos on divers & riggers seem to work best for me when fish are aggressive and sometimes they can work on long copper lines when the fish are 'neutral'.Spoons typically out perform ff combos when the fish are neutral/negative. I don't typically have 'hot inside' info on the fishing picture so on any given day I start out w/ a flasher fly on one rigger and cheat it w/ a spoon and a spoon on the other, also cheated w/ a spoon. I typically set up both divers w/ flasher fly combo appropriate for the level of light or cloud cover. Then I go w/ a pair of coppers out on the boards, 1 w/ spoon and 1 w/ ff combo. If nothing seems to be going on, vary speed/vary the depths of the presentations. The fish are gonna tell you what to do next. If you find a 'hot' ff diver bite, then obviously you want to mimic that presentation w/ short leads on the riggers and load them w/ ff combos similar to what's working. If the spoon program is the only thing that's working, I still usually leave 1 wire diver down w/ a ff and run spoons on the rest of the rigs. Remember that the bite can and does change so don't get stuck thinking that what you have out is still the best spread even if the fish are telling you something else. If you are just getting your feet wet w/ the flasher fly deal I would suggest that you consider the following concept; When the bite is hot a pretty basic assortment of ff combos will work, you want to have combos appropriate for early/low light, sunny conditions, cloudy conditions, and flat bright sunny days. If the ff bite is not hot, it will help somewhat to have some more esoteric ff combos but that probably won't help you as much as running some stealthy copper or lead core lines, changing spoon colors, searching different depths, temps, speeds and locations w/ a spoon biased program. Main point I'm trying to make is that although flasher/fly combos can be awesome you need to be prepared for the average and below average days when the bite is 'so so' to 'negative'. Just my 2 cents. -Andy

Yea Ray, I do know how to check voltage from the alternator (I are a farmer after all) As far as the total electrical draw goes, here's a couple interesting things; 1. I never got the batteries unhooked last fall, never charged them up and the boat cranked right up this spring. So if there is a constant draw, it can't be very great. 2. I went out for browns 3 times for 4-5 hrs/trip and then fished a 2 day tournament before this situation seemed to present itself. Now I can't seem to go more than a day w/ out charging the batteries. So, I'm thinking that maybe the alternator or voltage regulator (which is probably internal anyway) in my practically brand new kicker is not working correctly.

Hard to say yet but I agree w/ Ray, he's gonna be pretty decent!