chowder

That's quite the rig! I think you might need to change your ballast and your prop after you get it set up. When my coppers fire I usually try to get the kids to reel em in, but after a few fish they seem to get leery of 'fish on'!

You can get some inline planer boards to 'pull' up to 300' and even 400'(w/ a spoon)copper rigs but, you would probably want to be using a Church Walleye or OffShore brand board. It sounds like the inline you are trying to use does not have enough draft to pull your copper line out & away from the boat. Always clip the release to the backing-not the copper. I find it's easier to use copper rigs out on a regular dual board setup, using a mast & planer line. These systems can pull 600' copper rigs w/ the correct release.

You should be able to find a lot on here by searching thru previous posts. Go thru them & get back to us w/ specific questions -we'll be glad to help (just don't want to reinvent the wheel) -Andy My basic setup: Okuma cv55 (or Daiwa 27/47 for shorter cores) w/ 300yds Super braid to core (w/ albright) to 100' 20lb floro (w/ albright) to swivel (palomar) 6' floro to snap I use 7' Ugly stik rods in med or med heavy depending on number of colors. I'm not sure I'd recommend the Okuma cv55s anymore (quality control problems).The Okuma Clarion or Catalina would probably be a better choice for longer cores, though I haven't used them myself.

We had to work for the box we got today, that's for sure! I trolled drop offs & points from 100-350' running riggers at 45' and 80' w/ spoons and spoon cheaters. I ran my divers on 2 w/ 180-230' out, and I ran a bunch of different shallow cores and some deep coppers off the boards, mostly w/ spoons b/c the FFs on the wires just quit after noon or so (today, my cores & coppers were the least productive rigs).Hoping to be back out over the weekend, will be on 68 -Andy

Got out of Long Point @ 10:30am. Worked LP, Sheldrake, and some open water too. As RR pointed out in his post, the fish are scattered, but a t-cline is setting up. We got some nice bows on the cheaters (though we had to put up w/ cleaning off a lot of shakers), and some big lakers on the main spoons on the riggers. Flasher/fly combos on the wires were hot from 11:00-12:00 and then they were real quiet. Really nice day out on the water and the grill is ready, gotta go! -Andy

Hey Mark, I've assembled a real motley crue of brigands for today's mission and my wheel man can't see very good so I wouldn't be surprised if we do 'run' into you somewhere out there -Happy trails

I need to get back on the water & my kids (crew) are in school. PM me. -Andy

Thanks for the heads up. I haven't been out since Barney's & I'm hoping to hit the water tomorrow if I can round up a crew. -Andy

Super nice bow, congrats. Sounds like a great time!

I'm not worried about you two, but if Vic brings along Eskimo Joe I think you guys will have to compete in the Pro division! -Andy

Nice fish & great pics. We just finished 1st cutting & I'm getting very ready to get back out on the water.-Andy

Might see you guys on Sat or Sun, first cutting is DONE! Shouldn't be too much traffic w/ the big event over on Seneca. I'll be on 68, pm me for cell #. -Andy

What Gambler said works great! Simple and effective.

Cold front Fri, should bring more seasonable temps and maybe some challenging fishing? -Andy

Great pics Jeff, looks like a fun outing. Different boat?

I heard about this fish (caught by 'some guys from Maine') at Screwy Louie's on Sunday! Enjoy being a living legend and congrats!

Well, I dropped off the riggers at Screwy Louie's, so we'll have to see what's wrong w/ them before going any further off the wall- it could just be they both had some sort of malfunction that had nothing to do with the power source. Double checked again and the starboard riggers work fine plugged into the port connections (now remember, it's the port riggers that both went on the blink.)

Sean Brown, ('Hooked Up') would be your best bet for a charter on Seneca Lake.

Hang in there bud! -Andy

It is really never too early to jig for lakers, (browns might be tough at this point in the season). In March,April and into May you sometimes need to use a 1.5 oz. jig to hit the lakers who spend the winter deep w/ the alewives, but we are moving away from that time frame pretty fast. In general You want to be setup w/ a 7' MH rod, decent quality baitcasting reel w/ 20lb super braid to 6' of 12lb floro . Tie w/ an Albright knot. Tie the floro leader directly to the jig. I like the 1oz gamma ball jig heads from Schuberts & Laketown . I like to use Zoom super flukes and also Gander Mtn's black & silver fat tail. Biggest mistake people make jigging is to drop the jig and jig it up & down a few feet 'off the bottom' a whole bunch of times. To consistently draw strikes you need to; 1. Find fish w/ the sonar, preferably in 45-75' FOW. 2. Make a drop to bottom. 3. Jig a few times by never losing contact w/ the jig (i.e. move the rod up & down w/ your whole arm, 'feeling' it hit each time. 3. After only a few jigging motions as described above steadily retrieve the bait at a pretty good clip. Strikes very often come on the way up, even 15' from the surface. Strikes vary in nature from; a.) "how come that jig is taking so long to get to the bottom" to b.) Holy S#**, I got one! and EVERYTHING in between. Strikes when jigging the bait may be only 'ticks' and require a lightning fast strike- that's why you need the super braid, a sharp hook, and a rod w/ good backbone. When the fish are active, many will strike as 'chasers' on the way up and sometimes these are swipes which a fast strike will hook. Don't let the fish get a real good look at the jig - this technique only works when you can trigger reaction strikes from the fish.

I originally had 3 riggers on my Islander but switched to 4 this spring b/c the kicker 'took away a bit of netting room and I just never liked the rigger over the outdrive. An 8'6" boat w/ a kicker and a chute rigger doesn't leave much room for landing fish, especially if you fish w/ kids and or green horns! I do have a track setup which greatly facilitates changing and adjusting rod holder and rigger locations so I have my corner riggers far enough away from the transom that they don't stick out that far out the back. Now, even w/ the kicker I have a pretty 'clean' area for landing fish. I will say this though, most of the time I run 2 riggers/2 divers (slide divers or dipsies)/ and 2 coppers or cores or flat lines off the boards. So far I haven't used the 2cd set of riggers that much but once the browns move out to the 40s & 50s for the season and I'm after them I'm sure I will. -Andy

Not too shabby for a shakedown cruise! Sounds like a pretty good time. -Andy

I'll kick in $10. what about putting the money into a gift certificate for a LOU sponsor (i.e. ATOMIK, LOC,etc)?

Here's some further clarification; 1.) The port riggers that quit do not work no matter what you do w/ the resets and they do not work on the starboard side 2.) The battery switch is on 2. 3.) Remember the starboard riggers do work when plugged into the port side connectors! So it's not a connection or splice issue in the wiring going to the connectors I suppose it's possible that a brand new rigger and an older one both experienced a problem on the same day that is similar in nature but dag, what are the odds? Guess I'm gonna have to take the riggers to somebody and see what's not functioning in them. I talked to the dude @ Screwy Louies , might bring them there.

Nice job in the Derby Jared! I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you at the awards presentation, maybe I'll see you on the water sometime. -Andy (Blue/White Starcraft Islander)