hawkeye625

Thanks for the input guys. We broke my boat records several times this year. Salmon went from 26lbs last season to bouncing at 30lbs this year. Several fish from the mid to high 20's came to net. Seemed like the fish were on the large side this year. Lots of lampreys...over 20 in the boat, several other fish with marks. Lakers to a little over 19lbs. Few browns in the mid teens. Nothing special for coho, steely or atlantics. Best day was not big numbers but several doubles of mid 20's fish. Best lesson learned this year: remember the go pro is on when you take a leak...got more footage than we wanted from 3 different passengers. Seems like everyone takes a leak when someone else is fighting a fish. Great year for us and hope everyone else as well. Looking forward to spring...just hope after this spring they don't take the king division out of the LOC. If it stays this cold I don't think the leader board will fill up.

I know this is a loaded question but just wondered how many fish you guys boated in 2013 on an average day? And do you target certain species or run a multiple species spread? How about lost fish or short strikes? Do you only target big kings? How about time on the water per day? Your best day on the water? Biggest fish of the year? Kings Steelies Browns Lakers Cohos Atlantics fish with lampreys Just trying to pass time til spring and wondered how we are measuring up to the fleet. Dan Keating and Dave Mull got my juices flowing and for Dan to average 17 fish a charter for over 30 years...wow that's some good action.

You might look at a sailboat pilot if your just want it to control your kicker. It would have limitations but would keep your boat on course, and they are alot less than other pilots. under $500 unless you get a remote. raymarine st1000 or similar. Someone on the site rigged one up a couple years ago but haven't read anything more about it and can't seem to find the old post. It might be worth a call to someone who installs them to get their thoughts.

Great way to spend a crappy weekend. Picked up some flies, spoons, a rod, some amish outfitters stuff, saw some old friends and met some new ones. Also sat in on the Salmon school on Saturday and even my fiance said the day went fast. Dan and Dave did a great job and I have to thank LOTSA for putting the event together. It was also nice to put some faces to people I consider friends but have never actually met. I'll be there next year and plan on getting in line a little earlier...we were in the same line at 9.45. Thanks LOTSA.

No need to feel bad, I asked the same question a couple years ago and got the same answer. We're all here to help.

I've dealt with hodges marine and they seem to have the best prices on electronics, if your looking to do the install yourself.

I have 150 yards of 50lb Power Pro on mine and it seemed to fill them up nice. If your using something else for backing, run the wire on one of the reels and then fill the rest of the spool with the backing. Set the counter to 0 on the empty reel and wind from one reel to the other. When you get to the end of the backing you know how much you'll need for the other reel.

Ugly stick bw rods 1101. Caught a ton of salmon and trout on them and fairly inexpensive. Light enough to give you a nice battle with browns yet heavy enough for large salmon. Also work for planer, lead core, and copper lines.

30 series reels are the norm for 1000' of wire. Wire gives off a humm that braid does not. Supposedly attracts salmon? As King said, stay around a rod length for leader. Anything longer makes it tough for the guy trying to net your fish. You can't reel past your dipsy and hand lining angry salmon makes for good video footage... but no fun.

Pap, Not sure where you're planning on adding the leader, but I tie wire to a large snap swivel and clip it directly to the dispy. The only leader on my set up is between the dipsy and the lure.

Pap, With either wire make sure you spool it tight and keep it tight. Check it frequently for broken strands and kinks especially near the end. If you have any doubt, cut it out. A kink or broken strands will lead to heartache on a strike. I run a dipsy out on new wire or when it gets loose on the spool, trip it and reel it in evenly, without pumping the rod to get the spool nice and tight. Seems to work well. Ditto on what RR said for 50lb mono leaders. Nothing quite like a wire line fish, you feel everything that fish does.

Only things I would add are a couple of flasher fly combos (spin doctors or echips) in white or green to start with (and many more once you get hooked). For line since you are looking to fish summertime I would use 30lb mono mainline on your rigger rods with lighter leaders 15 to 20lb and wire line (30lb 7 strand) on your dipsy rods. Fleas will be bad that time of year and lighter line or braid will make fishing not so fun for you. You picked a good time of year to look for gear. There are and will be more "lots" of spoons/flashers in the classified section that would be a great starting point for you. Also might consider going to the LOTSA show in Niagra Falls on the 26th. Good luck.

Thanks, I looked monday morning and wasn't updated yet.

Are these confirmed dates? Any details or know where to get more information?

Might try a longer leader of 12lb on one of your current set ups before devoting a full spool to it. Shouldn't need much more than 100ft to get the same results and you'll know in a hurry if the fleas are too bad. That way you can switch back to your 17lb leader without losing a full spool of backing if there's a problem.

I use a depth raider and it does require a coated cable. I works well but the guys I fish with beat up my cable so I've been through a couple (cables) in the past few years. The depth raider is a fine temp/speed probe which alot of guys run, but it does use the coated cable, some guys get many seasons out of a cable, I unfortunately do not. The unit runs $430+ with everything you need. The other mentioned units are at least $100 more if you shop around. Replacement cables for the depth raider run around $50. Uses the same cable as the sub troll unit. Another downside of the coated cable is you can only run the unit on that rigger which also has the antenna. If your cable or antenna goes bad you can't just move the probe to another rigger and keep fishing. Also creates problem for auto stop, at least with my big jon riggers, the hole in the antenna is too small for the autostop bead. Other units mentioned don't have those issues. Adk1, I use my probe for speed at the lure ALL the time. Temp is important, but many times the current/wind will be so bad you can never get the speed right if you only go by gps or ff speed. IMO speed at the lure is as/or more important than the down temp. I think the unit you're refering to is the fish hawk td which gives you temp at 5ft intervals. Good info to have, but IMO down speed is more important. Hope this helps.

Came across Great Lakes Planer sale and thought I'd pass it along for anyone looking to add rod holders or a rocket laucher. They have 15% off rocket launchers and 12% off all other products until December 31st for phone in orders. No affiliation with them just passing along what I found on sale. http://greatlakesplaners.com/