Sk8man

Bob- The tool seems to work best scraping across the wire which offers some resistance to it. On mono it didn't seem to work as well because the mono doesn't give the resistance to it but I used it to scrape them down the line and into a clump which i removed most of by hand. On the copper I kept the braid backing to a minimum out and didn't have any significant fleas (which seemed like a real blessing) They weren't to the extent that they collected on the .downriggers so that wasn't any problem at least at this time out. The flea tool seems to clean off relatively easily by dipping it in the water and moving it back and forth. I keep 4 of them handy

WTG Mike.

Here is an example on one of the wires from yesterday in the area around Long Point Weed pods patchy but mostly on east side between Long Point and Aurora escaped them in the middle of the lake.

Fun derby. My son and I camped the weekend at Cayuga Lake State Park and launched at Dean's Cove. We caught a bunch of fish mostly lakers one ten pounds and another about that and many 5-8 lbs biggest salmon about 7. It would sure be nice if they had a weigh station somewhere closer to the fishing (e.g. Long Point maybe?). heat was brutal fleas were pretty bad too. The new tool (paint stick with velcro) worked but it isn't a total panacea or solution especially for mono lines. Never had any fleas on the 300 copper though. Pics of a couple of the fish:

Wow ! I hope whatever you have Cornelis it isn't contagious....thats terrible. After that the fleas were probably not even a concern....

Ive had my Garelick bracket since 2002 and this is the second motor on it.....never a problem and I've trailered with it vertical the entire time. My bracket is bolted through the hull and backed on the underside and outside. The motor doesn't move when trailering. I have it secured with a lock so that the hand fasteners can't loosen up and I have a ratcheted strap around the metal part of the bracket to keep the motor tight and to act as a safety line in case the plastic fails. Is it a garanteed perfect failsafe measure? No but I've tried to eliminate the major concerns at least. It is unfortunate situations like this that causes you to question your own set-up as well. Good luck from here on out Killerk hope things go better for you.

Beauty! Some really nice fish right there Brian

Yeah John but if they did it would probably be so filled with bleeps that they would have to cancel the show

Clutch is set fine Brian. The problems for some others seems to be when their weight is just suspended and nothing else is going on - the terminal connection or perhaps the wire above it just gives way and the whole thing drops to the bottom independently of the breakaway cable.. and Mike - you could be right.....but blame it on the other MIke.....cause I still remember the look on your face when it happened

Ben said it exactly X4....you probably won't need any others

I've been thinking....maybe Mike has "rigger" mortis

Good one Mike

I was actually there for Mikes probe loss experience unless he's had another (I sure hope not as I never want to see that look on his face again) Hopefully the 90 lb test wire I used on my "safety strap" will hold up better than the 60 stuff seems to....hate to lose one of my bikinibottom weights though. Don, That is the breakaway cable that runs from the probe to the weight and is attached to your existing downrigger terminus so that if for example you snag up on bottom the theory is that you'd lose the weight but not the probe when the 60 lb cable snaps because it is much below the breaking strength of the normal downrigger cable (usually 150-200 lb test). The problem as in Mike's case above is that one of the cable terminations let go and everything was lost. That is why the connection I made rests ABOVE the cable terminations with the hope that it saves the probe....still no guarantee,

Like many folks out there I am always concerned about the possibility of losing my X4D probe; especially after seeing fishing companions lose theirs unexpectedly on Lake O. Although there may not be a "foolproof" way in a severe hangup etc. I implemented something on my own set of downriggers and thought that if it is useful OR possibly to get folks thinking about potentially better ways for their own particular situation I'd post it to get people thinking. I know that there are all sorts of terminal connections, different downrigger models, and different releases being used and my downriggers are Mag 10A "old school" riggers with an old school terminal connection with the older model of the Blacks release, but if it is of value here it is: I have plenty of the newer model Blacks releases that have their own swivel set-up including those for outriggers etc. but I purposely use the older ones because I have faith in them. I made a short section of 90 lb 7 strand stainess wire and attached it to the downrigger cable sandwiched between the connection of my (OLD model) Blacks release that is already held securely in place on the 150 lb test downrigger cable with a crimp sleeve. The breakaway wire on the Fishawk is (allegedly) 60 lb test. I hook both swivels to the top of the probe. The previous loss that I observed (luckily I wasn't the one operating the downrigger on that boat) just dropped off while it was suspended on the rigger with weight, probe etc. deep sixing and wasn't hung up on bottom or anything. My thought is that if the main terminal on the rigger above the probe goes south barring a major hangup you lose everything so I made up this potential solution which still depends heavily on the integrity of the crimp on the Blacks. I have not tried it nor do I intend to but at least it currently adds a bit of peace of mind to the situation.

Best of luck to you no m atter how this goes down

Might want to think about installing a plastic transducer mounting plate using one or more existing screw holes and then you can shift around the transducers and experiment to find the optimal placement for each without additional holes in the transom hull

A main consideration is what you do BEFORE placing them back in the water after bringing them in. Folks often forget about the hot floor of the boat, struggles to net them, bringing in after real long fight on long set-ups, and placing hands or fingers in the gill areas while holding them up vertically for pics and then wonder why they didn't make it. They require care at each step along the way at this time of the year especially and if these things are unrecognized or ignored it leads to poor release results regardless of the method used.