Sk8man

The thing is it doesn't take much of an opening for water to do its damage over time and much of the time the places are either hidden or obscured in some way so the internal damage itself isn't detected. The location of the "culprit' also isn't always where you might think either and the water can travel distances to the place it does the damage. A good example s on house roofs the water can be wicked across the roof to the opposite side and leak there without it being apparent where it is coming from. If you are concerned I'd have it looked at by someone trusted that is knowledgeable regarding transom repair.

Ben - Frogger's boat is pretty similar looking to yours and he did a truly exquisite job of restoring that transom so if yours needs it he is the guy to really listen to

Use weights on the copper to get it down further and dipseys on wire you'll save yourself some headaches.

Carl has some really great stuff. Hey Sammy great chatting with ya at Arney's.

20 ft of 12 lb test Segaur fluoro because it makes it easier to estimate how far out with the downriggers etc. because I usually start out at about 22 ft (couple feet beyond the leader swivel) and then the estimate from there as I increase distance is easier and more accurate than say from 8 or 10 ft.

Bob - I haven't fished there in awhile but right straight out from the main street at the north end there is a point at which it drops off severely and when I looked down the hole while ice fishing back then at the edge of the drop off it looked like looking back in time to the dinosaur age with craggy rocks in a deep depression and lakers all over the place down there....some of which I caught on tip ups (run small 18-24 inches) and yet off to the west side of it I was jigging up real nice perch in less than 20 ft of water. Might be worth trying to find it and giving the laker jigging a try there. It is right about straight out from the accesss point at the north end.

But.....not all herring are alewives

You are right Gill I guess I read it too fast.....and I didn't have my reading glasses on....big mistake Thanks.

A note for newbies - You'll notice these responses differ considerably but they do have something in common - the weights they are using reflects the way they are being used and perhaps even the particular boats that they are fishing from. The weight needs to be enough to get you down to where you wish or need to be. On a small boat you can sometimes get away with less weight than on larger boats because there is less weight drag (hull design can also be a factor). The main problem is when you want to fish deep and/or at faster trolling speeds. The specific type of weight you are using is also a significant factor (e.g. the design or shape of it torpedo style or some shark-like fish shaped have less blowback and water resistance). The less hydrodynamic the weight is because of its shape the more drag in the water and the more it forces the cable to go back (and your lure upward) often referred to as "blowback". The less weight it has at depth the more blowback. Trolling speed is also directly related to blowback because of the increased water resistance pushing the weight and cable. Another important factor is the current underwater and the direction trolled because this affects both blowback and even the side to side movement of the weight in the water and the shape of the weight makes a difference. There are also some limitations of downriggers as some like the older ones may be 10 pounds maximum or so because of the strain on motors which can be substantial when raising the weights up from depth. You also may want to really think it over if using manual downriggers as you will be cranking them up and down a lot and with a 16-20 lb weight it is a guarantee of Popeye arms. A lot of the fishing I do is for silver fish on the Finger Lakes and most of the time I am running riggers at or above 85 ft or so trying to avoid lakers and my boat is 18 1/2 ft with little surface in the water so it doesn't have a lot of drag and 10 lb shark fish type weights work just fine. In the Spring 8 lb weights work well in the shallow water trolling applications. Fishing Lake Ontario is a bit of a different matter in terms of weights and especially because of the strong underwater currents encountered (often only indirectly detected by the changing angle of the downrigger cable or line). If you mainly intend to fish there and especially 100 ft or more depths)you should consider the heavier weights suggested in line with maximums of what your specific downriggers can handle. More weight usually equals reduced blowback given the particular boat at the same speed with the same lure (not factoring changing currents under the water) and this gives you a closer approximation of where your lure is actually running at depth.

I remember seeing a chart of the tensile strength for various brands of 7 strand wire and I believe that the AFW wire had the lowest or close to it breaking strength of any of the tested wires and I think it was at about 23lbs or so that has been my only concern and I stayed away from it but if Rick hasn't had trouble with it in his application I have to wonder if that data was screwed up because he gives it a lot more use than the average fisherman.

x2 only 40 lb Big Game and I tie my own flies with 50lb Big Game after having commercial ones with fluoro break. Reason: it has some stretch to it to withstand very hard strikes (as in Kings) Fluoro on the other hand has very little stretch and is less forgiving. I use 20 lb fluoro for spoons.

Brad - I'm not sure about the accuracy of the impeller type speed sensors at LOW speed but I know mine always read very high at upper speed on my boat compared with anything and at that range was often up to 10 mph faster at top speed (e.g 56 instead of 46). Could be the case at lower end as well? The other thing is that the resistance of the probe in the water is different than that of the free wheeling impeller and that could account for the difference.

12 lb Segaur for the Fingers and 20 lb Segaur for Lake O

Lesson #1 She might have done it on purpose Nick