Sk8man

A few basic things to consider are: are you fishing solo or with others (netting) and how good are you at hand lining chinooks to the net? Unless using something like a sliding dipsey there are realistic functional limits to the length of the leader because when you get the fish near the boat and try to net it you may have a problem if it is too long and your boat becomes too short to back up to the front so someone else can net it OR you are by yourself and the dipsey reaches the tip of your rod with several feet of leader still out with a fiesty chinook on the other end and you are into a one hand netting situation If desiring long leads on your setup consider using a slider dipsey and for usual dipseys use the length of your rod as a guide to the total length of your setup that way you'll be in netting range most of the time. If you have a lot of experience hand lining fish you may choose to go over the limit but chinooks are a handful at the boat and are often unlike some other more sedate fish and when they see the boat or the net expect the unexpected

Models? condition? type of boom?

I think you maybe at a bit of a disadvantage fishing for pike in Seneca with a flyrod and my suspicion is that you will be catching everything BUT doing it that way (e.g. with flies). If you are stuck with the flyrod I'd try using some good sized plugs or floppy spoons and fish them just at the outside edge of weed beds if you can find them there if yu have a slight wind you could "drift" them. It will be somewhat clumsy fishing that way but you stand a better chance of catching a PIKE that way. If it were me I'd probably get some live shiners (Brewer's Sport Shop in Ovid?)and use a light wire leader and treble hook and a good sized bobber and just drift around near weeds. That could be fun on a fyrod with a big one.

Think of the strong underwater current out there as a river. Sometimes folks mistakenly identify underwater debris as fish too

Glad things are working out Jason.

You should be OK Hop as long as the grass doesn't mess you up. You know that area like the back of your hand anyway and if anyone can get into them Its you

I've been a Lowrance user for over 30 years and this is my last one mainly because of the customer servicing. We shouldn't continue to support companies that don't truly support their customers.

I believe what you have there are called dodgers rather than flashers from the looks of the pic. They are also useful with meat rigs but have a different action than true flashers.

I haven't used one but it makes sense....and avoids the potential for tangles or weight screw-ups......the only downside is the expense