Sk8man

The Marcum guys seem to love their units, and Humminbirds are popular as well. I've used Vexilars since the first model back in the 70's and love my FL20 so I guess as long as you get one of these brands you'll be a happy camper.

Yes they do take a little getting used to and as mentioned if they start to go under on the way in point your rod downward as they are a real bear to get in when they go under if you don't

Linda the underside has something that looks like a washer but the screw on top will snug down on it (see pics) Alex made good suggestions. I set the braid way back as far as it will go and I have CAREFULLY tightened the screw for the grip about as far as I can without compromising the plastic of the release so that the line doesn't slip out of it. Wrapping the braid a couple revolutions as mentioned should insure that there is no slippage which also may prolong the life of the jaws of the grip too because braid can see saw through it in time too. An additional suggestion especially if using braid is to replace the plastic pins at the back of the board with stainless steel ones so you don't have to worry about breakage and replacement. They can be ordered through Calumet Marine among other places (about $7. each? postage is about as much as the pins even here in US ).

Anthony I don't think you will regret it....they are worth their weight in gold for ice fishing. Good luck! If you can try to get one with a zoom function regardless of make.

Cool setup on the Lily It reminds me of my old 13 ft Whaler setup. I even had 15 ft outriggers and telescoping boom electric Cannons on it and during derbies on Lake O a lot of folks would come close to take pics of it

That is great Ralph That is how it goes with stripers though you're in and out of them and also they can stop biting just like somebody turned out the lights One of our best spots year after year at Chatham was just out from the channel on an angle toward Monomoy early AM or evening though usually dead during the day when bright light. Tough to beat those eels though.

One of the things I found with the board approach on my 12 ft aluminum was that I had to locate the board across the mid section of the boat for balance and weight distribution as the drag from the weights in the water changed the way the boat rode in the water but I had Seth Green rigs and 4 ft boom downriggers too ....something to think about or explore though.

That is a beauty Thun. Another good place is just off Monomoy Island out near Chatham with the eels right in the rip tide. They really hammer those eels and run a lot like the way the good sized chinooks run.

For the kind of fishing you are talking about and after seeing your rig above I think you could find a couple of Down East rod holders on Ebay or perhaps on here (they are strong and easily clamp on the gunwales of your boat) and will tolerate the torque of dipseys but are inexpensive (old school approach ). Order one or two Okuma Magda Pro 45DX's or ask on here or look on Ebay for used ones as well as a couple used Okuma medium GLS downrigger or dipsey rods. Fish 307 sells twilli tips so that exchanging the tips so you can run wire is important. Amazon and many other places has 30 lb stainless wire in 1,000 ft spools. As long as you aren't fishing Lake O you'll be able to handle about anything on the smaller lakes with those wire dipsey rigs and will be able to get down pretty deep depending on the size of your dipseys what you are running behind them and how much wire you have out at the usual speeds. Put safety lines on your rods just in case they should pop out of the rod holders too. Todd does make a good point about netting fish and the benefit of shorter rods but when solo I usually end up hand lining fish anyway even salmon

Yeah if you are thinking charters check out Hap Farrell of Stun Mai Charters fishing out of Rock Harbor (Orleans)

If you're referring to the pic it is a 16 lb BROWN trout

WTG Justin!... man what a beauty

If you go after Tuna you'll want a stiff roller rod instead of a downrigger rod if you want to ever use the downrigger rod again Chris' suggestion of the Goose Huummock on 6A is a good one and they carry some fairlly high end stuff and Blackbeard's a few miles up the road but on 6 (past the rotary a couple miles) )has the terminal tackle etc. less expensive and bait as well. I truly share Chris' passion for the Cape... no place like it on Earth been going there since 1967 and my in-laws lived there in Eastham/Orleans for 30 years. Larry you'll have a blast on Nantucket too.... a true fisherman's place and another favorite of mine (especially Madeket Beach the most eastern point in the U.S I believe. The main golf course there is so exclusive it turned down Bill Clinton and Bill Gates from membership and when I was last in Nantucket they had a waiting list of over 500 to pay something like $250,000 for membership according to a long time resident I spoke with.

Paul brings in some great points and as a guide and in my view an exceptional trout fisherman he is spending more time these days on this lake probably than anyone I know out there. I too believe those previous die offs had an impact on the fishery and where I used to frequently catch big ones incidentally on riggers or my Seth Greens I haven't caught a single one in the last couple years. It is interesting that the bait and fish seem to be at the north end because for years they would be heavily concentrated at the south end and middle sections of the lake in deeper water (e.g. rainbows out in the middle suspended out deep) at this point in the season with the exception of a few good fish off the drop off at the north end and at the one on the east side as well. The bait would also be heavily concentrated there in the south and middle and often near bottom. The north and south ends of the lake are like two different bodies of water from a fishing standpoint as the north end is a shallow basin stretching for a considerable distance from the north shore while the south end is very shallow at the extreme south end but quickly drops off to very deep water near shore on both sides just a relatively shorter distance from the south shore. I'm wondering perhaps if the deeper dwelling Quagga mussels are more established at the south end and perhaps straining the food for the alewives forcing them to forage at the northern part of the lake with the fish following the bait migration because the south end has seemed pretty barren with few exceptions for a while now while it used to be brown and rainbow trout "heaven".

I believe that the lake itself like most of the others around here has changed significantly. I have fished this lake for a variety of species since 1967 and as with Seneca (my original "home" lake) and others there are many environmental factors present that are major change factors taken by themselves let alone in combination. There are now many grape vineyards along the lake, with runoff likely, hundreds of new homes in developments especially along the (higher) west side of the lake (with intermittent flooding in some years) and I have seen for myself in the development in which I live and increase in homes from 25 to over 250) and landscape companies spreading fertilizer not only on these lawns but also getting it directly on the sidewalks and gutters that empty directly via the sewer into the lake. These fertilizers and pesticides have very clear warnings on them that say they are toxic to fish and other water inhabitants. The recreational boating traffic on the lake has increased by a hundred fold since the earlier times. with cigar boats, ski boats, and a multitude of jet skis often starting in the early morning hours and running throughout the day and I am quite sure that the fish are spooked by all this commotion and noise. I can hear some of these cigar boats cranking from my home a half mile away and up a thousand feet off the lake just as though they are in my yard. Right now is the height of the tourism season (boat rentals, people using their docked boat at he marinas etc.) so this is pronounced compared with early Spring or Fall when things are much reduced. All of this is on top of major water quality changes generated by invasives like increased clarity of the water because of the phytoplankton and zooplankton being filtered out putting increased pressure on the baitfish populations and possibly leading to huge crashes ion some such as the rainbow smelt which used to be present in huge numbers and serves as a complementary forage base to the alewives. The levels of these Zebras and Quagga mussels is pretty high as suggested by the large floating foam accumulations across the surface of the lake. I have used recording capable depth finders since 1979 or so and I can tell you that the bait concentrations although present are nothing like they used to be nor is the density of fish marked despite the increased resolution and capabilities of depth finders spotting bottom dwelling bait and fish. In the past I have marked literally miles of bait sometimes more than 100 ft. high at the south end and middle portions of the lake and although there are still some intermittent pods it is nothing like in the past suggesting to me perhaps the missing smelt as well as reduced sawbelly population. This stuff is just off the top of my head and I'm not a research scientist but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that things have changed greatly out there either. There are still some large lakers and browns out there but they are much less common as time goes on and different methods of fishing for them need to be explored. The rainbows seem to be pretty healthy and although not as numerous as in the past there si still a pretty healthy population present but again I think the heavy boat traffic is a factor.