Sk8man

Good point but I would refer folks to the salt water world where roller rods may cost $800-$1200 each and the reels can run into the thousands It truly is all relative.

Although a wire rig may be a little pricey at the outset they will last a long time with proper care as mentioned above keeping them under some tension at all times while not deployed is critical. As an example I've used wire on my Seth Green rigs for many many years and I have two of my rigs that have the wire I put on them over 30 years ago and it is just like new still and one of the crimp connections is still original (despite the nay sayers about using crimps ). It is important to closely monitor the last few feet of wire lines especially and any connections whether tied or crimped. While kinking in stranded wire requires cutting and/or replacing copper is a little more "forgiving" and depending on the severity of the kink sometimes it can be straightened out fairly well without disaster and braided copper is more forgiving than single strand in this regard. The comments above (e.g. Mark and Paul etc.) really "nailed" the advantages of wire line and once you get used to it's "oddities" you can come to love it in terms of depth control and getting a good feel of the fish on the end of the line. I've found it much easier to get the fleas off than braid or thin mono but believe me if the fleas are real thick for distances even the thickness of downrigger wire will accrue them- especially the variety (s) on the Finger Lakes.

Nice work Glenn . That laker sounds about like the one I got did he say "oh no not again" while you were bringing him in?

It's there even if you don't mark it well on your screen. Generally was running roughly from 20 -45 ft down.One of the complicating factors marking it on the depth finder is that in many places there is all sorts of submerged debris and weeds. Best way is to use a temperature device and look for the area (range) of the water column where there is the greatest number of degree change in temperature. A Fish hawk TD can do a decent job of it if you don't have an X4 or X4D. I attach mine to a downrigger while the motor isn't running in 120 ft of water and send it down 100 ft and let it stay for a few seconds and then retrieve it. I take the readings and record them down on a recording sheet on a clip board with a grease pencil and take the temps down to 100 ft usually on the Fingers (although I didn't do it yesterday). I run my lines for silver fish above and within the thermocline and if I'm fishing also for lakers I set some at lower part of it or below it (e.g. with downriggers or Seth Greens) while "prospecting".

Yeah Big Blue I went to school with Fred Flintstone and probably still remember how to ride dinosaurs

Good luck Nick!

WWIV is right I forgot to mention walleyes as well

They are similar to the old June Bug spinners that used to used for bass and pike and pickerel often a worm was attached trailing the hook

Good report and nice laker....looks like a "native" fish with that coloration. have a safe trip back to Jersey

Thanks. Yes I've had VERY good luck with the Great Lakes spoons. Jason has done a terrific job with them.....great action and they seem to tolerate a wide range of speeds.

Thanks folks and good luck Glenn....have to stay after them until they give up

Bigfoot makes a good point....we can't assume that hooks right from the package are all sharp or that they are quality hooks. I have used Mustad Siwash stainless steel salmon hooks from sizes 1/0 to 3/0 forthe various sized spoons ranging from small ones (use 1/0 medium use2/0 or large use 3/0 in general but it depends on the spoon so I sometimes go out of size category to keep weight of spoon fairly constant). As far as sharpening I there are any ways to do it (electric hook sharpeners, manual ones etc.) I have always used a fine fileto do it and I sharpen them on three sides going from the bend in the hook direction to the point tip and get them so that they "catch" on your finger tip. Not very scientific (old school dude) but it works.

Roughly 2.1-2.3 I believe

Signalman and I gave the fish another shot this AM from 6:30 -12N on my boat fishing the north end both sides. Once again lots of marks and bait but we had to work for active fish. We started out with 2 downriggers with sliders 2 leadcores one 5 color and 1 10 color off boards and two wires with spinneys and flies. Early on I thought one of my wires was messed up with a downrigger and when the downrigger was released it had a good bend and then the fish started stripping line so here I was playing "rod hog" with the first fish of the day It put up a good scrap on the downrigger and turned out to be a 30 1/2 inch10 lb laker that took the same blue taped Great lakes 44 that took the laker the other day. He was released to fight another day and seemed none the worse for wear. A while later we caught another laker on the rigger about 3-4 lbs which was released, and then another on the leadcore.5 color off the Walleye board on a green taped Great Lakes 44. We had to make a couple runs and passes up north to get fish to hit but pulled through all kinds of bait and fish along the way on both sides of the lake. We trolled along the high banks area and the grass floating and submerged as well became worse and worse as we trolled south along the east side and it got into everything we had out and lines had to be cleared and reset multiple times so we pulled up and powered north again and reset going from northeast to southwest and Mike was up to bat next and a 4-5 lb rainbow hammered the Sutton 44 with green tape on a slider. We boxed him for my buddy John's smoker. We trolled along for quite some time without anything happening and then went back north and came back through the marked fish and bait on the west side and I switched out a leadcore for a 250 copper down the chute with a taped up Sutton 44 and I no longer turned around from setting the rod in the holder and the drag started screaming on the copper and the fish stayed down so I suspected a laker but when I had it about half the way in it was clearly a rainbow about the same size as the first rainbow and we got a real good look at him when he surfaced and spit the hook. That was about it for the day and we headed in. Only tiny bit of flea action noted but the grass was really bad going south. Beautiful day out there. Good luck to you folks fishing the FLT tournament this weekend and I hope this post helps out in terms of info if the weather doesn't change too drastically. No action on the wires by the way run from 90 ft out to 200 out with green/white combinations>

Hey Jim I have the dual rod holders on mine if you look close in the pic from yesterday. The only advantage to stackers over a slider is that you can make them longer but that also has its disadvantages in terms of tangles and as Lucas pointed out often the release is at the bottom one so the top one may get tangled. I did it for years way back when but now I just use sliders.....much less screwing around and opens options up for running other stuff. I do keep about a dozen pre-rigged sliders rolled up on a small piece of foam noodle though and if I have a tangle with the main line I just cut off the swivels pull the slider line off and throw it away and rig with another off the foam.

Thanks guys...going back at it tomorrow to see if I can figure out the silvers somehow.