TyeeTanic

Yes, blue balls are painful to use...

It doesn't bother me - the diagonal lines have only happened twice in 30 hours of trolling. The other image - the 30 foot deep, 150 foot long mass is interested - again not important - but if it is a huge bait ball - it would be worth marking and circling over several passes. If it is only plankton then I should just move on.

Yes my motor was running. However the diagonal line has only showed up twice in several hours of fishing.. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

I was trolling around 2.5 to 3.0. Not that bumpy. Have a feeling there were big underwater currents. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

Nothing done with the lines, boat straight as an arrow, no speed change. Just a massive 25 foot deep, 150 foot long .... something or other. I can't tell you how wide it was. The top of it was at 20 or 30 feet deep.

All, I cannot tell you how much time I wasted trying to get the Dipsey Mag 3 to work this Friday. The drag it produced popped it out every time I was at the level I wanted to be at. Then reel in, reset, back down, pop ... over and over. I tightened the screw to basically the maximum on the popper - and it still didn't work. Has anyone else had this problem with the Magnum 3 dipsey??

When someone says, "I was on wire, 150 ft out on #3 setting." does this mean they were using a dipsey on the #3 setting (left or right) with 150 feet of line out? If so, the real question is, what size dipsey are they talking about a 0, 1 or 3 Magnum?? Thanks.

Hello all. I just bought my first boat recently, a 20 ft Taho with a 4.3L merc cruiser IO engine. The book tells me I have to service it every 100 hours - that would be like every month for me!!!! Is this for real???? Most of my time is idling while trolling - is it really necessary to pull the boat out of the water every 100 hours, or is this overkill?? Thanks.

It might be a plankton line - I have noticed plankton residue on my wire line (where I twist it at the swivel). Is plankton a good thing to fish through?? Are there fish around, or is it pretty inert?

I use a uni knot to tie my swivel quick connectors to the lead. What I do is go through the swivel ring twice with the fish line and then do a uni knot, with 6 or so wraps before I pull it tight. I think I know what went wrong. My drag was waaaaaaay too tight. I didn't know I had to tighten it only until the reel clicks every 20 to 30 seconds. I had it much tighter than that. Anyhow, I also have the 40 lb floro on now with the drag set much lighter. I figured that out on Saturday - went out fishing Sat and Sun and guess what??? No bites. So I got everything setup properly, but now no fish that want to bite!!!! This sport can drive you crazy ....

We had a bit of a SW wind andi started spotting fish at the 40 to 50 ft mark sonthings are getting back to normal. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

Thanks WWIV. I bought the thermometer before I posted this topic. Have been trolling for only 2 weeks and learning as I go. Will definitely check out the add. Thanks. It is not really the money. I don't want to screw anyrhing else down on my boat as it is more a ski boat than a fishing boat. Something that will attach to my rod is perfect. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

I have a Lowrance Elite 5 Gold. It is a decent unit. I was thinking the first one might be a school of bait, but it would have been incredibly long (several hundred feet) and it was almost too uniform stay + or - 5 feet on the top line and bottom line. Second one I never fish close to any one else but have to admit I never actually paid attention to seenif anyone else could have been close by. Next time I will take pics with my phone and post. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

Oh that is hilarious. Sorry, but that would win Americas funniest home video. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

I don't use down riggers.ni only use dipseys which are far from the boat. This is definitely a phenomenon happening under the boat. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

Okay, I have seen two strange things on my fish finder - does anyone know what these might be?? 1) A long thick line - around the 20 to 30 foot depth, and is around 10 feet thick, running for a long stretch, about 1 to 1.5 screen lengths, probably 100 feet long. Is this the thermocline or a fish swimming under my boat? 2) A very straight diagonal arrangement of dots - starting high then going lower as you move from left to right across the screen. It is extremely straight, just on a diaganal. Thanks, Mark

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: Pirate's Cove ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s): July 2, 2011 Time on Water: 7 - 11 am. Weather/Temp: some clouds, calm Wind Speed/Direction: South Waves: 0.5 m or less Surface Temp: 69F Location: Bronte, Hamilton LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 2 Total Boated: Species Breakdown: 0 Hot Lure: Dartee Blue, Syclops Blue Trolling Speed: 3 mph Down Speed: Boat Depth: 120 ft Lure Depth: 20 ft ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== I had a crazy fishing day, in a bad sense. With the new moon, and slight overcast this morning, I thought the fish would bite like crazy. We spotted a lot of fish at the 20 - 30 ft depth, and some large ones at the bottom at 110 ft. We only had two bites all day. Holy smokes, what the heck is going on - the fish just didn't want to bite today.

The fly was a green with some blue. The lure was green with a silver christmas tree in the middle. The 20 lb is Floro. I am now using 40 lb Floro. Yes, I think the drag was too tight as well. Now I set the drag to just keep it from turning under trolling drag. I can't lose the dipsey's. I don't have down riggers and don't want to put them on my boat (it is a bow rider ski boat). I have a snubber to take on some of the shock from a big bite. It is suprising that even with the snubber it still snapped the 20 lb lead - they must have been big fish.

I don't know about you guys - but on the north shore, all the fish were sitting high in the water today (July 1). They were all at 30 ft of water and sometimes less, in almost consistently 130 total water depth. I couldn't believe how high they were, almost didn't use the dipsey's as it wasn't worth while. Well, actually didn't on two lines - put 3 oz weights on instead and put out enough string to make sure they were at the 40 ft depth, and got several hits with these. 2 biggies - I figure 20 to 30 lb fish, broke my connector line and lead (20lb floro). I was a little frustrated ....

Okay, the real deal is much better than talking in theory. I had 20 lb connecting line between the dipsey snubber and the flasher and I had two big hits - lost the flasher and fly both times with snaps on the 20 lb line. So, after cursing a little ... I decided to go with 40 lb line between the two, but didn't get a major bite again after that. I figure you have to go with heavy duty tackle for the king - you can't waste your time with 20 lb connections - you have to go stronger and rely alot on the drag. We did land (and release) 2 steelhead, 1 coho and 1 atlantic. Hopefully tomorrow I will get another chance at a king with the 40 lb line. Mark

Thanks Paul! What does a electronic down speed and temp cost? I already have a decent GPS fish finder, the Lowrance Elite 5 Gold, so I only need the down speed and temperature functionality. I am pulling the boat out of the water next Monday for a service, and this would be a great opportunity to install anything I need to add to the boat, provided it does not cost an arm and a leg. They can take the leg, but I need my arms for fishing...

Good info Paul. So do you think us guys without a temperature probe can kind of rely on the government cross section maps. For instance cross section A of Lake Ontario is Toronto, which I'm close enough to. If I read this, it seems there is a vertical thermocline about 2 miles from shore and then it goes flat at around 4 miles in around the 60 - 70 ft mark. That is if we are looking at 55 'C to 60'C temperature band. It seems like the ministry publishes this data twice a day, and it would be easy enough to take a quick look on the phone internet before heading out.

Hey Tim, Yes, appreciate I am a little green with the trolling, but have a good sense for the outdoors given the time I've put in and pick things up quickly. I just like asking a thousand questions to zero in on the best techniques. And I do very much appreciate your honest and informative responses! Anyhow, I have a higher res picture on my phone. The spots that you can obviously see in the picture are some scales that have come of the fish. It was wiggling hard to get out of my son's grip and I ask him to hold it firm to not drop it. The scales on the fish were very loose. I was told coho's are like that. There are some small black spots in the top grey part of the body above head and along back, and then on top part of the tail fin. Best regards, Mark

Hey Tim, Thanks - actually I'm not that green - have been fishing for 20 years, just off the shores - I started trolling around 2 weeks ago, and have made out okay - have landed around 8 fish in 6 hours of fishing over the past week and a bit. I just like to ask a lot of questions to figure things out. I like trying new things (ideas and hardware). The real issue is you hear so many different recommendations about lures, leads, flies, etc. etc. and you don't know who is right. I like the fact that I can get some sort of consensus on this site. By asking all the questions I've figured out a lot about the tackle I need (which cost me around $500 or more all in this week), recommendations to good sites (I just registered to spoon pullers) and general know how. I still have to try out many suggestions and find out what works best for me - but I have the euipment and the knowledge to do that now on the wide open waters. Thanks to LOU in 2 weeks I've learned what it should have taken me years to figure out on my own. I appreciate everyone's helpful responses - and by the way - it is 10% for me, and 90% about putting a smile on my son's face by hooking up a fish and letting him take it on. That's him in the photo. Thought it was a Coho. Anyhow, fish was safely back in the water right after the pic was taken. That was his maiden fish - and a good fight too!! Mark

Paul - you must think we are real newbies here! The major thing I'm worried about is bottom dragging and snagging up on something. Once you hit a solid snag, the drag won't help you any, you have no choice but to break the line. Would rather lose less tackle than more...