Dukdog

I just picked up a pair of their ski jiggers. I think they'll work good for landlocks here in Maine and over on Lake Champlain. The G2 I think is the one you run on a downrigger. I don't think I'd run one on my downrigger with a probe, Too much junk on one line. The G2 requires that you use a stacker release above it with enough slack below to allow the Jigger to retreive and deploy the jigging line. Otherwise you couldn't load your rod without affecting the jigging action. I'm going to see how I like the Planer board models before I invest in a G2. Anyone have any experience using these? www.cut2spec.com

I was at the Augusta Sportsman Show over here in Maine yesterday and there was a dealer from Keene New Hampshire that has a planer board that will jig your bait being towed by the board. It's called a Ski Jigger. They had a great demo setup and as the planer board moves thorough the water, a propeller on the nose of the board drives a gear train that retreives about 5 feet of the release line. when the line gets retracted all the way to the board, the gear train trips and allows the bait to fall back as the boat moves forward. The net effect is a jigging action that looks pretty cool so I picked up a pair. Our open water season opens this week and I'll be out giving them a go on the Kennebec River. I think these would probably be tops for an early season brown presentation with Smithwicks or spoons over on the big lake. I bet they'd be deadly on walleye too! Has anyone seen these before or know anyone who runs them?? They also make a similar rig for downriggers which does the same thing. I couldn't feature that being as effective especailly dragging flashers and flys or meat rigs. I just don't see the gear train hauling much more than a spoon along but that's based only on my "feeling" and not on any fact I'm aware of.

Lot's of crap at Mardens mostly!! If you hit it right you can find the odd nugget. There is little fishing stuff out at Christmas unless it's for ice fishing. They warehouse all the regular stuff til spring and put it out in March again.

Checked out Lewiston and Grey Mardens today. No big lake goodies right now. You never know what they'll have!! I missed a bunch of Federal Black Cloud for $12 a box about a month ago. Regular $20 a box or more.

The wife and I are headed down to Falmouth this morning to visit her mother. I need to talk the wife into coming back through Lewiston and hit that Mardens! that's where I found all the whopper deals last year!!

I hit the one in Scarborough! New stuff is out but big lake goodies are rare. Waterville didn't have much except some great hogdon wader deals. Camo zipper waders for $89

29 cent spin doctor & $2 Howie!!

After at least 40 years and millions of dollars, Stocking efforts in New England have essentially amounted to nothing. Returns are pitiful and the only fishery that was really created was from the stocking of spent hatchery brood fish in the Shetucket River above Baltic, Ct. The best Atlantic Salmon fishing Maine has seen is when they auctioned off chances to fish in a rearing pen downeast a few years ago. It was set up on Ebay. For your money you got to stand on the rubber boom around a 75 foot wide circular pen and haul in some slob fish. It would be great to think that the Atlantic Salmon could come back but after all the money spent and years trying, I think the poor results should speak for themselves. We still aren't allowed to fish for salmon in Maine except for landlocks.

I run a 60 and an 8 off one battery. I really like to have a backup everything. I run my 2 downriggers off a different battery. I carry jumper cables as a backup so I can start a motor. I have an autopilot off the main battery also and I minimize it's use to setup, fighting and landing fish or during operation on the big motor. I'm not sure if the charging rate off my kicker would keep up with full time AP operation.

East card works great for me. I live in Maine and it works on the coast for seaducks and on Lake Champlain as well as Lake O. I've also got the fishnchip which gives better detail on some areas. .

I'll tell you one thing, don't mount your rod holder base on the black Lund T-rail mounting plates. I bought a rod holder mounted like that from my Lund dealer when I bought my Alaskan. I had one of my 10 ft. Talora roller rods in it when a king smacked it. The Lund plate broke off and the rod holder, rod, reel and dipsey flasher and fly all went into the water and sank!! I felt like puking... About 20 minutes later I was raising my downrigger when I spotted the lost rod coming upper on the cable!!! The fish was gone but the tension on the line from the dipsey and flasher kept the rod pinned against the cable. The reel handle had hooked on the cable as it sank. Nothing holding it there but line pressure and luck!!! I changed out my rod holders to metal and hard mounted them directly to the boat.

I've been wondering about smelt myself. In Maine the biggest producer for landlocked salmon and lakers is sewn smelt trolled slowly at < 1 mph. I think it would probably work well on GL salmonoids too. Anyone have experience with it?

I've got one for spoons and one for body baits. They are great. There is a trick to them however. Before closing the box make sure the slats are all facing the same end and pretty straight up. If you don't, they are not contacting the foam in the lid correctly and the hooks can jump out of the slots if the boxes are rough handled. This will result in a mess and some cleanup time.. If you do it right, they are great. You just need to be aware of it and make sure they are all upright before closing the lids.

X2 I think the down temp is the more important of the 2 probe readouts. If you're not in bad current you can go by your GPS for speed and get by. Temperature is key. I've seen Mexico Bay in the summer where 100 yards will make the difference between 50 degree and 70 degree water at the same depth. If you don't get the temp right, you're just wasting your time in my book. I came to this conclusion when I first started fishing up in Manitowoc Wisconsin a few years ago. We went out on a Friday evening and had 45 to 50 degree water within 1/4 mile of the breakwater! We slayed the kings that night and the next morning. Following a big wind shift during the week, we went out the following weekend and found that close in water was all in the low 70's!! We had to run out to the 100 foot line before we got into some 50 degree water. Fishing at that point was with riggers at 110 to 120 to get on the fish. That justified the price I paid for my depth raider!

I run a combo spot nav golight on my 18ft Lund Remote is awesome but always carry a spare #23 battery for the remote. I use my remote a lot and go through a couple batteries a year If the light is acting weird, change the battery and it'll be perfect again.

Nice day!!

Congratulations! You're a lucky guy to share a day like that with your Dad!! I wish my Dad was still around to take over to Lake O! He would have loved it.. At least my boys won't be able to say I missed the fishing over there!!!

As they'd say here in Maine, "That's a corker of a Togue!! Wicked nice!!" Congratulations!!

We got accosted twice by border patrol in northern Maine while we were goose hunting near the border. They don't take too kindly to guys walking around in the dark next to the river with headlamps on!!! They were great when they figured out what we were doing but they come in force when they come!!! Several carloads!!

Kind of reminiscent of my trip to Sodus last month. Here's a quote from my post for that trip!:

Marden's is a Maine chain of salvage type stores that buy odd lots of closeouts and the like. I went into the one in Waterville yesterday and found a bargain on several paddles and a couple decent Spin Doctor colors!! There isn't much call for this type of tackle in Maine so they are slow movers!! Anytime you can find a decent flasher for under $5, it's a deal!

Probes will come and probes will go, Sometimes luck will make it so! But one fact through this will ring, And few will question such a thing, There is no hit quite like a King!!!!

Good Report! You're keeping me hopeful!!!

Losing gear hurts. I hung my ball over in Lake Champlain a couple months ago! 60 feet down and I had my clutch set too tight.. That's worse! Before I could get the boat in neutral, My Cannon mag 10 STX ripped right off the boat! Of course it took the ball, release and 2 rod holders and a rod and reel and lure with it. This happened at 0530. I was back on the trailer headed back to Maine by 0700. That morning sucked. The morning before, I lost a brand new 15# shark.. Not a good weekend at all! At least my probe was on the other rigger!!