John E Powell

All browns.

I went out this morning about 10am or so and fished for a couple hours until the wind came up. Trolling along the color line I had gold/red rebel minnows in the muddy water, and come mirrored copper/black back bomber long a in the clearer water and sutton 44 silver/copper hammered on the rigger. Action was decent and fairly steady from Wilson where I started to the red barn area to the east, then I called it a day. Fished 8-14 ft of water following the color change in and out. I had the lake to myself.

Avoid the cannon temp probe like the plague. Fish hawk and smart troll makes the most sense with the 10s. Features I like the most are preset depth and hit run and can work on something else, and water depth displayed at the rigger.

I run the 10s. You need 1 transducer and 1 interconnect cable for each rigger you have more than one (2 riggers 1 cable, 4 riggers 3 cables). Cheaper that way than 5 with full sonar. Especially if there's a rebate program on when you buy. I got $150 each back on mine, paid for transducer and cables and then some.

I'm signed up!

For what application?

I ran into the same problem when I was considering the ghp20 this past spring. I looked for a NMEA certified installer instead. My local installer was not specifically "Garmin" certified, but was certified by other brands and had installed numerous autopilots.

I was out of Wilson Tuesday, weather was beautiful, had the whole lake to myself (except one sailboat). Went out after work for a few hours. Started in 70 but picture was bad so trolled north. Fished by myself so 1 rigger and 1 diver. Managed a 6lb king and a 12lb bow at 280 and 390', but felt I was pretty fortunate given the flip on Monday. Bait balls down 180-220 and fish marks from 160-240 most marks at depths with fish close to bottom. My two fish were shallower. Fished about 2.5 hours then headed in. The weather has been pretty stable the past few days so maybe by tomorrow things will have set up again.

Follow this link to the Albright knot animation: http://www.animatedknots.com/albright/ In the animation, the white rope is your wire line, and the blue rope is your monofilament backing. A Twili or swiveling roller top is recommended for both 7 and 19 strand wire.

IMO spending all that extra money for an X4D over the X4 is unnecessary. Do you regularly fish so deep that blowback is that serious a concern? I could understand if you regularly fished with 120+ feet of rigger cable out, but the small amount of blowback you have at shallower depths doesn't seem to justify the additional cost or provide any usable info that your downrigger cable counter or sounder unit already tells you.. On the other hand, knowing how deep your diver or copper lines are would be more useful information. I'd consider either having your Moor factory serviced to eliminate the problems you described or replace it with an X4, and add a Smart Troll. But the X4D just doesn't seem to make much sense to me over an X4.

Larger boards like the Church TX-44 work for long coppers, for shorter cores or coppers you can use more traditional sized boards you probably already have for walleye trolling.

Most any plug with an exaggerated wobble, as compared to a plug with a swimming action, will catch salmon congregating off streams and rivers at this time of the year. Look for plugs with sturdy construction and hooks. Some of the best, listed from faster to slower trolling speed are the J-Plug type lures, Ping-A-T, Tadpolly, and Kwikfish/Flatfish. I personally have had the greatest success with the Tadpolly and Ping-A-T if only because they are something different than the J-Plugs so many other people are running. They also allow me to troll slower and put the plug in front of the noses of the salmon for just a bit longer than the J-Plugs. If I don't see porpoising fish in the shallows, I'll run rigger lines in deeper water as described above, but if there are porpoising they are off the bottom and active. I'll target them with lures pulled 8-12' behind inline side planer boards pulled off the side of the boat and flatlines behind the boat with lures set 12-15' behind a large bobber (to keep the lure high in the water column). Don't be afraid to run the boat in 6-8 foot of water with your inside planer half way to the beach in 3-4 foot of water. Lures set 8-12' behind a planer are only running 1 - 1 1/2' below the surface.

Duplicate post text deleted.

I'd like to work with a local person rather than have to pay to fly someone in for a custom measurement; I've talked with people at both Atlantic Towers and Pipewelders and neither have measurements on file for my boat as it is a pretty rare hull and deck layout. If I had a more common boat, I'd consider that route.

The Albright knot is very good at joining different types or sizes of line together. The Willis knot is pretty much limited to joining lines to leadcore that can be inserted inside the leadcore sheath. Can the Albright replace the Willis on leadcore? Yeah, but it's a bulkier knot. Can the Willis replace the Albright, on lines besides leadcore? No.

You also can contact Chris Kempf. He just did a reel disassembly, cleaning and Carbontex drag upgrade seminar at the last LOTSA membership meeting. He had a large assortment of their drag washers on display; he probably has what you need on hand. Here's his contact info: http://www.nyreelrepair.com/ He's a local guy and has very reasonable service rates. I had him go through about 30 reels for me this past year.

For those that want to feed braid into leadcore for a Willis knot, first apply a soaking coat of Elmer's glue to the braid. Draw the soaked braid through your fingers to remove the excess and set the braid aside to dry. Once the glue dries, the now stiff braid will slide easily into the core sheathing. Tie the Willis as usual, the glue has no effect to the knot strength, it's just a stiffening agent.

First I decide if the reel's backing can be straight mono or if it will need a superbraid backing to achieve an adequate length. I try to keep 200 yds or more backing on a reel. If I can't get 200 yds of mono, I'll splice in some Power Pro. My core reels are spooled as follows: 1) Arbor knot ties either a) 200+yds of mono backing or b) enough 20lb mono to spool to get three levelwind passes (used as an underwrap for power pro backing - to keep PP from slipping on spool), then Albright knot splices on power pro backing. 2) Size 8 spro 3) 10' of 30lb mono (to attach planer) 4) Willis knot attaches core 5) Leadcore splicing needle used to attach size 8 spro to end of core 6) fluorocarbon leader of various weights tied to Spro (depending on time of year and lure or attractor being used) The two swivels keep everything running smoothly. The 30lb mono behind the core holds up well to attaching planers and can be easily changed if needed out on the water. The leadcore splicing needle is a specialty tool here in the US that hasn't really caught on yet. In Europe, it is a commonly used tool that gives you lots of new ways to work with core (like creating loose or tight loops in the end of core). The needle is used to pull the end of the core back inside itself giving really smooth transitions compared to Willis or Albright knots; there is just a very slight increase in core diameter. I use a snug loop to attach to one side of the Spro.

Agree, there's better dining in West in Wilson or South in Newfane. If you want a snack, Bye's (spelling?) popcorn just south of the marina on 78 is a treat. Their caramel cashew popcorn will be my undoing, they should call it gluttony and debauchery in a bag. It's almost as good as my mom baked when I was a kid...

Just a friendly reminder. 7 pm Cornell Cooperative building.

I've been considering replacing my canvas with a hardtop or half tower. If you have had someone fabricate and install a custom hardtop or half tower and have a recommendation to share, I'd appreciate the contact info.