jigstick

Jeeze this post has me feeling lost. Ive had my place on Chautauqua for 15 years. I pretty much gave up on muskie fishing 3 years ago after not landing a single fish in almost 13 years. Not a single person I have ever come across up on the lake that muskie fishes with success would ever give me any type of advice at all. That is disheartening. This year I decided to try again on my own. The only gear I have is what I use on Erie for walleye and steelhead, with the addition of some muskie specific tools for landing, netting, and releasing. Well I am glad to report that I finally landed some. I trolled this past saturday from 430-600 PM from Prendergast launch up to the Institute bell tower. Landed two. 35in and 38in. Both hit a perch colored Bomber 5in stick bait. 12ft down, 15ft back from my downrigger ball. trolling 3.5mph in 25-30fow. Not sure if I just got lucky, or if I finally got my speed and lead correct with an appropriate bait. I will post pictures tomorrow. I was hoping this post would have reliable info regarding setups being used but now I dont think I can trust the post seeing how some people seem to purposely report false info for personal reasons. That just makes it hard for guys like me with estensive big water experience trying to get into the muskie niche.

How many spin doctors and atomik flies do you think are wrapped up around this legendary snag?

Gotcha! You're basically running a stacker setup off of one rod. I may have to give that a try. Thanks for the clarification.

Chas In that picture ...would you pinch the snap on the cheater to the mainline WITH the stacker clip? Can the stacker clip put good tension on the snap to hold it in place on the mainline?

Nothing like catching lakers on yard sale flatware. My buddy's just laugh when they see that rod go off. It is a heavy lure. I'm not sure what kind of action the spin doctor will put on it

That looks like you are using a stacker clip to pinch your slider onto ur mainline at the depth you want. I still don't quite get how you would stop the slider from moving up and down the mainline unless that clip is pinching it in place

I don't see how you could put a swivel inline on your mainline to determine how much higher your cheater will run above your lower bait. Definitely not if its only 7ft from the end of your mainline. Hell even if you used a 15ft lead on your downrigger, that swivel would end up between your release and your lower bait. Your slider would never be able to reach that swivel. It would stop at the bow in your line. And the more I think about it...the lowest a slider can go is to the bow in your line. Unless you are attaching your slider to that swivel with a snap. And even so, if you change the lead on your lower bait that will change the position of that swivel. And thus change the depth of the slider. Just seems like a headache to do it that way. I'll run sliders to the bow in my line during tourneys...but outside of that...I use the stackers

Azek could work. That is what I used when installing the control head for my autopilot so I didn't have to drill a 4in hole in the dash with a hole saw. You could also use Starboard. Both are composite material and won't rot or fade in the sun. [/url] [/url] I had to double up on it in order to keep the wire routing hole behind the control head as small as possible. Instead of needing to use a 4in hole saw I only had to drill a hole 1/2in hole with a spade bit. It makes the control head stick up a little higher than my gauges. But it looks nice and will last forever.

I made my own lure out of an old soup spoon. Cut the handle down some. And punched a hole in the handle and in the spoon portion. Added some split rings and a treble. Stupid lakers even hit this ugly MF'er. I love it when that rod goes off. I'm going to put it behind a spin doctor and see if it hits more.

What is this jibberish?

I run stackers more than sliders. I just find it easier to deal with. Now stackers require the use of more rods which may not work for you. My slider setups always end up tangled in the tackle box or thrown in a ball in a cup holder. I spend more time untangling the dam things than catching fish with them. Using a stacker will give you much more control over what depth that stacked bait is going to run at. Keep the baits in the zone

If somebody is willing to take me to the spot, Ill bring my scuba gear and drop down! Who knows, maybe will retrieve a tone of spoons, spindoctors, dipsys, and flys!!!

The biggest laker I caught last year was on a 42nd SpinDoctor with a Green Hammer fly 5ft off the bottom in 105fow on lake Erie. Just a CH under 20lbs. In my experience, trolling a Spin Doctor and fly close to the bottom is almost as productive as using cow bells and peanuts. this is on lake erie.

Ive had no problems running 4 wire dipsys out of my Canon Dual Axis holders for over 4 years now. Very solid item. No regrets