kingpossible

Single spoons certainly do change the action of spoons. The weight behind the spoons determines how quickly and how far it flutters back and forth. As said above, single can make them better or worse. To avoid messing with the spoons, try to select a single hook that weighs very similar to the treble your are removing. I've also found that adding a barrel swivel off the split ring helps the landing ratio because the hook can spin as the fish does too - this works with both singles or trebles. Although you can make this very complicated if you want - I will say that my hookup to landing ratio is normally really good no matter whatever hook i'm using. Last year I was at 75% landing ratio and this year I'm at an 78% landing ratio - with most of the fish getting off being jumping steelhead or coho twisting up the line. That's acceptable to me.

Uh oh! It starts with a small collection - and then it grows... too fast if funds are available. I generally like to run almost all the same brand of spoon at the same time - so that means when I hear a certain spoon is working I end up buying 8 to 12 different colors of that brand. Of course I do make it out quite a bit. I made about 35 trips last year.

For an 8" spin doctor you'll typically run the fly about 18 to 26 inches behind (22-24 inches is probably most common). I like to attach the fly to the hole on the "more action" side (the hole across from the fins not right behind them. When I run them off the downriggers, I use a 15 to 20 ft lead past the release. For spoons, I love the Moonshines, but I would suggest picking up a few non-glow finish spoons as well. I'm not sure what other brands the Ontario guys use as I fish Lake Michigan, but did well with the magnum sized Silverstreak Blue Dolphin last year. I also did well with a variety of Dreamweaver Superslim spoon (pretty much anything orange for steelhead) and a variety of greens and yellows for salmon and purple or black down deep (70+).

bridget, do you have the TX 44 rigged properly? I don't have any problems with mine and have pulled 3 colors to 400 coppers with them. I have seen too many installed incorrectly. The clip should be backwards (facing the board), and the pin should be installed on the bottom slot (pin in the water).

I've found that some flies seem to run naturally "thread-up" and others run better the opposite way.

Thank you for this explanation Capt Vince. I believe we do need to do something to protect the salmon and the fishery - and thanks Gill-T for posting this petition. I hope you get the signatures you need.

I'm from Michigan but love to get info from this forum when I can. I think trying to get the Great Lakes states to agree to keep the salmon around is important, but would like to ask a question about this petition: If the salmon are considered as naturalized and needed to keep alewive numbers low, what prevents the state from simply cutting all fishing for kings instead of stocking more. I can imagine someone trying to completely cut the stocking programs, closing rivers to fishing in the fall, and lowering the lake limits to 1 or 2 fish a person.

I can't verify this 100% right now, but I'm pretty sure the hook is a VMC 9651 Round Bend Treble Size #2. I'll check tomorrow if I have a package of hooks still.

I posted this elsewhere before, but I switched the cable that came with the rigger (150 lb?) with 300 ft of Mason Multistrand Leader wire in the 125 lb weight. The 125 lb wire has a thinner diameter and lets the ball track better. I switched last fall and have been running the thinner wire all year.

I've been using the 6' medium GX2's. I love fighting fish on them, plus they are small and make it less cluttered in the back of my boat (17' Lowe aluminum)

I'm a new to this forum as I fish Lake Michigan only. I was having blowback problems with a Walker manual rigger using an 8 lb weight. I solved this by: 1. Buying a 10 lb weight 2. Spooling the rigger with 300 ft of Mason Multistrand Leader wire in the 125 lb weight. The 125 lb wire has a thinner diameter and lets the ball track better. I switched last fall and have been running the thinner wire all year.