sherman brown

i thought the whole purpose of using fluro was so you could use heaver line without spooking line shy fish. if 8# fluro is invisible wouldn't 15# fluro be just as invisible? I went to 20# seaguar premier leader line for my leaders trolling the very clear water in the central basin and I have never looked back and didn't notice any less hits than I was getting with 12# fluro leader. i did this after having 2 huge fish break my 12# leader in rough water.

when we went to the central basin at Geneva Ohio to fish for walleye. we didn't have a clue about fishing there. we took a charter out and he started letting us help by lunch time. the 2nd day he set the lines and then turned it over to us. if we had a big problem he was there to get us going again. on the 3rd day, we were on our own running 3 dipsies per side. We did manage to get some whopper tangles, but it was usually caused by doing something wrong. However, we did enough on the charter to be able to fish on our own and catch a lot of fish. the charter we were on put us through school so I'm 95% sure if you ask around you will find a caption to take you out and let you do the rigging plus you may get some good advice that will help you in the future. but the most important thing is he fishes almost every day and could put you on fish and tell you how they fished and what worked for them. if you go out on your own you may spend half of the day searching for fish. I feel 100% that your catch rate would double with a charter. his recent time on the water fishing would help you get started fishing without searching for the fish. i wholly recommend you find a charter willing to let you fish on your own without any help other than his advice you would be so much better off.

after using 13# pancake weights for years, we forgot to load them in the new to us boat. we found a pair of 8# dredge weights and had no choice but to use them. I was amazed at how much less blowback we got with the 8# weights over the 13# pancake weights. i have purchased a set of 10# dredge weights but haven't got to use them yet. i don't know if the side fins pull them down, but I'm a believer in the dredge weights. also called Herbie weights. hope this helps give you a little insight into weights with side fins.

I was using 13# pancake weights and forgot to load them in our new used boat. found a set of 8# herbies and had to use them. To my amazement, they had less blowback than the 13# pancake weights. I went on to buy a set of 10#, but the 8# was working great. but I just wanted to see how the 10# blowback would be. I haven't had a chance to use them yet, but I'm looking forward to using them. bottom line is the pancake weights are better than the ball weights, and the herbies are better than the pancake weights. I bought a set of 10# weights off another member on this site.

it is listed as the back one set at 1.5 and 20' less line out as the middle one.

you can't worry about the cost! if you figure all the costs involved in fishing and not catching you will never pay even close to the market as you will spend to go fishing. but that's just my opinion. LOL, for what it's worth. I look at it like this if the rod is out the side it may have a little more stress because it's at 90 degrees. but I use Cannon ratcheting rod holders and can set the front one tilted up and the middle one tilted about half as high as the front one then the back one set at 90 degrees will spread the lines out at different angles, but that's using 3 divers per side. I use 3 lite bite slide divers per side for walleye fishing on Erie. I run all of them at 90 degrees out the side and I don't have any lines tangled while trolling. I do use 3 different-length rods which makes it easier to read the lines. I have a 9' in front and the 2nd one is 8' set 20' less than the front diver set on 4.5 and the 2nd diver set at 3.0 then the back one set 20 less than the middle one and the diver set at 1.5 this keeps us from having tangles when letting an outside diver over the inside divers.

I'm just a bit confused by the 30 degree not being as stressful on the rods and reel seats. I would think the pull on the rods and reels would be the same as the 90 degree holders unless the 30 degree is 30 degrees straight back. I run 3 lite bite rigs off each side and I need the 90 degree holders to keep the lines from getting tangled. but that's just me. I'm not trying to start a dispute about them just giving my input on my way of thinking.

whacker just made a post with a link to buy holders for flush mount holders. you might want to check them out.

these are the best ratcheting holders in my opinion because of the one hand operation. you can adjust the up and down with one hand if you have your fishing rod in the other hand. your price of 90.00 for new holders is a great price. the best price I know of for the same holder is 106.00 plus change and then add the tax so you save over 20.00 on each one you buy. I am happy with the single axis I have.

I started my hunting by hunting squirrels and rabbits when I was about 6 to 8 years old with my oldest brother's octagon barrel pump 22 with the pump not working so I used it as a single shot. A few years later I moved up to a 12 gauge shotgun which I used for many years for small game mostly for rabbits in Indiana and when I often visited Tennessee. I was in the Marine Corps from 72 until 76 and didn't do any game hunting during that time. After I came home, I bought an 1100 Remington autoloader and used it for small game again, but I was more interested in fishing, which included salmon fishing on Lake Michigan trolling. I mostly fished for them on Manistee Lake in the fall. In 1980 my older brother found a Savage 16 gauge autoloader in a trash can with the barrel bent looking like someone had wrapped it around a tree. It did have a tendency to jam. hew used a door to straighten the barrel. it had a full choke but I shot slugs through it and it was as true as any gun I ever shot. I started deer hunting that fall and got my first deer on the morning of the second day of my first time deer hunting. I bought a CVA 50 caliber muzzleloader kit after the gun season I had it put together and the metal was put through a black oxide which made it a smooth black then I coated the wood with a beautiful walnut stain then used a spray on clear sealant on it the gun turned out to be a beautiful gun. I used it to hunt 1 weekend that year. the 2nd year I didn't score in gun season and when muzzleloader season came in I was hunting with my muzzleloader but when a big doe was 19 steps away the cap didn't fire it was wet and filled the nipple full of crap. by the time I got the nipple cleaned and was putting another cap on they took off. I had a Ruger 10-22 I wasn't using and traded it for a recurve bow at a flea market so year three I hunted bow season and got a small doe. then gun season I got a buck and the muzzleloader season I got a doe, when they came out with the inline muzzleloaders I bought a White brand that used musket caps. but later came out with a conversion kit to use 209 shotgun primers. since then I have owned several autoloader shotguns for deer hunting and several different muzzleloaders and I've taken at least I deer for the next 25+ years but a lot of those years I took doe's with my muzzleloaders. I ended up with a Thompson Center encore that has taken many deer. I bought another Thompson Center gun for my youngest son. a few years ago I bought a new CVA 45 caliber long-range accura but I haven't taken a deer with it yet. my oldest granddaughter wanted to hunt with me so a couple of years ago I took her with my encore. but I was trying to remove the hammer tang to move to the right side of the hammer after me shooting left-handed it didn't work for her and I broke the hammer and haven't been able to find one. so I dug out the one my son no longer uses and gave it to her.

I got it bad but not that bad. I opened the drains on the block and noticed it was draining slowly but I figured the water had already drained out the other side. come spring and after I started it and ran long enough to open the thermostat water was gushing out the side of the motor. I just knew I had a cracked block but the freeze plugs did their job. so this lesson was cheap at replacing the freeze plugs and always making sure the drains are open and not clogged. when I cleaned the drain that didn't drain I removed lots of sand. my youngest son ran over a sand bar that summer and filled the block with sand.

tilting my motor down for the winter and stored outside most of my life is all I ever done and as stated above, I never had a problem. outboard motors are designed to drain all the water out when the motor is tilted down 2 stroke and 4 stroke alike.