newbie

[spanky]

Name:Rob

Location:Eldorado

Home Port:Belleville

Boat Name/Type:221 startcraft islander

I fish for:

trout walleye and hopefully salmon

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Hello everyone. Im new to big lake fishing. I have fished lake trout for years in central ontario. We always used steel line and trolled long line. Im all new to down rigger fishing. I will no doubt have lots to learn about it. I am also looking to purchase a new fishfinder/ sonar chart recorder. So any info on what brands and models are the best bang for your buck would be appreciated.

[ray koziatek]

well spanky bend over and get ready to get slapped with more info than you asked for..

as far as finders the new HD series is looking pretty sharp not bad for the money but they are new to the market with little time out there compared to other units,

With technology today most all combo units are good and take "fishing chips" almost a must for good structure location and depth contours.

expect to pay 600. plus for a decent unit and unlike myself and im shure others if you spend 600 today youll wana better unit later so if ya want "basic" view of fish stay in that range If yer gonna get serious expect near 1000. plus.

Ya got time on your side now with winter approaching do your home work,(as your doing by asking some of the top fishermen on the lake ) (not me).

Bigger screen dont mean better unit for your needs take yer time and get as informed as to what you need ya got all the tools at yer fingertips.

Ps welcome home.

[rshubuck]

Welcome Rob! Lots of info here and a bunch of great guys! I love Lowrance HDS units. I have HDS 7 with the Navoconics Platium chip and love it. If I can afford it I would have a HDS chartplotter running all my GPS stuff and another unit running the sonar unit. Two seperate units is the way to go if you can afford it. A lot of guys like the RayMarine electronics, but I don't know much about it other then a lot of big water guys on the ocean use it.

Downriggers are probably one of the easiest ways to fish trolling. I like to run my dipsy off the sides of my boat and have 3 downriggers off the back. I run Spindoctors flashers/flys usually 10 to 15ft off the ball. I also run spoons but usually give spoons more of a lead. My start of the progam is to cover ten ft of depth where I believe the fish are. So depending on temps I will set one rigger at 50 ft another 60ft and the last one at 70ft. My dipsys will either be somewhere in between or I will continue by going deeper 80ft and 90ft. I go by temps and what I am targetting. When one rod starts producing then I will move one or two rods to the same depth. Good luck!

Rob

[spanky]

Thanks for the info. I was at Bass pro this weekend looking at fishfinder units. Kinda came away disappointed. I was looking at the new HDS units but had a lot of questions about them. Kinda thought if they want me to drop upwards of a thousand bucks on a unit they would have someone there who new how to turn them on.