WaveWhacker

Call me Monday or Tuesday. I'm fishing the next couple days.

I "normally" go out of East Chicago in March and April - by June I've usually switched over to Portage. Occasionally, (when the wind it NE) I head for Hammond Marina to fish at Calumet Harbor. I live in Newton County about halfway from Roselawn to Rensselaer near the Dairy Farm. I'd be happy for you to come down and we can meet up. We'll melt some lead and make some weights for you and swap fish stories. I will be back next week. Pick a nice sunny day, and the porch is always a comfortable spot to fire up the fish cooker. My boat is here - the fifth one I've commissioned for Lake Michigan over the years, so it's pretty well set up. Call or text 219-819-0000

Paul: You already have the molds you need and if you have the lead and experience you can easily make your own. They are called empty beer cans. If I were home I'd send you some photos and instructions on how to make your own. Do they work? As a charter operator, I have to use gear that works and I can afford to pay. It wasn't always that way and 40 years ago when I started fishing Lake Michigan, I learned about the "can weights" from some guys that worked at (then) Inland Steel. They worked and since then I've used round balls, fish shaped, pancakes and others. If you look on my boat, all I have are 12 or 16 ounce can-weights. They absolutely work as good or better than any of the others. (12 ouncers are @ 10#, 16 ounce = 12#. And when the Coke or Miller Lite gets all scratched up, melt em down and fill a new can. I melt the lead in a small cast iron skillet on a propane fish fryer. If you are interested, I'll post some photos how to do it mostly safely without burning the paint off the cans when I get home middle of next week.

look up Schellfish charters on the internet. He lives over in Crete, IL, so not far. He makes and sells 12 pound weights. Usually, there are a few guys that make rigger weights posting on The Southend who pour a bunch and post them on that site. You'll see lot's of guys swearing by round balls, pancake, fish shaped, etc. They ALL work and if theres a difference between them, it's slight.

Also, good call on going with big planers as opposed to in-line boards. If all you want is dead fish in the box, the in-lines are great. If you want to have some sport when reeling in the cohos and walleyes, big boards are the way to do (and you'll still end up with plenty of fish in the cooler).

you can get by with 10s and they aren't that hard to crank up. I've not used a 6 pound before, but at salmon speeds - say 2.5 mph average, I'd guess you'd get a lot of blow-back even if you are only dropping them 25-30 feet. More than that blowback would be rediculous.

Man with a plan, I love it. If the plan is fluid, I'd not spring for the power planer mast. You only have to crank them in once a day and you can do that pretty easy even with bigger boards. If you are only going to fish lake Erie with downriggers, the manual crankers will be fine. If you are mostly going to stay in Indiana waters of Lake Michigan, the manual riggers will be okay. Still, electrics are a convenience, like manual vs. hand cranked car windows and don't forgert you will crank them multiple times each trip. Manual riggers are much more compact, in general, if that's an issue. You might want to look up www.thesouthend.org for Indiana-based fishing info.