Plugs

Got 2 wire divers for the spread last year. Bought them used, but they looked like new - Shimano Reels and roller rods. Fished with them most of last year & then started to have some issues with break offs towards the end of the year. Needless to say - wire divers usually have some cash hooked to the end of them with the Dipsy, flasher & fly that I typically have on them.

I took about 25 ft off them this spring, re-tied them and just started using them again. Missed a good fish on one that just came off and caught about a 15 pound king on one with no issues. The one reel looked like it had a small backlash in it last weekend, so I was letting a bunch of line out when the wire got under itself and between the side of the reel and poof - another rig gone.

I used a regular overhand knot per the Bloodrun website when I tied them back up. Can wire go bad, or if there was a backlash can that cause issues like this - it did not look very bad at all. Wondering if I just need to strip them and start over, or if there is something else I am missing.

Thanks for any help

I was out of Holland with the Fam last night as well after a day on the beach at the sliders we went out to 140 FOW & headed North. We actually marked quite a few fish in 137 and tried that water into 110 & back for a few hours. After about an hour I was the only one awake, so a lot of lure changing was not going to happen for me. Here is what we had ending up 1 for 4:

1 small King on a Mod Blue Dolphin on a rigger down 55 & 1 miss on the same.

Hit on a Black Screwball down 65 on a rigger that broke off & jumped 5 times.

Hit on a big Green Glow Frog with a green fly on a wire dipsy back 200.

Radio sounded like 4 bites was actually good last night:confused:

I appreciate the feedback and will play with this a little more. I have been trying to tune my wire and braid dipsy's & was curious if a long lead would have any negative effect on the attraction of a flasher fly combo.

I have read some posts & talked to some guys about the longer leads people have been running on divers. Question is - do you only run long leads when running clean spoons, or do you do it with flashers/flys as well?

Thanks for any feedback,

Shane

I purchased a boat last year that had a thru hull Raymarine installed and got the finder/GPS to go with it this year. I really like it so far, but it was a big upgrade from my last one. I do trailer my boat as did the previous owner and have not had any issues, but I guess it's possible...

Good job - cannot complain about a 20 pounder!

Short report as we went 1 for 1. Took the family out to cool off tonight and of course set some lines:thumb:

Set up in about 120 slightly north of Holland with a 5 rod spread. Took about 45 minutes of east/southeast and we grabbed a 14 pound king in about 110 FOW on a rigger down 65 with an OD Blue Dolphin.

Trolled south for a little longer, but the wind and waves picked up a fuzz & the temp dropped to where the kids were getting a little cold. Not wanting to push my luck as they were very excited about the "big" fish we headed in.

Beautiful night for a little trip out and everyone had a great time:grin:

Someone told me they were about 3 miles, but it did not seem like it was even quite that far.

Went out from 6:00 to 9:30 and ended up going 6 for 8. All fish were kings from 12 to 2 pounds. Started out in 125 FOW south of PS and trolled north to north east until we found the nets with nothing going. I had not seen them before, but they are clearly marked although deeper than I thought as they went out to at least 130 FOW.

Turned around to head South to SE and found the fish seemed to like that direction in the 110 – 120 FOW range.

Lures were:

2 on rigger down 55 with an OD Blue Dolphin

1 on 350 copper with a U of M Glow frog

1 on a 200 copper with a Super screw

1 on a rigger down 60 with a Green Glow Frog (missed one also had a miss)

1 on a Dipsy back ~ 150 with a Coho Killer Spinny and Blue/White fly (this one had a miss)

Went out for a few hours with the family last night – only ran a 4-5 rod spread as I was not sure if the kids were going to hang with it with the larger than expected waves. Ended up having a fun night going 4 for 4 with 2 kings, a Steelhead and a Sailboat to round things out:thumb: Fish were good eaters in the 6-8 pound range.

Grabbed 2 fish pretty quickly on an SE troll in 120 – 110 FOW. 1st one came on a rigger down 55 with a Green Glow Frog. Had that one in the net in the boat and the 200 copper with a Superscrew starts going. It’s time for my 7 year old daughter to drive so I can get this fish out of the net and my wife can fight the next one (both did great!). Then it went quiet for awhile while we changed a few lures, changed direction, took naps, etc… Last fish hit a 6 color with a Cold Veggies just as we were getting ready to call it a night. Took the board off and let my 4-year-old son reel that one in as he was now awake. He looked down and said “dad, I’m on my second color, how many more to go?†– apparently he was paying attention:grin:. He got that one all the way to the leader and got a Steelie for his 1st big lake fish.

Headed in after that one and when we got to the channel a sailboat waved us down with a motor that quit and not much wind left right at the entrance. Hooked him up and towed him back to the Marina which the kids thought was pretty fun.

I have never used bags, but got a larger new to me boat last year and it is the first boat that I have spend any time on with trim tabs. I have found them to be fantastic for a number of reasons one of which is steering while trolling. I have an older boat and the steering is a little sloppy, but with the trim tabs down while going slow the boat has a lot less waggle to it and tends to track quite a bit straighter with less steering. It is also awsome for cutting waves vs. jumping them.

Just my 2 cents and another thing to think about.

Left the dock at about 6:15 and headed out to 200 FOW to set up and troll NE with the waves. Had a rigger with a Cayote spoon go off pretty quickly and we lost that one after a nice jump. We then proceeded to troll around the 180 - 150 mark with nothing going for a couple hours trolling in several directions and changing out gear:confused:

Headed in to try some different water and found fish in 75-80 FOW slightly North of Holland. Ended the day 5 for 6 all nice kings between 8-12 pounds. Spoons that went were Blue Slice, Cayote, Mixed Veggies, UV green Dolphin & a small white spoon with a blue center.

Fantastic - I may need you to give me some pointers. I have yet to break the teen mark with the bigger boat. Hope to get some sat am for my first EARLY trip of the year.

Shane

Went out with the wife and kids for a trip late this morning till we got chased off by the storms.

The details may be a bit fuzzy as a guy can stay pretty busy setting rods, helping drive, answering questions, snacks & catching a few fish!

1st fish came on a full core Super screw in about 130 FOW. Laker hooked in the side with the line wrapped around him. That only took about 40 minutes to get in:eek:. Let everyone on the boat give it a shot, but dad had to do most of the work. Next hit came on the same set-up in about 150 FOW and mom worked on that one with nothing home. Had a rigger with a Black Screwball down 75 pop, but never felt a fish. Decided to change the other rigger out to a Blue Slice and raise it up to 50 foot. Got about a 7 pound king on that one 10 minutes later - think we were back in ab out 130 & let mom reel that one in. Trolled all the way into 70 FOW due to the fog, then heard a boomer to the south and headed in.

Never really marked a fish inside of about 100 FOW & the 150 - 170 range straight out of Holland seemed to be holding the most fish.

Nice calm day on the water other than the fog, but lots of fun.

Went out of Holland this am and decided to troll the mud lines around the channel as we liked some of the marks we were seeing. Ended up 2 for 5, unless we can count shad - then we were 4 for 7:D

Half cores and riggers down ~22 were what we got hits on and ended up with 2 kings. From the cleaning station, sounds like we may have done a little better in about 120 - 150, but it is nice to stay inside once & awhile on a hunch and catch a couple.

Good luck this weekend!

Got a late start out of Holland this am. Left the dock around 9:00am with a new Raymarine GPS/Chartplotter to figure out. Everything seemed to work great except we could not find speed and water temp with the out of the box settings which were hard to test out in the driveway:D. After messing with it all the way to the channel we called the customer service number and they had us set-up before we hit big red - very helpful:grin:

Anyway, back to fishing, we set up in 50 FOW not knowing exactly where they were at & headed south. After about an hour of marking nothing on the new graph, we broke down and asked if anyone could help us out. With some advise (I think it was Windy II) we headed out to 90 - 100 FOW & started marking fish in about 87. We trolled half way to Saugatuck & back with the best marks for us being in the 85 - 89 FOW of water, but were not able to get much going.

Had one really short rip on a half core but it was gone in about 4 seconds - just long enough to not be a wave, but before we could get to the rod. Then we finally had the same half core go in 100 FOW of water just south of Holland & managed to get a 6 pound Steelie in the boat - no skunk:no:

Fantastic day to be on the water. We saw Dirty Dog at the fish cleaning station & they had a very nice box of fish, pink rods and all. After thinking about it - my daughter would love one of those rods & I may have to break down and order one.

I have a new to me boat as of last year & had a long list of fix-em-up items over the winter (15 documented to be exact). One of them that was not documented was the insulation inside the engine cover, or Doghouse. I pulled all the wood off to sand and re-finish. Once that started, I decided to get it re-glassed to make it look pretty which is now complete.

The insulation on the inside of the cover looks to have been re-done at some point and pieces of it fell apart in the disassembly process. The pieces I have been in contact with seem to come off fairly easlily.

I'm wondering if anyone has info on the following:

-What does it take to remove the old and prep the internal Fiberglass of this for new insulation?

-What would you use to insulate and what would be used to adhere it?

The boat is an 25 foot 83 Pursuit and any help would be much appreciated:)

The Gatco system I have has a coarse, med., & fine stone in it with a holder and some oil. I always thought it looked a bit complicated, but it is pretty simple and allows you to put a different angle on the knife depending on what it's used for. The only thing I had to work on was to get the end of the fillet knife sharp as it hooks away from the sharpener - I now reposition it to do that section of the blade.

Also - I bought a couple knives from "Knives of Alaska" a couple years ago and have been very happy with them. I have the "Steelheader" and the "Coho" - they are more of a standard style fillet knife than the Forschner and a bit more pricey, but have served me well.

I have been playing with the idea of getting a Forschner just because I see them at the cleaning stations so often and have never tried one - may just have to ask someone to try one out before I buy:grin:

Can you have to many knives?

I have tried quite a few different sharpeners over the years and have found this one to be very effective. I do have a knife that I dropped on the cement at one point which got some pretty good dings in it (sucks) and I have not been albe to work those out. I think that one needs to be ground down a bit to get it completely back in shape, but I have sharpened every other knife in the house and it has worked great!

Line Dancin - I would be willing to give it a shot if you would be interested. I think I can help Jim's spelling a bit, but it will not be perfect by a along shot Grafschaap???

Until last year, I had a very small boat fishing out of Holland and tended to stay in closer than other boats most of the time. I have read that book several times and agree, there is not much structure around here that is obvious.

However, I noticed when you are running out of Holland (especially at a slower speed) it stays approx. 50feet for a very long time. I have fished right where it starts to gradually drop off from that depth and done well a number of times while everyone else is out much deeper.

I have also talked to several others over the last few years who have "hot spots" relating to a flat, a slight drop, or rise, etc...

Anyway, from what I remember about the book the structure he talks about is very subtle. I am not sure I have ever really had a graph good enough to keep track of this, but have one picked out & I am hoping arrives before spring:D

Good Luck!

Thanks a bunch for the info, I did check it out yesterday and that is exactly what I was looking for. They are not cheap, but may make sense for a couple other ideas I have been thinking about. At least I know I am not the only one who has been looking for something like this - just could not find it myself:grin:

I have 8 rods sitting in the family room right now that I have stripped of line (with quite a few more to go) and have been thinking about how to improve my set-up for next year from rod lengths, reel/rod combos, placement, line, etc... I am not fond of the length of the Michigan winters, but it definately gives you time to re-tool and re-think your gear. I think it may make me appreciate the time on the water a bit more.

Thanks again!

Well, for anyone else who might be interested, I received an e-mail back from Big Jon with what seems to be a pretty simple fix (even though it may mean holes). When they rig a boat with this style Gimble Mount they pull them out and rotate them so they are straight back. They say that the top plate covers any new holes that might have to be drilled. I still need to take a look in the spring when the boat comes out & if this doesn't work will look to get something fabricated.

Thanks for the reply's - Later

Thanks for the ideas - I have checked into fabrication a bit and will probably end up going that way after a bit more research. I just wondered if there was anything out there as it seems like something others would want.

I would like to set up my Pedestal Mount Base diver rod holders in an existing Gimbal mount hole on my boat. The one I am looking to use is angled out the back of the boat at 45 degrees. I have not seen any one standard product that would work with this. One of my assumptions is that a gimbal mount will hold a couple diver rods with a double or triple pedestal base?

I believe I could purchase a standard Gimbal mount and then a swivel base for each side to solve the issue, but I really have no need for the swivel in this application and would just spending extra cash. It seems like I just need a gimbal mount with the plate welded on the tube at an angle to match that of the boat.

Does anyone know if something like this would work, or is available? I have sent an e-mail to Big Jon to see what they would say and am just trying to avoid more holes in the boat if possible.