Line Dancin

We wnet out early and coverd from 60ft to 227 ft. picked up a skamania on a 150 copper with a atomic watermelon moonshine. fish was all over the surface and was up before the board released. then got one small king and nothing else. pulled it at noon and ran in. sunday we decided to sleep in and not fish.

ice job guys wish i could have fished this weekend. thanks again formeeting me to get the decals.

Good deal jim. i have to work tomorrow but will probably be out sunday weather permitting. talk to you out there.

thanks everyone. Tht lights were one of the best things i have done for early and night fishing. Yellow doesn't seem to spook the fish as much as clear when netting and it lights up the back of the boat like daylight so i can see what i am doing. Another thing i did was found a place over near flint to buy bulk 4 inch (30 cents each or so) bright light sticks to attach to the boards now i can see them when a fish hits and find them if one breaks off in the dark.

Here is one more

Here are a couple pics of my bayliner from setting it up this spring. i added a couple more rod holders. It may be old but has served me well over the last ten years.

i wont be fishing either. Although i dont have a weekend for a couple weeks i do have to shoot (muzzleloader competition) the next two weeks. i have also heard the same thing just today at lunch from a friend that he has been out deep.

Here is some info for you on 45 lb copper

75 ft equals a half core in sink rate

150 ft equals a full core

300 equals a two core.

the 30 lb dosen't sink as much and will be shallower than the above. Atomic and optitackle have charts on depth on the websites. As far as copper catching fish.. well i only have a two color that i am using now. all my other leadcore has been taken off the boat. I produce more fish with copper and divers than riggers. if i don't have enough people on the boat to run all the rods thaN a rigger doesnt get set. My best two are the 300 and 75 foot. 300 for kings and lakers and the 75 for steelhead. the 150 i use mostly when the fish are to shallow for the 300 (about 60 to 80 ft depth). Another thing not just the lead breaking through the nylon. but the nylon does rot after a few years and if you test it you will see it is breaking easier year after year. One last point is that it has been proven that leadcore will hang in a thermocline. so if you are trying to target a depth the lead may not get there if there is a sharp thermocline. I switched three years ago to copper exclusivly and would never go back to core.

edit:

also you have half the distance to real in a fish than core.

here is opti's web site:

http://www.optitackle.com/copperssline.shtml

this is what i use. it has a little more twist, not really enough to make a difference in sink rate, but it is a lot easier to tie an albright on.

here is a chart on another site that really shows depth. i dont want to copy paste as i dont have permission to do that:

http://www.educatedangler.com/forums?func=view&catid=11&id=16593#19593

I'll 2nd canning the core down the shoot, put them all on boards, you'll have less trouble. Put your shortest core on the outside and longest cores on the inside. We run 3 to a side all time. When running spinner's on cores, it's a good idea to add an extra ball bearing swivel in front of your spin doctor. That will prevent line twist from wiping out your core.

Ya i forgot to mention the extra swivel. theres things you do on the boat out of habit after a while and just do it and foget about it when someone asks.

One thing to make life a whole lot easier with the 55s is to call okuma and order two new line guides. they have a wide mouth out now that allows the copper to go through it much easeir. it'll be the best 15 bucks you'll ever spend with running copper. If you need contact info pm me.

As far as your cores i would attach them all to boards and not run the 10 down the chute.

As for lures. You can run Spin Doctors and Flies, Spoons standard and mag, J Plugs. It is pretty much up to what the fish are liking at that time of year. In the spring i either run spoons or sd and flies and sd and flies on wire divers, fall jplugs mostly with a few spoons in the mix and then i keep my sd and flies on wire divers.

another thing you can do if the fish are deeper is to add either a snap weight or a dive bomb.

albright for both ends. very easy to tie on copper in rought water.

you dont need a roller rod for copper. okuma came out with an inexpensive copper rod. they are 36 bucks i think at outdoorsman in jenison. i treid two out and am going to go back and get a couple more. they are actually a nice rod for the money. Personally i like opti tackle copper or atomic copper better than howies. it is twisted a little more and easier to tie knots with it.

I am heading out to nunica to get 2 spools tonight. I found out sunday that one of my wire reels only have 300 feet of wire left on it. Guess it is time to replace it.

well we took 8 on sunday ranging from a 6 lb brown a 19 lb king and 17 lb king a 16 lb king and a couple others i didn't get the weight on. started slow till about 8 am nothing then a dipsy went. we ended up in 180 ft and running the mag dipsy back 250 and 275. on the divers i had a white sd with lil boy blue and a green sd with a dark green fly. 300 ft copper went once with a ms glow perch and the brown came in 200 ft on a 75 copper with a new standard sive ms in a purple color. i will get some picks up later.

thanks everyone. OK Jim i wasn't sure if mine was i just put on a new antenna and i am not that great at soldering.

well had a rough start today. everyone overslept and didnt hit the water till almost 7 am. took 5 for 10. 4 kings one laker. most came on 300 copper with a m.s. glow perch and a m.s. wonderbread. two on dipsys with a white s.d and a lil boy blue fly and a green s.d. with a dark green fly. one massive tangle when a weight on a dipsy came loose going through two riggers and tangling a 300 copper with a larg king on(lost at the back of the boat). when the wire hit the mono it was gone. other color that took hits was a 150 copper with a lure similar to a mongo beef moonshine but the color was more yellow. one hit on a rigger 60 down with a green dolphin and one on a rigger 100 down with a green flounder pounder. laker was 11.4 pounds. kings from 5 to 10 pounds.

I'll take four when you get it set up.

We will be out of port sheldon all three days, come hell or high water.

When i talked to you at gold coast at their open house you were saying you would've liked to get somthing bigger. I see you went and did it, Nice rig Jim. see you out on the lake.

nice job. finally have my boat ready and last traces of the flu. and then my sons first birthday is this sunday and we are off to the Fam in ohio to do the birthday. Oh well i wil finally get on the water next week for the first time this year.

Eldean Shipyard in holland. http://www.eldean.com/ It is a very short ride to lake michigan from the marina. they have gas grills to cook on, nice swimming pool and hot tubs, fuel dock, ship store, restaurant, and a pizza place and a fish cleaning station. Bathrooms are clean with a bunch of showers. They have a parking garage with video cams. It is very clean and seems secure. I have never had a problem there. For my 23 ft it was 32 to 36 bucks a night i believe, but for the ammenities it is worth it. For launching there is a state park launch down and across the lake a little that is deep enough for your rig. they will tell you to use the yact club for free but they want 30 bucks in and 30 bucks out so don't waste your time in going there. Nice thing about the state launch is that a sticker for the whole season is reasonable. Only thing is mid afternoon all the idiots seem to be trying to launch and that can become a nightmare at times. Let me know when you are heading over.

Aaron

Supposedly from talking to the guys at the booth at the fishing show you can run it on a regular rod. I guess because it is rounder it doens't cut guides. I haven't tried it yet i was awaiting some reports on the stuff before i junk my wire that i have on already.

thanks again for all the info. I may not be able to go now as i have come down with a nasty head cold. If i dont feel a litle better tomorrow i am headed for the doc and God i hope it isnt that flu going around. Otherwise if i am feeling half way ok i should be out there. Now i have to get antoer person or two to go. Nice to know about the fish cleaning station i will take my fillet knives with me.

the cabelas one is made by pro mariner also. i had looked at those also. i found a minnkota 20 amp 2 bank at gander here in grandville and am probably going to stop by and pick it up tonight. thanks though. i have read some really good reviews on the minnkota and only one bad review.