killerbe20

the pictures of this fish don't even do it justice. Seeing it in the display case with the other winning fish, it made 20 pounders look tiny!

I had great luck with 3, 5, 7 and 10 colors last summer. kinda hit all the depths.

All my leaders are 30# fluorocarbon from Blood Run Tackle. If you shop around you will find it is the best bang for your buck. Plus they are 300 foot spools so it goes a long way. http://www.coppertrollingwire.com/?cat=4

beautiful fish! I love lake trout!

nope!

jim - the shirts are holding up good so far. only have had them since july or so. Is there a limit to the amount of colors that can be done with screen printing?

I used Mason for as long as I can remember from my 17 years working on and running charters boats. I tried Blood Run in the middle of this past season and love it. Don't get me wrong, never had any problems with Mason but I really really like the Blood Run. Soft, smooth and very easy to work with, not to mention I have had excellent customer relations with Blood Run.

the 41 pounder was caught between Wind Point and the Oak Creek power plant. Along with another 34 pounder and plenty in the 15-20+ range.

Dont see as many big guys caught in the spring but i would be willing to bet there are still hanging out there

ha! I have no complaints at all. I have to agree, i have the two best "part time" jobs anyone could ask for!

I currently use all okuma cv55l's and am thinking of upgrading. I will be selling them all if i do. unfortunately i won't really know until late winter/early spring.

I would love to get together!

The Brown trout fishing around Wind Point really is fantastic! I cant wait for spring! I'm hoping to be fishing by the first weekend in April. Hopefully I will have some good fishing reports for you by the time you are in Racine.

I almost always have two of my three riggers with an SWR. One on each corner then the middle rigger straight and the deepest. The SWRs generally have been more productive for me over the past 5-6 years. I am doing most of my fishing between 8am and 5pm though.

which side of the lake?

Around Racine - shallow water, around structure or near warm water discharges. Small spoons and different body baits. My favorites are Rapala X-raps. Natural colors and anything with orange in it.

a handful of boats over here actually gut and gill their fish as soon as they are caught. I notice a huge difference in meat quality when the fish are cleaned immediately vs sitting in a cooler all day. That is how most commercial fishing operations do it.

I too had been doing this up until this year when i realized running trips by myself, there was just too many other tasks that prevailed trying to catch fish in a limited amount of time. It also makes the boat messier and i had never accomplished getting my wash down set up working properly.

i absolutely agree with keeping both as well. it really is not difficult to run them both at the same time either.

i have been doing the haywire twist for 4-5 years now. it does seem at first glance to be something you can not trust but i have never had any issues. the twist and swivel has no problem going through eyes, reels as long as its small enough. i think the Spro swivels i use are either 35 or 50 pound test and super small.

i use a #10 (? not exactly sure) Spro swivel to attach my copper to my main line and leader. Attach the copper to the swivel by simply twisting the copper around itself, there is a name for this but i can't remember this right now either. The swivel is small enough to travel through the eyes and into the reel with no problems. Never had a failure with this.

just another option

ha! no i actually found it on ebay!

Day two of the bottom job was much better then day one. I managed to accomplish just as much as day one in less time. I would have kept working through the rain if it wasn't for being shocked by the angle grinder! It must have gotten wet at some point and turned against me.

I realized today that I can get more out of each piece of sand paper then I thought. I was feeling much better today and with extra energy and putting more "stank" into it, the paper was going much farther. Maybe it was the three 24 oz. Rock Star energy drinks I had!

I purchased a cotton spray hood to go over my head before starting today, highly recommended. Clean up was much easier today and I didn't have to use thirty Q-tips to clean out my ears. I was surprised when I got home to see may full face respirator had arrived in the mail already. From here on out, this job should be much more pleasant and healthier.

Leaving tomorrow for Nashville, home of country music! Be back Monday night and hoping to put in a full days worth of work on Tuesday.

i just watched the slide show, disregard the previous trailer question.

nice fish! i hate this time of year putting boats away!

thats an interesting trailer. is it custom?

The First In's complete bottom job has begun. Starting with sanding the bottom then going to put on a barrier coat and finish up with a few coats of VC-17 bottom paint. This is quite a big project, especially for those who may not be as familiar with or comfortable with boat maintenance. I am planning on documenting the entire process from start to finish.

After researching the cost of having the bottom paint soda blasted off, I chose to just sand it myself. Honestly, I only work every third day, i have all the time in the world. How much time could it actually take anyways? Well about five minutes into the job I was trying to think of any way I could get out of doing it myself! Time to suck it up, all part of the joys of being a boat owner.

The pictures show the progress of about 3 hours of sanding. Quite the messy and labor intensive job. I can understand why those who can, pay someone else to do this kind of work. The First In has, from what I can tell, three lays of paint and it is pretty rough. All the years in Floridian waters definitely have taken a toll on her.

I am starting with 40 grit sand paper and an angle grinder. Takes awhile to get through the top layers, but once you are close to the gel coat be careful! The 40 grit paper will eat the gel coat before you even know whats happening. I started taking the paint all the way off with the 40 grit but from here on out I plan on just getting close then switching to a finer grit paper. I also plan on switching to a lower RPM orbital sander and even hand sanding all the edges and valleys.

Don't forget about safety either. I used a half face respirator and safety glasses along with work gloves. This was alright but with no seal around the glasses, lots of dust and particles still made it around my eyes. Not cool. They are still irritated today. I have ordered a full face respirator to finish the job.

Other jobs are taking priority tomorrow but going to continue sanding on Thursday. Alaina and I are taking a trip to Nashville over the weekend for our one year anniversary, but I'm planning on finishing the job next week. Progress updates will continue!

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/1/7/5/0/2010-11-01_00004.jpg' alt='2010-11-01_00004.jpg'>

we can have it at my house if you bring it to Wisconsin!

i really want to attend. All depends on where and more importantly, when it is.

cool shots!

good luck on the surgery!

jim - to keep things as simple as possible, just think of copper the same as leadcore. not as easy to use, but you run it the same way.