jay d

it will all depend on mother nature and her spring attitude.we start in march some years and others it is mid april.

they are fishing on the cuts of wixom lake ,they had 2 inches yesterday morning.they started going out on wensday.i allready got a limit of gills in the freezer and i have not even hit the ice:thumb:

robert

have you considered doing any of the work yourself? if you break down the simple system of the hydraulics, its not too complicated. a closed system of hydraulic fluid, turn the wheel one way and the fluid goes another, turn the wheel the other way and it returns, very basically. if you can get the parts relatively cheaply, the work is just time. i've seen some of the work you've done! i'm confident you can do it!

the sea star hydrolic systems are easy to install,took less than a day to do mine.i changed over from a no feedback system and it was worth every penny.

i will second switching to hydrolic steering,after one season with the hydrolic and i will never have cables again.

i run my chamberlains past 130 dwn at 3.0 mph with no problems

here are a couple we got last weekend,the second one hit before we got the first one in the box:thumb:

here is a chamberlain release in action,with this much preload,only 1/2 pound of pressure to release.

Best thing you can do is hitch a ride and see other rigs in action. Everyone fishes a little different and usually always pick up a little something from every strange trip i go on.

Thanks guys for the imput I think im going to just stick with the inlines,and mess with the weights on the boards.Jim I was trolling 4.0 to 4.8 on the gps and had boards jump all 4 times out at that speed it is ussually not a problem when i troll slower,I just have to adjust some holders on my trees this winter to get more space between rods i think.

jimmy

i had the otters and for walleye fishing they were ok but hated them for salmon for thereasons stated above.you have to make a lot wider turns with big boards too.

I use blacks and dubros (same thing). My dad just got a chamberlains and I think from what I have heard that is the way to go (if you can afford them). It would be nice on the blacks to be able to adjust the tension for up release and fish release separately' date=' which is available on teh chamberlains.

You can use rubber bands on the blacks for smaller fish, but as ken said, they make a mess. If you are starting from scratch, I'd say go chamberlains.[/quote']

they are a little more,but they will last for ever,unless you break a cable.anybody that likes the blacks will love the chamberlains,same concept with a lot better adjustment.

2 words for you,track system.you can change your setup to the season.

check out the chamberlains,www.downriggerrelease.com they are like the blacks but have a lot more adjustment.release tension and preload tension are adjustable.i have been running them all season and love them.you can set them so a 10 inch king will release and still have the rod preloaded so hard the drag is creeping out:thumb:

Reads like a good unit. Unfortunately I don't need a FF too. Wonder if I could just run this as a GPS / chartplotter and not even install the ducer or if this would make the unit not operate correctly????

you can use it as just a gps:thumb:

no need to run out in the dark this time of year.we launch with the sun coming up this time of the year:thumb:

we came across a trash slick out of manistee yesterday in the 06s 500 fow,lots of plastic bags,ballons,paper and assorted trash.we did get 3 fish along the side of it ,still sucks seeing all of it floating around out there.

Anybody run Z boards this season? Heard good things about them.

yes i did and i sold all my offshore boards and switched to 4 big daddys and 6 brothers.i dont like the releases they came with,switched them to the red offshore pinch pads on the bigg daddys and the black ones on the brothers:thumb:

frank if you like the blacks check out the chamberlain release www.downriggerrelease.com same concept with a little better adjustment.you can also adjust the pre load on the chamberlains.you can have the rods preloaded to the point line is creeping out of the reel and still have a 10 inch walleye release:thumb:they have them at franks now.

Cant wait to get over there. Gimme a call and let me know the details on our departure. Looks to be a beautiful weekend! Gonna be blood and guts!!!...Hoorah!

i will give you a call tommarow,looks like a 2 am departure time at the park n ride where we met last time:thumb:

me and the bomber should be there weather permiting.are you guys going to be on ch#68 sat morning?

i had a superfisherman 176 with a 2 stroke 90 merc and it ran about 34 mph with a full tank of gas all my salmon gear and crew.i would think that 115 would move you along just fine.starcraft makes a good boat,i am fishing out of a 07 fishmaster now:thumb:

I had sent him an e-mail and plan to order the stacker release when they go on sales later this month.

here is his response to me plus his contact info.

Hi Jon,

There is one store in Michigan that carries my release. (Frank's Great Outdoors).

As far as the stacker goes, the parts are in my hand and we are tweaking the mold to make sure each part is precise.

I anticipate having some ready to go by July 2nd.

We could add you to our stacker contact list, so you will receive an email when they are ready.

Thanks for the inquiry.

　

Keith Chamberlain

　

Northern Strike

Chamberlain Release

202 Kinsey Rd.

Barton, VT 05822

(802) 525-1172

www.downriggerrelease.com

that is correct,franks got them about 3 weeks ago.should have the stackers any time.they should work just as well as the standard releases.

Im hoping to make it, but not sure just yet.

if your not up there with your boat you can ride with us:thumb:

JWheeler,

I went to their website and watched the Youtube video. They look like good products. The stacker release looks awsome also.

switched over to the chamberlains this spring and love them.you can set the preload as tight as your drag will hold without creeping and still have a dink king release.keith has made the perfect mouse trap in my opinion:thumb:

i bought 6 of them when they first came out,sold 6 of them less than a year latter,had the same problems on 4 of the 6.didnt think the clickers were nearly strong enough.all tekotas with tunas drag systems now:thumb: