N II Deep

Sounds like some one might have to get charter out of Cancun - or Cozemel... sooooon. atleast ground hog is comming up soon.

Frank, the Garmin 440 I bought was around $450 at West Marine, another $80 for a new tranduser, and being electical / water nervous - added the 2yr extened wart. for another $50. the only issue I had with it was trying to run both my older Lowarance fish finder that was mount right next to it. but after playing with it for a couple hours we figure out how to change the Freq hz to another setting and they both worked fine. this way I could leave the gps on Map and still see fish - or lack of fish on the other. I'll try to upload a photo that may show where I mounted them. I'm limited on dash space is another reason I picked this unit. the only draw back with this model is the screen size it is small, but very clear and easy to read - even without my glasses. jon

I picked up a Garmin 440c (i think that was the model, I know it was in the 400 series) last summer just before we headed north with the boat. I picked this one becasue it did have the Maps built in. it also has a setting so you can have no detail to lots of detail. I was surprised how much detail was shown. you could even get phone numbers for the marinas off this unit. when zoomed in you could see the slip in Ludville. and it keep our butts out of hot water when we went out of Hessel in the UP. Lots of rocks just under the surface that were marked on the map, plus one night we came in way after sunset and the GPS lead us right back to the dock & keep us off from the rocks. I would have never found the ramp otherwise. I was very happy with the unit I bought.

last year was my first as well, what a blast it is to be reeling in a big hog, went once on my buddy Ryan's boat last May:D, was on craigslist that weekend, & by June had a set of downriggers, & 4 rods & a net, by July a few more rod holders. Now I have up the rod count to 14 & have trees ready to install. can wait for spring. I think the boat will come out of storage mid March so I can have it ready for the Brown Blast.

Welcome aboard Tim, good luck with that new boat. as far as respooling, any mono for riggers I would just do it now. any braided line for your dispys if the spool is fully loaded just peal off 100-150 foot and call it good. if you have any wire or copper just check for kinks. Lead core look at the condition of the outer cloth. if it looks frayed or torn get rid of it. you can loose alot of lures or setups ($$:eek:money:angry2:$$) real quick with line that is not up to the job.

great words of wisdom Mark, I ended up buy a couple of CV55 Okuma loaded with copper this winter. they are very large & heavy. I hope to not have the tangled mess. you still up for going out this spring?

I downloaded a 209 parts list and have the screw numbers from that. let me know when you get your list together and we can get a hold of Tuna Tom's.

Thanks - 47 deg's today - just counting the days .........

I did a little barter with Ken and inheirted two Penn 209 reels. on the side of the reels they are missing a couple of screws. I pulled a couple more out just to see if I could match them up at the local hardware store. no luck. the thread is very close to a 4-40 thread, but the machine screws out of the reels would not fit onto a 4-40 nut. I don't think they are metric as the major o.d. is 3.095mm with a pitch @ 0.445mm Did Penn spec out a special thread? if it is special do you know of a source where I could buy? Does any one know what thread size these screw would be? I have two different length that I am missing. one is 7.45mm thread lenght that goes into the mounting frame bottom side of reel. the other is 9mm thread lenth and goes into the three cross spacer bars. any help would be great.

I have blacks, white 'glow', yellow , & green's all are mag's w/ a couple being 1's have tried sunber's but have switch to just a 50# mono leader.

now that would make a great picture with the fall colors. very cool pictures:cool:

With the help from Nailer - Ken we ran 4 divers off my boat the the first time last summer. just as you asked about. wire diver with mag ring on the inside set to 1.5 back about 100 - 150 , then the high diver was also a mag diver set to 2.5 10' rod w/ braided line back 125 to 175. seemed to work very well did not have an issue with the two getting tangled, for this spring I have my own rods, both are setup with braid, but plan to run the same way.

on the flip side you and I might land a 20+ pounder...

I left my email for you in a pm, I have a couple forms I could send you

My Signinture picture was taken by Nailer this past Aug - it was a great trip. and from underneath you feel very small...

now that's a great Idea with the cd's I think I still have a stack of AOL Cd's from a few years back. was going to shingle the house with them, but using them as flashers sounds even better.

Ken has already ordered the plastic caps. thanks for info share. Spring is almost here...

Ok, yesterday I was sitting with Ryan, watching the football game, looking at this pile of beer caps thinking could you string some of these caps together to make a lure out of them. so today at work I google beer cap fishing lures, ton's of links. Has anyone every tried to make lures out of beer caps? Did they work? http://www.bottlecaplure.com/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Beer_bottle_cap_lure/ http://rednecklure.tripod.com/

like the guy that built the sweet looking ratchet holders, I have more time than money. Plus with being an engineer at a machine shop helps, for those after hour G-jobs.

I made them from 2" 6061 Alum tube. the base was just 1/2 x 4 x 6" alum. one set was made to fit inside Bert's track. the other set will mount direct to the boat. now I thinking of adding a Rocket launcher across the top that I could mount lights to as well. We do a lot of night fishing.

Nice Work. the trees I just built just came back from Power Coat. are you going to seal yours in any way?

thanks for all of the suggestions here from the group. if I end up building something and it works I'll post it.

alwasy up for Good wings, share away.

Great shots, Spring just won't be soon enough...