Flyboy

Thanks for the reports Jon.

Great job Don! Now that I've heard a great report out of muskegon, its time to get the boat out! Thanks for the report!

Its hard to find people willing to get up at 4:30 in the morning to go fishing! Sounds like I definately should look into trees though.

Its an 18' 6" Lund. I fish two riggers, two dipsies, and normally a copper straight out the chute. But the copper was so great last year that I want to put out another. But if I can only run 6 rods most of the time, I just can't see myself spending $300 on something I won't use that often. Then I may as well buy a few more copper rigs and some new boards.

What kind of knot would you use to tie wire to braid without the wire cutting right through the braid. I have to admit, thats the reason I've never felt comfortable running wire because I felt everytime I sent out a dipsy on a 1 1/2 setting it would cut right through my rigger rods and lose my tackle.

Does it make sense to spend that kind of money on trees though if I can only run 1 board off either side anyways? I normally fish with one other guy at a time, so I can only run 6 rods most times. Would you guys still recommend spending $300 to buy a set?

Well, I have 2 Okuma Magda Pro's lying around and thought I'd use them for dipsy rods. Not wild about the reels, but they were given to me so I figured I'd may as well use them. I believe they're the 30's.

Is wire line to abrasive to have a backer?

Its been a while since I've set up new rods, and forgot how much backing is needed for rods. How much backing do you need for a dipsy with 330' of braid, copper rods, and lead core rods. Flyboy

I made the mistake last year of cutting 1000' of wire in 2 500' segments for two wire dipsies. After reading alot of your threads, it sounds like that was a big mistake and should've just kept it in one segment and put it all on one reel. Can I still do anything with this or is it worthless? Flyboy

Alright, I need some advice. Is it worth buying rod trees if I can only run 6 rods and the occasional 9? or should I stick with mounting a rod holder or two towards the front of the boat. More often than not I'll only be able to run two boards, so I need to know if its worth spending $150 a piece on two trees. Flyboy

The hardest thing to do is trying to decide which one to run!

Ran 300' of copper down the chute for the first time two years ago. Puts at least 2 or more fish in the box than if I weren't running it. It does get pulled in if another rod goes, as fast as your arm allows, never had any issues. Even by pulling the rod every time another fish was on, it still managed multiple hook-ups for the short time it was in the water. Am definately glad that we did that.

Flounder Pounder, Mongolian Beef, and by far DOUBLE TROUBLE. Goes out everytime and run till late in the morning. Catches fish all morning long.

Just not sure yet whether to start the mornings off with long lines or another set of dipsies.....

I'll be fishing out of muskegon again. Just started with 300' of copper out the chute two years ago and that rod is insane! Goes off every time, never fails. So I plan on runnin boards this year to hopefully get out a few more long lines. Haven't decided whether to run copper or lead yet, but those lines keep the fish biting, so I need a few more.

How easy is it to run boards in the dark if I ran 2 copper/core setups instead?

Wanna get a few opinions on this to start the new year. I'll run 2 downriggers and 2 dipsies for sure, but how many of you would run 2 more dipsies or run 2 lead/copper setups instead? Does early morning setup change your opinion at all? Thanks, Flyboy

Heard some talk about how far a 300' of copper should be away from the boat and dipsy, how far away from the boat should the planers be?? Jake

Where would you put the dive bomb on a copper rig??? The leader or the copper? Flyboy

Howie and Optie 45lb Copper

Does anyone have any idea how much deeper a 1,2,3, or 4 oz dive bomb takes a 75ft or a 150ft copper? Flyboy

How often does everyone change their line on their rigger rods and braided dipsies, or the backing on copper rods? How often should the copper line itself be changed? Every year, every other year......? Flyboy

I guess no one ever said that salmon fishing was an inexpensive hobby......adding a planer arsenal to a boat setup is not cheap. Does anyone know where to buy a relatively inexpensive set of rod trees?

This past year I tried to run my 300' of copper off of my walleye boards and the board would hardly drag that far out and the board would almost be buried underwater, is this really to much weight for the walleye board to handle? Flyboy