hornets nest

Reel screwd can I still get in? If so sign up hornets nest.

Took my friend Doug and two kids Jordan and Daniel also ny son Kyle for an afternoon trip. Fished from 2pm to 6pm and went 16-19 with 2 brake offs. Shut down at 120 fow straight out and trolled west . Fish came between140-190 down 60-90. Only ran 2 divers and 3 riggers (when I tried to send out my coppers we would get a fish or two so I reeled copper back in to avoid tangles before I got it all the way out.) Flaher/flys and spoon greens and blues all took fish. Riggers parked at 90 took most. Mostly kings with I think there were 4-5 hos 14 of them were full of alwifes . Fun day with the kids. Tried to get pics on here but can't figure out how on my smart phone yet. Fish were from 5-14lbs.

Call me dumb if you want, but why the dead fish your reffering to?

Have to work Friday and little league opening day Sat , I'm on the board and one of the coaches so I guess I better be there. Hoping for Sun thou.

Thanks for the report . Good job

Was that a dream or a date mistake , on am I out of touch with reality I thought the 20th was tomorrow .

Amother thought i just had was about line. Right know I have 15 lb test that is in the clip, I have a 20' leader of floracarbon 15LG bloodknotted to the mono. Should I scale hack on the line, to say 10lb ?. Smaller diameter should help I would think.

I am aware of the rubber band and curtain hook set up, but good info on the red bands Sherman thanks. I've tried lots of different ways of setting the line in the larvick clips but I do appreciate your explanation line dancing, thanks. And I am very tuned in to the v in the tow line so I do know when we are dragging a fish. My problem is lets say I have 3 lines out pulling reef runners at a 80' lead and the middle rod gets a fish but not released we just kept trying to tighten the slack until it popped without pulling the fish into the inside line but i hated jerking it loose, I feel we lost a few fish because of that. These were not dinks either we had several 6-9lbs fish just swim with the lure. We have always used the larvick releases and had this issue I was just wandering what you guys were using. Anybody that has been trolling in the Western basin of Erie lately can justify on how big the trolling bite has been this spring so far. We have caught several fish this past weekend and two weeks ago in the 8 -11 lb class. And one that was just shy of 12 lb. 4 trips out of Ohio side we have boated 39 fish with great size compared to what I see the jiggin guys catch. Would the 3 rd board help with keeping the tow line any tighter? Thought I would ask never hurts to get other guys thoughts. Thanks.

This winter I re-rigged the Hornets Nest so the reels for the big boards were accessible from the side of the boat and didn't have to go around to the bow to deploy the big boards off of a 6' mast in the middle . So far I love it.(not having to battle the inlined and a fish is great.) The larvick releases I have work well so far i have run up 8 colors this spring and had the fish pop the release . My question is what about a release for flat lines with less aggressive fish(walleye in particular ) I bought the smaller size 30 larvicks and last weekend had the same issues of fish not popping the release . I run the walker triple boards with one board off previous owner removed one board, I have the other boards I can put back on if it will. We do get some slack in the tow string from waves moving the boat around, especially down at 1.5 dog. Would the otter boats pull any better? What releases work the best? Thanks for any input ..

Wound up the day 17 for 22 with 5 returned to the lake and 5 returned not on purpose . Hos and kings,3 kings in the 11 to 15lbs range. Lost the biggest king when it made a mangled mess of the hooks of my black orange and gold smithstick and came undone when it broke the last hook off, it hit on a 4 color and was off and running for its first run at over300'. No real pattern to depth everything fired atleast once, riggers all the way down to 140',divers all over between50-140' out,4 5 6 and 8 color green and orange and green for color. 150- 170 was best depth. My nephew was with us first time out and the look on his face was priceless when the biggest king we boxed made his 5th run after he got it to the back of the boat on an 8 color it took off again and he was in disbelief . Ah the memories made on the lake. Great day on the lake.

Made the first trip of the year. Crazy warm for march, only one dink coho to show for trolling from 9:30am till 1:00pm. Nice day, all of my updates to the boat turned out well, the planer boards I re rigged with 2 small masts just in front of the cabins and the reels mounted to the side of the cabin were we can reach from the seats worked out real well, no more going around the cabin to get on the bow to let out or retreive the boards YAAA. Autopilot worked well along with the used 9.9 Yamaha 4 stroke I picked up over the winter, no more problems I hope like we had with the 2002 Johnson 9.9 4 stroke that would not run one trip out without problems all last year. The one fish came off a diver and spoon. Didn't see a lot of nets going, water temp was 42-45 deg worked in front around the edge of the dirty water while for a while then headed south in 10' to 40' of water, good trip, wish the fish would have coaperated better. Thinking about going to New Buffalo tomorrow.

I use the rule of 4-5' per ounce if you have enough line out, put the db in the middle of your cores, ie if u are running your 5 color let out 2 1/2 colors put your 4 oz db on and finish letting the rest out as u normal would, now instead of 20-25' down your 38- 45' range depending on speed. Make sure u put them with the wide part of end facing forward.

Fish hawk X4, by far the best unit, my opinion.

Thanks for the replies that's what I was hoping to here. Raymarine has them for $1700 on there website, anyone have a retailer they would recommend?

Does anybody have any good or bad reviews on the smartpilot x5 from rarmarine since they redone the older sport pilots. Not wanting to spend the money on the hyd steering then the autopilot. I have a few friends with the older sport pilot on the cable steering and they said they work good until it gets a little wavey (2 to 3 footers or more). Not a big deal there as most of the time the people I fish with can't handle anything more than 2'. If they are more than somone has to drive I guess. Any imput from you guys on the smartpilots?

I had similar issues with wire when I was using the okuma blue diamond medium action rods and mag size divers. When using the next size smaller it wasn't an issue. But the blue diamond rods did not have enough backbone. Basically the rod was already bent to the max. Switched back to my 10'6" braid divers and problem went away. Lost some tackle and a lot of fish before I figured it out. Diver rods need a good backbone if your going to run mag size divers whether braid or wire.

I stay away from coated Dr Canon balls, because if water gets behind coating it will cause a bad odor. Plain lead painted flat black for me.

Thanks for the help with the pics guys, I will figure it out eventually. Had a lot to do for my last few days of classes so I havn't been able to keep up the last few days.

Took my dad, 9yr old son, and my best freinds 13yr old out. Went 9 for 14. 7 kings 1 coho and 1 laker. 2 kings were 17-18lbs 1 was 14-15 lbs and the rest were smaller. the laker we released. 1 king came on the chute rigger down 71' in 85fow with a blue bubble spin doctor and matching fly. 1 king on 175' copper with a nuclear veggie spoon in 85fow. and 1 king one mag diver out 130' with a war frog flasher and meat rig in 90fow. Moved back to 60-70 fow and had 2 double and one tripple, the action got fast and furious when the rain mover in. The biggest fish 18lb came on 8 color and a 4oz dive bomb added with a mixed veggie spoon. Fish was relentless and would not budge for quit awhile. wound up taking about 35 minutes for my son to reel in. UV glow flasher and meat rig and the above meat rig on divers took most the fish and lost a few, out 100 and 90 feet. Had one swing and miss on a slider on the starboard out and down. Geat day on the water and the kids had a great time. Got the pis in the gallery from my phone but can't figure out how to get them hear.

I didn't finish about the phone call, sorry. I called the number in the book and it has a home loan advertisement then goes dead??????? Go to the web site and no e-mail info to send them a question. Would like a little better details on the copper. Also they have a depth chart for dive bombs added to leadcore but doesn't say were they were attaching the dive bombs, when I rum db on lc I usually let out half the core then attach db and let out the rest of the lc. A little more info there would have been nice and they only list a chart at 3mph for the dive bombs. I guess for 40$ at GM I was a little upset at the clarity of the charts.

I picked up mark Romanack big lake edition 2 book, has a lot of great info. One thing I noticed though is the 45lb copper chart page is messed up in my book, it reads the depth on line out and line out on depth, like 18' line out you get 100' depth. I think it just turned around but it shows at 2mph 300' only gets 48' down, but 27lb lead core at 2mph a full core gets 59' down. I tried to call the number in the book to get an explanation and maybe an updated page for copper. If the copper only is only getting down 48-50 at 300' then I think I will be rethinking that stuff. I was told 7' for every 25' of 45lb copper up to 250-300' as in 200' of copper would run 54-58' range and 300' would run 70-75' range at 2mph. I have drug bottom in 80fow with my 300's spoons and fly's had muscles on them to prove it but it may have been on the inside when turning and going slower then 2mph. Any body else got his new book and notice the same thing or what do you guys think.

Thanks for the help nailer!

Well I got the pics from my phone to the gallery but cant get them to the forum

Set lines at 5:30am in 70fow headed northwest got a 19-20lb laker in 90fow on rigger down 80' with a green frog meatrig, got a small king on mag diver out 110' with a glow frog spoon in 100fow, my 9year old son got a 18-19lb king on a mag diver out 130' with a blue bubble spin doctor with a matching fly (hopefully I can figure out how to get pictures off my phone over to the forum) he was thrilled as was I but a little worn out and went back up into the cabin and fell a sleep for about 2 hours, picked up another laker on 250' of 45lb copper with a mixed veggie spoon and lost another laker at the back of the boat (o darn) and had one othe release on the frog meat rig, 110fow of water was wear we marked the most fish, only got out 120fow. 4-6 not bad for this time of year, hopefully things start firing up soon, talk to ya next time.......

I second the fishhawk. We have the x4 and it has worked flawlessly for us. No coated cable to deal with is a huge advantage. It is a little more pricey but I feel its worth it.