jimcr

Been a long week I think I was having withdrawals from not fishing. Out with my son Nick,headed out to 90ft set lines by 530 am . couldn't have been more than 10 min after all lines were set the first rigger went off . My son picked up a fairly nice Laker , returned to get much bigger. Not five minutes later one of the dipseys fires ,fish decieded it didn't want the fake fly and spit it out.

15min later other rigger fires and I pick a very nice 7lb coho. It got very quite for a while until another rigger fires off.

this nice fish estamated at about 18lbs. started running at the boat and with out stopping kept giong right into the other rigger cable , mono always looses against stainless steel. Fun time but nothing after that. Went 2 for 4 , donating a new spoon(worked good till the 18lb king left with it in its mouth. Lost flasher fly due to line twist.

Tight lines

Jim

My last post brought up a subject that I never really thought about,what are you rod holders made of and what would happen if it broke.

Who uses Plastic rod holders and who uses Metal?

Have you ever had a rod holder break , did you loose you equipment?

Tilt that rear rod holder down as far as you can. How many fish do you take on dipsies over there? The boat we fish out of is much like yours and we only run 1 wire dipsy on each side, so 2 total. We hang a lot of fish on lead and copper on inline boards. I understand that the dipsy rod is a blast to fight fish on, but if you boat does not allow the space or freeboard to run 2 dipsies per side I would re-think. We typically run 10 to 11 rods on an 18 foot Lund and tangle rarely. 2 downriggers, 2 dipsies, 6 boards, and one down the chute. Dipsies set on 1.5 in the summer.

My boat right now is taking about 70% on dipseys right now, the riggers have been real quite for a while.

As for lead core I can't afford any more rods right now its the last thing I will buy this year, but no funds right now.

It looks like you have your diver rods in plastic holders.

Sooner or later they will break, and you will loose your rod, reel, and tackle.

looks like I'm going to have to put a safety strap on until I can afford metal ones.

I'll try to lower the inside and raise the out side rods, here is the best shot I have , its also going to get a little more complicated as I just bought 2 more down riggers, big Jons 4' booms, have to find space to squeeze them in somewhere.

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/2/3/7/7/m_dscn4809.jpg' alt='m_dscn4809.jpg'>

only time the riggers get tangled is when a fish runs over the rigger lines.

looks like the outside rod is down in this photo, I have raised them since.

I might be letting out the line to quick , get in a hurry sometimes.

Jim

Here is another question for you guys, I run 4 dipsey rods 2 per side. riggers straight out the back off each corner, How do I keep the lines (dipseys) from tangling? I am running flasher flies on these rods ,they don't get into the riggers they are much deeper. I am running on the far outside a 10' 6" #1 set on 2.5 to 3 running from 70 to 130 LOC, the rear(inside) dipsey is a 8' 6" #0 set 0 to 1 running 55 LOC. the rod holders are about 10" apart. I'm not sure if its the current or the turns. When I make a turn its very wide. I was out yesterday and both sides tangled, while I was clearing the mess the pole went off for my daughter, not too much room in the boat for 2 messed up rods and fighting fish. I thought running a #1 deep would keep it clear of the shallow rod.

Jim

Thats an Awesome sunset Nailer

Nice pile of kings and Cohos there. Lets hope they are still bitting for the weekend.

Tight lines

Jim

Seems they are scattered here today too, a least the night bite sucks right now, can't wait till the weekend if my neck is back to normal I'll be out.

Jim

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the responses . I know you get what you pay for and I was comparing the Diawa Accudepth to the Okuma reels. In the near future I am going to buy some rods and reels for lead core,at this point its the last thing I will be buying this year.As I have blow the budget this year.

Tight lines

Jim

Get alot of kings here that like to charge at the boat , and they swim faster then you can real. Nice Job .

WOW that thing looks like it could eat a small dog in one bite. Awesome

now you got em crawling up the signs, nice job.

Sweet, nice Job

First morning run of the year , heard that the bite was better in the morning and it was . Took my cousin out with me this morning, went 5 for 8 all fish came on flasher flies 3 coho and 2 nice kings .

Tight lines

Jim

Check out the side of the fishes mouth treble was buried there and broke off on of the hooks to be found latter at the cleaning shack. still buried in his jaw.

Went out sat morning with My wife Janice and a friend of hers Sarah, got through the north gap 200 yrds and had to turn around due to high waves , nice move NOAA, you were wrong again not 1 foot waves but 4 to 6 footers, trolled the harbor south of main gap, 0 for 0.

Back in the evening waves under 1 foot , much better, now out with my son, went 1 for 2 lost firt one .got up on top dancing again and though the bait again, I just hate that when it happens. hour later getting ready to call it a night and a 16lb king hits one of the riggers screaming out line, pole never came up just slammed down as the drag started screaming. After this guy stop pealing out line couldn't budge him one bit for the next 10 mins. My son goes to net this one and he does a tail stand almost getting in the boat. but hangs up on the net, as I scream noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, and reach for the fish it gets back in the water with the line between my finger, never reach down and try to grab the lure or fish , did a real good job laying open two fingers . Second time at the net did it , boated a nice 16lb king. even run finished 1 for 2. great night to be out .

Tight lines

Jim

Who makes a better Reel Okuma or Daiwa.

I have 2 27lc and 2 47LC really like these very smooth, but not wanting to put all the same type on everything I am wondering how well the Okuma reels are and how well they hold up.

A little rough for my boat 5/25 so we headed back in and trolled the harbor south of the main gap, just got 4 poles set and working on re rigging one that I had to cut the day before and FISH ON, nice 12lb king . Call it a night earl to take my wife and one her friends on a boat ride up river. 1 for 1 .

5/26 Much calmer today, left the dock at 540pm set lines by 550, Marked lots of fish and bait but only one taker ,10lb king my son picked up,(seems I have been hogging all the rods when they go off so I let him have this one)got to be fast on my boat. Soon after we boated the fish the wind changed and started blowing , you don't want to be caught out there with a strong north wind. Pulled the liones as fast as I could and headed in , still a very rough ride in . Had to zig zag to stay out of waves sideways.Made the trip back a long one.

Tight Lines

Jim

Nice Ho's and good luck on the charters.

A very short night ,cut short waiting for a/c service man who didn't show up but called 2.5 hrs later.Didn't get to set lines until almost 7pm. Went 1 for 2 , my son Nick lost his on the platform on the back of the boat ,after having a little problem that the other dipsey got tangled I'm not tall and he had the 10ft 6 " pole . Had to cut the line off in a hurry ,shame it was a really nice one too. He said his arm was sore when he got done, He is really getting into fishing on the big pond with me. Nick cleaned his first fish tonight, what a surprise that was , he just grabbed the knife and told me he was going to do it . Yea less for me to clean! Heres a photo of the one I picked up. Tomorrow Jan my wife is going out , got to get her hooked too.

Tight Lines

Jim

Can't wait to be back out there ,today flat calm but fog so dense you had maybe 50ft of visibility if you were lucky. Maybe next week.

Yea I got it Just ask my wife Janice, she says all you think ,talk and do is fishing.

I love it.

Tight Lines

Jim

Left the house and clear no fog, none. get to the lake and like pea soup. Brought my older brother this time and decided that we should stay in the harbor its a little too thick tonight. We slowly drive down past the main gap and set lines , no sooner do I get all the lines in the water one of the dipsey rods goes off tangles into the other rod and lose the fish. Nasty night to be out so we made a couple of more passes and lose another one in the main gap did a quick turn around and pick up one Coho my brothers first on the big pond. Had fun , lucky to have a break wall to follow tonight.

Tight lines

Jim

Keep in mind as you are reading this its my first year on the big pond ,so if I seem a little excited ,bear with me. Spoke to a few guys that were out on Wednesday , I was disappointed that I only pick up one fish that day and looking for fish info. So I asked a guy in the cleaning shack where he cought the cooler full of Kings and he told me out in 85 fow. So Thursday we would start in 70 fow and head east and see what we could find. So 70 fow to 80 fow Nada, we hit 82 feet and bait starts to show up. 85 feet and now we find fish too , none seemed hungry so we just kept trolling aroud the bait and about 2 hrs and we finally hook up and lose it. I said to my son doesn't look good tonight. Then about 7:50 one of the dipseys goes off on his side , Just as he's grabbing the pole BOTH down riggers go off at the same time, (I'm saying to my self he hooked the riggers?) No he didn't , we never even had a double before , its a triple, Holy (*&^. I managed to get my fish in first and netted his fish giving him the net and going for the other pole , and his fish tangled up really well in the net, So I managed to swing the other one in with out the net. Rest all 3 poles , By now its getting dusk and I put the aft light pole in right next to one of the riggers ,turn on the switch and the rigger goes off, no way yup another king . Now my arm is getting kind of sore,I started letting line out to reset the pole and the dipsey on my side goes off and its just screaming line out , 15 minutes later a nice 15lb king, Now my arm is truly sore and its getting dark so I says to Nick lets pull lines and run in . Not too be the other rigger goes off , now I'm laughing my ass off , sore arm and now I have to fight this one in 5-8 foot swells. A freighter was leaving port and made for one hell of a ride bringing this one in. Not done yet one last fish hits one of the three dipseys left. Left with 2 rods to pull in empty, It was one incredible night . Find the bait find the fish , don't give up.