Pioneer

If you Google salmon eyesight and all the different studies done on the rods and cones of salmons eyes it took me weeks to read some of the articles written studying this subject and I am not even close to done. You could go on for months! A couple of interesting themes for me came to the top. A salmons eyes can not see different colors at great distances and thier eyes are built for seeing differences in shading more then color until they are really close in. Salmons smell and lateral line sense probibly has WAY more to do with a fish coming in to bite then we think. Think about all those big catch charter guys, it is the spread that acts like a school of bait that helps them get fish. One guy is all fly, some are a mix and some are all spoons with all different colors that get 25 fish limits in the AM. I personaly think it sounds and feels good to a salmon to crash that spread and feed, let alone when I talk to those guys if someone touches a bait with aftershave or lotion they will wash it or throw it away. A top coat is the easiest way to add a little UV reflectiveness. Remember if you spray a lure and you get some on your hands and you touch the line you get transfer, thats not good, they could see the line. I fished ALOT of UV sprayed flashers in the last 3 years, a little may be better then alot. I never fished with all UV stuff in a spread so be cautious with that. Study all the info on when salmon's eyes changing from rods to cones and back and the delay in when a salmon gets used to the change. Pay attention to the "Shading" of a lure (stripes, dots or a glow slash or combos of them and when they get hot in the water). I have a small group of friends hear on the west side that over 4 years have been making great strides in putting more fish in the box when over all catches have not been increasing in our ports. I think it has to be because of the studies of sight, smell and sound we have been doing. This year will just be another study year for us as well trying to make another jump, can't wait. I just thought I would add I have started reading alot on the west coast salmon fishery and the techniques they use out there. These ideas are old news to them. Thanks to Tony C on getting my mind started. Chris

Things that iluminate under black light and something that reflect UV are totally different. Last summer I studied all the research from the west coast on salmon cones and rods as it pertains to when and how salmon detect parts of the UV spectrum. I am lucky enough to live next door to my sister and husband who are chemical enginers and know thier friends who have access to millions of dollars of testing equipment used for taking readings of UV reflectiveness and UV light ouput in medical devices. After a night of salmon and beer they took some lures in for testing. Interesting what you find out. Because you can't see in the UV spectrum that fish can different companys selling UV stuff shine black light on it and say "look it's UV reflective". Just be careful of that statement. The bad thing is that tackle makers can not afford to do a test for themselves and with the rush to jump on the UV bandwagon that has been on the west coast for probibly over 10-15 years alot of wild statements are going around. I won't call anyone out because I don't want to get sued, but I tested everyone out there. You know who you are that are selling s##t to us fisherman. UV Blast is really good at delivering UV reflectiveness in fish eyeball ranges for salmon and walleyes by the way. That is one good product. I am in NO WAY connected to ANYTHING that deals with ANY UV products for sale in anyway. Just thought I would throw that in there. Chris

Kyle, Talked to Paul this am, give me a call. 763.516.1137. Chris

Leathem Smith lodge is set to open in Sturgeon Bay WI after being closed for a few years. It was bought by FLW Walleye angler of the year Paul Meleen. I have slipped by Paul for a few years and it's nice to see a great guy catering to fisherman. I will post anything more I know later, they are just getting the phone number up and going. Chris

Kyle, I have 3 different sizes of torpedo's and a good friend of mine reaches depths of over 100' easily. He loves running them on church boards. They have alot less drag. I will keep you posted on how we do on the bank. Chris

Change mono every year, on braid I keep for 2 years cutting back through out the season and then switch it end for end for another 2 years. Have not broke any yet. Helps that is out of the sun while at the dock under the copper line. Never have changed copper in 4 years, looks fine. Chris

I do OK pulling my 300' copper, not great but OK. It helps alot if you keep the "belly" of the line your letting out, out of the water, this is worse when you run a mono over a braid backer. I think the new Tx-44's will be great for my longer coppers, those that have used them like them, we will see. Chris

Russ, I can't agree enough. I have the same boat and I run the same speed as you do with the same leader lengths. I wonder if our fly colors are the same? Chris

In 3 years I have never used my drop curtain on cold days but use my 4 wire rigs every time out. Go wire.

In recent years longer has been better. Started at 23-24" and now I am at 25-26". My catch has been better with longer leads. Leaders are 50lb mono but I am going to try 40lb floro this year to slow down the fly some more.

Pro-troll and Hotspots are my mainstays. Fins on the wires and hotspots on the riggers. Are they worth it, when on sale they are. Does that chip thing work, probibly not but I like the fin on wire. They catch fish.

I have both underwater LED's for netting and LED strip lights for indirect lighting in the cockpit. Brads cut plugs for my first "meat" experiment, not true meat but a way to get my feet wet. I am getting more combo's so when switching baits it's easy in and out deal. A bunch of cool stuff from these guys, neat products. http://www.ssicustomplastics.com/netted%20boxes.htm

Figure that we all should have the safety EQ in the boat, i.e. compass,radios,GPS,flares, fire extingisher, etc. I would start with a wire rig. Put a dodger on it and I can tell speed, put a diver on it and it's my most productive rig, put a lb ball on it and i can fish greaseballs with it. Speed-n-temp, good graph, and a nice blond round out the top 4.

Go with Tuna's55L or a 553LS Clarion(53" a crank!). I love those new Clarions. Chris

I assume the gt2 has a higher ratio then the then my old 340, that thing was a turtle!

I forgot to add I have LED strip lights under the coaming pad for some cockpit indirect light for doing stuff in the cockpit.

I put LED's on the hardtop and then a set on the transom for netting. I used them alot last year, here's what I found. Lights from the hard top and transom kind of bounced off the water so I am removing my transom lights and going to double underwater lights from coastal. Not cheap(190$) a light, but they illuminate a huge water area in back. Go with underwater lights on your trim tabs, I think you will be happy with that. There are a bunch of posts on thehulltruth.com on this very subject. Chris

Jballer, don't go with a cheaper reel. The Magda in my opinion doesn't have the quality to run alot of wire. Go with a Sealine 47 or a "newer" model convector with the drop drag. Best option for the budget minded are these 2 IMO.

I love Walkers thats for sure but my favorite color is metallic green and 2 of mine faded yellow, that I don't like.

Frank and Champ got this one spot on, all I do is wave them across the spreaders for a second or two if they are green or blue, I will however count to 5 on my purple stuff. I do have Coastals like champ and they are a bright white so I don't charge too much.

Forgot to say I use 45# copper on my setups. A full core shooting across a 300' 32# copper rig sounds risky.

We run both copper a core off the same side without problems but our standard set is a 300 or 200 foot copper on the inside. A 8 an 6 color with 300 and a 6 and 4 color over the top of a 200 copper. Never a problem. IMHO if you have a 150 copper on the inside even though it has a steaper decent angle as you let the full core or even an 8 color out over the top as you slowly let the core out and slow it down to drop it back the decrease in board speed will cause it to sink deeper in the water, as it crosses you would probibly connect. You can run copper and core on the same side, it works well for us. Try it, if it works, use it.

I would not run that on the same side, either way, inside or outside there is going to be trouble.

I have both, not in my opinion but I use 300 yds of at least 50lb braid backer on my reels. Albright knots catch the guide as well and the drags keep creeping loose on my 57's. I switched to all 453LS and 553LS high speed Clarions. Around 200' of bloodrun with my backer is a close guess.

Same here. I do run the finned pro-troll on my wire dipsey but like Kyle said, I love Hot Spots on everything, even copper/core.