adrenalin

I've always been under the impression shimano sets the price on their takotas the same for everyone. I've bought them all over and always payed the same exact price. Boater Barn has the 700's for $168 looks like the cheapest. http://www.boaterbarn.com/Shimano_TEKOTA_TEK700_SALTWATER_Casting_Reel.htm

Looks like you got some good sponsors.

Very nice, how big was that trout?

Russ when do you thing the coho will be in this area?

Hopefully in Kenosha/ Racine 2nd week in may Milwaukee 3rd to 4th week. Could be sooner or later all depends on how fast the water warms.

Here are my 3 coho setups. I put the spin doctors on the divers and 00's on one side boards and b&b's on the other sides boards. What ever works best that day gets put on all my boards. I don't get any more creative than these 3 setups because they are proven for me so if the cohos are their it shouldn't take to long to limit out. Josh can attest to this, if the fish are their you should get them pretty easy.

when I had big jons I could not use the auto stop on that rigger because of the bead. Maybe someone that uses big jons has a way for you.

For the guys who have been out already what are the cohos looking like? Size wise and health?

Change my monos every other year. My power pros have never been changed and are 8-9 years old. Change my cores once I get a tangle that can't be fixed.

I did hear that from more than one person. Iv heard it has a lot of sponsers on the dvd and a little fishing.

That's what I heard.

Some guys sit there with pliers and pull the bones. I tried it and hated the time it took. Now i run my fingers downe the bones find where it ends and cut the tail off the is now bonless. take your knife and start on one side and feel the bones as you cut down that piece is now boneless. Do the same in the other side. you loose a piece that is about the thickness of a piece of bacon and have no bones in the fillet. It takes a little practice but once you get it, it is easy to do. When you come in some day meet me at the fish cleaning station in holland and i can show you. As far as the ribs i cut the fillets off the spine then remove them.

exactly what I do.

Color should be about #4 to worry about when trying to raise your production on FF. Speed, Leader legnth, Depth, and Delivery devise are all more important factors to me than color. The "hot set-up" or "hot color" means nothing if its not in the right place, at the right speed, behind the right devise!

If color really gets confusing, any part of any of the Great Lakes I have ever fished.... White flasher/Aqua Fly will do the job every time.

My preference is for 8" Spin Doctors with a 24" lead from the end of the loop to the bend in the Treble hook. And for what its worth...I dont put any fly in the water anymore unless it has glow beads. If it dont glow...it dont go.

John is right on, honestly if they stopped making every fly color except aqua and only made white and green flashers it would completly change great lakes fishing. Most people would learn how to fish flasher flies to their fullest and probably double their normal catches. Aqua flies go on all my blades all the time, their really is no better fly color for salmon. This might sound crazy but if you asked 50 charter captains what fly color pays the bills 49 would say aqua.

If your fishing Kings always clear. I don't believe colored divers attract fish. I want em looking at my flasher, not my diver.

The other thing I didn't like about big jons was the counter, I was constantly adjusting it, at least every other trip. My cannons are 3 years old and they haven't moved an inch.

Do you have shore power on your boat? If so, where did you mount the plug, and breaker panel? I moor on the port side so I'm thinking about putting the plug below the port side window, and mounting the breaker panel in the head below the helm compartment.

No I trailer mine. My buddy has a baha with shore power on the starboard side. I guess that would make sense about where you want to put the breaker panel. He docks on the port also but the cord reaches.

I had Big Jons on the last boat and they where decent. But on the new boat I got Cannon Mag 10's and think they are alot better. I like auto stop on the cannons better, telescoping booms, and no swivel pulleys. The motors have more power also.

I got all shimano rods and love them. $12 for a diawa rod sure is cheap, I've bought flashers that cost more than that. Looks like the tdr's are about $22

Tie braid directly to diver with 1 big bead ahead of diver.

Attach your snubber to the diver and tie a 5 foot leader to the snubber

Tie a swivel to the leader on the snubber

Attacher your flasher to that swivel

Tie a loop knot on your fly leader and hook it on the flasher

I retied all of them with a 26" lead to the eye of the hook. I figure that now they are all at least the same and I can make adjustments from there. On the big paddles I went with 36".

Keeping them all the same is the main thing, now just dial in your speed with that length and you should do well. Good luck!

Man those were some pigs, must be Lake O kings.

Leader length makes a huge difference in how many fish you catch. It depends on your speed, weight of the fly, and #lb test of leader material. I would suggest once you find the best length don't change it. We tie all of our leaders 24 inches from the tip of the loop to the HEAD of the fly. #40 ande mono and our speed is 1.8-2.0 on a depth Raider. We have been running this program for probably 10 years and it is right for our boat. A buddy of mine with almost the same boat runs the exact same setup and it kills fish for him too. Once you start varying your leads 3-4 inches and your speed all over the place your catch rate will drop alot, but you won't know that unless you have already found the perfect speed and leader length. Make sure you know where people measure from also because that will change the length by up to 3 or more inches. Also run the same amount of beads and hook setup everytime, that will change things also. Some of the best charter captains in the bussiness would probably even say my 1.8-2.0 is to broad. You can have things close and consistantly catch 5-7 fish each trip or get it dialed in and consistantly be in the double digits each trip. It's that important. Hope this helps you out.

Funny i just brought this up at a show this weekend.

Most guys I talke to run anywhere from 20-50 ft. Here are the reasonings behing their decisions.....

The guys who run the longer leads will be using them frequently and cutting them back constantly. Longer just makes this easier. The guys who run shorter leads truly believe that the short leader puts more action to the spoon due to the way the leadcore moves around in the water. Too long of a leader and you lose the extra action.

For me, I usually run 20-25ft of 15lb flourcarbon leader material but I'm ONLY using clean spoons off my leadcores. I've had no breakage with the lighter flourocarbon and believe the short leader makes my spoon move around much more in the water column.

I haven't had to cut back much, but I let me leaders get to 15ft before i consider retying the whole thing.

Sorry you said it too.

Part of leadcore's seductive appeal is it's ability to "snake" through the water. With a shorter leader, you're transferring much more of the leadcore's movement to the business end of the presentation. On more than one occasion I've cut back my leader during a trip (especially if theres some wave action) and immediately begun to see improved results.

20-25' leader for me.

Kind of suprised your the first person to mention and think of that.

I agree with the movement thing, super long leaders cancel that out. I put on 4 passes and replace when it get to about 15 feet.

I guess maybe I should toss in some background on my trolling styles. In over 30 years of trolling I have tried just about every ball made, from fish shaped, pancakes, torpedo types, teardrop and rounds. Yes I do like to troll fast with 3.0sog to the low side and 3.8 on the higher side. Blow back for me is usually not an issue as I am not running them overly deep. When I do go downtown speed is slowed accordingly. I run mostly clean spoons and a few body baits, very seldom flashers or bells unless plying deep for lakers.

The real kicker here is I do fish in the St. Clair river for early season and fall silver and lake trout. If you have ever fished the river in Pt. Huron you will know the current runs at over 5 and increase the closer you get to the international bridge. Add that with the forward momentum of trolling into the current the speeds are as well increased. Towards the bridge the depths run from 40 - 60'. Ball performance is at a maximum in these conditions, simple changes in direction and the balls will fly. To return and head back downriver means kicking up the throttle and making a rather quick turn to keep my stuff free of tangles.

So hence this is why I specifically asked about the Ridgebacks.

Wow, those are some crazy conditions your faced with. I think stinger makes a 24 pound weight. At a possible 6mph that might help. If not hope the ridgebacks work for you.

I use the Pro Troll flasher with great results. Is it from the E chip? I think it's more the design of the flasher myself. The extra fin adds rotation?

I agree with both guys here (that's an awesome flasher by the way) I've testest the echip theory on flasher and believe it does absolutley nothing and heres why. Take an echip out of your flasher and shake it back and forth, theirs a bb in it that hits the sides supposedly emitting an electrical impulse. Now remember when you were a kid and filled a bucket with water and swung it in a circle over your head and it never spilled. Same exact theory here, momentum of the spinning flasher causes the bb to stay on one side and never move so how could it actually work. I do use protrolls and they are a top producing flasher, because of the echip, I don't think so.

This might sound opinonated but I fully believe if you are using a 12 pound round ball and having to much blow back you are trolling way to fast. When your fishing over 100 feet most people are using a flasher fly for kings or lakers, blow back shouldn't be an issue at 1.7 - 2.0. If your ripping them at 2.2-2.6 their isn't a weight out their that won't have a ton of blow back.