BlueCollarOutdoors

Sounds like you got it figured out. Dont watch the rod tips bouncing for the most part. If you ever see a rod tip NOT bouncing then you know something is up. Might be dragging around a little guy or have a tangle.

If you need to on the TX 22s shift the weight fwd a bit on those boards to make the dig a little more and cut out to the side better. Lots of weight on the back end will make them ride a wheelie and then the angled part of the board is out of the water and will not "cut" the water and push itself out.

I never set the long coppers to release just point the rod tip at the board and crank and the board will work its way to the middle of your spread.

Then again I never run more than 2 boards a side on my rig so the only thing I am trying to clear over the top of is a dipsy. I set short cores on the outside of spread to trip and center before reeling very aggressively.

We bought a few at the Mull/Keating seminar in Manty. We were also told 2/1 on these.

200 ft leader? Must be a misprint.

Not a misprint. The spoon was breaking the surface 200 feel back when I finally found some leadcore on the reel. I have no idea why it was so long, no one spoke up when I asked the question.

Somehow it got cut down to a reasonable length during the trip and caught 2 fish

200 feet was rediculous! By the time I got the 7 color in the water and put the board in a normal position, I had 650 feet of line out just to get a spoon down 30 feet. Then the board tripped 3 lines and slid all the way down to the spoon. Talk about alot of screwing around.

Eventually I cut the leader down to under 50, and put a new release on that board and it took 2 fish that night.

Agreed, your going to get a lot of answers on that question.

Generally I run spoons back 50 to 75, and flashers around 40 feet.

The first year I had riggers I ran everything back 75 feet and caught plenty of fish that way as well. We talk about different action of flashers on a different leader length, but have you ever put a flasher on a copper or fullcore? Thats a long leader.

Do what works for your spread on your boat. Shorter when learning will help avoid tangles. I have put lures 200 feet behind the DEEPEST rigger in the middle of the day. There is nothing else down there to tangle with so let it back in the no noise, nothing else running water.

My copper was at 40 feet all of last season and was a pretty consistent catcher.

My cores are 20 to 25 and put plenty of fish in the boat. I was on a boat with a 200 foot leader behind a core last week...

Brian is pretty correct with his small amount of gear theory. I have 100 spoons but every trip I grab the 10 I will probably run before hand and put them in a cup holder in the back of the boat. Even then 4 of them will likely see the water.

At this point I basically run the same fly on over half of my rigs.

Gotta have some backups on board but when you find something that works on your boat and your port letr rip.

It can be hard at times. Most tackle has some kind of description right on it now. I have taken pictures of certain flies or flashers and saved them to a folder on my computer. Name the file something like "pk charlies special" and you will know what to look for if you need to duplicate or replace it.

Most guys would say the paddle is an 11 inch flasher, and call the 8 inchers a flasher/regular size.

I'm with Ryan on this one is there depth are anywhere near similar I would gladly run the small diamter 32 to achieve for example 58 feet instead of 66. Trading the lack of depth for being able to double the amount of braid back I have would be a no brainer.

I was in the the "fish dont run with long coppers" bandwagon until I almost got spooled by a 22 lb racecar in cold water last weekend. Now I am having second thoughts.

Good chatter here as usual. I guess I shoudl just get a 32 and go test it out in shallow and see what it does for myself.

Literally spreading everything out will help your "fish on" procedure.

I run a simple and effective 6 rod spread and we rarely truly tangle anything.

I would love to run 2 more boards but I typically only fish with one other guy in the boat.

My typical boards are a 250 copper and a fullcore, so adding a 5-7 color and a 2 color for rainbows would not really complicate anything at all.

6 clean rods in the zone off a small boat with an easy to run spread will get you plenty of action.

Good luck.

50 should work for you. Better be careful on turns though or that copper will be in the ground if you turn hard.

Do not run the dipseys on planer boards.

You want riggers in the back of the boat, then one dipsey per side a couple feet further away from the transom with those rods laid just about flat on each side of the boat. Then run one planer board per side up even further towards the front of the boat. Those rods should stand up tall with the tips just about straight up the in the air.

Best picture I can do at the moment. Riggers in back, silver rod holders flat for dipsey on the side and one planer board per side are close to where the camera man is.

Well I guess a very important question would be what depth do you normally fish and what depth do you catch alot of fish at?

I dont know huron well so if your fishing in 75 feet of water and catching fish 40 feet down you have a million options.

Dipseys are productive as well and will also get some lures away from the boat instead of having 4 lures all right behind the boat in a clump.

A good starting dipsy rig would be a size 30 reel with a counter, spool it up with as much 30 lb mono you can fit and then 50 pound Power Pro 150 yards. A Mag dipsey set on 3, a rubber snubber to absorb the shock of a strike, with a piece of 30 pound mono roughly the length of the rod and then your lure.

I have hit bottom in 90 feet of water with this setup going 2.2 mph on the GPS with 275 feet of line out.

If your not familar with dipsy diver they have a dial on the back and 0 would run straight behind the boat, number 3L will cut out the the right if your facing out the back of the boat. 3R will cut to the left looking out the back of the boat. Run your dipsy rods about 4 feet forward from your riggers and lay then down flat or close to it.

Copper is must have to me. The ability to fish deep and away from your other setups added a ton of fish to my boat last year. It especially effect from 7 to 10 am and then again long before sunset when the prime attack anything will reckless abandon bite is off.

Your basic copper setup would be a 8'6 okuma copper rod for about 40 bucks and a 45 or 55 size reel.

Put as much 50 lb power pro or similar braided line on the biggest reel you can afford first, then add 200 to 300 feet of 45 lb copper and then a 10 to 50 feet leader or 20 lb mono of some heavier flourocarbon.

I have a 250 copper on a 45 Okuma Madga with 450 feet of braid backing. I wish it had 900 feet but I put on as much as I could fit on that reel basically. 98 percent of the time fish will not pull out a ton of line do to the weight of the coppe line, but this friday that was tested to the max with a fat 20+ pound king that wanted nothing to do with our boat.

I run that copper rig on a TX 44 but others have ran 150 to 300 coppers on the smaller Church walleye boards as well.

I would definately add some flashers to your mix, pick up a 8 inch green and glow/silver flasher with a green/glow fly 24-26 inches behind the flasher. Put that on a downrigger about 40 feet back. Even if it doesnt catch you a fish the flash should pull some lookers into your spread and they might grab a spoon while they are in town.

Good luck.

Challenge!

Good replies by all. I would agree with a little longer on the high divers but the real separation will be in using different size dipsys or a lower number on the dial on the inside/deeper dipsys.

I used to run 4 all mono before I got any braid. I had 8'6 on the insides with mag dipsys on 2, then 10 footer on the outside with regular dipsy on 3.

Was typically not a hassle but I do remember a king running straight from the inside rod up and out and into the high diver and both were gone before I could blink once. Right about that time I starting looking into some good long line options on boards to cover the same depths since I was only running 6 rigs in my little boat anyways.

Good luck.

Sounds like you got the right idea. I would definately pick up a 45 lb copper in the 200 to 300 foot range. That rig will put alot of fish in your boat.

Planer boards on the outside, dipseys in side of that and then your rigger. Run your SWR as your deepest rigger wherever you decide to put it.

We did just fine on a smaller 8 inch spin DR last year with about a 48 inch leader to the mini meat head.

I use and offshore red clip with the pin and off a 3 way swivel tie a couple inches of heavy mono and a snap swivel. If somehow your red release lets go you have a backup in the swivel and your not down 15 to 20 bucks.

Let out your 5 color then clip on the 6 oz torpedo and let out another 100 feet or so of line and you will basically double your depth. Its a great way for a small boat or small budget guy to maximize rods and be able to fish many sytles with one rod. I love snapweights. Extremely versatile.

We use the mini meat heads from big weenie behind 8 and 10 inch flashers and running them right along with spoons and other flashers and they work well.

I had one get hit last year at a snails pace .8 mph while messing around.

I run about a 6 foot piece of mono. Swivels on both ends with an offshore clip in the middle. Just put the mono through the hole in the offshore release so it would slide around. Put down your rigger with main bait about 10 to 20 feet, then the stacked line swivel goes on your main line, pinch the offshore release on the mainline, toss your other swivel with spoon in the drink and lower the hole rig down to set depth.

Any offshroe except the red or16s will do. When the fish hits it will get some pressure from the offshore making a decent hookset. The offshore pops free and then slides down to your main bait.

Yes if you get a fish on the main bait, the slide will sometimes wrap around the main line.

Just take a second to spin it free and either unclip the offshore and take it off, or unhook the offshore and let it slide down the main line. Its not as much of a mess as you might think. We have done it with spoons on top and flashers below and its no big deal.

It will suprise you when you see a rod shade then nothing for a couple seconds. Remember that top line has to slide down 20 feet, release from the cannonball then slide back 40 feet or whatever you stretch behind the ball was to your main lure. A very easy way to get more lures in the spread without having 2 more rods, holders and gear.

Here is some of the best documentation I have found on fixed sliders. Great info and pictorial. http://www.team-fishigan.com/FT/fixed_slid/fx.htm

http://www.rapturetrollingflies.com/

Just picked up some of these at the seminar at Anglers Ave, in Sheboygan this weekend.

I used a big weenie mini meat rig last year with success, but it doesnt sound like the actual teasers matter much or even that there on the rig at all.

Get the roll right on the bait head and your in business.

As far as the 333 goes, they are looking for a few big bites so your gonna see more flasher flies and especially meat. We never caught a shaker or 8 lbs and under fish on mat last year. Some of these tourneys they can only catch 10 fish before there done, no sorting, no nothing, just done. I wish I had that problem, but you get the idea.

And last...there are sponsors for the show, they are not going to show you 10 fish in a row on something that does not support the show.

Lots of spin doctors shown. Sure they catch fish and I like them too, but you are only seeing a small chunk of the day on that video.

Sounds like you just gotta let em out slower. I use the clicker and feed it out reel slow especially to start. Generally once you have about 50 feet in the water the pull and resistance will gradually take it out nicely without any backlash or dropping it in the water too fast.

Another option....Last year I only ran one copper and I just get 25 feet in the water then speed up a couple mph and let it rip out. Gets it out in seconds. Otherwise in the morning by the time I get the other lines in we generally have a fish on and now I have no room to put out a 300 down the pipe with a fish coming in. If my last rod in is a rigger or dipsy I can still sneak that out while we play the fish.

Same thing at night I just let the copper out at 6 to 8 mph and its into the backing in seconds. Slow down to 2.5 or whatever and get to work on my other 5.

To add to the original question we caught alot of fish on 300, 250 and 200 lengths of 45 lb copper last year. Id got 300 and 200 if buying 2 of them.

I have had the "stall technique" work me for with long lines as well.

Just put it in neutral for a couple seconds. All your leadlines are now sinking and then rising as you resume your normal speed. You just covered a little different water level and put out a little erratic action on the baits for a bit which might produce a strike.