Salmon Assassin

I use Okuma 7' leadcore rods, bretts place on the bay had a deal on those last year. I personally prefer shorter rods. The longest rods on my boat are 8' and those are my dipsy rods. I have two 8'6" TDRs and wasn't super impressed. I however LOVE ugly sticks. I have 7' downrigger rods and you can load those puppies up. Best thing to do is try different rods until you find the ones you like. Best/Cheapest way to do that is fish with other people.

Wow I must be the creep of the board for prefering deeper water. The 210FOW mark was awesome for me last year. The gas getting there and back sucks but the fish are out there.

Walmart Super Centers sell it around here, once the season gets closer, I can mail you some cans if you wish. It's $1.37 plus tax a can and shipping would only be about 6 bucks.

If you ever venture over to Milwaukee, Let me know and welcome to the site.

Garlic Roasted Tuna in olive oil, the worst smelling product on the market. I take a cheap tupperware container, dump in the all the tuna, pack the brads cuts plugs and let them soak a while in the container. Best Cut Plugs are wonderbread, black jack, glow bloody nose, and the purple frog.

I run them clean no flasher or teaser, and you have to swap out the hooks, the OEM hooks dont stick for nothing.

That doesnt sound good at all, hope everything turns out for you. Let me know

Awesome, I'm ready to do som fishing right now. I wonder how early the coho run is gong to start with the warm weather. Mid-April last year the coho were slow going in Milwaukee, but when May and June almost every trip was a limit. Plus those months were below average temp and were wet!

My boat is kept in dry stack and in/out service doesn't start until April 15th

Thanks for the input. I have mainly hot spots now but after watching a chip porter video and seeing all of his spin doctors in makes me wonder if I should invest in some of those. I am just chomping at the bit for April 15th to come and to watch the boat get pulled down from the rack. Dammit I want to fish! The ice down here sucks.

I switched to the Scottys and those puppies are awesome. Dropping the balls down deep and no false releases, I use 7' ugly sticks and can really load them up with the scottys. I use 12# balls on the inside riggers and pancakes with the fins tuned on the outside.

Looking to expand my spin doctor arsenal this year. I normally run hot spots but looking to add some more options. I have the basics such as mtn dew, blue, cracked ice...

What are some other "must haves".

Also does Big Weenie just sell flashers, saw few there I wanted.

The only time is acceptable not to get excited is when the 300' copper boars fires and you can't pawn it off:)

I use my probe for speed but when I find a decent break regardless of the temp I will fish the break as well as above and below. Once I find where the active fish I, I will adjust my lines according. Don't focus on having to find the coldest water, with a goofy year like that one we had the thermocline wasn't as apparent as in years past. I've taken some big rainbows 15' down in 70 degree water.

My plan is always to find fish and replicate success. I know guys that will catch a few fish on a certain lure and then swap the lure out. Personally I'll throw another one of those lures down.

Here is one from August this year, a few miles off the filter in Milwaukee. A little reminder that regardless of what your running or what equipment you have, the lake still runs the show.

I also got an x5 last year and I don't know how I fished without one. Here are two items to consider...

1. Self Installation will save you money BUT some companies now require a certified installer or the warranty is void.

2. I bought mine from West Marine for $1600 because everyone else was back ordered and they got it there the quickest. I also purchased the extended warranty. Should something happen to the unit Raymarine requires you to send the unit to them, with the extended warranty West Marine sends a tech to me.

The unit can be a little noisy but it handled four foot swells when I needed it. Runs great at all speeds as well. It's an awesome unit and I only regret not buying it sooner.

On my boat I ran a kicker so the auto pilot was able to steer the kicker which is hooked up to the I/O with an EZ Steer with the main engine off.

I can strongly recomend NOT buy the rapala charging box. That thing is garbage. I used one of the camera flash things, but with all this uv flashlight light discussion I might have to give that a try.

I believe in having options on my boat. Get the four riggers. You don't always have to fish all four. At the end of my season this year I was fish 135' down in 200+FOW, I am a a lot happier having rigger to get that deep versus copper.

Deep rggers always off the back, never leave fish to find fish, fish the hot hand.

Good luck

This past season I upgraded and added 14 Convectors to my arsenal, including a 55 levelwind for copper. Now I fish the Wisconsin side of the pond where I dont normally run lines 100' + down. I am looking this year to upgrade my copper reels and I wanted faster reels. I am looking at the Clarions which can pick up 53" of slack per crank. I was wondering if anyone had any comments on these reels one way or the other. I contacted Tuna Tom and he related that the upgrade kits for convectors are no longer available. I was thinking of getting 3 Clarions one for a 300' copper, a 10 color and a 15 color.

Gentlemen your thoughts please.

Auto Pilot would be my first upgrade as well. Sounds like a sweet rig, good luck and post pictures.

I use copper to get deeper than leadcore, I run 45# copper and have no complaints.

I am reading books on alaskan salmon fishing, kinda useful

I was surprised no one mentioned brads cut plugs

Have you seen the set up on the S.A.? I am sure you could mount both riggers on the side. Run one off the back on each side, and one of the side. Use pancake weights with a tuned fin to keep the side riggers away from the back and your in business. Another thing to do is have the green machine make you a 4 holder tree with the bottom holder for a dipsy.

I would contact Reid with get in touch with Terry. I would but from Terry before any other named brand.

I heard that you can upgrade the drags on the CV55's so they are as fast as Clarions. The tekotas are too out of the price range I want to spend on reels. I got a deal last year and got 12 convectors for $60 each. Took a dent out of the fishing account but hey the cheapest part of salmon fishing is buying the boat!

I run the Sportpilot on my 24' power assist steering Sea Ray and it is by far the best money I have ever spent on fishing. How did I fish without an auto pilot? It's a little noisy but it keeps the boat straight, I have no problem recommending the Sport Pilot.

After spending $1500 for a conversion you still have to kick out the cost of the auto pilot and the installation. Figure the auto pilot is another $1500 and then your looking atleast 5 hours on an install at $100 per hour..... Do that math, you dont need to convert your steering to get a good auto pilot.