BenLubbs

Good Luck with the surgery Dave.

Thanks for the report Jimmy

Sign me up Ken, the boat will be ready this time:thumb:. Thanks

What do you guys usually run on the core early? Spoons or flasher/fly?

My personal favorites:

Dbl. Orange Crush

Glow Bloody Nose

I've never tried to run any flasher/flies on my cores.

What Brand of Auto Pilot do you have on her? I would love to add one to our SS235 to free up a set of hands while fighting/landing fish?

The boat has a Autohelm SportPilot + in it, it was made by Raymarine but has been out of production for a while. From what I've found Raymarine stopped serviceing the units so if you have issues you are on your own. I'm hopping that mine is fine and the guy just didn't know how to work it.

As for an update, the rails are mounted, the trees are modified, and the downrigger bases are built. The bases and trees got dropped off for powdercoat today and should be done by Thursday. Right now I'm planning on making the first trip out Friday evening after I get out of work. Hopefully there won't be any issues and I will be able to wet a few lines. If everything goes good friday I will be out Saturday for sure. If you're going to be out Friday night let me know and I will give you a shout.

A lot of the guys I know and fish with run only one core and it is always down the chute. They've gotten good at it and rarely tangle and take a lot of fish on them too. If they get a fish on the rigger or dipsey the core gets moved to an outside rod holder so it it out of the way. That being said, I have always run my cores off of boards.

Either of the dates work for me.

Looks like it was an awesome day until the weather moved in. I was wishing I could have been out there the entire time.

Sundays don't work for me either. If Sunday's don't work for a bunch of people maybe we could move it to the following Saturday?

Those are some beautiful smallies. Thanks for sharing.

Ordered one of these tonight along with some other flies. Hopefully it rocks them this summer

I used to run only dispeys and leadcore when I first started salmon fishing out of my 16 fter. The first time I used downriggers on the boat, I got twice as many hits as I had ever gotten before and half of them were on the riggers. After that I decided riggers were a must.

I would definitely keep leadcore/copper in the mix. Down here in Holland I have always taken fish off my cores right at day break and twilight. I've never had a problem running boards right away in the morning or late at night and I ran them out of a 16ft. boat with very small lights (assuming you are worried about not being able to see the boards). I always have my drags set just tight enough so that they don't creep a alot on me. That way, if a fish hits the line, the drag starts going and I know I have a fish on. Good luck.

It's getting tight for me to get the boat finished up for Saturday and I don't think I'll be able get it done. I would be interested in riding/driving if someone needs another crew member.

I've got to fish Superior some time. Looks awsome, thanks for sharing.

I got mine on Tuesday. I love the colors, looking forward to what they will produce.

Ken just a heads up on my status, I'm still planning on fishing but I probably won't get out for my shake down till next Friday so if I run into any problems I won't be able to make it.

By the time I finally get out on the lake I think the Dog will have caught all of the fish:lol: Thanks for the report Terry.

Hey guys I have a bunch of extra stuff that I would like to sell

1. Pair of older style Long Arm Riviera Manual Downriggers (wire is above the arm) - $25 w/o Bases

---- Both have counters that work, single rod holders, and wire

2. Pair of newer style Long Arm Riviera Manual Downriggers (wire is below the arm) - $70 w/ Bases

---- Both have working counters, single rod holders, and wire

As far as the bases go, you can buy bases from Riviera or you could also make your own. I don't really care which downriggers they are sold with. Also, Dual Rod holders to mount on Cannon Arms mount on the upright posts of Rivieras if you want better/more rod holders

3. One Proos Manual Downrigger - $25

----Has wire and counter

----No Rod Holders, Spool Release Knob is broken (could easily be replaced), Counter is missing face and pulley (have a new pully from Proos), Powdercoat on base is chipped

4. One Electric Proos Downrigger - $60

----Has Wire, Counter, Single Rod Holder, Switch and Motor work

----Does not come with extra electrical connector

5. One Wooden Paddle - Make Me and offer

6. Three Tite Lock Rod Holders - $5

----I don't believe any of them have the small round toothed piece, the previous owner drilled holes thru the bases and put screws in to keep them from turning, also, he drilled the adjustment screw hole so that he could just slide a pin in and out, I would consider them for parts, not for use.

7. One Big Jon Rachet Rod Holder - $15

----Comes with mounting base

8. Antenna Racheting Base - Make Me an Offer

---- Looks like it had a wire antenna in it at some point, was not being used when I bought the boat so I took it off

9. Cabin Light - Make Me and Offer

---- Was in the boat when I bought it but does not go anywhere

I will consider offers any this stuff so let me know if you are interested or want more details.

Also, If anyone is looking for or knows of someone who is looking for 2000-2005 4cyl. Eclipse, Galant, Stratus, or Sebring parts let me know because I have a lotttt of parts.

So I'll give and update on the progress. As it always seems to, it's going slower than I had hoped. The main thing is that I have 95% of the wiring complete and the little I have to do still won't take long. I also have the seats back in the boat with all of the tears fixed. My goal is to have the boat ready to hit the water by Saturday, although that will be tough. The main thing is that I would like take her out for a shakedown trip before the WMFL event next Saturday

Some pictures of the progress:

Two of the seats had major tears in the corners with foam spilling out and just looked plain ugly. I tore the seats out to take the carped out and took the covers off to get them fixed. Came back and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Seats mounted and no Carpet

Helm w/o extra fan/electronics but missing hand held GPS w/ mount

New Wire Route (wires were running under the wooden hatch cover before, keeping it from closing and pinching the wires)

LED deck lights mounted under the gunwales (5 per side)

LEDs in action

Fluxgate compass for autopilot relocated (cudos to Nailer for the suggestion)

2nd Battery wired in

New LED trailer Lights going on

Old trailerlights that apparently held water well

Tackle storage on each side of the boat

Shot while standing on the Bow

Now for a few of the toys:

All of the rods

Walker Electric Downriggers w/ Chrome Dual Rod holders and swivel bases

Fish Hawk TD (If you fish out of Holland and would be interested in borrowing it let me know )

Yogurt Flies to field test

A few other things I remembered while I was typing.

First, as far as trolling bags go, what size should I be looking at if I want to run one per side. I am probably going to have a lot of novices driving the boat and want it to be as easy as possible so I'd like to run a bag on both sides when I run them.

Second, as far as naming the boat. I found out the boat did have a name before "Pete's Treat". Since it doesn't fit at all for me I'm not even considering using it. The two names that I have sort of narrowed it down to are "Rod Ben 'der" because it describes what I do for work and what I do for fun. The other is "Right Angler", which my Mom suggested and I like because it goes with engineering that I am studying. What do you guys think?

1 - 3 color lead core

1 - 5 color lead core

1 - 7 color lead core

1 - 10 color lead core

2 light line rigger

2 heavy line rigger

2 Superline Dipsey

2 Wire Dipsey

Total: 12 and counting

Awesome pictures!!

I assume that is a 235? Looks good, A lot like mine is going to look when I finally get done working on it

looks like fun out of holland today on the web cam. The weather must be waiting on me as well

There is also a product out there by Fish Hawk called the Fish Hawk TD ($150) that you can clip on your line and it will tell you the max depth that a rig runs and the water temperature in 5ft intervals. I bought one this spring and plan on using it to determine the depths that all the rigs on my boat run.