BenLubbs

I know this is my thread about what I am looking for, but for those in the grand rapids area, I stopped by the Outdoorsman in Jenison this afternoon and found out that they are having a thanksgiving sale tomorrow through saturday.

Thanks guys, I will definitely be going to the fishing show in Grand Rapids this year.

I use spin dr's almost exclusively when fishing attractors and flies. I have always wondered if I should try to adjust the main line and fly attachments. So far I have never touched them. What do you guys do? Do you just leave them the way they come, change them and leave them, or change them throughout the year to catch fish? Also, how do you attach your flies to the swivel on the back? I have been making a loop on the end of my fly leaders and then threading the loop through the eye of the swivel, and then threading the hook, beads, and skirt through the loop. However, it makes changing out flies a pain.

Scratch GPS and attractor organizer of the list.

Thanks for your input guys. I think I'm going to go with Josh's suggested lengths so that I can cover more of the water column. I just ordered a spool of 30# flouro from Blood Run and also ordered on of their flasher organizers as well (no more throwing them in a box). I defiantly am interested in running a few SWR's this coming season and see how they produce.

Worked on the boat a bit tonight. Took a lot of measurements and made a scale drawing of my working area that I can bring with me and use to think of setups. Also, started pulling up the carpet that the previous owner put down, man is is dirty underneath. What do you guys do on your decks. I am torn because I can see where carpet would be nice so that it doesn't get slippery, but leaving as fiberglass makes it easy to clean:confused: I also found some more stuff that the previous owner left me, 4 more life jackets and a bunch of sets of rain gear:thumb: Started to strip some of the old line off of the down rigger poles so that I can make a few light line spoon poles and started to shorten some of my leadcore setups.

So, as setting up the boat continues I have another question, this time about my leadcore setups. In the past I have always run 1 pole per side, normally at a full core (both setups are spooled with full cores). Now that I am going to be running 2 setups per side, I would like to get the some of them rigged with shorter cores on them. My question is what do you recommend for lengths? I'd like to keep a full core as it has always served me well but I think I should make the other three shorter. Also, what do you guys run for leaders off of the core. Right now I have a 25lb test leader and I am thinking about making it quite a bit lighter, maybe 15 lbs?

On a semi-related note, is there a place to get stickers with the site logo? I would love to put one on my boat

Hey guys,

As you may or may not know, I recently bought a boat and am in the process of setting it up for the fishing Lake Michigan. I have a list of things would be interested in buying if anyone is looking to sell them. I would be interested in:

Electric downriggers, preferably something that is still in production or has parts available.

Mounting tracks-Cannon, Bert's, Traxstech - preferably longer sections

Rod holder Trees

Adjustable rod holders for dipseys

A GPS

Tackle organizers - for spoons and for attractors

I could also be interested in:

2 dipsey setups

Tackle

12 lb Rigger balls

Also, if anyone knows where I could get any stuff new for good prices I'd appreciate it.

I know I did this when I went surf fishing for bluefish in Florida, but I've never heard of it done with any other fish. I'll have to try it.

I would look around here: http://www.raymarine.com/Default.aspx?site=1&section=3&page=166

This is where I found the manual for my Autohelm autopilot

I have walker barrel releases right now that I got to use once this season and I liked them for the time I used them. I must say though, those Chamberlains look really nice.

I made a thread with pictures of the boat and my questions about setting it up. Here's the link:

http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?p=76066#post76066

Thanks,

Ben

Well you guys have offered help so I think I am going to take you up on your offer My Slickcraft is in need of setting up and I have never had a boat this big before and have only fished on ones this size twice so I'd like some advice from the experts. Here are some pictures of the way things stand right now:

Sitting in the drive way after picking her up

In storage next to some trailers (She looks a lot bigger next to them )

The electronics include: Lowrance X-135 ? Fishfinder, Motorola Marine Radio, C/Star Costal Navigator, Osprey Trolling Speed Indicator, and Autohelm SportPilot +

Cockpit overview: not perfect, but not bad for a 36 year old boat either

Stearn: I will be the first one to ever name her! The name? I haven't come up with the right one yet

Now for the rigging

The boat only came with 6 rod holders (3 per side) 4 of them are Titelocks the rear ones on each side are an older style that are mounted on a ball and have a wing nut that tightens the end down on the ball to hold them in place. The problem with these are that they still can rotate some even when tightened down. To prevent this, the previous owner ran a chain from the open end of the rod holder back to a stand off for the rail. The rear most rod holder is about 4ft. from the back of the deck. The next two rod holders are about 3ft. from those and are within 1ft. of each other. (See the picture below to get a visual of the set up).

Right now I am planning on making some replacements for the rear holders (I have full access to a tool shop), or buying some if I find them for the right price (anyone? ). Also, I'm not sure about the whole spacing of the holders. On my old boat, I only ever ran one leadcore and one dipsey per side. Right now I have 4 leadcore set ups and 2 dipseys, but I'm not sure I want to run 2 leadcores per side, especially if the holders are that close together. I'm open to opinions and ideas.

Next for the rigging list is downriggers. Right now I have in my possession 6 workable downriggers. I have 2 old style Rivieras, the ones that the wire runs over top of the rigger arm. I have two newer Rivieras that the wire runs under the arm (they are old enough that they do not have clutches). For these, I have two bases, but I am considering making (or buying new from Riviera) bases for the other two. I have also considered converting the older downriggers to the newer style to reduce the chance of the cable coming of the pulleys and such. All of the Rivieras are manual, have 4ft arms on them, and all have working counters.

Next I recently purchased two Proos downriggers,both with 3ft. arms. One is an electric model, and one is manual. I tried the electric one and it seems to work fine other than the "clutch" plate not being tight enough. The manual rigger is in a little worse shape. It is missing the pulley that fits on the actual counter, and the rivet that goes trough the large pulley on the end is broken. Both of these are relatively easy to replace.

So, now for the questions.

Which and how many downriggers would you choose to keep, or would you get some different used ones (new down riggers really don't fit in my budget and there are enough used ones for sale that I could find almost any brand and type in good shape). Electric downriggers are appealing because they are very handy especially if I go fishing by myself. Opinions?

Next, how would you mount the downriggers? The Proos riggers do not have any swivel bases (again I plan on making my own or buying a used pair for the right price). If I were to mount only 2 down riggers, mounting them strait to the boat would be easy because the gunnels are flat. However, if I were to do corner and boom riggers, I would most likely need to mount them on a rigging board because the stern has a slope on it. Would you go with 1 downrigger per corner or 2?

Next, rod holders and spacing. Would you leave them where they are, add more, or just change the position?

The last thing is my autopilot. According to the previous owner, the autopilot on the boat is broken. I haven't had the boat on the water yet so I haven't tested it myself. I downloaded the manual from Raymarine's website and looked through it. My first thought is that it might need to be calibrated again for some reason. Other than that, all I know is that Raymarine doesn't service the units anymore so if it is something really bad, I am out of luck.

Anyways guys, thats my boat and the situation. Feel free to comment and give your opinions because as I said, this is the first boat I have ever owned of this size and I'd like to get the setup right the first time.

How about some pictures of the boat?

I'm making a thread right now

Hi Everyone,

My name is Ben Lubbers. I live in Zeeland, MI and I love salmon fishing on Lake Michigan out of Holland. I started salmon fishing on my 15 1/2' aluminum boat about 3 years ago and have been hooked ever since. This year I summer I was trying to take a lot of acquaintances out with me but I was limited a lot by the weather (anything bigger than 2ft got really hairy on that boat). Finally this fall I decided it was time to upgrade and purchased a 1974 Slickcraft SS-235! Right now I am working on getting everything setup and in working order to start next year early. Hope to learn a lot from some more experienced fishermen on this site.