sherman51

yep, this is how i run mine. then just use about an 8 or 9 ft floro leader. the only reason i use these over the deeper divers is the lite bite arm. i think the divers themselves works as attractors so i dont care about having a 40 or 50 ft leader like they were designed to do. but i love the lite bite trigger on these. i mostly walleye fish on erie, and get alot of small trash fish and small eyes. and they just wont trip a standard diver. so your just draging around a small fish and never know it untill you bring it in. with the lite bite arm set as light as it will go, even the small white perch will usely trip the divers. sherman

i havent got the picture thing figured out myself, so i cant send pictures. but i use the lite bite slide divers. they are just so much better. on them you have 2 adjustments 1 for your rod tension and 1 for the lure tension. you can set the lure tension loose enough that the little shakers will trip the divers. and i think braid is the only way to run a diver. it makes it so much better to trip the divers from the boat. you can get alot of info on these at slidediver.com i dont even use the slide part of the diver myself. but i do like the lite bite feature. so i just tie my braid to a swivel and hook it to the front arm. then i tie an o ring to my leader and lace it through the back and in the lite bite trigger. and its ready to go. but i think they show you how to use them with the slide on the web site. they have a different set up for braid and mono. but i think you would like the lite bite slide diver much more than the slide diver. let me know what you think after you check out the web site. sherman

the only time to run anything down the shute is in early spring coho fishing. then i like a crank bait in the back of the prop wash. when fishing kings the back of the boat is for landing fish. and it can still get alittle hairy if one comes in alittle green. just my opinion. sherman

boy you just barely beat me to them. i guess i thought just alittle to long,LOL. but i would have needed them shipped to me anyway. but i would have paid shipping. you guys have a great day now. sherman

i did find one teleflex kit on ebay for 169.00 for everything but the steering wheel. some of the kits even come with a new wheel. but what i did was bought the kit then bought a new wheel, because i had found a nice ss 16" wheel i wanted. but if you want more info on this one thats 169.00 just pm me and i,ll give you the info you need to see it. sherman

i got the wolf thing right off the bat, now if you hadnt added the graphics i wouldnt have got it. but that wolf chowing down on that fish just says it all for me. and i cant really say i like it better with or without the blood. they both look awesome to me. i just look forward to seeing the boat in all her glory,LOL. sherman

i think he was talking to me about a bigger boat, because i posted about my 15 ft tri hull. but i also have a 21 ft cobia and then i have a 28 ft x 10 ft wide sea ray amberjack that im going to sell this spring. right now it has a broken drivers seat and one engine lost spark last fall. as soon as i get those things fixed its going up for sale. and im going to sell her cheap. she has been upgraded with twin 4.3 mpi v6,s and it has a brand new trailer that the dealer cost on the trailer was 4000.00. it has 2 new alternators 1 new starter 1 new raw water pump 2 new belts and a spare belt and 2 new 4 blade 20 p props. and im only going to try and get around 7000.00 for her without my fishing gear. it will be a steal for anyone wanting to get into a big water boat. sherman

yea, if my big boat didnt have power steering on it i would convert it over to the nfb steering. and i was wrong about what i paid for my kit. it was 249.00 when i bought it off ebay, but it came with a new 12 ft cable and a new nfb helm and a new steering wheel. i bought the teleflex kit, they are just alittle higher now. but im sure there still alot cheaper than buying them at a marina. and i had never changed out the cables or helms before. but with the instructions it was an easy task. the only real problem i ran into was my hole for the helm station wasnt big enough for the new one. so i had to buy a large hole say at lowes and drill my hole alittle bigger. but my little tri hull is like a 76 model. you might not run into this problem. i just went to ebay and typed in steering cable nfb and found what i wanted. good luck. sherman

thank you. im sure alot of us guys started with a tight budjet and just worked our way up over the years. im alittle disgruntled at amazon right now, i just checked on the cannon rod holders at amazon and they are down to 60.00 each. i know i just paid 64.00 for my last 2, but thats still 8.00 i could have used someplace elce. sure wish i was looking to buy some more,LOL. but i already have 6 on each side.

hey i fully understand i have been there many times. when i first started fishing lake mich, i had home made riggers. we took the big pully off some old dryers and used steel pipe for booms and rod holders. then we were out in some pretty rough water in our big 16 ft boat, and broke both booms. and i used manual riggers from 1976 untill 2009. then i bought my first electric riggers, i just never could spend the money for electric ones. i have even had to sell all my gear a few times back some years ago when i would get laid off from work in sept and would be laid off untill about april. i would sell all my gear so we could have christmas for our kids and help pay the bills. then when i would get back to work i would work as much overtime as i could and buy some gear with my overtime money. i always bought used manual riggers. and then just bought cheap rods and reels. over the years and working alot of overtime i managed to upgrade my reels to line counters. but i bought all of them off ebay. and i still just have cheap rods. so as you can see im not just someone making light to your money limits. i have lived with limits all my life, and i still have those limits. i have been using cabelas quick draw rod holders for about 15 years. i paid like 15.00 each for them, and i have always loved the way they work. but up on erie pulling those divers they were twisting around and kept me worried they were going to brake. so i got alittle money a couple of years ago, and i bought electric riggers and the cannon ratcheting rod holders. and i understand you have to buy what you can. but i did want to let you know about the cannon ratcheting rod holders. they are just a great holder for using divers, because you never have to lean out over the side of the boat to pull your rods out. you just ratchet the holders up and lift the rods up. and even tho 64.00 is still high, its a great price for these holders, when i first started buying mine they were like 99.00 each. i got my first 4 off ebay for 70.00 each. they were the double axis. they cost alittle more than the single axis. so when i found them on sale at amazon for 69.00 for the single axis i bought 4 more. then a few days ago i seen they were 64.00 and bought 2 more. but i had bought extra lengths of trax when i bought them so i could move my holders around. and like i told you in the pm when i gave you tony,s email address. if you will email him you will get his best price. and big jon does make a great product. i have 4 big jon riggers and i love them. and they do make ratcheting holders, but they are over 100.00 each. and i wish you all the luck in the world on your fishing. i have been fishing the big water since 1976. and i,ve been hooked on some type fishing big water ever since. but most of my efforts go to fishing the central basin of lake erie now. my first trip to erie we was in a 15 ft open bow tri hull with a 65 hp motor. we got caught in 6 to 7 footers and took us 2 hours to travel the 9 miles back to shore. that was the first and last trip for that boat. then i fished for a few years in a 16 ft deep v. and kept a lot closer watch on the weather. then i got my baby. i found this old cherokee aluminum 18 ft boat parked under some trees down in kentucky. i bought it for 250.00. i put my motor on it and a good friend sandblasted it and another friend painted it. then i put new flooring in it and new steering, and some new seats i bought at a rv surplus store, and walaa i had me a awesome lake erie boat. sherman

dont want to hurt tony,s business but i would suggest you go with the cannon ratcheting rod holders for your divers. you can set then with one hand, then when you get a fish instead of having to reach out over the side of the boat to get your rod, you just grab it and ratchet it to the upright position and lift it up out of the holder. the single axis holders is all you need, and right now you can get them at amazon.com for 64.00 each. but you do need to buy the tracks for them, which is a good thing. then you can mount the tracks where ever you want them. then just put the holders on when you need them. and if you want you can get the tracks alittle longer than you need. it lets you move the holders around for there sweet spot. it will also let you add more holders at a later date. just my opinion but the ratcheting holders is the only way to use divers. sherman

i guess i have to agree with most of the others. if price has anything to do with your decision, just get in touch with tony. sherman

the answer to your question is yes. it will stop the wheel from turning freely. i have a 15 ft tri hull open bow with a 115 merc inline 6. and i seen these kits on ebay, they had everything in them. a new cable which is what i needed and the helm station. i only paid like 150.00 for the kit. but i get no feed back at all from the motor. they do steer just alittle stiffer than the standard steering, but it is well worth the effort. we do alot of trolling on our local lake. and it works great for us. if youre like me you just couldnt see putting out the money for hyd steering. i think you will be happy with the no feed back steering. if you get it and dont like it, you can blame it on me,LOL just say that darn sherman51 told me to get it,LOL. please let us know how things work out for you. sherman

sounds like you have got some good advice on here. a good time to fish new buffalo is any time you can get on the water from here on out. the fish come in early down there. i usely start by going south to the indiana state line. alot of guys just buy both license for in and mich and keep trolling all the way to michigan city in. but i live in indiana and never had a reason to go past the state line, so i just fished in mich waters. from the time the ice will let you fish at new buffalo we have always caught coho. and usely picked up a nice king or two. and remember to start letting out some cranks before you clear the inlet. we have caught alot of fish before we get out on the lake. but alot of that will depend on boat traffic. good luck to you. keep us posted on your fishing. sherman

i always like to have a couple of riggers down with a couple of large broken back minnows just in case theres some kings around. but you dont need them for early season coho. i like the rainbow pattern broken backs in any brand on my riggers for the kings. but some large reef runners just flat lined might work just as good. we just use crank baits. we start out with med runners and some deep runners to find the fish. then we just match what the fish wants. if you already are set up with boards your ready for early season coho,s. you can run small divers with spoons if you want to run them. i have never run dodgers and flys early in the year, but i guess they are really hot behind divers. but you dont want to get to deep or you will miss most of the fish in the early season. i,ve seen many limits come on nothing but cranks in the early season. i,ve used everything from hot n tots to rebels and hed good luck with all of them. we have caught alot of fish coming out the mouth of the harbor. and we have caught alot of fish running a crank bait right at the back of the prop wash. good luck, and let us know how your doing. something elce you might want to think about is fishing new buffalo. they will be there much earlier than st joe and the fishing can be red hot. that where we did most of our early coho fishing. being from indiana we just bought our mich license and fished in michigan, and then just moved north as the water warmed. then we did our fishing in south haven. we just liked new buffalo early and then we liked fishing south haven untill we would move over to lake erie for the eyes the last of may or the first of june. good luch, and just have fun. the coho can really get you jumping around the boat. and if you do happen to hook a nice king it,s a great bonus. sherman

i personaly think it looks awesome. do you have someone in mind to do the work on your boat?? are you going to have it painted or the stick on type?? i had a boat named outlaw many years back. i had a friend of mine that was an artist draw me a cowboy with a rod and reel in each hand, but i never did follow through with it. sherman

i been going to ask this for awhile. but i bought a set of big jon pro tournaments with the auto stop. then i put the cannon ball retrievers on them. when i let them down it knocks the bead off the cable crimp. it doesnt seem to be hurting anything, and the auto stops still work. does anybody elce have this problem?? is there anything that can be done?? will it cause the cable to fail?? sherman

i also read there is one coming to columbus ohio on another forum. that one would be rough on me,LOL. i only live about 100 miles from columbus. i could be there in about 2 hours. it takes me 5 now to get to dundee mi. YEEEEE HAAAAA sherman

great post phisy. the only dumd question really is the one that didnt get asked. there is alot of knowledge on here if he just asks. sherman

they had also planed to build a large store with a indoor water slide on the south side if indy here in indiana. but when the market went down they canceled it. sherman

your boat is plenty big enough as long as you respect the water you are on. and always check the weather, and trust your eyes. if the forcast is for scattered showers and you see a big storm coming your way, get out of dodge. i used an old 18 ft cherokee aluminum open bow on the western basin of erie for maby 12 or 14 years. and the western basin can get rough in a hurry. but we never had a problem. we have spent a few nice mornings in the parking lot because of the weather forcast. then in no time flat it would get rough, and we were glad we didnt go out. you sure dont have alot to work with on that boat do you?? but once you get the board going across the boat you can always mount the riggers alittle inboard and mount a couple of rod holders on the outside of the riggers. if not for the boss saying no, the best thing you could do would be to mount some tracks up the side of your boat. even if you had to drill extra holes in the tracks to get them to work. then you could take the holders off when not in use. i use the cannon ratchet rod holders and tracks on my boat. amazon.com has the single axis ratcheting holders for 66.00 right now, and they work awesome for using divers. when you want to bring one in you just ratchet the holder to the upright position and lift the rod up out of the holder. keep us posted on your progress. sherman

yea, i was afraid i might just confuse him. its really pretty simple as long as you dont get it to involved. there are just so many options when it comes to using divers. i could write a whole book on them. so i tried to keep it as simple as i could and still give him the basics. i guess the most important thing would be to run your outside rod on the hightest setting, then use a lower setting and a shorter length on the inside rods i want him to feel free to pm me if he has questions. i will try to answer them without taking over his thread. sherman

welcome, the best advice i can offer without having a speicific question. is you want to start out with a couple of good riggers, electric if at all possable. i used manuals for 30 yrs. when i did get electric i was just amazed how much more enjoyable rigger fishing was. then learn as much as you can about running divers. you can run atleast 2 divers off each side and stack your riggers, that will give you 8 rods in the water right there. its easy to run divers. just set the outside diver to run alittle farther out than your inside diver and run the outside atleast 20 ft farther back than your inside diver. so when you put the outside out over your inside it will clear it on the way out. but divers are a cheap way to get lines down. some people will swear by the old dipsy divers. and then there are the walker deeper diver. then the ones i like to use the lite bite slide diver. here are some of the reasons i like them better than the other ones. you can use them as a slide diver or i just use them like a standard diver except i use the lite bite feature. you can make 2 adjustments on them. one setting is for the tension from the main line. then you adjust the lite bite arm. you can set the lite bite arm so light that a good sized crappie will trip the diver when it hits and still not have false releases. then you can set it tight to where it takes a pretty good tug on your lure to trip it. i catch alot of small fish, so i keep it set light. then you can get a kit for them that comes with 2 oz and 4 oz weights and 2 size rings. if you want to run deep use the 4 oz weight and the large weight. but then the mag dipsy,s will get you down pretty deep. but the higher the setting out to the side you set your divers the shallower they will run. a 5 setting and 150 ft of line out wont get you as deep as a 3 setting with 150 ft of line out. hope i havent just confused you. and like someone elce said. watch for open seats, and go out with some other guys. you can learn more on another boat than we could teach you here in months. and ask questions while on there boat. then you can combine what you already know with what you learn on there boat. and never be afraid to try some things on your own. to get my dive curve on the divers i went to 50 ft of water and let out line on each setting until i started bumping botton. then i just devided 50 foot by the amount of each 10 ft of line out. like on my 4 setting i had to let out 185 ft with the diver with the stock weight and little ring. so i devided 50 by 18.5, that gave me 2.7 ft down for each 10 ft of line out. then you just do the same thing on 3 setting and then 2 setting and 1 setting. but say i want to run 65 ft deep on the 4 setting i just devide 65 by 2.7 and it gives me 24, so i know thats 24x10=240 ft of line out. you can get charts that are somewhat close but to spend just alittle time you can get real close. just set the diver up how ever your going to use it and run the speed you use most. like a lite bite slide diver with the big ring and the 4 oz weight is going to be alot different than the small ring and stock weight. so to get your dive curve use the diver set up the way you plan to use it for fishing. does any of this info help you any. when i moved from the western basin of erie our trolling was mostly 2 riggers and 4 flatlines with deep diving crank baits. we were fishing water that was like 28 to 31 ft deep. we moved to the central basin, the water was 60 to 75 ft deep. the only way to get that deep was to use something to get you down. i didnt have a clue how to fish except with riggers. so i went out on a charter a couple of times. now i can run 4 riggers and 4 divers on each side, and then i can run a couple of outriggers with 15 lb braid and a small dipsy out about 3 or 4 hundred ft and pick up a few shallow fish. but most of the fish are deep in the summer when i fish. but i hadnt ever even seen a diver except hanging on the wall, or in a book. i learned how to use them and get alot of rods in the water. now i can run up to 14 rods if i need to. but in ohio you can only use 2 rods per person. so i usely only run 10 t0 12 rods. and there are other ways to get your lures down, wire line, lead core, and some even use wire on divers. but walleye fishing i just never liked using wire or lead core. you can even use boards with inline weights or divers. but i didnt even know about these forums when i was learning to fish. so i had to use charter boats. which still isnt a bad idea, i would always reccomend anybody that can get a few friends together to go out on a good charter atleast once. just talk to the capt and make sure they fish with what you want to learn. and then tell the capt you want to go to school. but you dont want to go out on a charter thats going to run 6 riggers only, when you want to learn about divers or lead core or wire. and you can still take some of the open seats thats on here. just be ready to help pay for expences and maby even help clean the boat. its best to ask what will be expected of you. then try to do alittle extra. maby pick up a box of donuts. sorry for such a long post guys. just trying to help. sherman

thats one of the great things i,ve found here. you dont have to steal info on here its free. all you have to do is ask. welcome aboard. sherman

i seen these on ebay and remembered somebody wanting a set of big jon riggers. but lord of the riggers has 2 sets of good used riggers listed on ebay. one set is the adjustable boom riggers with 3' booms and the other set has the one piece 4 ft booms. im sure if you contact him at [email protected] he would give you a good price on these riggers and any accessories that you might want. like the 1' extensions to make the 3' booms into 4' booms, or a couple of clamp on rod holders, or even a set of duel holders, or swivel bases or just about anything. you can get these riggers i would just guess around half what new ones would cost. and i would say he has checked them out real good before putting them up for sale. and he might even have some of the accessories used. just be sure and mention you are a glf member as he is one of our sponcers. sherman