sherman51

I don't have anything against Indians but I think they should have to hunt by the same rules as everybody else lives with. just my personal opinion.

if your thinking about going with the 13# pancake weights you might want to check out downrigger weights on ebay. they have a set of dunker 12# weights for 90.00 and a set of 13# yeck weights for 97.00. the cabelas weights in 13# are 124.00 for a pair. ebay also has some weights made like the stinger weights.

seems like the big ones are the ones that always gets away, LOL. just kidding. I was fishing the central basin and had a huge walleye on and my hook broke. I put on another harness and put it back out and within minutes another huge walleye hit the same line. got it up behind the boat and it shook its head and was gone. another bad hook it had broken the same way the 1st hook had broken. got both fish up close enough to see them and they were the biggest eyes I have ever had on. they were both 12# + fish. I still use that brand of harness but I am still a little leery of there hooks though.

I have seen a few of them on ebay but not often. I use the 13# pancake weights from cabelas and they work good for me.

cabelas has there model of the daiwa sealine reels on sale right now. the daiwa sealine lc5 which has 5 ball bearings and they are very smooth. the price right now for the 17 lc5 or the 27 lc5 for 89.99 each. I have the older daiwa sealine sg17lca reels and they have worked flawlessly for me.

yea what he said. and I wouldn't even think about using mono for divers, its just to hard to trip the diver from the boat. I use braid for my main line then use 20# seaguar fluorocarbon leaders. I do all my fishing on the central basin of erie for walleyes and I use the lite bite slide diver. but I use the slide diver just like a dipsy I don't use the slide part of the diver. I use the daiwa sealine sg17lca and the daiwa accudepth plus adp17lc reels and they work great even when we hook a nice steelhead. once you use braid you will never want to use mono again. and I've never fished with wire so I cant say how good it really is. I never fish deeper than 65' and can get that deep with braid.

I always just used the weldons red rubber bands and the metal shower curtain rings. the ones that's shaped like a pear. the rubber bands can be a little messy but not really a problem. I just loop the band on the line and then pull it through itself then hook the loop on the shower curtain ring and clip it on the tow line then feed out line until it gets out where I want it to run. then when you get a fish or check your lure just let the other lines out and use the rod you just brought in for your inside rod. the rings will work there way out the tow line and stack up against the board. they can be a little tough to brake when you don't have a fish on. just point your rod tip towards the ring and reel up all the slack then give it a fast hard jerk. this will usually brake the rubber band. just my opinion. sherman

you got cheated out of your spanking on this one anyway. I do think its good to have the rod cranked down, it just helps get some of the slack out of the line when fishing deep. as for the hook set I think the fish starts the process when it hits the lure and the hook set is finished when all the slack line is gone and pressure is applied.

I've been swimming in lake Michigan and lake Erie. but have never had the chance in any of the other lakes.

looks like a big fish with a little fisherman, LOL. just what was the weight of the fish and the fisherman??

X2 on getting new riggers. or maby try a 10# pancake weight.

I fish lake erie and use the lite bite slide divers. but I don't use the slide part of the diver but love the lite bite trigger. i do use a swivel on the end of my main line and hook it to the front of the diver just like a dipsy. then i tie a short piece of 65# braid to a split ring and lace it through the back of the diver then tie on my snubber then i use about a 9' seaguar leader then tie on another swivel and hook it to my lure. i use the same set up for spoons and harnesses. i have just never seen the need for leaders longer than 9'. but i only fish for walleyes and catch a few steelhead trout.

I fished lake erie and lake michigan for a few yrs in a 16' deep v with an old 80 hp evenrude. you just have to keep a close eye on the weather. then I bought an old Cherokee aluminum 18' boat and did a lot of work on it. and put an 80 hp mariner motor on it. but it turned out to be a dream fishing boat. we still watched the weather and I don't remember not one day that we didn't get to fish. now we did get some 3' to 4' waves but the boat handled them just great.

I've never used cannons but I bought a pair of big jon pro tournaments with auto stops and I just love them. the tip up booms comes in handy, and I like the way the booms flex to take part off the stress of the boat. I found the traxstech ball retrievers are the best with the auto stops.

I have a nice 2010 tandem axle trailer with a 1986 28' sea ray sitting on it. I bought the boat and trailer in new Hampshire and towed it home to Muncie Indiana and have towed it up to lake erie with no problems. the boat has twin 4.3 v-6 mpi engines. one engine isn't getting fire. and I haven't even tried to find the problem. but I would sell the boat and trailer for 2500.00 just to get it out of my yard. if you are interested or want more info just give me a quick pm.

I have to agree with rascal on this. there is just to many fish out there for so many guys to be so tight lipped. I have found the channels most used on erie are ch 68 and 79. good luck and good fishing.

I use a 3000# atv super winch on my 28' sea ray and so far its done a good job. I bought it off ebay for a lot less money than for a regular marine winch. you could even go to a 3500# or 4000# atv winch. but for the money I recommend the super winch. you should always use a safety chain or strap just in case your winch fails. if you go to a manual winch you might want the fulton 3200# 2 speed winch. you can pull your boat most of the way on your trailer in high gear and then drop it into low gear for the hard pulling. they cost a little over 130.00 on ebay. this is the best manual winch I know of. sherman

that sure looks like a good way to start any year. sherman

congrats on your retirement. and good luck on you plans to go fishing a lot. I fished a lot the 1st few yrs then all my fishing buddies have died or moved away so I don't fish so much anymore. my oldest son likes fishing lake erie, so we take 2 weeks in july and go to erie. but he don't care much for fishing our local lakes. and my youngest son just don't seem to care that much about fishing any more. my wife use to go fishing with me a lot but now she just doesn't care for fishing. and she would never go out on erie with me. I still enjoy our retirement but I just don't fish like I did when I had plenty of friends to fish with. sherman

I have done just fine running 2 batteries for many yrs. I just use a perco switch to switch from #1 battery to #2 battery or both. when im trolling I leave the switch on both. I run my df/gps and my radio and my marine radio and my downriggers and have never had a problem. if im drifting or anchored I use my house battery #1 and then when I start my motor I just switch to my #2 battery and start my motor and then I switch back to both batteries to charge the low battery. I used the optima batteries in my boat for about 5 yrs before having any trouble. but I found that wall mart batteries work just as good and are a lot cheaper. but you do have to service them. sherman

I've tried most releases out there including rubber bands. and I was using rubber bands when I run across the chamberlains. I switched to the chamberlains and have never looked back. I fish lake erie for walleye and we get a lot of small trash fish. I love the fact you can tighten down the rod release so you can really crank down your rod. then set the lure release light enough to trip even on small fish. the chamberlains are made a lot like a blacks but have the lure release tension adjustment on them. chamberlains are just the best release out there. this is just my opinion after fishing salmon for about 10 yrs and walleyes for about 35 yrs.

welcome aboard. feel free to ask questions or give out good advice to others who ask questions. sherman

I have tracks for my rod holders and I bought big jon riggers with the slide mounts so it only takes a few minutes to remove my holders and riggers. and my 21' cobia is great for erie and works good for trolling my small local lake. and then if we want to go tubing it just takes a few minutes to remove all my trolling gear. I have the cannon ratcheting holders and tracks for running my lite bite slide divers. but if I was looking at buying new holders I would check out the traxstech ratcheting holders as they have more and closer positions for their holders. but they are alittle more money than the cannons. you can get the cannon single axis at amazon for 71.00 with free shipping plus the tracks. the traxstech ratcheting holders that I've seen costs a little over 100.00 plus the tracks. and if you plan to use a trolling plate the easy troller is much better than the happy troller. the easy troller is hinged about half way down and spring loaded so if you forget to raise your plate it will swing up instead of bending the plate back so far that it wont slow you down. I took off with my happy troller still down and it bent back so far we ended our trolling that trip and fished for perch. then I took off with my easy troller and it didn't bend back. I started using trolling bags last year and believe they are much better for trolling in rough water.

I think either boat would be good. I fished out of a old 18 ft Cherokee aluminum boat that I restored for many yrs on lake Michigan and lake erie. but I now have a 21' cobia and feel much better fishing the central basin of erie. it just has a little more room and is just a better boat for going out 18 to 20 miles. the 19.5' boat will serve you well but in the long run I would go with the 22' boat if its as good as the 19.5 boat. sherman

the 11" flasher has more weight than the 8" flasher making it dive deeper. its kinda like a diver will dive deeper at slower speeds. doesn't sound right but the heavier the weight the deeper it will go. make sense??