AllenW

Here's another picture, I think he was using the 83 htz setting.

Thanks much.

Al

I was in a friends boat out of Loon's Foot Superior Wisc two days ago and we were trying for Lakers and whatever else we could find.

Day was fairly bright and moderately windy and we ran from about 80 foot out to maybe 175 or so.

We did pick up one small Laker in about a 100 fow suspended, but could't catch another bite no matter what we threw at them, had two riggers going, leadcore and an snap line with spoons, spin and glo's, and hardbaits.

I'm not familiar with his Lowrance HDS9, but I'd think the screen shouldn't be any difference basically than my 1198 HB unit.

This is what we were seeing, I'm assuming trout and probably fairly large ones at that. ???

We were told later the shrimp (?) were either hatching or bugs/larva/? was in full bloom so along with wondering if the flasher was showing trout, were they just not feeding??

Talk about frustrating.

TIA

Al

Al, if you are fishing the North Shore of Superior you should be fishing spoons that mimic the baitfish that trout are looking for. If you are in search of lakers then smelt and small herring are what you are emulating. Those are the feed that most all predators in Superior chow on. Alewives are not the source like what most of the Great Lakes have as forage. Stop in at marine general and pick up some Jims flashback spoons. They work awesome when trolling. If you are just casting from the North Shore pick up some little Cleos. They have some weight which will help you get out there and have action that most trout can't resist.

Thanks, got sidetracked on using alewives but stocking up on smelt and herring colored ones.

Good people at MG, amazing how much stuff they have jammed into that store.

Green with blue spoons has worked well for us also.

Monkey puke I think they're called.

al

Fairly new to great lakes fishing, but it seems "Change" might be one of the key words, along with speed.

Been using my ITroll to automatically change speeds, it will run for x amount of time at a set speed then either increase or decrease your speed for x amount of time, depending on how you program it.

It won't do both yet so what I do is run at say 1.8 mph for 10 mins, then go to 2.8 for a couple mins then back to 1.8, occasionally I'll hit the idle button and let the boat almost stop and then back to set speed.

It seems that when the speed changes are happening we catch more fish.

I haven't tried faster yet, but after this thread I will, thanks.

Merry Christmas btw.

Al

I ran a 80# Terrova I pilot on my 185 Alumacraft Tournament Sport and it did pretty well, I now have the 2020 Larson FX DC and am running a 112 Terrova I pilot/Ilink and it does even better in rough waves.

I guess if your boat is much heavier than the 185 Alumacraft I'd go with the 112, three battery set up.

On board charger makes life much easier, and I run Interstate batteries.

Al

Not fond of sending reels out so I do them myself.

I replace the drag washers, I use these people.. http://www.smoothdrag.com/

I also clean and reoil with TSI 321 and Cal's grease.

I'd over haul the reels you have, imho

al

Try this

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Learning-Center/Sonar/Basics/Details/

Al

Thinking of joining this club, anybody belong or know anything about it?

Their web site says to download their application, but I find nothing to download.

TIA

al

Al, I haven't fished Lk. Superior, so I really can't make accurate judgments about your lake there. What Ryan states is specific to Lk. Mich. Trout fishing, and of course, speed has been a very important factor in my experiences too. I've trolled from .7 mph - 1.2 mph for best results just off bottom. Unless we were in a fast downtroll, then, like Ryan stated, sometimes you can only slow down by going from neutral to forward, with seabags out. Around Ludington, best was 60-80 fow, bouncing bottom. That flatfish sounds real familiar, but it would be nice if I saw a pic. of it again to refresh the memory banks. Wasn't that a Norweigan lure? We primarily used, and still do when necessary, peanuts and cowbells, as they always worked, and still do if you can find them. Of course flashers/squid/flies have also worked well, with a 15'-20' lead off the ball for me mostly.

Flatfish reminds me of a lazy Ike, if you remember them, flat nose and curved body, don't have one so going by pictures.

My 2020 Larson trolls down pretty slow with the 9.9 kicker, so going slow should be doable, unless lots of wind.

Trying to find out what peanuts and cowbells are, Google isn't much help on them.

Just starting to use flies and flashers, more of that learning curve.

North shore of Superior is a bit varied, the southern end has varied contours/depths you can fish, gradually getting deeper, a bit north and it goes from shore to deep, then deeper, not hard to be a 100 yards or so off shore and be in close to 300 fow.

No expert but it seems fish (trout) are either in under 60-80 fow no matter what the depth or on the bottom in 100+ fow, interesting fishing.

I think I see fish in over 300 fow on the bottom, can't get there with my riggers and think possibly the only way I could with what I have, is jigging...maybe?

al

Thanks a ton Ryan, I see a trip to Mich this next spring, maybe I can buy the first round if we can meet.

al

Another technique that has worked very well for me with bigger lakers on Lake Michigan is what I call "dead fishy". Basically I throw the boat in neutral long enough for the downrigger rods to nearly straighten up and then put it back in gear to resume trolling speed. This causes the heavy lures (spoons, dodners, flashers) to flutter down and the buoyant lures to rise (plugs, stick baits, Flatfish). Most hits happen when the boat goes back in gear.

I have done the same thing, usually when something goes wrong though.

Once got a line wrapped around the skeg of the main motor, while stopped and freeing it up, I noticed the left planer board was gone, only to resurface and disappear again, I was hanging off the motor and the other guy had the tangled rod in his hands, needless to say we lost what was ever on the planer board line, but it was a bit exciting for a minute or two.

I have slowed down but not completely stopped, I'll give that a try, thanks.

Al

I would think bigger might be better but also look at your speed. Bigger lake trout are somewhat lazy and I would think in the even colder water of Lake Superior they would be wanting to expend even less energy in feeding. I'd go slowwww at sub 1.5 mph.

I doubt that alewife are their primary food, especially in Superior. I would go with larger lures imitating sculpin, chubs, and smaller whitefish that run at slower speeds with a side to side wobble. Larger size Evil Eye, Williams Wobbler and the super mag Yek spoons should all be good. Northport Nailer used to make a super mag size too but have not seen them in a few years. Another lure I'd try that runs great at slow speeds and has a real side to side action is the Flatfish.

Thanks, I'll look into them lures.

I run an ITroll on my kicker so I can set it to run back and forth from sub 1.5 to whatever the smaller lures like, probably doing more harm than good, but on paper it sounds good..

I have found for me variety is the spice of life when it comes to speed and many of the strikes I get are at speed changes, so it should work.. maybe.

Al

Al, here's another thing to think about. Cut open the fish stomachs when filleting them and take note of the size of the alewives. Try to match that dead bait with the current spoons you are using during that period of time. Many will usually be about the same size, that's what will catch fish. Also, I know quite a few lure companies have Super Mags, some may be bigger than 5", google it. I know Yeck makes some in excess of 5", more like 6-7" if I had to guess. I've seen some real lunkers over the years, and quite a few were taken on mini spoons too, used to call some C-5's, about 2" to match the existing quarry of baitfish around at that time.

Thanks much, I rarely keep fish and haven't paid attention to what size baitfish were in their stomach when I do, something in learning curve I missed.

I did figure best I could tell alewife did get over 10" so a 6-8" spoon might not be to far off.

Did google it and checked the few places I've ordered from with no luck, but I'll keep trying and I'll check Yeck, thanks.

Al

I fish mostly the north shore of Superior and use spoons a majority of the time for trout and salmon, mostly trout is what I catch.

Most spoons I have run from 3 3/4" to about 5" and I have been doing ok for a newbie.

But I see the occasional large (30#+) trout caught and am wondering if running a bigger (6-8") spoon on a line would be better for fish this size?

If so, where do you find them?

Got a lot of help here getting set up with the spoons I have but never found larger spoons.

TIA

al

Turns out a bad Wye connector, fwiw.

al

I'd think it'd be hard pressed to overstate the importance of boating safety, while some understand this and practice safety on and off the water, some don't.

This thread helps reminds us what happens when boating safety is ignored or disregarded.

These cases are not accidents, they are driver errors, and can be avoided.

Thanks for posting and reminding us what happens when we have a mental slip.

al

I have the Huminbird 1198 and in shallow water it seems to run well, when I get out on Superior it looses bottom at times.

In 300 fow it'll show from 2 foot and deeper

A call to HB resulted in a suggestion to restore defaults and set depth to a range instead of auto.

Neither cured the problem.

Nothing like having a 130 ft of rigger wire out and looking up and seeing the finder showing 5 foot.

Anybody have this problem or suggestions??

I'll call HB again, but hoping somebody knows how to fix it.

tia

Al

I went with the tracks, fwiw here's a few pictures of that.

Al

Allen, give Jeff a call at Traxstech, he has the line all ready to go with terminations and everything. Pretty reasonable also.

Will do, I have done business with them before.

al

I can order a few spools, but looking for something locally for next week, would 200# work well??

Al

Check out SNL corp out of Florida

They have 400 pound mono that's pretty cheap.

I use it for my duck decoy lines but will work as a main line for your mast.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Having a bit of trouble trying to find prices much less ordering on line?

al

I see Ande has 200# mono, that should work I think, now just to find it locally if I can.

Al

Both of my Big Jon spools split. I replaced them with Traxstech spools. They go right on with only a bushing replacement, much stouter than the previous spools. They come spooled with heavy mono. No need for a snubber since the mono stretches if your boards pull as hard as mine. Clips slide right down like on bearings. I have used the "shark line", which is like 200# braid. It works ok, but in waves it jerks the boards bad due to no stretch, causing clips to flip around line and tangle.

Thanks, I like the stretch factor also, any idea what test that mono was?

Al

I've been playing with my masted planner board set up from Riviera and been using the store (Cabela's) bought line to run the boards, it's nice and bright, but a bit short.

Any suggestions on line to use?

Maybe 50-100# braid or ??

tia

Al

Thanks.

Fish was caught in about 300' of water at about 70 the foot depth.

Al