Sleepyweas3l

Any one have a guess on what is might cost to have the boot around my 1976 OMC outdrive replaced? It is cracked and leaking water into the transom.

Just trying to decide if I want to fix this or try to sell it and find a smaller boat.

again thanks all, a ton of great info. Gettin antsy to get out on the water and try all this out.

Thanks all, that helps. Like I said, just getting started with downriggers and planer boards so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

I bought my boat and barely got to use it in the last year and a half. The boat has two electric downriggers so I bought two poles. I caught one salmon in the first week I owned my big water boat, which is better than I was expecting. Now that I am back in a position to hit the big lakes again, I need more poles. I am more comfortable with the boat and the downriggers now, but I have yet to use the planer board mast and divers that I have.

I was on a web site browsing rods and reels and I see some have different poles for different applications. My biggest question is ..........Can I get a good strong rod that I can use on any of the downriggers, planer boards and/or dipsies?

or should I get dedicated poles for each type of trolling?

The rain X anit fog crap never worked for me. Regular Rain X in the Yellow bottle is the stuf I swear by for everything. It seems to help frost scrap off really easy as well.

and here I thought the campground was full last weekend. I have a seasonal lot there. I don't think they are numbered, but I'm the Nomad North Trail on Brown Trout way down on the left towards the street coming into InstaLaunch.

Thanks, now I see how all the little numbers on that really expensive flashy thing on the dash can actually help. Thanks!

I'm kinda new to the big lakes but can any one help translate this for me:

"We set lines at about 6:30 in the 14's and trolled South. We couldn't keep the riggers in the water hitting two quads and a triple right off the bat. We fished 100 - 120 FOW and the fish were stacked within 20 foot of the bottom. "

Best I can get out of it is trolling south at 6:30am. Caught some fish around 100 - 120 Feet of water about 20 feet off the bottom. My biggest question is what is " in the 14's"? I see this alot on a charter fishing report website. Is this a Lat and Long position? or distance from shore? or is it some super secret charter lingo?

I will be fishing out of InstaLaunch.

New guy here. Just saying hello. This my first season with my own boat and this the biggest boat I have owned so far. It's not huge(23') and not too new (78) but I am finally able to fish the big lakes and use downriggers. I'm still learning the ropes so any help or advice I can get I will gladly accept. I currently fish out of Manistee MI, but that could change next year due to a change in my employment.