DipsyLand

Kevin, From the YouCaring site. 1 Equipment replacement & sensor maintenance $6,000 2 Labor and travel costs to deploy, maintain, retrieve $12,000 3 Winter maintenance and cleaning $2,000 4 Cellular data for modem and GPS tracking $1,000 5 Asset Insurance to protect against loss and damage $800 6 Data management and website fee $3,200 Total annual O&M costs $25,000

For those who may not know. Placement of the Port Sheldon Buoy is in jeopardy for the 2016 season as the federal grant that has been funding the buoy is expiring. There is local meeting for supporters of the Port Sheldon buoy on Monday Dec. 7 @ 4:30. It is being held at BoatWerks restaurant in Holland. No R.S.V.P is necessary all interested in the buoy and seeing it return are welcome to attend. There is also a YouCaring page set up to help fund the return of the buoy with a pretty good explanation as to whats going on with it. https://www.youcaring.com/great-lakes-observing-system-475212

I get how they stay separated while running. It's the release part when, the line starts to straighten out, that gets me. Seems like that's the point were things would start tangling up.

I understand the free slider set up but I'm hesitant to try it. How does the main and slide not turn into a tangled up mess on release?

AM launch is definitely better. On the weekend though you still have to deal with these yahoo's when you come back in. Trying to retrieve yesterday was a nightmare.

Ventured out into rollers this morning, 1 foot or less my arse. Buoy had em at 2.4. Seemed bigger. Boat took it much better than I did. Ended the day 1 for 1 running 3 lines. Nice king hit on White Leroy meat rig on braided Dipsy 148 back on 2 setting in 95 FOW. SSW troll 2.4 SOG. Not much action but what I got I had to work for and was well worth the time.

Decided to play hooky today to go fishing. Started setting lines at 7:00 and fished till 3:00. Ended the day 2 for 4. Meat seamed to be the flavor of the day. 1. Decent enough Coho a little after 10:00, first of the year. SE troll in 170 FOW, 2.5 SOG, Braid Dipsy, 2 setting, 200' out. Took on white and black meat rig behind an 11" white SD. 2. Same Dipsy same settings took another hit about 20 minutes later but it shook off before I could start reeling. SW troll in 165 FOW, SOG 2.6. 3. About 1:00 downrigger went off with a very acrobatic Steely. Think it spent more time in the air than the water. South troll in 160 FOW, 2.4 SOG, 75' down blue/green glo JPlug on it's own. 4. Very shortly after number 3, while trying to untangle the JPlug hooks from the net, the other rigger started yelling. No matter how much I reeled and pulled it just kept taking line out. Ended up loosing that battle but at least I kept my gear this time. South troll in 160 FOW, 2.4 sog, 75' down, green UV meat rig. One of these days I'll remember to back off the throttle when I hook into the big stuff. On a side note, is it just me or was the water weird today? Throttle untouched I was running 3.5 mph into the wind and waves and 1.9 with the wind and waves. I'm used to that being the other way around. It made it very hard to judge my ball speed.

0 for 1 Last night. Hard hit on a flounder pounder down 65 on the rigger in 115 FOW. SW troll at 2.4 SOG. It let me play for a minute then decided it was bored, yanked my spoon from the leader and left me an empty flasher.