jigstick

rigid industries light bar.  i can see 500yds

I just rigged with Cisco planer reels and Auroralite planer boards.  Im trying to decide which releases to go with.  Right now I'm stuck between the Scotty Minis or the Amish Outfitters Clippers.  Any thoughts?

I see no way in hell you would be able to run 4 in-lines off each side. They just don’t plane out enough. Your baits will be 300yds behind the boat and stacked up on each other. 

When we run big boards we have them at least 60-70yds out off each side. We can run 4-5 rods off each side and keep them substantially more spread out compared to inlines. 

There must be some trick that I don’t know to get the inlines to actually plane more than 10yds out. I’ve tries moving the weights, bending the brackets, keeping the rods high, etc. huge headache

Im done with inline boards.  Ive tried Church and Offshore.  Pulling deep divers, jets, 5-7 color core.  Even with my rods in my rocket launcher and the boards tweaked I couldn't get a decent spread.  After using some Auroralite boards on my buddys boat its night and day.

Yeah I saw it on LOU too.  Beautiful beautiful boat.  Twin 200hp 4 strokes and it would be in my driveway already

do you have an fuel usage data?  top speed?  can you troll on 1 engine?  how much you burning while trolling?

38 minutes ago, Fishnut said:

I use 30 lb wire for my low dipsy and Braid for my higher dipsys. The leader from my dipsy to my bait is the length of my rod.



Sent from my iPhone using Lake Erie United

Some guys rods are bigger than others  .

I try and keep my leader shorter than 8ft6in.  Any  longer and netting becomes a headache.

Blacks releases are very similar.  Except they lack one aspect of the adjustment that the chamberlains have.  I really like to have my rods cranked down on the release when set.  That way when they pop I get solid hook sets.  The chamberlains allow you to really tailor how tight you can crank down on them.  With the Blacks releases I couldn't do that without popping the lure.

30lb wire.  good brass clevis and crimps to a nice heavy duty dreamweaver barrel swivel.  Dipsy.  Then 14lb flouro leader to your bait.

The chamberlains basically eliminated the amount of fish I would drag due to my Scotty releases not popping with lite bites.  I use them now for all of my fishing...kings to walleye. 

During setup I notched the brass thumb screws with a dremel...marking my desired settings for walleye vs steelhead vs king salmon.  Takes 5 seconds to adjust now.  

300 copper is deadly on the eyes.  getting down 62-65ft depending on speed.  don't tell anyone....its a secret!   Auroralite big boards with three 300 coppers off each side. 

Im running the same transducer you have.  I primarily troll lake erie and ontario.  When doing so the chirp transducer is really good.  for the most part i just leave it on the "auto" setting and let the computer choose the power and frequency it deems appropriate.

However, when Im targeting Kings on Ontario out in deep water....like 150-250 down in 500fow I do adjust the frequency and power manually to zero in on the target depth I'm fishing.

I don't find the side scan useful at all on the great lakes trolling for walleye, steel, browns, kings, lakers, etc.  However I DO find it a bit useful when I'm on Chautauqua lake going for small mouth bass.  Theres not much structure down there, but you can find some.

I was hoping that I could use the side scan to pick up my dipsys, copper rods, lead core out on the sides running off the planer boards.  But either I can't decipher what I'm seeing on the display...or its just not able to perform how I want it to.

with that type of set up you have 3 options.  If you want to give me a call id be happy to explain them all to you.  I have a very similar setup  4.3L Merc with power assisted steering.  Ill shoot you my phone number in a private message.

keeping the price point reasonable I think the Garmin units are the way to go.  I tore out my Raymarine a65 and Airmar transducer two years ago and went to a Garmin chirp Sonar / plotter and the user interface is much much more intuitive on the Garmin.  I have no problem pinging bottom in 700fow out on Ontario when I'm king fishing.  I am running the Garmin echoMAP 94sv.

If you want to step up into the big league then the Simrad units are the best.

Im in Pittsburgh man.  I installed my Raymarine autopilot myself.  What type of steering is on your boat?  Power assisted cable?  Hydraulic?  I can help get your squared away.  

the walleye from the PA line to Dunkirk have been mostly dinks for me.  The smallest walleye I have caught in the past 7 years. 

The walleye in and around North East and Barcelona have been dinks.  14-16in fish.  Hitting so light my chamberlain releases don't trip, and its damn near impossible to see the hits on my dipsys and planer boards.  This weekend I'm going to try something different.

I fish out of Barcelona or North East harbor, in the eastern basin.  The steelhead have been elusive for me.  Ive gone 10 miles off shore, found cold water with my probe, and trolled 2.8-3.2mph at the ball.  using spoons, spindoctors and flys, dodgers, etc.  And I'm yet to have a good day catching them.  Is there a trick to catching lake erie steelhead?  I slaughter them on Ontario out of Olcott.

Any help would be appreciated.

Doug

Cool.  I was asking the original poster about his steering setup so we could help him a little better

I fish out of Barcelona and North East, and I never bottom bounce jigs while drifting.  I troll spoons and stick baits.  Never felt a need to change.  Ive never "dragged" a BIG fish, but some smaller ones I have.  usually on the inlines pulling Reef Runners or deep diving crank baits.  

Do you have an IO or outboard motor?  Do you have hydraulic steering?  If you have hydraulic steering you have plenty of good options.  I, unfortunately, have an IO with rack and pinion power assisted steering.  And there are limited options for a setup like this.  I ended up with a Raymarine EV200 Sportpilot.  It has given me 4 years of good service so far.  

Anybody try using Kwik Fish lately for Erie walleye?  When the bite gets tough mixing it up with some Kwik Fish seems to work for me.  Just wondering if anybody else has similar experience.