This Old Boat!

[West Basin]

Store the excess shoes in the excess boats. Win win.

[itsbob]

I received my Diawa line counters from Fish USA today.They had been on backorder for past 5wks.FYI or for anybody else looking for gear before spring.

[itsbob]

Sounds like you are acquiring the gear you need to troll to start the season.When spooling those rods,hopefully with mono,would be great to have the reels calibrated to start with.There should be some utube videos on how to do it.If not sure what calibrating your reels mean,that is when you have the proper amount of line on the reel to correspond with the line counter on the reel.That way,when your line counter says you put out 70ft of line,you actually have 70ft of line out,and more importantly,the other rods will match that same amount of line too.You will also need some inline boards too,if you don't already have them.I have only used the offshore brand and they work great.Good luck.Any questions just keep them coming.

[MBLMIKE]

Good you got your reels, I received 2 Okumas ,reels and 2 Daiwa wilderness 8.6 rods and a couple of offshore planers looking at some lures any suggestions ?

[itsbob]

Looking at crankbaits,the Bandit brand is best for all around ease of use and wide range of water temps.Start with less costly stock colors.Top color is Blue Chrome,get 2.Others are Humble bee,black head wonderbread,popsicle,khaki,fire tiger.

[itsbob]

Good to hear you decided to calibrate your new line counters.I added two more rods this off season.I spooled and calibrated them couple weeks ago.Marked 50ft in my basement and used that length to calibrate.I actually add 40ft to the reel after i'm spot on due to occasionally taking off 10ft and retie a snap on.i go several years before taking off 400ft and respooling reels since we fish only 12 times a year.
You can actually get pretty close to having the proper amount of line on your reel without calibrating.The charters change their line at least once a year and i don't think all of them calibrate their reels.One captain i know,told me he doesn't calibrate his 20 reels with the braid he uses.He said he calibrates one reel and then matches the same diameter of line to his other identical reels.That gets him pretty close to having the proper leads to all his rods when fishing.March finally here.Ice should move out and melt soon.

[MBLMIKE]

Thanks for the advise I have the bandits in the colors you all have suggested on order getting close to splashing the boat again and trying these suggestions

[MBLMIKE]

got my ducks I mean Bandits in a row now just need some time and good weather

[MBLMIKE]

So after this big blow, we want to try this week end Thursday and Friday . besides finding cleaner water where is a good place to try on the west end of the lake

[MBLMIKE]

Looked at the satellite image this afternoon the ice is breaking up and you can see open water on the lake Erie web cameras it won't be long now with the right wind and a few more warm rains I hope to get up there first Friday in March and do some work on the this old boat , install a trolling motor mount and rear floor rod holders new batteries replace a cracked window etc.