Line counter reels

[DW72]

Wow, great info. I would never have considered that. Thank you!

[Madd Matt]

Okuma Convectors are well worth the money. For the price, they are my go-to reel.
Okuma Magda Pros are junk and make people never want to own Okumas again... There is no comparison between the Magdas and the Convectors.

However... I was on a charter boat last year that had some new version of the Okuma Magdas and he really likes them... and he runs a lot of charters. He said that they are a totally new design and he tried them and liked them... They were a lot better than the old ones, but I don't know enough about them to recommend them.

[itsbob]

It sure can't! I'll post what I do when I get out there. I'm still learning and appreciate what is posted here to help. It's about 5 hours away for me and I do a few 3 day trips per season. I get my fish but it takes quite a while sometimes. I think I need to better on quicker turns to get back on biting fish.and going all in with more rods once a lead is established that is working. I'm improving on bandit colors based on water clarity and cloud coverage. I haven't been very good at high fish in deeper water...like 25-30 fow. I assume they are schools of eyes between 6 and 12 feet down because they are big marks?? I may not be high enough. How high above the fish have you all had luck pulling the cranks? 1-3 feet or more? I've never caught crap above 12 feet down from the surface unless I was in shallower around H Can. I usually seem to de best between F and Green Island. Leads 55-100 feet back with bandits unassisted. Thank you for the feedback if someone doesn't mind!

While it is true that trolling in a particular direction catches better than other directions,we rarely pick up our gear and drive back to start again.We will more often make quicker turns if we need to troll a particular direction to catch better.The few times we picked up our gear was due to rough wave conditions.When the waves reach 3-4 ft trolling, downwind is much easier than into the wind or even crosswind.That is when we sometimes pick up our gear.
When it comes to targeting shallow fish, those shallow fish most often do not show up on your sonar.The reasons are, is that sonar cone is small the closer to the boat you scan.Another reason is the shallow fish move away from the boat as you move over them.Walleye do prefer to catch their food from below.They supposedly can target a lure from a couple feet up to 10ft above them, depending on the water clarity.Seams the few times we have caught shallow fish the conditions were calm and there was not much boat traffic around.We don't often run lures in the top 10ft of the water column.When we do is because my charter buddies will tip me off about that shallow bite if I'm fishing near them.Or if nothing else is catching and it's our last resort.When running our inline boards you have to run the longest leads on the outside.So if going to run shallow lures on your boards those are closest to the boat and most likely spooked by the boat.When we have tried to run some shallow cranks will just try on one side.So the outside board would be a 60 lead,the middle board at 40 and on inside board would be 20ft then a 2oz sinker then 20-40 more.That inside sinker will be running below those two outside boards when bringing them in.And if those shallow lures don't catch within 20-30 min,they are changed out to run deeper.We will also run those boards a little further from the boat.But it is really cool when you can catch them really shallow.Either trolling or casting.

[fishfinder]

Thanks for the post, I enjoy reading these post. It is better than reading a magazine article (I know nobody reads magazines any more lol)

[DW72]

I love it too, thank you. I want to learn all I can and the folks on here are a huge help. I have marked large pods if fish 6-12 feet down over 30 FOW many times. Like you said, I think next time I'll try a couple things. Run above them 1-3 feet and run one side of lines far away from the boat. If I don't get a walleye within 15-20 mins I'll just go back to the deeper fish. I just bought several more baits so that I have many of the same and similar to each other. I think I'm the past when I saw a definitive pattern I should have moved multiple lines to the exact same bait and depth? Last year on a 3 day trip I limited each day. But....every fish but like 2 we're 100 back on purple or 90 back on chartreuse. I rarely catch doubles so I think this year I will run more lines at same exact depth vs. all scattered at different depths? Also, I bought several new baits with white in them which I did not previously have. I picked up aa couple wonder bread (fruit dots) and more excitingly, I bought 3 variations from Slimshady. His baits look sweet. I see he says great for stained water. Will those baits also be ok in clearer water? I do have plenty of chromes and flashy stuff, I think I was weak for deeper running (over 20 feet down) and in murkier water. Thanks all

[DW72]

I also previously ran homemade big boards. I got all new offshore boards this winter. They seem way easier to fish. I am going to try and circle back much quicker onto fish. I would usually go a half mile away or more to make my loop to avoid tangles. They we're trucky with rougher water. It seemed often times that the fish had either moved or stopped biting as good by the time I got back to the spot? Or....trolling the other direction was not as effective. I'll try tighter circles to try and catch them faster. Does this make sense? I don't mind fishing long days as that is what I am out there for butkstnof my friends can't handle 8-10 hours on the water in the waves weather. Wimps LOL.

[cohoho]

So I have both off shores and big boards. My plan for April is to scatter the baits until i find what leads are producing best then pull the offshores and carpet bomb a dozen baits at that lead with the big boards as I can run more lines with the big ones.

every year I try to do something new or different to keep learning. I do this with hunting and fishing. It has really made things exciting when I teach myself something new and it works. I don’t mind failing a few times, it forces me to learn. The key with any of this is to keep an open mind, listen to others and don’t be afraid to try different things.

[DW72]

Amen Coho. I can only run 6 rods with 2 guys usually so am thinking the same. Zone in on the exact same depth and colors with multiple lines as soon as I get 2 -3 fish as a pattern. I have often times had one side of the boat catch all the fish and the other side almost nothing. I was wasting time at 50-80 foot leads for example while 90-100 caught them all. I was marking fish higher but no takers. Or, my flashy lures were higher and I should have changed everything to green, purple. These Slimshady's with purple/pink/white and also purple/chartreuse/white all in one lure look killer. In theory,they should be effective in most any water clarity condition. Time will tell

[cohoho]

I ran some of his lures last year. Pair-a-dice caught more fish that any other lure I had. Smokeshow shad landed my PB smallie and walleye NW of Kelly’s 10 minutes apart and fermenough produced as well. I picked up some of his chrome versions of these for the sunny days this year. Other notables in Bandits were old trustys black/chrome and blue/chrome, all of the purples and even catacomb had its moments but nothing like pair-a-dice.

[DW72]

Sounds great. I do have most of the trusted factory colors. Am excited to have picked up a couple of each pair-a-dice, fermi-nuff, blue chrome and glow wonderbread. I'll run the hell out of them. Thank you for sharing Sir! I'll certainly be out there early to mid March.