JohnC

The chart for dipsy's is enclosed in their packaging. Another good alternative to dipsy's are the Walker deeper divers, personally I think they are better than dipsy's. A dipsy pole is pretty important,they really load up your gear when your trolling, so a good solid pole makes it a lot better. Also you will want to make sure you have rod holders on the boat, they would be a strain to hold on to for any length of time. As for 70-80 feet, your probably not going to fish that deep in Erie,30-50 is more like it. Most of Erie is not even 70-80 feet deep. However, to go deeper you might want to take a look at Torpedo divers. They will get you deeper,faster,than deeper divers(dipsy's), with less strain on your gear, but you cant make them move out to the sides. You can fish them off planer boards though. Where are you fishing out of?

I will always buy domestic. There are enough choices out there within the domestic market I cannot justify buying an import. I choose to support the North American economy as much as I can. I live here, my children live here,and their children will live here, and I want the best quality of life for them thats possible. Even imports built here in North America are still sending their profits out of the country, and that just continues to promote our own economic woes. I wonder how these people who buy all these imports would like it if we started importing labour on a contract bases? We could get tradesman from China etc. for pennies on the dollar, teachers for pennies on the dollar,engineers for pennies on the dollar. What do you think? Why waste all that money employing our own people? China has a new minimum wage in places, its about three dollars an hour. I can hire them to renovate my house, work on my truck, serve me food,etc a hell of a lot cheaper then people here, I can even justify it by saying they did a better job, their quality was better, and their service was the best! Of course,once it all goes far enough, none of us will be able to afford anything anyway, then we can blame the unions,get rid of them, we can have the three dollar an hour wage, and supply China with our own cheap exports, built on near slave labor, without enviromental laws or any safety standards for the workers. I like Honda's solution to its employee's walking out due to safety issues at one of their assembly plants in India, once they had a few of them beat to death outside the plant with clubs, the rest went back to work. Yep.....I will do my best to support our own economy,and way of life,its not perfect,but its still the best in the world.

I think choosing a reel is all about personal choice,how it feels and looks to you. There are a lot of quality reels out there. Shimano makes some of them, but then, so does every other major manufacturer. They all make the whole spectrum, from junk to great. I am not loyal to any one brand, but more to the reel. For instance Abu Garcia's Record reel is a heck of a musky reel. Pfleugar's President baitcaster is a heck of bass reel. Team Diawa makes some really nice spinning reels,along with lots of others. Okuma V series for example....and on and on... Shop for what you have confidence in.

As the bumper sticker says....."Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign!!!"

Walker has some manuals that are reasonably priced, and can be converted to electrics if you choose,also at a decent price. Walker is made right here in Ontario, and very good about their warranty. We deal with a lot of trolling guys at our little shop, and they all have good things to say about Walker, especially if they have needed any service or anything.

My wife and I have recently opened a tackle shop in St.Thomas. I am not sure where you guys are located, but we sell some carp bait. We have the dam boilies, Nash bait boilies,and some Berkly power bait for carp. We also have the hair rigs here. I am not sure if I am breaking any rules here by mentioning it on here, but the store is called Tons O Tackle, 519-637-8487.

After years of reading this board faithfully, I figured I would join. I was a member for a long time,but never reregistered after the format change. Although I have never been much of a poster, I thought I would say Hello. I am mostly a shore fisher, and kinda wimpy about ice fishing,so pretty happy to see spring finally.