The Frankfort Thread - 2020 Edition

Willis Knot


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Went out this morning, launched a little after 5am. Set up straight out from the lighthouse in 90 fow. Trolled north, hooked a small King of about 4lbs. 300' 32lb. CU. 120 fow. Landed that fish, turned around and went south toward the lighthouse. Hooked a monster on the CU, drag was rippin', board sank completely underwater, and the fight was on! Fought the fish for 5 minutes, then somehow the hook popped out and the fish was gone! Would have liked to seen that one! 145 fow. Riggers and core didn't touch anything. Did not have any dipsy's out...
Took my co-worker out this morning, he had never fished Lake MI before, so he was just excited to be out on the Big Water! Will be going later this week, report then.

 

I use mono on everything. Including copper. I found some P-Line CXX 30 and 25 lb. line on amazon a year ago, must have been priced wrong, as all of the heavier test was priced at $2.10 a spool!

 

It is just how I have always been set up and I don't have any issue with braid slippage in my planers. It is smaller in diameter than mono and so you can fit much more on the reel.

With regard to getting the braid into the leadcore sheath, that is simple! Pull out the amount of lead that you want to remove from within the outter sheath, snip it off, pull the sheath back out and over the lead, insert a large sewing needles into the sheath, quickly pass it over a heat source to melt the frayed ends together, let cool, thread the braid into your needle and pull it through where the needle makes contact with the lead inside the sheath. Piece of cake! I use an albright for braid to lead connections... I suppose I could use a willis and still use this method of "threading the braid" into the sheath... hmmm.... Might actually be easier!

 

With a 55 size reel you'll have no problem with a shortage of line even with mono. I run 27lb on mine cause its what I had laying around and theres more than enough line on it to tangle with the biggest king out there.

 

On a side note, has anyone here have their FishHawk X4 go out? Mine stopped reading today, just have surface temp. I have new Duracells in the probe, and the correct voltage going to the head unit. Thanks!

 

3Dogsdown had issues with his this spring, maybe he will weigh in, I've had no issues with mine other than batteries going dead, just carry spares in glove box. Tight lines all

 

Im in for the morning, lines down at 05:30. 9 line spread, first time in a long time!

 

Had the exact same problem on mine, the probe wouldn’t read nor even flash the red light indicating it was on. Called fish hawk they sent a new battery pack to put on an new o rings due to water coming into where the batter pack was. Haven’t had a chance to see if it worked but this coming Wednesday I’ll be going out so I will report back!

 

They did say if this didn’t work call them an send it back in they would replace it

 

I use braid as backing on several of my LC and copper rods. When my braid divers are due for new line, I unspool the line from them and onto the LC reel as backing. This puts the 'used' portion of the line on the reel arbor and fresh braid adjacent to the LC.

For clipping on boards, I add ~10' long section of 40# mono. Tie a uni-uni knot between the braid and mono. Tie a Willis knot between the mono and LC.

IMHO, 150 yards of mono backer is not enough. If your board is 25 yards out from the boat, you only have 125 yards left on the reel when a fish hits. I have had lots of big kings rip off +400' of line on their first run alone.

 

If I’d have known, I would’ve said hi I was out this morning too in the Tiara with American flags atop of the outriggers.. Launched from the slip around 5a and set up a little south of the pier heads in 180 and went north to the lighthouse and turned around and went south in 150 almost to the HH.. 2 big Lakers to show for the efforts.. Both on low wire divers, one on “spotted dick” meat rig and the other on a smaller paddle/fly (looked like spotted dick, only blue dots)... Beautiful morning out there










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1. The advantage of using braid is you get much more line on the reel with braid.

2. To prevent the boards from sliding and to make your Willis Knot connection, add a section of mono between your lead and your braid backing. This will be where you attach your board.

3. To help on the expense cost, when I replace my braid divers, I reel the old braid onto a lead core reel that is going to be a (long core 7 to 10 - I did once carry 12, but no longer). The portion of braid that has done all the work in the water the previous year, now is at the bottom of your spoon, with 300 yards or more on top of it that has never seen the water. Never had a failure at either the backing or in the mono splice.

 

My probe just stopped working. Ouch, that sounds bad. I called Fishhawk and talked to Karen. She offered a couple troubleshooting techniques.

Take the rubber cap off the end of the probe, wet your finger and lay it across both terminals. It should light up the little diode lite and it should blink every 10 seconds.

Secondly, take the battery pack out and look at the 3-prong plug. Check for any corrosion. You could unplug it and see as well.

Neither of those applied to mine. I called Karen back and she revealed my probe was still under warranty and had a new one at my house in two days. I sent the broken one back to her.

Fishhawk customer service is fantastic. I will bet they answer on the second ring and they will work with you on getting it back up and running.


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