07-21-2014, 05:40 PM
[font "Calibri"]Ok so the DWR want the salmon thinned out a bit so I felt obligated to do my part. We headed up to the pig bright and early Friday the 18th and were greeted by perfect weather and willing fish. I fished my bottom rod at 50’ with my stacker rod set at 35’. My partner found his lucky number at 33’. After reading some older reports and receiving PM’s about an “Epic” spinner I placed my order. Unfortunately the shipment still hasn’t come in but I was able to come up with a close second based on photos. We ended up keeping 20 kokanee ranging in size from 10”-13” for the smoker and grill with at least that many long line releases. Not the bigger fish you’ll find at the Berry or Gorge but the numbers make up for the lack of size. I’m thinking dinner tonight will be smoked salmon enchiladas in homemade chili verde sauce. YUM!!!!! [/font]
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[font "Calibri"]Okay onto the product review. I picked up a couple Shasta Shuttle Hawks for my stacker rods. The idea of the shuttle hawk is to allow you to leave your downrigger ball in the water and not have to crank it up every time you get a bite on your top rod. The shuttle hawk is a planner board that attaches to you downrigger cable and dives your stacker down to a predetermined depth and is used in lieu of a stacker clip. With upward pressure of your pole it dives and with no pressure it raises back to the surface. In theory it looked and sounded good. Right? WRONG!!!! These things are junk. They were constantly sticking to the rigger cable when dropping my ball and they wouldn’t come back to the surface as designed. By the end of the two hours I used them I lost one full rig (dodger and spinner); it frayed my rigger cable to the point of replacement, cost me a terminator and two hours of prime fishing time. [/font]
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[font "Calibri"]I did all my homework before making the purchase. Prior to our trip I replaced the line release clip as suggested by online reviews and upgraded the cable lock clip instead of using a rubber band as suggested by Shasta. I feel I gave the product plenty of time for an honest review. All I can say is this receives zero stars and represents $56.96 of wasted money. I’m just glad I chose to test them prior to the DAV event. [/font]
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[font "Calibri"]Okay onto the product review. I picked up a couple Shasta Shuttle Hawks for my stacker rods. The idea of the shuttle hawk is to allow you to leave your downrigger ball in the water and not have to crank it up every time you get a bite on your top rod. The shuttle hawk is a planner board that attaches to you downrigger cable and dives your stacker down to a predetermined depth and is used in lieu of a stacker clip. With upward pressure of your pole it dives and with no pressure it raises back to the surface. In theory it looked and sounded good. Right? WRONG!!!! These things are junk. They were constantly sticking to the rigger cable when dropping my ball and they wouldn’t come back to the surface as designed. By the end of the two hours I used them I lost one full rig (dodger and spinner); it frayed my rigger cable to the point of replacement, cost me a terminator and two hours of prime fishing time. [/font]
[font "Calibri"][/font]
[font "Calibri"]I did all my homework before making the purchase. Prior to our trip I replaced the line release clip as suggested by online reviews and upgraded the cable lock clip instead of using a rubber band as suggested by Shasta. I feel I gave the product plenty of time for an honest review. All I can say is this receives zero stars and represents $56.96 of wasted money. I’m just glad I chose to test them prior to the DAV event. [/font]
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