JoeMan

I am planning a vacation up to Lake Leelanau for early July. I have a week of camping and Walleye Fishing planned. I am looking for advise on fishing locations, lake maps, recommendations on local tackle stores, etc. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Little time on FB and Forums. Twitter is too much for me.

I am looking for feedback on Proos Downriggers. I am in the market for some downriggers and just ran across them. I dont know anything about them. Thanks.

Would like to make everyone aware of the new fog horn that was installed in Ludington. This is a boater activated fog horn! The boater needs to put his radio on channel 79 and key his mic 5 times within 10 seconds. This change was just announced recently in the local papers. The boater needs to be within 200 yards for the horn to activate but when the local reported tested it he reported that it did not activated until well inside of 100 yards. Sorry but this is just way too close for me in the FOG. Unfortunately the announcment came a day after a fisherman lost his life when the charter boat he was on hit rocks and sank in the Manistee river channel due to heavy fog. The article explained that these horns have been in place in some of the Southern Lake Michigan ports.

Ditto

Yes, head north to the bank. Work deep and shallow water till you find fish. the fish are anywhere from 30 to 80' deep. Good luck. I have not found an updated net report so keep an eye out.

My first time fishing out of St Joe. We went 12 for 13 for the morning. We set up in 80fow and fished out to 120fow. A little speed adjustment up to 2.8-3.0 mph did the trick. Once we picked it up we were busy most of the morning till it slowed about 11am. Riggers were good set to 80 & 60 down. Also full cores were workin. Fished mostly spoons, best colors were green dolphin, kevorkian, and Black/White. Had one hit on Blue/Blue Spin Doctor-Fly on a wire 85' out. Great day on the water, waves less than 1'. And best of all got the chance to take my Mom, Dad, Daughter and her boyfriend out on the boat.

There was a small temp break right at the drop off. It was 2-3 degrees colder on the north side of the drop. Fish were on the cold side.

We ran up to the point yesterday and ended up 5 for 6 for the evening, all Kings. 2 hits on full cores, 2 on half cores (lost one), and 2 riggers. Two of the fish were 14#. Everything was in 100+FOW on the north side of the drop off, this made sense since the wind was out of the NW. All hits were on spoons, the good colors were Michael Jackson and anything blue. Pulled lines at 9pm, we could see the weather front coming across the lake, just in time to get off the water.

I am headed to St. Joe next weekend. This is my fishing trip to the area as my daughter just bought a house in the area. I am looking for any recommendations and tips for launches, spots to fish and things to watch out for. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I see that Garmin is now offering a couple of autopilots. Does anyone have experience with these? I would like to put one on my boat also. Thanks

I've used 2-26" bags for my 22' boat. Great speed control and stabilizer. I don't use them all the time but will even throw them in occasionally to slow the boat when fighting a big fish. Less messing with the throttle to get back to trolling speed. Another benefit for me with the higher RPMs is better engine oil pressure running at the slow speeds.

A friend was out last night and confirmed additional bouys in this area. It appears to be a new net in shallow water, right in front of the water project. Very glad I did not get hung. Please be careful out there.

Fished from 7 to 10pm last nite, went 1 for 2. We started in 70fow just north of the Water Project and worked our way back to 35 fow towards dark. Moonshine Blue Smolt on a half core and a Glow Frog on a 3 color were the lucky lures. Both fish hit after dark in about 40fow. Our surprise came when we almost ran over an Indian Net staff bouy in 40fow straight out in front of the Project. Lines and lures came out of the water in record time. We passed within 10 feet of this bouy and did not snag (or loose) anything. The coordinates were N 43deg 54.385min, W86deg 28.083min at 9:30 last nite. This bouy must have been free floating with no net attached. As much as I dislike the Indian netting, this bouy was likely cut loose from the nets that are out deeper in Ludington, (we had a NW wind all day). There is likely a net out there some where that is now unmarked!!! Be careful all.

And heres the link for the picture. http://www.happyhookeroutfitters.com/fishingreports.html

Check it out!! 34lb-8oz King caught out of Ludington last weekend. Link below is article from the Ludington Daily news. http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=45617&newsgroup_id= Wish it were mine.

Rick, I field test for Humminbird so I sent your screenshots in to the Quality Techs at Humminbird to get their feedback. They said that it does not appear to be interference, most likely you are marking smaller fish up above the larger salmon arches on the bottom. I noticed that you have quite a bit of red on your bottom contours. The red indicates a strong signal return. Picture #3 show some red on the smaller fish at 20-40ft. Those are definitely fish you are marking. Good fishing and great pictures!

We left the dock about 5:30 and ran out to the 40's, 350fow, looking for some steelie action. After washing lures for about an hour we decided to pull lines and head back in toward the project. As we were pulling lines we found a small king we were dragging on a full core, don't know how long he was out there. We ran in and set lines again in 115fow. Took three hits before dark, all 8-12#kings. 1) Orange SD/Fly on a high diver 95 back in 105fow 2) Kevorkian on a full core in 75fow 3) Orange crack Stinger spoon on a 4 color in 55fow. Water temp was 52-54 everwhere we went. Morning reports had water temps in the low 40's. Wow is the water really moving! Had a great nite on the water with friends.

Finally got out last night. We went straight out to 100fow and started setting lines. Net reports had a string of nets out in 140' stretching north toward the bathouse so we set a SSW troll. After a bit of washing lures we started spotting orange flags out in front of us. We shifted west and picked a spot between two nets. We finally got clear of the nets and started back south. New nets were in about 110' between the pier and the water project. No hits out to 200fow so we decided to head back in toward the project. We started changing lures and found we were dragging a small king on a 4 color. We got back to 115fow and hit a 3# king on a rigger 60 down, on a Kevorkian. The water was 60-61deg all over, never found a temp break. Nice nite on the water with friends and a great sunset.

I thought about jumping in after her, better idea, throw my buddy in cause he lost the monster fish:lol: Thought better of it, after all it was his boat.

Nice Job! Amazing how a fishing trip can improve ones outlook. Tough start with your truck but the fishing will continue to be great.