SUPERTRAMP

Amen to that. I also recommend hooking up with guys here looking for riders. You can always learn a lot from riding along and taking notes. Most of the guys here are very good about equipment, and the where and how when they report. Shy away from the hero posts and watch the guys that catch fish day in and day out.

Dittto. I hate running the 450 coppers, it takes all the fun out of the fish. I catch more fish on the 225, and 300 bloodrun copper that on the other lengths. My spring setup doesn't even have copper in the mix. I use 2 to 10 colors, usually 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 colors and when I have to add copper I run the 225. Later in Summer when the fish are deeper I just put away the leadcore short cores until we go Steelhead fishing.

Yup St Joe is a big old sandbox. Manistee is a different story. Not gonna do it there.

I go to the bottom and get slack cable, then pull up about 2 feet above the tight cable. I use 200# cable and 12# balls.

I have fished up to 8 rods off of a 16' boat no problem, 3 boards per side and down riggers or dipsy presentations. The downriggers are kind of un necessary when in 16 Fow. or less, but riggers set 5 to 9 feet, clean mono with any rapala or bomber long A or jointed minnow, small spoons on 1, 2 and 3 color and you have an 8 rod presentation. It works. be sure to run your deepest (3)color closest to the boat, and your clean mono furthest out, u can run spoons on that too with a small pinch on weight. I now fish a lot more rods on my big boat, but we get into single digit water and catch browns weather permitting.

I kept 2 riggers on the bottom, adjusting as we went out. Pound the bottom and catch a trout.

We left the slip @ 6:15, ran out to 70 FOW and set lines on a 330 heading setup was 4 color, with a stinger orange killer, 6 color with the same, 2 10 colors with Stingers, anything orange, 2 300 copper with same spoons,riggers on the bottom with mtn dew echip and green glow echip mtndew with pickled sunshine fly and the green echip with a chartreuse red dot spin n glo. both e'chips were hot, made a troll out to 200, turned and came back thru the same wate. steady action right till we pulled lines. Speed 2.5 mph at the ball. Ended our day with 9 Trout and 4 Coho. Not bad for fishing in sporadic downpours. On top of that we had a finch hitch a ride out in the fog.

Where were u fishing? We might be able to help u get on fish if you let us know where u r fishing. Good Luck and welcome

90% Lake Trout, They are doing what I did last Sat and Sunday, Catch lakers and then try to get a couple of silver fish. Last weekend we had the perfect storm, no bait, and Full Moon. Lets see what happens next time out. I have a trip planned for Sunday.

The fact is that the small kings being caught are not fresh planters, those are still in the pens. The small kings being caught are natural reproduction, they all have all of their fins and are really all nice 10" kings. We have released about 25 of them so far, but I see charter boats keeping them. (That is a real shame). Sunday we will be pounding the St.Joe area and I believe we will still be on Lake trout. I talked to a fisheries guy and so far not much in the way of baitfish on the Michigan side. But I bet if we could get some Wisconsin guys to report they have baitfish all over. The last time we had this kind of spring shortage of bait, Wisconsin had em all.

Jason Dick does want the riggers, he has tried to call you and not been able to connect, you can call him this evening after 6:00 PM and set up the transaction, I believe he is paypal setup and hope you guys can connect. If you want to contact me 269 929 4221, text or phone. I pm'd you on the number you gave me and also left voicemail, so you would get the message one way or another. Thanks

Sorry about the last message, my friends name is Dick Beatty, his phone is 269 679 5744. He Is very interested and is not really tech savvy, u can call him, or PM me your number and I will have him call you.

if you would die PM me your phone number I will give it to dick or you can call him at 269 679 5744 his name is Dick Beatty .

Jason: I sent you a PM, my friend Dick Beatty will be checking out the riggers, he is probably interested. He has a brand new 21 footer, and need 2 riggers. I will PM you his phone number, if he wants them. Do u take Pay Pal?

I got tired of having cable issues and went to the Fishawk, best move ever.

That was my thought, full moon and marking lots of silver fish with no takers. Moon was without a doubt a factor. Just sayin I have never had good fishing on a full moon.

This is an awesome application, I bought one in March, and was playing with it until I got the 12v wiring set up on my Chris Craft. Used it the first time Sunday 5/3, and what a great GPS. No more paper logbook for me, and talk about easy to read charts. a full 13.5" screen, and lake charts built in, keep track of way points with log notes and real time eta and miles information. I now have an 8" screen depth fish finder and the big chart GPS. For the money the best electronics I have ever purchased.

Well finally got out again. Lake Trout saved our Bacon Both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we started inside off Rocky Gap and did not have a hit until we got out to 70FOW. First fish was a nice Coho on 6 Color. Stinger Orange killer. Then it went dead. Worked out to 90 FOW and was marking a lot of fish on the bottom. Put 2 riggers down and bounced the bottom with Green SpinDoc. 8", with a chartreuse red dot Spin N Glo , and A Mtn Dew E' Chip paddle with a green p-nut(Wobble Glo). Both pounding the sand, and about 6' behind the ball. Steady action once we got them going. Speed was critical 1.9 to 2.2 mph, the slower the better. Ended Saturday with 9 fish 4 Lake trout, 1 Coho land 4 small Kings (all kings released) Sunday Went straight out set lines in 80 FOW and trolled to 120, Stead action on Lake trout until we limited out on them, ( more small kings released). We did use some different tactis today. tried to catch some of the Kings we saw suspended around 80 down, but nothing doing. Finished our day Running in to the beach off the Chalets. and Picked up another Lake Trout (released) in 12FOW on a Stinger Orange Killer off a rigger down 9". Weather Great, Moon(Full) Go figure moon had to be an issue. My question is Where are all of the Salmon and Steelhead?

Before u run that far try the mudline. U should find some Kings starting to congregate on the edge of the dirty water. I will be fishing Saturday and Sunday and will post my reports.

what happened to the downrigger?

Nice job Jon. Great shakedown and great looking fish. .

Jeff: That is what I was getting at, we have always been an information first site. People like Dirty Dog, Jon Marvin, Priority 1 and Dave Ash have always posted good Information, Matt Mishler too gives great information about where and what he is catching fish on. I wish more Charters were like him. My question was meant to spark discourse and has done just that. My posts will continue to give depths speeds, pics when possible and When I jot them down GPS coordinates.

my point exactly

This is great discussion, Tarrey(DirtyDog) I am sure u will post your reports like always. My point is that when Mike started GLF it was more user oriented, and now it is more commercially oriented. I still will post my reports for St.Joe, and will not post hero pics but pics of the baits and equipment that was successful. Frank gives some of the best Walleye reports for Lake Huron and I brought this to the site because of a conversation that Jon Marvin and I had Sunday.

I have been a member of this site since 2006, and the site has lately turned into a Charter Boat brag board. We used to give information on conditions, tackle and post pics of our baits and where, how and what depth we were fishing. There is a small group of members that still do this, but Jon Marvin and I were discussing just this last Sunday. I can't speak for other members, but I miss the sharing of information. I hope we can get back to that. I will be posting all of the information I can, and for the time being I will refrain from the hero shot photos, and post only pics of the baits and rigs that were successful.