tgafish

I use toothpicks. That way the leaders can be any length I want. Usually link 3 or so together.

I had a 2 year stretch in 2007-2008 where the NBK was the hottest spoon in my box. Then in 2009 it went poof on me. Still picks up an occasional fish as a second stringer but has never shined like it did in those 2 years. My biggest one hit wonder was the stinger blue bubble. 2006 that spoon was dynamite! Haven't hooked a fish on it since:confused:

Dreamweaver Blue whale. Just barely beats out the blue dolphin because takes more bites in low light. I have had spoons that are hotter from one year to the next but the blue whale has been a constant producer since I started

You'll be docked in the land of monster eye's. Probably isn't a better place in the world to catch a double digit eye than that area in the fall. I run size 0 dipseys for eyes and when set right they will trip 90% of the time. I have to disagree with you guys on the fight. Sure if you're running 2.5 mph with 15 lb test, a jet diver, and a trolling rod you're basically reeling in a skipper. But drop the speed to 1mph with a 2 ounce inline and a harness and you can have some fun, especially when one of the big girls grabs ahold:D Definitely not a king though

I would sell the mast and use the money to buy flags for your inlines

Dave, Pull a rigger rod and run the thumper in that rod holder if you want to run a thumper. Putting it on a board removes the effectiveness of watching the rod to see it's working properly. Then add another core,copper, or diver set. Always good to have a spare diver and long line setup ready to go if that's whats hot at the moment. Matching the presentation that's working is often more beneficial than matching a color

Dave you'll notice your way points will start to gather in certain areas. When I look at my waypoints out of Port sheldon they start to tell a story. Like others have said keep a log and study the contours and some things might start to match up. I found the area Ken is talking about by accident after noticing a cluster of waypoints. There are also several North of PS. This spring during Brown blast we found a ten foot drop off in 28 feet of water down by cook. Every time we hit the shelf we popped a laker. There are other areas north of Muskegon where some humps are consistant producers. I'm a big believer in bottom changes by us holding fish. And like others have said I believe it has to do with currents

If you follow the fish, limits of 5 in Mi or 6 in OH are still very obtainable. It's just not stupid fishing like it was the last 5 years. I was one of those guys that struggled this year because I stubbornly didn't want to burn gas to find the fish and fished where I thought there "should have been fish" instead of where they were. With that said I think proactively working the numbers is a good idea. It will have a two fold effect. Numbers caught by fisherman will go down and less fisherman will be harvesting the resource because some will be less inclined to travel to catch 3 fish.

Welcome to the club Dave! It always makes for a long winter. I don't even like ice fishing but do it to get rid of the trolling shakes over the winter. You can resharpen hooks, retie leaders, and rearrange boxes only so many times over the winter. Wish I had heated storage to tinker with the boat all winter long

Dreamweaver is July 23 in 2011 so you're all set:)

Treblemaker covered this on a different forum at one time. There is a possibility that the deployment method by the books author could cause the an error in the true running depth of the copper. When testing they deploy at a high rate of speed to save time. Then they slow down to the registered speed and take the measurement. The amount of time elasped between the slow down and the measurement could be critical in getting accurate fishing conditions depth since high speeds cause the copper to run much higher.

I would say that I am considerably less worried than I have been in the past 5years. I will definitely take a few years of more difficult fishing over a decimation of the resource like we saw in Huron. I never got skunked this year and I never really lit them up either. My average trip was around 6 fish. Highest was 15 and lowest was 2. I can take that

Dave I can come over on Monday and do it with ya. It will take us less than an hour. Just let me know a good time and how to get to your place. Your engine is a 2 stroke correct.

Going on my 12th year with my foodsaver professional II for what it's worth

6 for 7. 190-200 3 miles North of the heads. Nothing over 11 lbs. 4 kings, coho, steel. Rigger spoon bite. One on 250 copper J plug. Took my niece and her boyfriend out for their first time fishing from a boat. They did great. Unbelievable luck as 2 fish got wrapped in the wire diver and both were landed. 25# Big game rocks. 5-8:30. Pulled lines when it was still light enough to fish to make the rookies comfy. Only bites were East and North troll. Surface 68. Cold water 50 down

Thanks Alex:)

Hope to head out today about 4PM. Dropping down in 130's and heading NW for a while. Not gonna bother chasing the darkies. If we get into anything we'll shout out.

Agreed. I'm hoping to find a 5225 in my birthday box this year:) They can be had in the 120's if you look around.

Yeah Ken I'm one of the last people I know who still bothers with regular 30lb copper. So damn hard to find though. Catches fish and I'm real confident with it. I'm pretty sure I'll have some blood run on board next year;)

Terry how do you like that blood run?

Pretty sure Westwind won it Tim

Both sides Dave. The tape shades the colors a bit but not much. They're not on the website. Call them and they'll send them to ya. They always have them at the shows. Color is pearl transparent. My taped flashers are my goto's once the sun rises

Forgot to add. After going through prime morning time marking lot's of fish without a bump I asked my non-fisherman passenger if he had brought a banana or something. Sure enough he did! Demanded he throw it overboard but allowed him to eat it quickly and throw the peel overboard. He thought I was nuts:lol: Sure enough 15 minutes later we got bit.