pulpfishin

The old green spinny and pickled sunshine does it again! Told you we would get that 20 pounder this year! Only thing that makes me sad is that in September she would have gone 25! Oh well, if we wouldn't have found her when we did, we never would have. Congratulations to Mark and the Pandelarious for it's first 20 lber! Thank you Mark and Dan for dragging the boat to South Haven for an afternoon of perch fishing! Sure am glad we changed out minds now.

Nice work. Tough time of the year to fish down here.

I once saw a poacher during the salmon run lose his rod and reel, his cooler, his rain jacket and pants, and his truck! Now that would be embarrassing! I still am a big supporter of getting rid of the minimum size limit and going to a slot limit. We go to Minnesota every year for walleye. You are allowed 5 fish per day (in possession) with only one over 21 inches! Their year classes are incredible since the breeders are left in the population. And let me tell you I would rather eat a 14 inch walleye any day rather than those old, nasty hawgs!

Smooth Ott, smooth.

Tilt that rear rod holder down as far as you can. How many fish do you take on dipsies over there? The boat we fish out of is much like yours and we only run 1 wire dipsy on each side, so 2 total. We hang a lot of fish on lead and copper on inline boards. I understand that the dipsy rod is a blast to fight fish on, but if you boat does not allow the space or freeboard to run 2 dipsies per side I would re-think. We typically run 10 to 11 rods on an 18 foot Lund and tangle rarely. 2 downriggers, 2 dipsies, 6 boards, and one down the chute. Dipsies set on 1.5 in the summer.

We run the magnum Walker Deeper Divers on 1.5 for the low divers. Usually just 2 divers in the water at a time. Used to run the Dipsies with rings, but figured out that the Walkers without the rings are much easier to deal with. No rings breaking or coming off, no changing rings or removing or adding them. We even run them in the dirty water set on 3 and have caught many shallow fish with them. They seem to run nicely on wire and on Power Pro. They pull hard, but so do the kings that they drum up!

Cedar trees!

I agree with Nick. I was thinking about making some myself and that is exactly what I was thinking! The pin idea is also great for docking and for trailering. I was thinking about welding a "stud" onto a platform that bolted onto the gunwale with two holes in it for the pin to slide into. One hole would be for docking and the other would be for when the trees are in use. Only problem I have seen is that the material costs for building them yourself is only about 10 bucks more than buying the Big Jon or Bert's trees. I don't know what the solution is; make them yourself and reap the rewards that you made them, or buy them and know that they are tested and true.

Let's put the smack down on some pig lakers! Tournament Trail is in Michigan City this weekend so the big boys will be out of town.

you know you want to see Robert's Spiderman rod and reel combo loaded up on a rigger! We'll try it next year when we can get on that "new to you" boat!

I have had great luck with the pink Barbie rods paired with a Zebco reel for the riggers and my son's Spiderman rod also with a Zebco for the high lines. DO NOT run wire divers on these, though. I'd go with a Superman model for the wire. No need for rollers or a twili-tip, 'cause Superman is bad! Run what you brung, man!

Awesome job getting the kids involved. I can't wait for my 4 year old to make his first trip!

Nice work. Wait 'til I get out there with you! Tangled dipsies, rat's nests, all around fun! This spring fishing is way too easy. We need those dipsies way deep and really close to the 450 copper to make things interesting!

sweeeeet! Gotta get over to see her! V-berth for me to sleep in, in the morning? Can't wait to spill beer and fish blood on her, I mean Do I Look Like I Give A F....?

Okuma Convector 55's work awesome for full cores! I would assume that a half core would easily fit on your Penns, but I don't know much about Penn reels. Like the Convectors because they aren't too hard on the wallet and they seem to perform just fine.

Join in one of the tournament trail events and you can see that Mark and Rita are some of the nicest competitors on the tt. They were the 333 champions last year. Not only is it a beautiful boat, it catches ALOT of fish! And by the way don't pass up Rita's cookies, they are awesome!

What are you best producing spring coho and brown lures and on what? Last year our best were as follows: Boards- Rapala X-raps in orange, and of course Brad's Thin Fish in Red Tiger Dipsies- Small chorome Lure Jensen dodger and purple peanut, and small Stinger Sidekick with purple and black peanut Riggers- Northport Nailers in any orange/green combo, and Stinger Coyotes 2008, as I recall, most of our coho came on boards running mono. Jointed Rapalas, Brad's Thin Fish, Junior Thundersticks and X-raps took most of the fish. The Thin Fish definately out-produced everything else though that year! Brown's on floating Rapalas in rainbow trout and gold/black.

small chrome lure jensen dodgers and purple or purple and black flies, and church mine-revelators in black and orange with purple, blue, or green peanuts! Don't forget about the Stinger Sidekicks!

Put that center rigger on and set it down on the bottom for Lakers. Make sure it swivels so you can get it the f out of the way for netting. The center rigger is killer for picking up those bonus lakers!

Flounder Pounder! I love the name and it actually catches fish!

Check out Great Lakes Angler magazine. About 2 years ago the had a picture of a lure made out of the fisherman's son's old retainer. It caught a fish!

go with the Walker Deeper Divers in 124mm. Easy to find and no farting around with rings. They run awesome off of wire and are super easy to adjust. Only problem is the paint wears off of them, but the fish don't seem to mind. Sometimes I think they enjoy the beat up look! The Grand Rapids show is amazing for big lake trolling gear. Great deals, too. Bring your wallet or better yet a line of credit, because you won't believe the deals. Most of the vendors are willing to wheel and deal also. 2 years ago we bought 2 Talora leadcore/wire rods for $60!

I believe there may be something to that theory. This summer we were trolling into a strong current at about 1.2 sog, 2.4 down speed, and could not get anything to go. We were passed by a boat going the same direction, so obviously he was trolling faster. He boated 2 fish right next to us. We sped up to match his speed and started banging king's also. Of course most of your baits are speed sensitive. On this particular day we were running mostly clean spoons (stingers), and spinny's on the low divers. I like the stinger spoons because they don't seem to want to foul at most any speed.

Hit Saugatuck next weekend, you will probably snag your board and gear. We landed 300 feet of copper, a green spinny with pickled sunshine fly, and a board today as we were pulling gear to head in! Nice work on the fishin' today, sounds like you ended up on plan C. That's awesome.

Keith was old and slow this morning also. The 450 foot of copper basket weave was my fault. I did not notice the dipsy on my side was tripped and proceeded to wrapped 450 feet of copper around it. Oops. Nice catch on the diver though Dan, 300 foot of copper, a board and spinny/fly combo. Decent trade for the 2 fish we lost! I also made the ultimate mistake: I put the dipsy set on 1 1/2 for my side on Dan's side, bad thing was we didn't notice until the starboard and port low divers mated. How they stayed out of the riggers is beyond me. Lots of fun though, thanks you guys for getting me out of the house on my anniversary. Best gift I could've given my wife!