wild at heart

Dave, I agree with Pioneer on 300/32 coming over FC might not work. One thing to remember about mixing cores and copper on the same side of boat, you need wider turns. The copper and cores do not take the same paths on turns and can cross without good spacing. This is one reason that we have elimanated all long cores for shorter coppers. I run a 300/45, 300/30, and a 150/45 on 1 side and a 300/45, 200/45 and a 100/45 all the time.

Name; Kevin Lacey Age; 55 Occ; Farmers Insurance Agent Boat; 22' Century 4000 Cuddy Exp; 50 years but only 7 on the big lake Area; Port Sheldon, Holland Home; Zeeland, MI Sold the bass boat 8 years ago and started fishing for salmon with my 3 sons. Have fished about 30 tourny in the last 5 years with at least 2 sons on board. This is as good as it gets for me. Try to get out a least twice a week. Love the challenge of trying to outsmart the fish on every trip. Lake MI is an awesome resourse.

I got 9 last spring in 2 trips. I have never found them right on the beach like some have. My best has always to be in 5 to 8fow with 4 boards out on each side. Some days its the inside, some the outside. Best to fish when the water is a little stained not gin clear. Speed between 1.8 and 2.4. Small spoons, thin fish, and body baits all work. 25K of the new Sturgeon River Browns were released in Holland last year and should be 2/3# come spring. Any that made it should be somewhere near there. I think they are right ventrical cliped. Let me know if you find any.

Green jerry w/pickled sunshine has been historically best but last year a 10" white crushed glow both sides SD w/ purple mirage on a wire dipsy was hot.

I wrap mine right around the flasher, but to avoid any kinks I first put a 3" peice of foam pipe insulation on the flasher, then wrap around it and bury the hooks. You can get the pre slit pipe insulation at Menards for $1 for 3 feet. Works great.

I start with a basic package of favorites and hot/lately's, and hot tips. If nothings is getting hit I will work more on speed and direction before I start wholesale changes. If something gets hit twice its a PATTERN and I'll start duplicating it by pulling non producers. Some off my best "number" days I've ended with 5 to 7 setups the same. Multiple setup days have included Blue Dolphin, Green Dolphin, Double Orange Crush, Double Trouble, Mt Dew SD, Green Jerry's/ Pickled sunshine, white paddles/ Oceana, and white SD/purple mirage. I have taken fish on 6 different rods all running the same spoon or flasher/fly on the same trip.

remember that as the sun climbs, you get much more light penitration into the water, which makes light colored lures tend to dissappear. A standard blue dolphin is going to look a whole lot different at 10am than it did at 7am. Fish will be using sight more than sound to key on your presentations. Colors that match bait do better for us. Color contrast is important. This is more important the shallower you are. Once you get below 100fow light penitration is greatly reduced.

I hate post like this. I had put a ban on new spoons for this year and now I'll have to break my own rule and at least go get a couple Happy Meals. Stinger NBK, kings just love to rip the paint and tape off these. Double Trouble Moonshine, Any time, Any setup. Last year in the Gold Coast tournament were we struggling with 2 fish at 10am. A buddy called me from GH and said he was getting them on a SW troll into the waves. Hard to do in my boat in 3's and 4's but we turned into them and went 12 for 14 in 2 passes from 190 to 240. We had 1 DT out took a king, put out a second DT and got a steelie, put out a 3rd DT(2 on copper 1 on rigger) got a laker. We took 10 fish and 2 hits on those 3 DT from 10 am to 1pm. Called a freind that was the one that got me using DT who was also in the GCT and he needed 2 more fish to weigh 10 with 30 mintues to go. Told him to get a DT down and he got 1 asap, dropped a 2nd DT and got 1 more pulling lines(both steelies). He won the tourney. We had the most fish. DT is good for fish every trip. JP Slammer mini Firetiger, was about to give up on sliders till JV gave me one of these to try. Had 7 hits on one trip. Note its run backwards. Always works.

http://www.michigandnr.com/fishstock/ its by county

We started running sliders a lot more this year again. In tournaments its a must. We run them fairly short lead 3 to 4 foot, cuts down on tangles. Also bring them in fast when you dont have a fish on or hit the up button on your rigger to stop tangles. I run all mine on 12#test. If I dont want them to free slide I just half hitch them with a rubber band. They were good for about 30 fish this year. Sometimes they find fish that are higher up than you think they would be.

I'm no complaining about the competing part, I just want a fair payout for my division.

I stumbled across some info today that concerns me. It concerns the am side of some tournament trail events and the way payouts are done. I first discovered it on the Big Red web page. In 2010 7 boats competed in the Pro Division and 47 on the am side. The Pro's entery fees totaled $3500 but their payouts totaled $6800. The am's entery fees totaled $11750 but their payouts were only $10780. So the Pro's got almost a 200% payout for their fees and the am got around 90%. So it looks to me like the Pro gets all the sponser money and some of the am money. With out the am's their wouldn't even be enough Pro's to have a tourny so how come they get all the advantage. What does this say, the am's are just there to benifit the Pro's. This is just wrong if you ask me. Are those sponsering the tournament only interested in benifiting the Pro's I don't think so. Now I realize that if they only offered the Pro's a chance at $3500 total they probably won't come, but should that hurt the am's side. If you look at the numbers for Ludington its even worse. 37 Pro's had entry fees of $18500 and got a total payout of $20200. On the am side 87 boats had entry fees of $26100 but their payoff was only $19900. Over $6000 of the am fees went where??? Again it looks like the majority class of boats is providing for running the tournament cost to benifit the Pro's. Is this the way they all are run? Is it because the Pro's run the tournaments and take care of their own. Doesn't seem right to me. If there's another side to this that I'm missing because of my am bias, please explain it to me.

just happened last 2 weeks, up and running now.

Merry Christmas to all of you

No stores have the new book. You have to get it on line.

at this point I think you need to get it from Dan himself. Try [email protected].

Its called "Angling Life". I read it in 2 days, I couldn't put it down. This is not Dan's typical how to book. Its Dan story, and its a good one. From the highs of becoming one of the top salmon charter captians and tournament competiors to the lows of depression and attempted suicide. Good days on the water, bad days on land. Almost sinking, almost dying. Lots of the kind of fishing stories we love to hear from years of experience on the big lake and beyond. Readers Be Warned, the spiritual side of Dan's life is included. It could be a "dangerous read" for some of you.

we ran a proto type JPSlammer that was superslim sized this fall that was absoultly hot as slider in bloodynose type color

Yea, what Timmy said. We stopped with the Albrights a couple years ago because they can work loose. If your twist starts to fray, and it will after time, it only takes like 15 seconds to redo it.

Good deal Aaron

Table for me Tim

Brian, Make sure you get NBK, Carmel Dolphin, and King Killer, We do very well with these 3.

This is good news, it will save you throwing back some that you know are going to die.

12/4 Kazoo river. Way to go Jimmy. !st place steelheaders river tournament. You the man. 3 for 3, 23#.

awesome trip Kevin, need to see the picture of your big laker, that was a great fish.