tray19682005

last ludington report i read saturday said browns were in shallow and body baits were the hot lures anything orange,red ,or chrome. I havent saw alot of boats out trolling . Make shure if you come to ludington you have all required safety gear, the coast guard means well but have upset alot of locals with constant checks, I was checked and boarded 2 times in under a 4hr period Monday.They are always friendly but some just cant accept they are here for our safty. Copeyian and city ramps have been in 2 weeks now.Good luck and tight lines.

Im not shure how to add pics here , but i put some on the Salmon trout forum under my 69 starcraft holiday. I was reading older posts and thought i might have 1 maniacs old boat. As I bought this in muskegion in June 08 seems same time you had one for sale? But I see you kept it in family so its not mine . Shes not pretty but catches alot of salmon and with friends help im shure floor will never rot as alot of beer has been spilled ,poor mans pressure treatment . lol

Just curious, if anyone is fishing lake michigan in an old boat? My first boat I still have and use regularly.Its a 1969 Starcraft Holiday with a 1969 85hp johnson motor. Its not cosmetically perfect but still very solid and handles 6ft waves. Its set up as a pure fishing boat,4 manual downriggers, 2 old big johns and 2 Riverias with 4ft arms and 4 tite-lok rod holders in front for dipseys and when useing boards.I live in Ludington and cant help laughf when I see a +$20,000 boat head in when waves are above 3ft and im out in a 40yr old boat and feel totally safe.Ive had some of my best times on this old basic boat.Just curious if anyone else has an old classic on the water?

Welcome, while you are in Ludington go to "Captian Chucks" they have everything you could dream of. Owned by a charter captian and they have "I believe" everything from dreamweaver,stinger spoons and every well known maker,they also have a large selection of rods n reels they only carry quality products no wallmart stuff here and they are very reasonable priced.They will also set up any rod -reel como for you ready to fish.They have a web site that lists there prices.Another site I hear about alot is "Bretts on the bay". I hope this helps and if you are on the water in ludington ,Watch those darn Indian nets north of town.

I havent used those but i did buy just the flags last fall and I love them when boat traffic is heavy it seems the flags are better seen by other boats so they dont get as close since i installed them,I believe the flags only were about $3 each and now i can relax when running boards as other boats keep away and it helps alot in 3-5ft waves to see them easier.

Since you mentioned large bodies of water I would strongly reccomend e-bay or craigslist to find a vhf radio.On a budget you cant go wrong with an Ugly stick they are cheap and very hard to break. As far as reels anything can work so long as it has a good drag and is capable of holding at least 200yards of 25lb min line. There is alot of fishfinders available for under $200 some as low as $85, anything is better than nothing at all.Also wearable life vests, you can never be to safe in big water especially when waves kick up.You didnt mention size of boat so I assume its small and you wont be going out to real deep water so I would suggest divebombers,or dipseys for the depth you will be fishing in .As far as rod holder on a budget you cant go wrong with plastic pvc pipe.When iI first moved to Ludington I had nothing but I was able to get alot of my first equiptment at yard sales .Walker downrigger $25 I had to install new cable for $20 and i also picked up 2 to very old Big John downriggers on E-bay for $50.IT can be done very cheap.AS far as spoons some are better than others but id watch fishing reportsbut in gereral Yeks fireballs early season and any Moonshine glow spoons at night and just b4 daybreak.Modified blue and green dolphins are also very popular by Dreamweaver.Plugs any brand of glow green ladder back works great in the fall.A port and starboard Churches walley boards will run about $50 but well worth money to spread out your lines. A good speed to troll is usually from 1.8 to 2 1/2 mph if you cant get your boat to go that slow a cheap "old school" fix is get a 5 gallon bucket remove handle tie rope where handle was and tie on rope to that and tie it to a rear side of your boat and let it drag in water, just rember its there and dont stop with it attached as it might get caught in prop run it about 5 foot behind boat as needed. Hope this gets you started in the right direction, and wouldnt hurt to look up old forums on this site as there is alot of good info here.

I tried some of these last fall and had alot of problems with it sliding down line.I do think I had the old model as the holding pin was a soft rubber and broke very easly when removing,and when it kept slipping down braided line we tried to use pliers to get it a lil tighter and it just opened up?We started with 4 of these and by the end of day had 1 that was still usable,but we did catch salmon on these in the channel in 20ft of water. If I rember right, these cost $5. each and gave up on them but if they have been redesigned I will pick up 2 and see how they work now as they did catch fish. I like the idea of their ease of use and when fishing pressure is heavy it cant hurt to have something different in the water.

I have 2 walkers i was having same problem with and yes it is hard to remove tiney mounting screws in rolling waves to reset.I did find new springs for $3 each and that was 2 yrs ago and have not had an issue since. The new springs do fit tight and are a pain to get on without stretching them,but it can be done. Very cheap fix,if yours is direct gear drive new gears can also b purchased and ck these just press on be shure gears are centered and that will also stop any gear slipping . Good luck

I decided to also replace the floor in my boat a 1969 Starcraft Holiday 18ft. All wood was shot, I used 2x4 stained them and then ran 1/2 plywood stained top and bottom.The hardest part was cutting the front to match the boat curves,the trick is to use cardboard as a template then outline on plywood and cut with a jigsaw.I decide to forgo carpet and added roll on truck bed liner with a lil sand stirred in.It looks great and will last a long time and is non slip and best of all if it gets stained just hose off! This was my first boat and its no frills just a fishing machine .

Look at line guide on reels b4 buying some will wear leadcore quicker than others.I may upset some but I fish daily and we run 8-12 poles at a time and I gave up on Okuma reels as the gears are mostly plastic and they do wear out n break .I have 4 Diawa accu-depths model #57lc I run full and 3 cores on and on 3rd yr now no problems, But my workhorses are Pen 320gts i have 10 of these and never a problem and all metal gears and they run about $15 more than competiors but they will last a lifetime!Depending on your boat setup, run shorter rods on downriggers and 10ft or longer on your planers and dipsey rods, less tangles makes for better fishing.And as mentioned b4 only use a stout rod holder as alot of strain gets put on these.Dreamweaver spin doctors are great with flys but run these on deepest riggers or they will tangle with anything within 5ft of them and they do tangle into a nasty mess. Finding fish and learning to read the water is hardest to learn but most important.WE have had tape peel on spoons and superglued them back on and had a fish on 10 min later! When they are biting they are not as picky but you must stay on them,as they will bite anything close its when they are scattered that you have to find your system that works . I would strongly suggest ,if you can afford it, to hire a charter and watch n learn and apply what you see to your own fishing.

I agree about Jenison Sport shop , or try AL n Bobs on Division street, But gander mtn also sets up poles. I would suggest no less than 25lbs min. I run 40 on all my poles as i dont want to loose any gear and last year the salmon were Averaging 15lbs.If you are in G.R. I assume you will be fishing muskegion and Holland so i would suggest looking that area up in phone book and finding a tackel shop and also why there they can get you going in right direction on gear and tackel.If you are new to salmon fishing only use coast lock type swivels,cheap ones just wont hold up to salmon and if it lets go while trolling you can easy loose $10-15 in gear as well, this is not an area to be cheap.Braids are the way to go as line diamater is smaller and lake Mi is getting very clear. Good luck

I dont have any personal experience with depthmasters, but even on cablea web site the product reviews for these is very bad?But most complaints seem to be on poles not the reels. I went with with diawa 57 accudepths i have 4 now and no complaints but on occasions i do bump the counter reset. But no breakdowns and mine get alot of use 2 run leadcore and i like that they dont rub coating off leadcore as some reels do .

I have 4 diawa that have never given me any problems except, the plastic end-cap covers like to viberate loose, lost 3 now but reels work fine, but my favorites are my 2 Penn 320gts they feel solid and retrieve fast

I tried last fall and in river and lake mich while trolling,they have to be run very low speeds.I had 2 and 1 caught sand while leaving harbor and completly broke off the lip making it worthless.2nd one i used for another 3hrs with no bites, due to heavey boat traffic i went in a to 20ft of water and hit bottom but only for a few seconds and agian it destroyed the thin front edge rendering it useless.I never had chance to try adding meat wrap, but decided if they are so fragile i dont need these. I always test all new lures, by runing alongside of boat and watching and adjusting speed till i get it tuned in, as I Have bought name brand spoons and right from the pkg they occasionaly need tweeked.