slickwater

Usually run your deep riggers are your 2 center riggers and the high riggers are the outside riggers. Lure behind the ball is shorter on the deep riggers and longer on the high riggers. As for dipsies, make sure you have the setting on the bottom of the dipsy to 2-3 if you want it to go away from the boat. Make sure you have the dipsy on the right side of the boat so it will go out to the side and not underneath the boat. Don't have a leader on your dipsies long than the rod so you can net the fish

I run spoons 30ft on deep riggers and 40 or more ft on high riggers. Flashers are 15-20ft on deep riggers. J-plugs 15-20ft. But sometimes when the fish are high in the water column my leads are farther if I don't get bit closer to the ball. I have run a spoon as far back as 100-150ft on a high rigger to catch steelhead that were spooking from the boat.

But the temp break this time of year is deep and northers is no surface temp break. So how can you find the temp break if it is a mile from the bait? I fish the thermocline and fish the structure and there is usually bait near the structure. I did notice the last time I fished the clone started at 130 down so we fished at 130 in 150 fow because that's where the salmon were schooled was close to where the cline meet the bottom.

I've never heard of washing lures except while I'm fishing. There is no need to do that if your no t catching fish your actually just washing lures. How far behind the ball are you running your lures?

Remember there are just some better fisherman than others and also some that have more luck. If you know you are on fish and not getting bit but other peoPle are you need to change speed,direction of troll and sometimes your whole spread of lures. But sometimes you just can't buy a hit. It happens to me too.

Don't feel to bad if you are catching fish in the morning then it's not your boat. It is probably your speed or the distance you have your lures from the ball. One thing to remember is that you are not a charter boat and don't have the rods they do and don't fish everyday to fine tune your presentation. I only fish once a week also and it's hard sometimes to get the truth from other fishermen on where and what lures they are using. If I were you I would become friends with one of the charter guys. But sometimes that doesn't help. I started doing my own thing the last half of this summer because I was getting bogus information and not catching fish.

I guess if someone would have something go wrong with something it would be me. I've had to retie it 3 times already. And I only fish once a week. I do troll at 1.6-1.9. The 1.6 is when we are binging a fish in and sometimes get a hit going that speed.

They're already filleted. But some have been in brine for almost a month and the others in a different jar for a couple weeks. But they are just as soft ad they were when I put them in the brine. I went ahead and salted some of my homemade fillets for a few hours and they seem to be firmer and a little tougher. So maybe they are going to work. I will just keep them frozen until I need them and then put back in the freezer the ones I don't use.

I'm not worried about getting more than one fish on a strip just that when I don't get bit or do get bit and miss that they don't come out of the head.

I have only had a salmon have the meat rig just inside the mouth. I use the walker releases that look like a tube of chapstick. But like I said every fish that I lose the hooks are tangled together and the line in between the hooks is kinked and has a curve in it so the back hook will tangle again on the next fish. So I then have to waste fishing time and retie.

I've never fished TC before. But if I were to guess where to fish would be out in front of the boardman river where the other boats are. Or go farther out in the bay and find some colder water with some structure.

I guess those staging kings don't care about water temp. I fished an area where they are not even close to be staging and they were all inn the cold water below the thermocline. I could actually see the cline on the graph. It looked like one of my rigger balls it was such a temp change.

I don't know. Both packs came from the same place and I asked about them and they said they received them packed in dry ice. The herring I have is a little firmer and tougher than when it went in the brine. Do you think if I were to take them out of the brine and cover with pickling salt until they firm up? But do I put them back in the brine or do I need to freeze them. And then I would have to refreeze them after the day of fishing. I have done that with the pre cut strips I've got from the bait shop.

Just wondering if anyone using John King's 2 hook meat rigs are having problems with after a salmon hits and the trailing hook going up and over the first hook and onto the leader (tangling the hooks together)and causing you to lose fish. I've lost fish right behind the boat and have also had a release and brought the rig in and the hooks were tangled with each other causing the fish to not get hooked. This has happened to me 4 or 5 times now. So I'm going to retie them with one hook.

Yes Leland is great right now. But if there are salmon in little traverse bay at petoskey then there should be some in grand traverse bay.

What kind of temp did you guys have. I know it was 67 120 ft down just before the weekend. I think when salmon are in that warm of water they are very sluggish and are only active at peak times.

I filleted green label herring on one side and left the other with the back bone still in it. Both sides are not very firm and on occasion the strip will rip out of the meathead. I started out fishing with pre cut strips and there are nice and firm. I've even caught more than one salmon on a strip. I'm wanting to know if there is any way to firm and toughen these strips? I have them in a salt,borax water brine. I tried to get some answers on another message board but no one could answer my question.

I don't think it matters what species the eggs come from. But if you think about when you are fish whitefish in the fall the whitefish are keyed in on salmon eggs. I don't use steelhead eggs for whites because I don't get very many in the spring to use them for whites. But I use to get eggs from a guy up in the U.P. Of Michigan that had a special recipe for eggs for whites but he died and the recipe is gone forever. He used steelhead eggs.

When should I stop using meat rigs in the fall? Do I still use them after the salmon go shallow and are staging at the mouth of rivers? Or are they only for deep water.

I don't buy egg cure anymore. With king eggs, if they are in the skein I strip them out of the skein and dry them off and the put in a ziploc and cover with 20 mule team borax and that's it. They will keep in the fridge for about a year. With steelhead spawn I never cure them. I just freeze them I small batches just enough for a couple days of fishing. For eggs for whitefish I cure the same way and just boil them until they will stay on the hook.

It should be herring. Because it is from fish on bait.

I've used smelt before and caught couple salmon on them. You have to remember salmon only eat certain prey. Suckers work for lakers because the prey on them. As far as I know salmon don't. The only prey I have heard of salmon eating are; alewives, herring, smelt, sticklebacks and gobies.

Well there was no blood in the package. But now the brine is red. I had a hit last night on one of my meat rigs and missed the fish but when I brought the rig in to reset the herring was ripped out of the head and was still attached to the hook. It was tore right out of the bait head and there was still a piece of it still pinned with the toothpick in the head.

That's what I was thinking. The herring could have sat in the warehouse before they put them in the freezer.

I did exactly what John King says to do whith filleting and brining the green label herring I got from my local shop. But I think they smell like they are starting to rot and are soft and the scales are coming off when I handle them. They are firmer than when I filleted them but not anywhere like the strips I have been using. Any ideas why this could be? They have been in brine for 3 days.