Turfwrench

I guess I am fortunate as I am by no means a professional fisherman. I am however a very passionate fisherman and spend my free time plying the waters of southern Lk Huron fishing waters that many claim are void of fish. I catch plenty of fish out of these waters and also am an avid promoter of fishing these waters. A couple years ago I came upon some lures and gave them a try. To me these consistently outfished the other lures I ran. Unfortunately they were not readily available in our area. I had contacted and met the owner on numerous occasions and well the outcome was not only being put on the Pro Staff but also a sales rep for them. So I believe in my situation it not only shows that Pros can promote and catch with their products but also you avid local fishermen can too.

As I sit and watch my big screen tv and think about what I paid for it, I ponder why marine electronics seem to cost well above that. We have televisions in plasma and liquid crystal in a magnitude of sizes, computors that can do virtually anything for us, phones that keep us in contact anywhere and apps that do amazing things on those phones. The price of these electronics are in reality quite affordable. Now on the other hand lets look at marine electronics. The bigger the screen the higher the price, much more so than other electronics. So the manufacturers make a basic model with a small screen and a base price, add a couple bells and a few more dollars, add a couple more whistles and a few more dollars, add a larger screen and bam.......big dollars. Just doesn't seem right or on par with the price of other electronics. Yep, I would love a nice large screen for my plotter and fishfinder. If the cost between screen size does not create such a huge gap in price, why so in marine electronics?? So the poll goes on how you feel the prices are. Feel free to add your opinions too.

The grandson is quite the fisherman. He has been on almost every trip on the water this season including both trips to Frankfort. This is a pic of him in his fighting chair from on of our trips, he uses the cup holder in the top of the cooler to put the rod but in and away he goes. Now that is a look of sheer determination. It is pure joy to watch the expressions on his face when he battles fish. Take young kids fishing. It does your soul good.

Hit up Pt Sanilac yesterday. What a beautiful day to be out on the water. Lake fairly flat with light winds. Worked skinny waters in the morning, marked plenty but no fish wanted to play. Turned the boat out towards deeper waters and at 60' a rigger came to life. Stayed within that area for the rest of the trip going 8 for 12, 7 steel and 1 small king that I drug around for a while...dooh. Nice to see the younger kings, shows signs of continued improvement for the lake. Fish came in top 30 fow over 60-75'. Spoons trolled 3.1 - 3.4 did most of the damage with a couple on highlines with body baits. Largest steel just shy of 9 lbs @ 31". Saw several fish throughout the day skimming the surface and chasing bait, several shiner were spit up in the cooler. These fish were not boat shy either as we caught a couple on the dipsys set on #3 40' out. Now that is close to the boat!

You don't really need to run wire divers.......but you certainly will miss out on a lot of fun. I run 2 wire divers and they are the most exciting rods on the boat and certainly have added to the fish count.

It is a bit over an hour to tow to the port I fish so I make the best of it and fish most of the day. Pack the snacks, lunch, and enjoy the time on the water. Some days it is so nice to be out that we have stayed from dawn to dark.

It is always a pleasure to take my grandson out on the water. He calls me every week to see if we are going to go fishing. Even after we got off the water he would break out his pond pole and fish at the campground. He certainly is hooked. This is a pic of his first fish of the trip out of Traverse City. He was awful proud.....and so was I. The king in the original post was a story in itself. I thought I had it pretty tired out and close to the the boat. So I handed the diver rod to him so he could walk toward the front of the boat so I could net it. (Yea, I run a long leader) I had the fish in the net and started to lift it and the dang thing flew out of the net and took off. He held on to the rod for dear life and the fish started to drag him. My wife grabbed him so he wouldn't go overboard but he never let go of the rod. A real trooper.

I have always cut a new notch in the plate so that it only goes down half way, it still slows you down and allows for better steering control. So far have not bent one up.

I hear ya Jason and thought we might be able to get together over there but the brutal winds left me with fishing Traverse. Good luck on your next trip. We are done for the west side this season.

Wow, what a tough weekend to head to the west side. Set up camp in Mesick on Friday night in the rain. Rained all evening and into the night. Wind and wave report prompted us to hit up Traverse City West Bay on Saturday morning. Launched out of Elmwood and starting setting lines, second rod set and bang first fish on, 10-12lb king 56'down on rigger. Kept heading across the bay and worked towards the north, had another good fish on the wire diver 190 back that ran me out to 330' and hit a loop in the reel, couldn't give it any more line and snap went the leader and fish. By 8am the fish quit but we continued in not so pleasant weather as the rain clouds and squalls continued to pound us several times in the morning. Went back up to West Bay Sunday morning to get a double going first thing in the morning, one on rigger 90' down and another on the wire diver 190 back. While I was fighting the one on the wire my grandson was battling the one on the rigger rod. Unfortunately his fish wrapped under and over the other wire diver and got cut off. I was able to land this brute on the wire. Fishing again shut off at 8am. All fish seemed to be quite deep in the bay, surface temps were in the 70's. The fish we caught were all bronze. Monday morning was able to get out of Frankfort in the morning, break was at 30'. First light bite was good then immediately died also resulting in 1 for 2 before the sun came over the dunes. Wind and surf picked up putting us off the water by 10am. Just some real tough conditions, wishing the weather would have been more cooperative.

First off I will say I don't do major holidays. Been there, done that, and don't have the patience to do it again. Jet skis, seadoos, etc are the worst offenders at the launches. At Tawas a couple years ago and attempting to get into the state docks only to have the jet skis blow past in the harbor and tie up all the docks while they sat and bs-ed and trying to decide who was to drive next. They were using them as their own personal dock with no concern of anyone launching or trying to come in to retrieve. Same scenario at Pt Sanilac, they come blasting up to the docks in a no wake zone with no concern for others. The ones at Sanilac got a not so nice verbage on no wake and what their actions did to the boats at the docks that didn't appreciate being tossed about while trying to load or unload. They just gave a dumb look and went about their horseplay. It would be nice to have a dock attendant directing traffic at the busy launches. It certainly would curtail a lot of problems and get people in and out quickly. During the busy times at the DNR launch at the mouth of the Saginaw river I have seen the attendant there directing and getting things done smoothly. I guess they don't teach etiquette in boating safety......it should be a mandatory item having your boat fully loaded and ready to go before you launch. Something like retesting for your drivers license. (How many do you think would fail??) Upon retrieval get the boat on the trailer and pull into the tie down lane, not just out of the launch and block it for the next half hour while you pull the drain plug, put the antenna down, stow rods, and take your gear out of the boat. Ok,,,,now I feel better

I currently am running Okuma CV 45D reels spooled with 1000' 30# Mason wire on Shinamo TDR rods with twilli tips. Entire setup less than $180 and it performs great. The rod has plenty backbone to pull the mag dispys and plenty strong enough to bring the fish in. It is certainly the most exciting rod on the boat.

And I thought the fleas are a bad enough problem as we encounter them frequently in lk Huron but what did get to me was the algae that attached to the lines in Frankfort a couple weeks ago. Would much rather deal with the fleas than the algae as it was on the riggers and the wire divers.

Well Brandon you haven't missed much at Pt Sanilac lately as the surf conditions have been all but favorable. So spent this past weekend prepping my gear for another run back to Frankfort for a few days. Hopefully all the holiday fools will be long gone.

I prefer freshly cut belly fat off of a fish I caught. Lots of flavor, oils....and the fish just love it.

Usually seems to be either some funny stuff that happens at the launch or something that has a tendency to boil under our skin. Earlier this season we were approaching the launch but had to wait for an open dock to come in on between the jet skiiers and other boats that had just came in or were going out. This one boat headed in well before me so we sat in idle figuring he had his truck at the water ready to load.....sitting.....sitting and still he hadn't moved the boat. Finally the other side of the dock opened and we pulled in, tied off, retrieved the vehichle, loaded, pulled out to the tie down and this individual was still sitting and the boat wasn't even near the trailer yet. I looked at the name on the side of his boat......"Bout and Hour" best thing he could have ever named that boat. :no: He was still putting his rubbers on so he could hook up his boat......gotta love it.

Normally I don't run meat as I fish Lower Lake Huron and we just don't have the fish yet nor the action on that type of bait that keeps me running that slow, spoons at 2.8 - 3.4 sog does the trick here. Now last week at Frankfort we did put down a couple Yooper meat rigs, that would be fresh belly fat sliced off of fish we caught......does it work......ahhhh......much better than store bought packaged bait. The fish don't seem to care if it is lake trout, salmon, etc....but it is fresh and has flavor. And yes we caught fish on them!!

I am banking on next weekend. The effects of the hurricane will be long gone and so will the holiday fools. Will be back to Frankfort for 4 days and hopefully the weather will cooperate, if the winds don't will run up to Traverse Bay and give it a go there. Stable weather has not been the norm for the past several weeks.

This may help. I put this together a couple years ago, it seemed a lot of guys that fish the lower end of Lk Huron caught browns and were calling them atlantics. I put the red lines in on the jaw to show the difference. The top and bottom fish (atlantic) are the same fish with the middle fish a brown.

Jason, we will be heading up on the Friday and returning Tuesday afternoon. Will certainly give you a holler. Maybe after this hurricane goes thru things will change up with the fishing.

Good job on the fish Jason. I certainly agree on the deep and slow action. We were up there for three days and left the day before you came up. Stayed south of the harbor in the early mornings to avoid all the boat traffic up on the bank then worked our way up past the point after the traffic died down. Only fish that we got up high in the water was a couple steelhead otherwise the salmon came from 70-90 down on the riggers and the wire divers 175-225 back. Gonna go back up the weekend after the holiday to give it a go again, hopefully the fish will be a little higher and a lot more active.

For Port Huron you can try Anderson's Pro Bait and there is also a Gander Mountain.

Bass Pro Shop in Great Lakes crossing would be your best bet.

I run black ones on my wire divers. They have been the most exciting rods on the boat. Some days they have been the best rods accounting for most of the fish, some days not, but most often do help put fish in the box. I don't run other colors as for me I want the fish to look at the lure trailing and not the dipsy.

Good job on the fish Grant, you guys fared better down there than we did in Frankfort. That was a nice fish in the pic you sent me...., Sunday the fish were biting better and of good size but as the rollers and surf went up my crew went down to chumming so had to pull and head back in so you will have to rib Randy next time you talk to him. lol