jimcr

Been there all to many times, Like Sunday but it was 4 medium coho, and fishing blind do to locator taking a unscheduled vacation.

sweet , be kind of hard to top that this year ,nice job.

Great Job there Josh. I hear that the coho are out in 110-140 hear in Milwaukee.

lots of fuel in the bigger boats , 17.5 ft Tracker targa . 115 opti and a 15 hp kicker. We are burning about 3 gallons on the short trips and 6 on the longer trips out in 150-200. The kicker makes a whole lot of difference. Burn most of the fuel on the long trips out to deep water.

If you are looking for a decent rod at a good price try the Wilderness rods by Diawa. I have 10 of them and couldn't make one complaint on them . I think Bretts place on the bay sells them for around 24.00 .

Been 3 weeks since we were out and decided that I would at least fish the harbor if it was too rough. Started just south of the Main gap and before all rods were set first fish a brown 4lbs . Thought it didn't' look too bad as we left the south gap, and about the same time I was second guessing myself the beast hit like a freight train and this was the express. Even after gaining some control, never had the fish behind the boat. Had to net it on the port side after 3 tries. Think we found a couple of 5 footers just outside of the south gap. Turned around and headed back inside . Picked up 1 coho as we came north to the Main gap . Finished 3 for 3 glad to be out again, even if it was a cool and windy day. Tight Lines Jim

You are leaving a few important parts out on the food web , the diphtheria, certain types of plankton , and others that the lake needs to host native and non native species . Its not that the alewives are going away , its that all the forage is. The food for the prey is missing, the quagula muscles and zebra muscles are filtering out all the important organisms needed by alewives, perch , smelt etc. There are all type of factors that come into play hear, Ice conditions , weather, water temps, Cloudy a very long list . You have to look at the bigger picture. even if you took out Chinook Salmon from the picture and the Alewives there is still a problem. quagula muscles are very efficient at filtering out everything from the water. and proficient at it. Why do you think that the lake is so clear? Years ago there was a great fishery out on the lake , people used to use large seine nets for Smelt. Perch was commercially fished out on the lake . There is a ballance to eveything out there and it keeps changing. Are Brown Trout Native? Steelhead? Splake?Coho? All I can say is don't let Lake Michigan Crash like Lake Huron. Your talking about a 8 to 10 Billion dollar fishery, That would leave a giant hole in the economy that Wisconsin , Michigan, Illinois, or Indiana share. If they stopped stocking Chinook we as a group would find other fish to chase , but think of the Jobs the would be lost not just the charter captains, the Bait store down the street, how about the marinas the list goes on.There are four options for reduced stocking IF NEEDED! will be implemented. Please make an informed decision . Make sure you contact your DNR and make your voice heard, they will make the decisions we don't .

Sorry "NOT" legal on the Wisconsin side, It is illegal to deposit fish entrails in waters in Wisconsin.

We are experiencing some numbers close to yours, here on the Wisconsin side. Not everyone but a few. No doubt that the warm winter has brought unprecedented amounts of kings to many ports early. Lets all hope that this trend doesn't' mean that the summer or fall suffer. I wish I could get out there but when the water is ok I have been working or busy. Too much with the North -east winds.

Here is one thing to remember , and that is Chinook Salmon prefer Alewives , but will eat other food, Yes the Salmon were put here to control the Alewives but with out the alewives we would not have a Chinook fishery. Read the info available at Seagrant . The biggest problem is that the clear water caused buy first the Zebra muscles then quagula muscles , the clear water is missing the part of the food web. If you could get rid of the quagga muscles you wouldn't' have this problem .

Nice job Adam , hoping to get out this weekend

This goes out to all who fish lake Michigan , The DNR in the states that surround Lake Michigan are trying to stop what happened in Lake Huron (biomass crash) . Please take a minute or two , Take the survey. It could mean loosing up to 50% of the stocking that takes place . The survey comes from Michigan Sea Grant. Thanks Tight Lines Jim https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WGPKXG7

Nice job Adam , wish I could get out there but the weather just won't cooperate. I may have a shot at getting out on Sunday . Sounds like the boat is running good. Great way to start the season.

even worse I had forgot the tuna in the container, it was like a bad chemistry experiment ! Needed Gloves a mask and a paper bag to yak in.

Thanks Josh , now if the weather cooperates and the Coho move 35 miles north it will be all good again.

I am on the Wisconsin side and fish in a Tracker targa very deep 115 opti 15 kicker + a trolling motor, Have been out 16 miles on the right day. 358 FOW. Make sure someone knows where you are and when to expect you back , keep an eye on the weather. carry a cell and make sure it works along with your radio. I have seen it go from flat calm to 3 footers in less than 5 minutes, in a small boat fish with care out that deep.

the nice part of the copper rods is the large eyes , the knots pass through easily, just make sure when you pay out line to use the clicker, or you could have a little birds nest.

here are a couple of links on the copper setups. I think these were the ones you were talking about. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25536 http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25841

yeah thats close, depending what your running on it , plugs run deepest then spoons , and last flasher and fly . You can loose about 10% of your depth running flasher and flies , and this is due to the surface area on the flasher.

I used the same calculator , but if the volumes are exaggerated it will be off, as I have found i most. For 200 feet of 45 lb Super copper it should be 45-50 feet down . The easiest way to find out how deep its running would be to remove the hooks and let it out and watch the pole you should see some difference almost like a tapping as it hits the bottom. Almost the same as checking for depth with a dipsy diver.

I put my line on using a device that measures foot for foot of line that goes on , you would be so surprised on what actually fits on a reel , most of the reel numbers are off 5-10 %. Don't' use the counter that you see in the picture its off too, it slips some . I have a measuring wheel that the line runs around in a grove. I wouldn't go over 8 color for rods and then go with copper. It shortens up things so you don't have 2 miles of line out to get depth. I had to stretch out a couple of coppers that I wasn't sure of the lengths , turned out I have them marked wrong. Mixed up a 150 and a 180 copper. Its easy to due if you don't' mark them. I now mark all my copper in the depth they are suppose to run. Saves time and tangles. So lets say you have a 300 of 32 LB copper , I mark it 60 or a 180 it will get marked 35. I run 3,4,5,6,7,8 colors and then its all copper, braid and stainless. If I need to run shallow I will run keel weights .

and its all about the good guys here, not like one of the other sites. Great site Mike

At least you got out and bent a rod or two. Stayed in because of the forecast . I Should have went on Saturday. I'm guessing all browns? See ya on the water.

I have caught browns packed with gobies, Like my son Nick said 2 camels in a compact car. Some where on you tube the first time we were out , Nick filmed me cleaning a couple of Browns full of gobies. I have also caught them when we were jigging for Kings in the harbor, 35ft down.

Water temps were right around 42' , this year I am running dipsys all year! just love the screaming when they hit, this one even jumped out of the water . Hoping for decent weather for next week again , but this time I am going to be out early!