Twill23

Well, the issue with the limit catches in an amateur division is cheating. I'm not saying everyone who fishes is willing to cheat to win. But let's face it, there are people who do it. Pro boats have observers to MAKE SURE they dont pass their limit, while amateur boats do not. Having a no limit, cull tournament cuts out the possibility of cheating vs say a catch 15 tournament.

I believe all the amateur divisions should be cull events. Neither you, nor I know how many of these fish actually survive. But we sure do catch a lot that have prior marks in their mouths from previous fisherman. As far as the fishery crashing, i sure hope your just not turning a blind eye, because it did happen, and it happened almost overnight.

That's extremely impressive!

Lol. Legs too.they never seemed to hit rods right next to each other. Boat is only 11ft wide, but I swear I ran 10 miles this weekend. Lol

I forgot to mention how awesome this tournament is! The food alone is worth going for! They served us 3 great meals, including a prime rib dinner on the final day of the tournament. They also offered a breakfast buffet both days before the tournament for only $5dollars. Also, West Basin marina offered FREEEEEE slips for a total of 4 nights for tournament participants. They even supplied FREEEE ice. Everything ran extremely smooth, and we had an absolutely awesome time!

This weekend we fished the Shu's summer challenge in St. Joe. Unfortunately we didn't finish where we wanted to, but we had some absolutely outstanding fishing. I won't bore everyone with the details, so here is the quick rundown. Tuesday Afternoon Fished in the 15's-16's from noon till 1:30. Boated our ten fish, including an 18lb lake trout. 120-140fow NW troll rocked. 70ish down on the riggers with a white paddle, and also a glow back blue dolphin. 240 on the divers with paddles. Thursday we went back to the same spot, and took our 15fish by 9am. Same spot, same baits. We had really decent fish that day also. Friday morning(first day of the tournament) We set up in the same spot. Lemon berry SS on riggers, and divers with paddles back 240 were hot. Rules of the tournement were, catch a boat limit(culling is allowed), but weigh 5. Friday we caught 45 fish. About 60-40 coho to kings. We just did not have the big bites like we had earlier in the week. 142fow was where the majority of the fish were. Lemonberry mini SS on a free slider was on fire, as well as the lemonberry as the main line down 69. Our big fish was only just over 7lbs, and we only weighed 31lbs for day 1. Day 2 we had a whole new plan. To run farther, and catch bigger fish. Well the storms and lightning changed our mind. We ran back to the same spot. Saturday we boated just over 50 fish. All but 5 of which were kings. All of these fish seemed to be brother/sister, weighing about 6lbs each. We did manage to boat one just over 11lbs and one just under 10. Giving us a 5 fish total of just over 41 pounds, moving us up 11 places. Lemonberry mini SS and Mixed veggie mini SS caught nearly 30 fish combined on free sliders with riggers down 63 and 66. Fun fishing down there is absolutely unbelievable right now. I encourage you to get out there and fish! Nearly a hundred fish in two days is pretty unbelievable in my eyes! Get out while fishing is good! It's almost june! I'd like to give a quick thanks to Sly Selea here on the forum(John). As well as Nick(can't remember your username buddy). Thanks a ton for fishin the tourney with us.

About 20-25 gallons on the 30' and about half that on the 23 trophy.

Ill take em off your hands Eric!!!! Lol. For us they're a must have. They pull so good. Keep your rod tip low when fighting fish and lift at the right time. It just takes some practice. Make sure your backing is 50# minimum tho. They do pull realllllly hard. Frequently check your spliced in mono that you connect your board to (between your copper and backer) for wear. I absolutely love them for 225 or more.

Thanks again Mark! Was a blast the three trips we took this weekend. We took a complete total of 54 fish in the three trips! On a side note, Mark sure is scared of flashes of light and loud booms! Hahaha!

Divers back 240. Riggers anywhere from 45-100.

We took 15 this morning. 100-130. Lotsa fish around 170 tho too.

Its not just bait.its the number of alewives reaching adulthood. (4-7years). Population of immature alewives is "ok" but if enough don't make it, then there's no reproduction of alewives.

It's tough to get the average person to believe that dirtier water is better, but for us as salmon fisherman, dirty water=more fish.

Help prevent what happened in Lake Huron!

Agreed. I would much rather things be erred by the way of caution, than that of negative impact.

I have no idea. But with the sheer numbers, its no question that its putting a dent in the bait fish population. As far as the reproduction numbers being around 50%... They found that out in our lake, when we had WAY more salmon than we were supposed to, essentially wiping out our forage base.

I hate to say it. But this is exactly what happened with our side of the lake.. Some of the best fishing there had ever been preceded the crash of Lake Huron. I sure hope its not too late!

Nice job man!!

New Price! $25,500!

Fire em! lol.

LOL! This happens all too often! Big fish and smalllllll fish in the same area make it tough! 15minutes with stuff that isnt firing, that normally would be, is the rule. If it doesnt go, take the 1 minute to reset it!

I work in the seismic industry. There is a lot of issues with fracking, an to be completely honest a lot of it has to do with $$$. There is a specific incident i pointed towards back a year or so ago that involved the town of dimmok PA. A lot of negative steam comes from fracking because of the lack of information people have about it. Most people's main concern is their drinking water. Having things make their well water undrinkable. Unfortunately, with past experiences these issues have all been (in my PERSON experiences within the fracking industry) people who either did not own their mineral rights to their property, or were not paid what they wanted to for the use of their property. Many suits were filed and few were successful. People would complain about their water after fracking was done, without ANY prior tests to be done. I personally try to stay away from the fracking talk, because what i do comes WELL before the whole fracking process. I work in Seismic. Gas and oil exploration. Seismic work is really taking off in Michigan. Michigan actually has a decent supply of oil and natural gas in several parts of the lower peninsula. We recently did 2 LARGE jobs in Northern Michigan, which new wells are being drilled from right now! We also have done work around Dundee and Grayling, which have future plans to expand into much larger scale projects! It is creating A TON of jobs in our state!!! I have no opinion on the actual fracking because i choose not to. BUT just the job increases alone within the state of Michigan excite me! I DO support major regulations regarding all drilling though!

Our short stuff was slow except for the coho. We were REALLY successful just north of holland on plugs on the short stuff the last day we were there for kings. It's not very common to run plugs this time of year in that area, But it is here, and it produces here, and it worked for us there! Also consider Silver Streak minis for your short stuff for coho.

No problem running 4 divers with what you have. Run 2 divers(low divers with a mag ring) on 1 or 1.5. The high divers will be set on 3. You can run these with a mag ring or not, it's your choice, and depends where the fish are. Braid runs ALOT like wire does. People love wire because of the "harmonics" as well as the fight. Also there is not much of an issue with sea fleas once they start popping up. If you do choose to run them on 1 and 2, make sure your straight line trolling, putting them that close together COULD cause a bit of an issue. Especially if there is any type of current around

Lol yup! That's my baby! Soon as i can walk again, we'll be back down there! Hope to see you guys on the dock!