Twill23

well the first question would be what kind of top, if any do you have? unfortunately the new birds have had a slight issue shooting through tops of any sort. To me id go with the external just because i have a hard top.

an hour and a half south ill have open spots:D drop me a pm

i love this entire post, still chuckling to myself.

there is a difference between the truck loads of smelt that were harvested back in the 80's and the monumental crash to almost a non existant status to the significant increase we have now. smelt were caught through the ice on the river for the past two seasons, for the first time in years. its extremely encouraging to open up a healthy 5lb walleye and see it packed full of bait. i agree with frank. fish have to adapt as do the fishermen. its something we all love, and if you want to continue with it you gotta do what ya gotta do.

Amen!

wow! you cant beat that! you did an absolutely superb job!!

yes there are more smelt now than in the last several years, you can get this information at your nearest eastside MDNR fisheries office. more than ever? i dont know where you would have read that? sure the alewives invading the lakes is the whole reason we're on this site right now. it was great for us. but if we want to keep these fish around we need to be patient and wait for them to adapt. there is plenty of bait...plenty. and yes, regardless of species i am always going to be extremely thankful for big lake fishing, even after spending over 100 grand into three boats and all the bells and whistles. again i can only encourage people to examine numerical charts of both lakes and notice the very clear trends. but then again we will all be sitting on our couches with our "investment" rendered completely useless if the Asian carp are not stopped.

you dont have to spend a lot of money to catch either. be thankful for what you have, and remember salmon were introduced to do a job, and with the help of some other contributing factors they have done their job.

It seems that a lot of people forget about how each lake goes through periodic cycles. I belive anyone who has fished the west side remembers the kidney disease that nearly killed lake michigan. There are higher number of smelt than there has been in the last several years as well as higher numbers of "blues" or other small shad in lake huron. In the past two years we're getting less and less of the kings who have a larger head than body. The salmon are adjusting and its going to take time. There are lots of fish to be caught if you want to put the time and money into it, but honestly with the lake trout fishery and walleye fishery, who wants to do that?

I totally agree with you. Lake Huron is lucky enough to have 2 or the top 10 walleye fisheries in the nation with with Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay. The Lake Trout fishery is absolutely amazing. It's a great starter fishery for younger kids, in my opinion. Yes there is no doubt i do miss the days of screamers but, again only my opinion, its a lot easier to get the younger kids to catch a fish they can reel in all by themselves, and to keep them excited about it, rather than having a king dang near rip the rod out of their hands. I am still extremely excited about Lake Huron fishing, maybe because i live on lake huron. But hey, theres plenty of fish and lots of fun. Its just different than it used to be. Not any average joe can just go out and catch fish anymore, and maybe thats unattractive to some people, but to me i find it very appealing.

If you dont mind me asking, how much money went into the making of the new arch? Btw, it looks great

I went out and bought an 85 2700 open with updated power. I need to do some electrical work, but there are just some deals you cant pass on

I've recently just purchased a 2700 open Tiara Ill have to toss some pics in here when she finally gets home.

I've fished on a marinette several times. I have a close friend who owns a 28ft Marinette, as well as another who owns a 32

Lake trout fishing out of the northeast is stupendous all season long. If your looking to bag a bunch of greasers for a fun outing there absolutely no shortage. As far as salmon go its a hit and miss thing. There is plenty of bait in our shallow warm water areas. Salmon are extremely spotty in these waters and are here one day and gone for the next 2 weeks. Again, most people in this area dont launch their boats until mid may or early june.

Squids were extremely popular here about 4 or 5 years ago. You wouldn't find a boat not running a white fish catcher and white glow squid. If not multiples of the same set up.

Great choice with the yellow tail here, as well as the Greasy Chicken wing. Both in the first picture.

I have a walker strike vision camera, and to be honest its one of the neatest tools for seeing hoq fish really react to your presentations. The special rigger itself comes with a coated cable to totally get rid of the seperate wire problem. The great part about this rigger is you can use it as a normal downrigger when you are not using your probe. It also comes with a 10lb breakaway cable that attaches to the bottom of your probe. There is also a plug on the wheel of the down rigger that must be unplugged before you can move the downrigger either up or down. This is really a great safety feature to stop you from getting too excited, and ripping wires out of places they really should stay. The coated cable is quite a bit thicker than average downrigger cable, so what i have done is make another heavier break away cable so that i can use a heavier ball with the rigger. This is also a great too when your having problems with speed. Rather than counting on shear numbers from your fish hawk or other units, you can see what the fish really want. I will admit it is a slight hassle to clip the line to the cannon ball. Because of the length of the setup its hard to reach it even with a ball retriever. Another problem the unit has is the price for replacement cable. It can cost over $300 big ones to replace a single spool of cable. I can also forsee a problem if the downrigger were to be a side rigger. It could see the cable rubbing against the little metal guide at the very end of the downrigger. Also the unit does not have auto stop, you have to manually hold the button up or down. Overall if you have the money and are really interested in putting more fish in the box, its a great investment. Personally i dont use it much anymore. I have it sitting downstairs in my boat, and in its place is another walker downrigger

That is one pretty hen

ah okies! sorry i didnt read all of the other posts first!

Ill take one in black, but i hope you can use paypal and ship it, as im on the eastside. ill pay extra for the shipping and what not

The boards do work very well, but as for lighting. Here on the eastside, we do a lot of walleye fishing afterdark and the way most guys go is with the glow sticks. You can buy packages by bulk. We commonly use the same glowstick for multiple nights of fishing for 4-6 hour trips. Once your done using the glow sticks, take them off and place them somewhere cold on the boat. When you get home put them immediately in the freezer. This is a great way to save money, as well as see your boards before daylight, or for some after daylight.

More than happy to be apart of the forum. Can't ever have too much information from too many sources. I fish mostly in the North East part of Michigan on, of course, Lake Huron. True, salmon are on a bit of a shortage during certain times of the year, but having a great day of catching is an everyday thing if you don't mind fighting the greasers. I run two boat depending on water conditions and type of fishing. I love my trophy for most everything including walleye and lake trout. I love the tiara for fishing tournaments on both sides of the state. I love boats and fishing in-general!