Cork Dust

When I bought my CC, it came from the Brainard,Mn. area. The keel and about a foot and a half on each side apparently touched Gull Lake waters while on the shore station. These lakes have hard water and a lot of iron oxide, resulting in a nasty red/orange scale. I didn't have the courage to use a hull cleaner. I used a 3M cleaner wax on a seperate buffing pad to finally get this off. Any nasty shallow scratches or surface scale is erased with this stuff. I would suggest trying a mildly abrasive cleaner wax on your hardtop, like Starbrite's cleaner wax with TFE. If it is oxidized, then the 3M, which has more polishing compound in it. Both these waxes will pull leaf stains and atmospherice grit (the guy who put me on to them, slipped his boat by a coal pile on shore).I'm 6'-3" and have to take my belt off and climb onto the hardtop to get to the centerline too. The non-polishing agent Starbrite with Teflon and Collinite (not Collinite's Fleet wax) are my wax choices for the hull and topside,respectively, on my walkaround.

I bit. After inspecting these as a unit. Some suggestions on re-rigging them seemed appropriate. I switched-out the existing treble for a 2X 1/0 Gamakatsu. I also changed the rear bead swivel to a six bead to move the hook well back of the bait's tail and retied with fishing fool knots on both ends after testing the leader material's break strength. IF the surgical tubing pieces come with the unrigged paired bait bodies, this may be a more cost effective way to go. Someone wearing a two piece bathing suit nearly shot me over poorly sealed herring strips discovered in an onboard cooler. I have never been all that fond of the mess associated with running meat rig's, so we'll have to see. After having read through a few hundred threads (I do have a VERY full personal life, but this is about FISHING!), these seem very speed and delivery device tolerant. Oil packed tuna, herring oil, favorite paste lure in the cavity. Some folks are replacing the scent pad with a shamwow fabric piece (smaller air pockets and hydrophillic material). Now, IF the fish will only bite on them as quickly as I did!

Try Star Brites non-skid cleaner on a wet deck. Work it in and then let it sit for twenty minutes before you hit it with your deck brush again. Rinse. Then, swallow hard, then go buy some Woody Wax($35). A LITTLE goes a long way, make sure you do exactly what they recommend for application. If your non-skid feels greasy and slick underfoot after the treatment, you put too much on. Dried on blood, dog vomit(two labs), fish guts and fish upchuck all fail to penetrate this film. The abrasives in those soft scrub type cleaners are scoring your gel coat and increasing the little micro-crevices that stains get into. Silica is harder than gel coat. Bon ami type cleaners use micro fiberglass crystals as the scouring agent, so while they are abrasive, you aren't scouring with particles against your gel coat that are a harder material than gel coat itself, ie less abrasive.

If you find yourself in this situation personally: Brown Trout- maxillary bone extends well behind the eye socket in mature fish,10 branchiostegal rays, a broad squarish tongue with STRONG tongue and vomerine tooth patterns, a deeper head profile-males kype in spawning period, usually no spots on their gill cover, round or weakly round dark spots. Atlantic Salmon-Maxillary bone seldom extends past the eye socket, except in some large males, 12 branchiostegal rays, a narrow more pointed tongue with weak tongue and Vomerine teeth, a narrow markedly pointed head profile-males kype in spawning period, some spots on their gill cover, x shaped dark spots. If they simply asked the guys who caught the fish whether it went airborne immediately or slugged it out deep, they would have also been able to get a good direction to go on their identification process. Definitions: The branchiostegal rays are those fleshy ridges in the thtoat area of the fish. Vomerine teeth are in the roof of the mouth immediately down the midline of the fish, palatine teeth rows extend laterally. The elliptical shape bone that is a part of the upper jaw, extending in a plate-like fashion at the corner of the fish's mouth is the maxillary bone.

I agree with Spoonfed's perspective.

The vomerine teeth usually will tell, not just the count but the pattern. Odd they didn't look at the tongue shape as well, since one has a squared tongue and the other has a tongue that tapers to appear more pointed. A friend purchased a Wellcraft 19 from a guy on Torch Lake a few years back. During the sea trial he got an invite to come back and fish Atlantics in the fall when they congregate off a stream there. He said they caught several very nice fish. Odd that they did not photograph the fish, which would lend a record of the spotting pattern as well as the general "look" of the fish. Atlantics have a slightly more pointed head than Browns. Since they had the fish's skeleton, they can remove the otoliths from the brain case and get an accurate age on this fish. Yoda, would be the best assessor of how this fish would eat, since he takes Atlantics routinely in waters he fishes. My guess, pretty greasy at that size.

Some things to consider: The pinch-point for deer carrying capacity in the UP is winter habitat. In 1995--1997 winters of major deer die-off, the Winter habitat was sufficient to carry about 750,000 deer through a normal UP winter. It is now closer to 500,000 deer, due to continued habitat degredation. Deer are selective herbivores, they don't eat everything. As such, they can over graze summer habitat as well as winter habitat. The first deer to die of starvation in winter are yearlings. Data from Minnesota indicated that yearlings under 100lbs body weight were at greater risk of winter starvation induced mortality. Deer segregate by sex for much of the year. High doe population density in their fawning cover and summer range also serves to reduce overall habitat carrying capacity. As mentioned earlier, predation by wolves, coyotes, and bear is herd density dependant. Most deer consumed by wolves are fawns, yearlings and stressed adults. From a gender standpoint, most deer consumed by wolves are does, since they dominate the population numerically. ' The Natural Resources Commission instructed the MDNR to formulate a DMU specific management plant in 2004 with population goals and carrying capacity issues and goals identified within each of these Deer Managment Units. In an eleventh hour vote, that plan was tabled, because SPORTSMAN's GROUPS complained mightily about the lower herd goals and densities derived from these plans when tabulated on a compoiste, UP wide basis. Monies from the Natural Resources Trust Fund have been used on an annual basis to continue to purchase, on a UP prioritized basis, key winter deer habitat from 2003-2007 totaling nearly 12,000 acres(the Gogomain Swamp was one of these sites). In the last election cycle, the NRTF Board composition was changed and these expenditures were now directed primarily to be used to purchase public park lands through a restructering of the preference points determination sequence. In 2008 there was one purchase of key winter habitat in the Huron Mountains Club area. NRTF monies are generated from leases of State land for oil and mineral exploration. Terry Minzey's statements about QDM principles not working in the UP are driven by the degredation of habitat and the altered forestry harvest techniques that are employed i.e. mechanical harvest that takes weeks to complete instead of months,dimishing slash for wintering deer to feed on. With adequate habitat, QDM principals are applicable, ableit at a lower deer populaiton level than now exists. Doe harvest has nothing to do with current herd density or reproductive potential. Here is a simple solution if you want better buck hunting-shoot young does and female yearlings. improve the summer/winter habitat to spread deer out on their range, both summer and winter. Predation from all sources falls because search time for all predators goes up, individual deer condition improves, antler growth is enhanced, frequency of twin fawns increases. As an English agrarian that John Ozoga quotes said: "The head grows according to the pasture, good or otherwise." When I was "squeezing fish" on the St. Maries in the early 1980s, there was a pack of 23 wolves that hunted the lower river up to Neebish Island. They were based on Cockburn Island, oddly no one complained of wolves impacting their deer hunting because the wildlife biologists at Northern Michigan University who were tracking them never reported them to the media. In the mid-nineties the public became aware of the presence of wolves, and then the firestorm started. The MDNRE's Wolf Management Plan (required under the USFWS delisting process from Endangered Species Status) calls for a wolf population in the UP somewhere between social carrying capacity (roughly 400 animals) and the recovery goal threshold, set by the MDNRE and the USFWS, of 200 animals. Radio collared wolves from Michigan's UP have been recaptured in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Missourri. Wolves have been identified in Cheboygan county this winter. Some of the highest current concentrations and numeric densities of wolves in the central and eastern UP developed in areas where supplemental winter feeding sites for deer existed. Deer,unlike livestock, cannot be accumulated in extreme surplus, due largely to compensatory mortality related phenomena. This can be minimized with habitat improvement, which increases carrying capacity(again, Winter deer habitat is the most limiting in the UP of Michigan) ALL of this information is available in the Public domain.

Yes sir, now that I am a half inch shorter, life is different. Still have one more surgery in my future to pull the rods out. But now, it is time to "sharpen the swords". Belated congratulations on the birth of your child!

I just finished building two semi-custom diver rods to run this set-up. I used a commercially produced 9'-6" blank with a 7.5 tip and then re-wrapped with 10 Fuji Silicon Nitride II guides ($70/rod to complete). I am running Malin 7 strand camo tied a length of 50# Dacron and then a Uni-Uni tied to a 20-30# monofilament leader to a run a Slide Diver Lite-Bite #1 with either a two or four ounce weight. This will enable me to move the directional diver a varying distance from the flasher/fly or flasher/meat or flasher spoon terminal rig. I can play with this stealth wire rig as I move this up or down depending on time of day and background light levels. I don't think it will set the world on fire, but if it puts two or three fish in the box, I think it will be worth the effort to pick fish up that are drawn into the spread, but won't commit as water clarity continues to increase.

John, when I get some more Sunshine Superman IIs, I will order you some extras(I am down to one). Yours are looking long in the tooth! Did you do better overall last year with Magnums or smaller sizes last year on Northern Lake Michigan? Stick a JJ Macmuffin in that glow pad, it will be a standout.

Mattmishler, its a Moonshine Glow Puke spoon-Gander Mountain sells them in store. I don't think they are sold via Moonshine's normal distribution chain.

I have a Garmin 4208, I like it, but I think Garmin nickels and dimes you to death on software. Standard Horizon, Raymarine, Northstar 6000 are all good units, with all inclusive software packages for the entire Great Lakes and good customer service.

FOW? Near a stream mouth?