scgibby11

I always thought my wife had some powers to mess with me when I was out there fishing instead of working on the honey-do list.

Beautiful........sweet job Bob! Scott

Where exactly were you fishing? Very cool!

Hello. I have these nice rod holders that I put up on my arch (the gold one). They are solid and good rod holders, however, when I pull copper or heavy topedos, no matter how tight I seem to try to make them, they rotate back. I was told to put electrical tape around the arch and then tighten the rod holder down. It did not seem to help. When I pull big boards and copper, they eventually twist back on the arch. Any thoughts? Scott

Very cool. Spring will be here faster than we know!

Way to go. Wish I were there! Scott

YEs, yes, yes. I'm in. Scott

Thanks so much. Next season, and that great April/May action will be upon use before we know it. scott

Fished yesterday out of South Haven. Man, all is still very warm. Channel mouth: 63.5 degrees Went out as far as 245 FOW to start, where surface temps were 65.5 degrees. Temp break was at about 110. Right at the break the temp was about 58-59. Trolling 220-245 did not produce anything, and the graph was pretty desert-like. I pulled lines and shot in to 190 FOW. Trolling east the graph became alive with bait pods and fish arches at about 165 FOW. Surface temp there was still around 65. Action was limited, but I went 2 for 3, picking up a lake trout deep (110 feet down--threw back) on a blue fly behind a green pro-troll flasher. A nice 10 pound steelie came on a surface board with a very small lipped rapala painted with a perch pattern. If nothing else, it was a spectacular day. Not too warm, not too cold, not too windy, not too calm..... Scott

Thanks for the reply. I assume you mean you will start at a temp break of 60 degrees? Or did you mean 60 FOW? I'll be on channel 68 Monday, "Damsel Fly". Thanks again. Scott

Hello, I think I have one or maybe two trips left in me for the season on the Great Lakes. One is going to be this coming Monday, October 11th in the afternoon evening. I'm looking for advice on what to target and what will give my buddy who is coming along the best chance to land a few. I was out 2 days ago, and the water is still warm (55 in the river, 62-62 surface beyond the river plume) and got warmer (64) as I went out to 180 FOW. I'm thinking to shoot for surface steel, but any help would be appreciated. Scott

I have been quite happy with the depth raider. The only downsides I have seen have been that after many trips, I get several frayed areas on the coated cable, mostly near the end of the cable. I have therefore re-terminated the cable two times during the season. That always takes care of things. Since I use the walker terminating releases, it is no big deal to re-terminate. I have not changed batteries all season. However, I did notice this past week that at 130 feet of DR wire out, I lost signal. My suspicion is it could be from a couple of factors: 1. I know there are a few frayed areas of coating on the wire that aren't near the terminal end. 2. 130 feet could be the limit for good readings (I doubt it) 3. the battery could need replacing (although I am not getting a low batt warning). A downside of the fishhawk that I saw is that it requires the mounting of another "transducer" on the boat. That means drilling holes, mounting, and replacing if it get broken off. With the depth raider, sure it is a bit of a pain to have the coated cable, but, it is very easy to replace, and I don't have to drill more holes in my boat. Scott

Tough times recently. Great job!

Trolled from about 4p-7p, went 2 for 4 catching: 1. 8# king, 160 FOW, down 65 ft, lemon ice 2. 6 pound steelhead, 165 fow, down 100, green nbk The river temp was around 66 degrees. Out at the mouth, the surface temp was still 72 degrees! We first ran out to around 100 FOW, but after all of this west blow recently, the temp on the bottom was still 67 degrees. Ran out to 150+ FOW and not much better. There did seem to be a thermocline around 130 but it was intermitent and the depth raider didn't read well below 125. The interesting thing was, ocassionally we would hit a pocket where the temp around 100 feet down would drop to 48-50. We would immediately see scruff and bait pods on the graph, and each time that happened, we got our strikes. It really took some work to try to go back and find those cold pockets, but when we did, the strikes would come. We did hook into a presumed large king that spit the hook after about 3 minutes. He hit a large J-plug, red back, yellow belly. Scott

Spending some time with the boat and the family up north. We have fished St. Ignace. The family would like to try another port. Who has experience out of Harbor Springs and Little traverse Bay for Salmon? I'd be interested in knowing if there are particular areas or bottom structure that we might want to shoot for. Thanks, Scott

Ha! Yes, we crossed from MACKINAC CITY to the island......that would have been a long night all the way up Lake Michigan! Scott

A million thanks to Steeliebob for fishing with us Saturday June 12 and for helping me make a plan of attack for fishing the straits. The weather was a bit tumultuous on Friday night, which made for a challenging crossing from Michigan City to Mac Island, and a rough sleep on the boat during the wind, heavy rain, and thunderstorms. That made our 5am departure a bit delayed. My son and I weathered the storm. Got some lines in the water at 6:30 AM, and hit a nice 13# king. We finally got in touch with Steeliebob around 8 or so, and we learned from his expertise for a couple of hours, hooking into another king that we unfortunately couldn't boat--he spit the hook. The next morning we caught a couple more--8-10# and about 3-4# salmon. It was a very nice weekend after the stormy Friday, although we could have used a touch of wind on Sunday to limit the massive bugs! Every single strike this weekend came on the riggers from 55-75 feet down, in 85-140 FOW between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island (St. Ignace side, north of the coast guard station). Every single strike also came on a stinger glow ghost, stinger size lure. Dipsies, copper were silent. They wanted the downriggers and only that spoon. No flies. Surface temps were about 57 degrees, with temps 51-52 at the ball. Thanks again, Bob. A picture follows, but I left the camera on the boat that has the pictures of the big one..... Scott

Too funny. Yes, we were. We struck an unmarked reef near Todd harbor and had to cut the trip short. Weather stayed nice, and we just had a much slower crossing back to Houghton. It still was a fantastic trip--mostly diving, but fishing was nice too.

We took the boat and crossed to Isle Royale last fall and had a great, great time. What a place. Here are some pictures from our trip. Scott [/url

Excellent. Keep 'em coming! Thanks so much

Hello all: Feel free to move this if I posted in the wrong area. I wondered if anyone has a referrence (or is willing to build one!) for the abbreviations that posters often use for spoon patterns. I realize that some manufactures have pictures of their patterns with the name, but the abbreviations are not always present. I've picked up on many--NBK (natural born killer), SOG (silver, orange, green), etc, but there are many others that I scratch my head about when I read posts. Anyone have thoughts? Scott

Man, work sure gets in the way of fishing. I've been scheduled to work the weekend of most every tournament that has interested me. Oh well. I still get to fish many other times, and that keeps me wanting more. Looking forward to St. Ignace this coming weekend. Scott

Very cool to have you here. Nice boat!

Oustanding!

I have several Craig's rod holders, and they are very, very well built. They are quite adjustable in many directions too. Scott