d-fresh

10'6" Daiwa Heartland dipsey rod with a twilli tip and a Daiwa Sealine 47LC is the best bang for your buck for a wire dipsey setup. Sure you can get away with a cheaper rod or reel, but kings will eventually destroy it. You could also break the bank on a $200+ reel and a $200+ roller rod, but they aren't necessary IMO, unless you fish a TON and/or beat the heck out of your equipment.

The article says " A first-time salmon fisherman caught one of the largest – if not the largest – Chinook salmon of the year Sunday." I'm sure there have been bigger fish caught somewhere in Lake MI this year, but 25 lbers are far and few between this year.

1-2/side, depending on the size/experience of the crew. Current can be a limiting factor too.

We've had our probe for a few years, and we rarely use it anymore. Sure it's nice to know where the temp is at, but the fish don't really care on most days. They go where the food is at. It is nice to know the speed at the ball, but after you do it for a while, you'll be able to tell your speed based on the divers and/or rigger cables. It is a nice thing to have as a newbie, but it is definitely not needed IMO.

I don't think the color matters all that much. We tend to mix it up, and I haven't really noticed one color standing out from the rest. I would however recommend that you ditch the mono and go with braid or wire. Mono divers have their place, but braid/wire divers are more versatile. Our wire divers have outfished our braid divers as a whole, but there are days where braid works better than wire. If you are fishing out deep and running them over 100' back, ditch the mono! Wire > braid as far as catching goes (on our boat), but braid is much more user friendly. Either one will be an upgrade over mono.

The day started off badly. As we were getting ready to jump in the boat at the launch, we noticed our port/starboard lights were out. (Turned out to be a connection issue) We searched high and low in the dark with lights trying to resolve the issue, to no avail, so we stayed in the river until it was light enough to where we felt comfortable going out. We finally got lines set and started plucking away at fish. Most of our activity came in 140-180 FOW. Fish seemed to be scattered throughout the column as we took fish on 5 colors all the way down to riggers set at 100'. No setup really stood out, it was just steady action all morning. Green UV meat rig with a 10" show time spin doctor on a high diver and a moonshine flounder pounder plug on a full core were probably our best 2 producers. However, most of our fish came on meat rigs. I think we finished 15-17ish with 2 steelhead and good mix of kings/cohos.

http://www.moonshinelures.com/colorchart.html http://www.moonshinelures.com/printable.html Most of the larger lure companies all have color charts with names on their websites. Print them off, laminate them, and leave them on your boat. You can even get copies at some of the tackle shops for free.

I agree with everyone else, definitely a brown. Here is a pic of an Atlantic we caught this spring for reference.

Good work! I might be wrong, but it looks like you have a steelie, coho, king, steelie. 2nd from the left could be a small king too, can't tell in the pic. Nice fish regardless.

We fished out of Sebewaing. The amount of bait out in the bay right now is unbelievable. I don't ever remember marking/seeing this much bait.

Took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to fill our 7 man limit. Had a few kids on board and they had a blast. 10-11' of water, 1.5/2 oz with meat, 25-30' back on big boards, and 4 oz over the side. Speed 1.7-1.8 mph seemed to be the ticket. Anything with blue and red seemed to be the best, but I don't think it really mattered. I could see giant clouds of bait (3-4" shiners) swimming over the side of the boat all morning and we marked tons of bait on the sonar. Probably the fastest action I've ever witnessed in my 20 years on the bay. We had to throw 4 eyes back that were 18-22" long when we went to clear the lines and go in, and the kids lost quite a few fish too. Had a few throwbacks, but I'd say the keeper to throwback ratio was 5:1.

What kind of reel are you using that holds 1000 yards of wire?

That's fine to do if it is a mono or braid dipsey, but there is no way in hell I'd recommend thumbing the spool on a wire dipsey. You are just asking to get your thumb cut up IMO. The drag is there for a reason, adjust it as needed.

After the sun came up, it was the only game in town for us. We had lots of doubles on dipseys with meat, they were hammering it this weekend! We were fishing right along side of you on Sunday for most of the morning, Matt.

Our early AM bite has been brutal this year...up until this weekend. Absolutely crazy bite going on right now out there, but the fish are concentrated in small pockets so you have to stay on them in the dark.

Is there really a need for linecounter reels on rigger rods?

We fished in 40' last weekend and did great on a wire diver, set on 3, 35-45' back with a mongolian beef MS. That spoon has been on fire for us this year.

Yeah, I agree. Hear a lot about it, but it doesn't appear to be on their website.

Michael Jackson and Black'n'Raspberry...takin' it back to the old school.

I agree with this. Also, lead is much more user friendly than copper. You can literally run anything you want off of a rigger, a SWR rig is usually 2-3 colors but you can also run 5,7, 10 colors off of your rigger when the fish are deep and/or really boat shy.

I agree with the 2nd and 3rd parts. A big swivel could help, but you still risk having it get caught up at the knot and it's still going to wear on the sheathing. If you are ok with losing whatever is on your SWR and 2-3 colors of lead once and a while, run it! lol As far there being too much slack to reel up, who cares? If it gives you another shot at hooking a fish, it doesn't matter IMO. Obviously the bite/land ratio might not be that good, but even if it is 10/50, that's 10 more fish in your cooler! Would I do it? Nope, never have and probably never will. Can you do it? Absolutely, but I'd keep a close eye on the leadcore sheathing and the knot at the connection. You might go through a little bit of core and have to retie the connection from time to time, but I see no reason why you can't do it...it just might not be a good idea and could get expensive.

Wow, great fish. Any pics?

You can always run a heavier ball, but that will also increase the odds of something breaking. Most use a 10 or 12 lb ball I think. Of course option B would be to just pay attention to what speed works on it and be consistent with it. If you catch fish at a 2.2 ball speed, 2.7 SOG, who cares if they are different, just match it! Also, you shouldn't have to designate a rigger to the probe and not put a rod on it! If you are going to send that extra noise, cable, ball through the water, you might as well have a set of hooks dragging behind it.

Only 300' of backer? That seems a little light IMO. If the board is 50-100' out, that doesn't leave you much room for a big king to make a run. I would recommend going with a bare minimum of AT LEAST 150 yards of backer. Any less than that and you are going to be puckered up a little bit when that elusive 30lb king hits, sinks the board, and rips off 200' of line.