SalmonSlayer

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sure! if you call 13" perch that weigh 13 oz "bait"!!! I had the pleasure of having DonP and 2 newbies (Mike from my work and his Grandson Michael) fishing with me this week. We broke the pierheads and headed south for a couple miles. Don drove while I set lines. Got 1 in...got 2 in....FISH ON!!!! Michael landed a dandy steelhead that was definately going to make our weighin cut. I attempted to get the rest of the lines set and had just 2 cores to get in when another rod starts jumping off a rigger. This fish never stopped running and we never gained line on him. About 200 yds of line out and he just let go. BUMMER Reset the rigger and finished setting all the rods. We trolled for an hour or so without as much as a tap. Don's phone kept us busy though, and one of them callers was our good buddy Live2FishDjs...Darrin informed us of some action further south. SO after another 1/2 hour of the big NOTHING! we pulled lines and ran south. Never say them down that way but we set up lines and within 5 mins of getting all the lines in the water had one on. Within 1/2 hour we boated 2 more. Worked this area until about 11 o clock or so. I lost a HUGE steelie right at the net that would have pushed my personal steelhead record...but it lives to grow bigger! We quit big fish fishing with 7 fish - 3 coho, 3 kings and 1 steelhead...I think. ( My memory is a bit fuzzy about the day with all the house construction going on at home. But hey! my roof is shingled and safe from the weather! ) So then we headed straight toward shore to find a small group of 5 boats perch fishin...since we fished so late for big fish, we decided to not make the run back to the HUGE perch pack near the pierheads. Great move, eh Don?! We boxed 68 perch in a matter of a little over 1 hour. Our biggest was near 13" and weighed 12 or 13 ounces. We had a nice mess of perch and our 35 perch limit weight in at over 8 lbs...which combined with our 5 fish limit of big fish pushed us by Darrin and crew into a 1st place finish! GOTTA LOVE THESE COMBO FISH EVENTS!!!!! Right Darrin! I think DonP got another new nickname out of the event too from Darrin...see Don's signature!

Fished Lake Erie with 5 friends...2pm till 8pm. Final Score: 28 eyes, dozen or so 10"+ jumbo perch, bunches of sheep, countless "white perch"... Here's the eyes and a few perch and two of the "whiteys": Here's the port: All were caught drifting and/or casting as the early hours was VERY calm...once the wind picked up we had plenty of action just drifting.

'00 Silverado 1/2 ton 4wd 5.3L with towing package. 13-16mpg no matter what/where I'm going or what I'm hauling. On a good day with a tail wind and running down hill I'll get 18 on the highway at 60mph.

Steve, you got it! It is a work of art that only our own Steve Arend could do! Now, I think we all know the story of "Life with Steve Arend" and the bouy incident.... I happen to know the guys who sink the sailing bouys out of st. joseph...he said this one bouy in particular had a lot of hardware hanging off the chain and connecting rope....monofilament, wire line, downrigger line, super line, leadcore, spoons, dodgers, flies, dipsy divers, flashers, even a downrigger weight was entangled in the mess! So I meander down to take a look...sure enough, it was COVERED!!!! Unfortunately, the club wanted to keep all the hardware, but they were willing to let me cut this one clustered ball of line off the chains!

You're close...but no cigar! THINK BOUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Humm...I know I cannot refer to another site,,,but also think "page 3 of the Life with Steve Arend" thread on another forum.... (can I say that on here?)

Hey Steve Arend, any ideas what this is???? Here's a hint: BOUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Steve, Where do I submit my application!????!!!! I'd "settle" for 3/4 a million though (no need to get greedy)...just to help out with tackle and such! Plus, I'm not sure what I'd do with the extra $250,000 anyways...yeah right:rolleyes:

Is that on Lake Michigan?

Steve, MAN!!! If the cement wasn't being poured for my basement tonight, I'd take you up on your offer! It should be a great day for fishing! I seen a couple boats come in to the marina with HEAVY COOLERS. They were cleaning some hogs in the cleaning station in west basin.

Hey Steve, my wife packed a banana for Morgan the morning of the above report...and we still managed 4 nice fish! I can only imagine how we would have done without the hex upon us?!?!?! Note: the last time she brought a banana, we got the black kitty!! SO I threatened her this time that if we went blank again, I was gonna go through all her stuff before we leave next time. She got all pissy with me about that one...but she won't be fishing any tournaments with me if she insists on packing bananas. I was told by a good source (Spanky and DonP) that banana bread was okay, as the cooking process releases all the bad mojo from the bananas. Either that, or find a golden goby to offset the bad karma of the yellow killer banana.

Nope, the adipose was there, but I had to go back and recheck the original photo...it's in the shadows. Full core with moonshine flounder pounder - king cut bait on wire dipsy - king outdown down 65' with a crippled alewife orange glow spoon - laker outdown down 55' with a crippled alewife orange glow spoon - king

Way to go Steve! I'll add one for saturday...took the wife and kid out by 9am had lines in the water at 110fow....by 12:30 had lines out of water at 80fow and headed in. Results 4 for 4: 3 kings 1 laker From left to right: 8.5# King, 11.5# king, 11.8# king, 6.5 # Lake Trout: one tried it's darndest to get hung up in the motor, but I was quick to shut down the motor and free him up! Ben

Hey Steve, "WHO wears the pants in this family" Humm...I wonder if she is standing right behind you with a pitcher of ice cold water as you read this post!!!!! My wife is great, we do go fishing a lot together. But she does not have the passion (er ummm I mean obsession) like I do for fishing, but she is understanding and does let me go just about whenever the opportunity arises.

I'm seeing the same thing Steve, seems like after the winds of April 1st weekend, all the fish disappeared! The coho and brown normally running the shallows are not there! In fact, NOTHING is in shallow, not even baitfish. My last trip out before the Apr29 tourney we fished in shallow and didn't mark a thing, or hit a fish. We fished prime hours with prime baits that always work, and worked earlier in the year. Now there's not a fish to be found...could this have anything to do with all the dredging in the channel? Seems like they would still be around the shorelines. Even the guys fishing the nuke plant say there's not a lot of baitfish or coho around...sure, there were some, but not in the quantity that recent years have produced.

Ed, was good to meet up with you, finally! We did the EXACT same as you guys, but with a laker we had to throw back and we only had 4 other knockoffs with no one home...but anything we hooked up with, we didn't loose...(knock on wood!) We were out in 150 fow. Good job to you on the fish and hope to see ya on the water again... Ben

I purchased a 15 hp 4 stroke kicker and am now running it for trolling on the big pond...I figure I'm using 15 plus gallons of gas less than my 88 hp 2 stroke. This is on a 8 hour day on the water. At this rate, I'll have it paid for in 2 years just from the gas savings!!! At $2.50/gallon that's $37.50 per trip....I paid $1300 for it (including all the extras like gas tank, fuel lines, blah blah blah). That means 35 trips and at 18 trips per year ... in 2 years she's paid for herself!!!!! Now at $3.00/gallon that's $45.00 per trip....28 trips...that's just under 1.5 years!!!! SWEET!!!!

Along these same lines of thought, I have employed the principle of reducing my speed through coasting to 45mph BEFORE I hit the "stop ahead" sign. This reduces wear on brakes, and has also increased my gas mileage by .5 mpg (according to the instrument on the dashboard). Now this may not seem like much at first glance, but figure that into the equation of slower acceleration and reduced speeds, it all adds up. I am currently toying with the idea of putting the car into neutral while coasting to see how much the friction in the drivetrain reduces speed while approaching a stop sign. I have not come up with a figure to compare to of how much extra wear/tear is being put on the transmission shifting into neutral while moving, and then back into gear at 5mph. This might just outweigh the savings of gas...but not for long if the price keeps increasing like it is now! ... $2.90 in Benton Harbor this morning!

Thanks Steve for letting me crew for ya! I would have HATED to be out there by myself in my boat...or for you to only have 2 guys in yours! It was a handful around 10am with 4 kings within 20 mins of eachother...and most all hits were double headers! Hopefully the winnings pay for the rod/reel/line/lure...I'll let Steve fill y'all in on that one! But it has something to do with 5 ft waves, 20+ mph head winds, full throttle, and bow in the air...!!! If I can post a pict on this board I will of our take for the day...the top 4 fish is what we weighed in for the tourney, the rest rounded out our 3 man limit of kings.

Wow, sounds like the fish have moved out already! Isn't this a bit early in the year for them to be out that far??? btw...MY FIRST POST !!!!!