IRon

One time out of St.Joe on a solo trip I drove all the way from Battle Creek and launched. I set three lines and bam! had a double going. Got both in and got my third line reset and got a hit on that almost instantly to finish out my (at the time) three fish limit. Before I could get my other two lines in I got a fourth fish on and had to release it, of course. One more line to bring in. When my spinny/fly got to within sight of the boat, up comes a 5th fish and smacks it right in plain sight. 5 fish in 30 minutes solo. I had about about 2 1/2 hours road time round trip. Maybe 45 mimutes launching and motoring out of the river channel and back in. Total: 3 hours and 15 minutes run time and 30 minutes fishing time.

Way to think on your feet! And good job on the fish!!!!

Happy Birthday Mon ! Never fished Pentwater but plan to soon.

Here's a useful link for big water boaters in case you get caught out in bad weather. Main thing is to have a plan and keep your head. http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/heavy2.htm Heavy Weather Boat Handling - Part 2 (Go to Part 1) Boat Handling Under Adverse Conditions Some of the most challenging conditions you may encounter as a skipper are the adverse conditions of "Heavy Weather." The size of your boat does not have much to do with its seaworthiness. How it will handle adverse conditions is more or less built in during the design and construction. You should never use your boat for anything other than for what it was designed and its intended use. Don't venture into waters or weather conditions which are beyond your boat's design capabilities. What may seem heavy weather to an inexperienced boater may not bother a seasoned and weather-wise skipper at all. The body of water on which you operate has a lot to do with how severe the conditions may get. While operating on deep and large bodies of water, wave action tends to build more slowly than on large waters that are more shallow. In deep waters, wind action may only cause moderate seas with slow, rolling swells, while in shallower waters that same wind force may make steep, breaking seas. Know Your Boat Handling your boat in heavy weather is as individual as the skipper himself. No two boats react exactly the same in the same sea conditions. Each hull design reacts differently to the sea variables--and even two boats with the same design may act differently depending on their load and trim. Every skipper must learn the idiosyncrasies of his own boat and know how it will react as conditions change. Meeting Head Seas In moderate seas you should be able to slow your speed in order to ride up and over the waves rather than driving the bow into them. You also don't want to get to the top and the wave and fall off the back side burying the bow. If conditions get worse, slow down until you are making bare steerage way and hold your boat at an angle of 45° to the swells. The more you reduce speed, the less strain will be put on the hull and superstructure. Continued pounding can pop out or break ports and windows. You really don't want to see how much water can come in a 12" porthole. Running in the Trough If your course dictates that you are running in the direction of the trough of waves (parallel to them) you must take extra caution. As your boat bounces up and down from trough to trough it may roll excessively and possibly dangerously. In these conditions in a powerboat, it is best to change course and make a series of tacks, taking the wind and waves at a 45° angle, first broad on your bow and then broad on your quarter. This zig-zag course should leave your boat in the trough for only long enough to turn. You want to minimize the time that you are in the trough and broad side to the swell to prevent broaching. Running Before the Sea When the swells are coming from directly behind you, running before them can be difficult. Your boat's stern can be swept up and pushed to one side or another. You want to make sure that you keep the stern perpendicular to the oncoming seas. Another concern is when lifted up by heavy seas the boat tends to rush down the slope from the crest to the trough. Occasionally with the stern high, the propeller can come out of the water and race. The rudder also may lose contact with the water flow and be left useless. Again, the boat may yaw to one side and broach into the trough. Another concern is sliding down the wave at a speed that buries the bow, and with the stern still being pushed up the possibility of pitchpoling exists. You might also want to try tacking before the seas, again taking the swells off one quarter and then the other. This is where you might consider a drogue. Towing a drogue helps slow your speed when running before the seas and can make controlling the stern in the proper position easier for the helmsman. Heaving To If conditions become so violent that you and your boat are taking too much punishment, you might consider heaving to. This maneuver, which varies by type of boat, is designed to keep the bow into or slightly off the wind and wave action. In a power boat, forget your intended destination and bring the bow around into the wind and waves using just enough power to make bare steerage way while conserving fuel. If fuel becomes a concern you might consider deploying a sea anchor to fall back on to help keep the bow into wind and wave action with no power necessary. It also slows any drift that you may be making if a leeshore is a concern. Caution As pointed out last week, your best bet is to avoid severe weather, but if you can't you should be prepared. This is a subject that should be approached with as many sources of reference as possible. The information provided here should not be relied on solely and is meant to only give an overview of the topic. You should read books about heavy weather boat handling, attend USPS or USCG Auxiliary classes for heavy weather handling techniques, you should view videos on the subject, and you should practice the maneuvers in light to moderate seas.

Great trip with a variety of fish. I've never chummed but have seen plenty who have. The old school fix for that is ginger so I try to have some ginger ale or ginger snaps on board if it's a mild case. I've heard pressure (rubber) bands on your wrists can help, too. There's a variety of meds, too, but if you're like me I avoid them unless absolutely necessary.

I've spent a fair amount of time chasing browns. As mentioned most are caught early spring shallow trolling or obviously pier fishing. Later on they get harder to locate but you can still target them. They're more warm water tolerant but you're probably not going to find them too far out of temp. preference. 55-65 or so. Like any other trout you're liable to find them anywhere (like mentioned,too)but I usually look (in summer) near some type of structure. Southern Lake Michigan doesn't have a lot, but there's a few rock piles and river plumes that'll work when the temp is right. Sometimes you'll get a turnover near shore and that'll bring fish in close. Further north, say Ludington north, there's way more places to try. Some big ones get caught every year off the point in mid-summer. So yeah, when conditions are right an early troll up near structure/bottom would be a good idea and worth a try. Good luck!

Maybe we should start a fantasy fishing league. Mines still landlocked, too. Problem here is I still have a lot to do to my boat but haven't had a day off from work in weeks (months?). Feast or famine. Glad to be back to work, but come on, give me a break! Good luck on the cables!!!!

Great catch 7 pic. Congratulations!

Very good Mike. Glad to hear you're getting out and enjoying the new boat.

Yeah, takes all the fun out of it if you just take off. It's hard to get the gas smell out if any gets down in the foam. Hopefully it's just a leaking fitting or clamp and not the tank. But like you said, winter project.

Sent you a PM hope you got it.

PS, you've also got to keep in mind the remote tank won't help isolate the problem if the in-line filter is plugged at the motor. I complicated things with mine by putting on a remote tank, but assumed (you know what assume does) the filter was fine since it was brand new. DUH!!! Made myself a bunch of extra work!!!

Sorry to hear that Mike. By running it this year, do you mean actually out on the water or just idling on the trailer with a water source? If you have fuel delivery issues it might not necessarily show up until you get out at full throttle. The first time I ran mine several times on the trailer it ran like a top and idled just fine. Went out on the lake and ran about 4 miles, perfect. Then the problems started. It would start, go up on plane then die down suddenly. Was able to get back to the launch, but something wasn't right. To make a long story short what happened was, although the fuel was fine and it had a brand new filter on, the filter had plugged already. I went through the whole nine yards with checking vent, fuel pick up screen in tank, replaced all lines, but when I checked the brand new filter with less than 30 minutes on it, it was full of brown gunk. When I re-did the floor on mine I made sure I had easy access to the tank so I could look down into the tank at the pick up and there was brown stuff (varnish) floating all over the bottom. So I drew all the fuel out I could and took a kerosene siphon and brought out a bunch of crap from the bottom. I added a gallon and repeated until it came out clean. What happened with mine was, being a mid-90's motor/fuel system it was actually designed for regular gas. If you take an older boat that has sat around a lot then add some of todays 10% ethanol fuel to it, the ethanol acts like a solvent. The newer fuel splashes around in the tank cuts all that old varnish out and fuel system problems ensue. And the water problems already mentioned start showing up since, being a boat, it's in a high moisture environment. I won't say yours is having the same problem as mine since I haven't seen yours, but since they're nearly identical, it's something you'll want to keep in mind for future reference. All of the fuel systems on outboards you see today have changed somewhat because they have water separators and spin off canister fuel filters. Mine just had a little in line. So I'm installing one on mine right now and hopefully I can change the spin off filter out periodically for awhile and keep the gunk out of my carbs etc.. But also like mentioned a remote tank hooked up will help you isolate the problem. I did it with mine. good luck....

Very nice. Was hoping you found what you were looking for. Looks like it's in very good shape. I'm sure you'll lot's of enjoyment out of it and hopefully very soon!

Glad to hear it went well. Have fun with the rigging and fishing trial!

Make sure the drain plug is in! Ha, just kidding. Just the usual safety stuff like radio check, bilge pumps, and of course water in the bilge area. Also need to get your landing net wet on a fish, and check all rod holders and down riggers while out there!!! I don't mean to be funny, but when I launched mine first time it leaked like a sieve. Luckily I'd checked the bilge pump (which incidentally had a wire pulled off). And the big motor quit, the kicker module went out so I had no back up. Drifted in shallow,and had to drop anchor so as not to run aground. Wind was blowing me around in shallow water and when I finally got the big motor going, in the meltdown I'd put the big motor in gear and caught the anchor rope in the prop and wound that up until the prop caught it and tore that up. Was able to limp back to the launch and load up. Luckily I didn't have a sledge hammer or stick of dynamite with me or the repairs might have gone a little differently. Good luck to you on your shake down!!!!

Lead core is very speed sensitive. The 5 ft/per rule of thumb is what a lot use. Personally I don't troll a straight line so a core is probably going to raise up to 40' +or- on an outside turn and probably drop down to 50 +or- on an inside turn (with a board). Add to that length of leader, lure used and currents..... You're going to be covering a pretty good depth range, which is maybe why leadcore works so well.

PM sent (I think)

Some guys don't like the pancakes, but I love them. A trick a charter captain showed me was to put a 10 degree bend (in opposite directions, of course) in the fins to help them track better. They'll go slightly to the outsides which helps with keeping lines separated. What some guys do with 4 riggers is run balls on the inside and pancakes with fins bent (or directional ones) out on the outsides. Something to consider maybe. I've never had a pancakes tangle, but had guys tell me they have. Dunno, but I've never run one that wasn't bent either.

I feel your pain!!! It's just a countdown 'till spring, now. I usually get out and do some winter sports with ice fishing being one of them. Not this year,though. No fishing fix down here. What's killing me is I have lots to do to the boat before spring but I keep getting laid off so I have lots of time and very little spare cash. GRRRR!!!!

A lot of discussions about them here: http://www.bbcboards.net/zeroforum?id=51

OOPs sorry wrong thread.

Great progress. Looking very good. I'm laid off (GRRRR) next week and will probably start mine. Prolly just pull motor and remove wood from the transom, if all goes as I plan. I'll try and post some pics, although mine isn't anywhere near as involved as yours. But, I've gotta get it welded before the replacement.

I've got a Crestliner Eagle. When we looked at the boat the thing my wife liked the most about it was the walk around feature, because she wanted to be able to more easily use the front deck area for lounging in the sun. And we use it quite a bit when anchored for a front casting area. And it does make things easier to access the front. The down side is you lose some room in the cockpit and the cuddy upper area is narrowed down by a couple of feet. And to make matters worse I hated the floor plan. It had a huge live well and also a bait well, too. Which left very little free floor space. So luckily (I guess) the floor was bad because of former owner neglect, and I replaced the floor. First thing I did was tore out the live wells and re-did all the seat pedestals, steps to the walk around and storage areas. So it opened up a lot of floor space, in the back especially. And also gave me a bit more room in the walkway to the cuddy. And like you I liked the idea of the welded hull and outboard for the same reasons you stated. They're both good ideas. The only down side there was despite the good intensions, you can't beat someone else's neglect. So any moron with a drill can install an outboard, but it takes a little care to seal the mounting bolts, which unfortunately the dealer didn't do. A leaking transom caused the wood inside to rot which weakened it and the weld cracked. So once I get that, replaced/fixed with a non wood core I should have everything the way I want it. But I really like the boat, good design, but if you want them to take care of you ya gotta take care of them. Good luck in your quest