IRon

Thanks Line Dancin. You're right. My math was off, I was thinking atmospheres, at the surface it's one, 33 feet is 2, 66 feet is 3, 99 is 4. But 99 is only 3 times greater than the surface. And since water is heavier (3x) I'm going to say it's probably 3 times as dense (like me). So that's why I was wondering if it might affect a spinnies' rotation and maybe even blow back, for instance? And like Tim said, probably the only way possible for me is to use some kind of weight on the line in combination with a rigger since I'm about maxed on rigger weights.

That's something I hope to try more of this summer. 100 feet is about the max I've tried. I can't help but wonder how the water pressure affects lures at greater depth's. I know at 100 feet the pressure is 4x greater than at the surface. And just for blow back reasons we'd throttle back to under 2 mph. Also once in awhile when running a dodger with white fly deep and slow for a laker farther north there'd be a surprise King show up. Gotta try that down here in southern waters a bit more.

A lot of good points here. Everyday's different but quite often they fall into that pattern. Then you gotta start working for them. Everybody's been exactly right about what to do. So you either have to stay in the area and work neutral fish or head out offshore with the charter tactics. When I had my smaller boat I was pretty well forced to work the fish closer in so boards were good, divers way out and back. The usual riggers back and down. But if they're completely dead I'm not afraid to pull a rigger or 2 and start running pound balls or even 1 1/2 pounders instead. I like to use Church clips clothes pinned on for longer leads on those. Or maybe some junk down the chute, copper, lead, whatever.

It's almost impossible to reduce my choice to one, but my #1 favorite spoon of all time is a regular DW Green dolphin. But here's a little mod for them I really like. I like to buy the untaped blanks and use gold prism tape with the glow instead of the green tape.

I haven't contributed a lot here yet because I feel like I've been out of the loop for the last 2-3 years, but some things never change and down riggers are one of them. Sliders are a good tool that, like said, have their special days. But I think there's a few little tricks that can make them better. Some days when fish are scattered and out of temp., a slider just stuck randomly on your line will pick up a few. Because if you think about it, they're just running above by them selves ahead of the rest of the spread. But like jatc said, I especially like them on deep riggers. Then I'm usually running a short lead on my main line and a fixed slider just above and ahead and it becomes a part of the spread not separated from it. Also a friend showed me how to run a MUP rig, which is a fixed slider with a mag spoon run just ahead of and above a regular size spoon of the same pattern, theory being it's an attractor for the main spoon. So I quite often run mags for sliders, too (well I did a couple years ago, hope to this year, too?). Also, a little off topic, but if like me you only run 2 riggers, I'd stack a rod above the main rod/line and use a slider on the stacked line, to give me 3 lures per rigger. But things gotta be pretty slow to be doin' that

Nobody can predict what's going to happen 5 minutes from now let alone a year. There's an old saying on wall street that says when the taxi driver starts talking about oil prices, it's time to get out. Yeah there's been a big surge in oil prices, mostly by speculators and dollar valuations. It'll bounce around some short term. But you can speculate all you want, fact is energy has been one of the best investments long term for the last 10 years and will be in the next 10. Short term it's probably run it's course, but long term, unless something changes globally, demand will go up and supply will go down. So what can you do? Can't do much about gas/oil prices. They're gonna go where there gonna go. Can complain about it, but doesn't do much good, just feel better. Can invest in it and try to make some money off it. Can try to cut personal consumption here and there. Can work some over time to pay for it.

Yes I do Aaron, and sure there's always room for more out there. I'm not sure when the next time I'll be going will be. As soon as I find out what my work schedule after Christmas is I'll let ya know. It's a good group of people out there. They're all out there for the same reason, to have fun and catch fish. Some groups will hook 2 or 3 shanties together. Took a friend of my sons out last night and he'd never gone before either. He caught just as many or more than we did. He loved it.

Yes it is a lot of fun. Paulywood nailed it exactly the same way we do it. No secrets, you'll see little smelt fishing communities pop up where they're catching them.

Love spring and looking forward to it. But got a lot of work to do to the boat before then. I'm glad there's 2 or 3 months. But I love winter, too. Got a mess of bluegills in the freezer Sat., got 100+ smelt last night and went ice skating with the family yesterday. Whew, I gotta slow down.

Hope you get back in soon. We've lost power occasionally. It's a little more challenging in cold weather, but we're country folk and have a wood stove, Coleman camping stove and a small generator for lights. Milk jugs w/water in freezer. It's almost a fun adventure sometimes. Hope it doesn't get cold enough in your house to freeze anything up (stools & water pipes).

Thanks for all the welcomes. Also, thanks for the heads up on treated.

Thanks for the tips Nick. I'm sure I'll be putting them to good use soon. Tearing the old deck out was a bit of a pain. And I definitely don't want to have to do it again for a long time. But the plus side is I get to do the lay out to my own preferences. After I tore out the HUGE live well and bait tank I realized I wanted to leave them out in the rebuild. Rod storage on the sides, lure storage under the seats. Fold down seats & table on the transom. Fish on ice in the cooler (dreaming again).

Thanks Mike and Mike. Yes, definitely hope to hit St. Joe this spring. Hopefully will be able to balance work and weather next year. Been tossing around taking a weeks vacation in April. Maybe a Brown or King or two, also? If I'm going to dream I might as well dream big!

Thanks KJ, will do. Nailer, forgot to finish my profile, but South Haven is the closest to me so gets most of my attention. Usually start out in St. Joe, though. Then venture north later in the summer. Holland and Port Sheldon are favorites. Used to have friends in Ludington so that was another destination. We'd branch out from there to Manistee, Arcadia and Frankfort on occasion, but it's been a few years on those. Good idea on the pics. I'll work on that!

Greetings to all. I'm an avid Lake Michigan angler. Been one for quite a few years but this year was the first in many that I actually didn't get to fish the big lake. BUT, hope to make up for lost time next year because I bought a new to me 1995 Crestliner Eagle 2160. Needs some work, but I've got a few months before spring fishing begins. Tore the deck out last week and trying to decide what to replace it with, would like to go non wood so I don't have to do it again, but not sure yet. Hope to get a kicker installed, too, but I also got laid off this week so kinda put that in question, too. We'll see. Still have all the electronics & riggers from my last boat to install yet, though. Was down in the basement today playing around with some spray cans and putting some pink bellies on a couple, three plugs for spring. Anxious to see how they'll do. Who knows. Well anyhow, they say absence make the heart grow fonder, and it must be true because I can't wait 'till spring and hit the big lake again!!!!! Hoping maybe all here can help me get back in the loop.