BenLubbs

The easiest way it to tie a leader at about 6 ft long with a ball-bearing swivel and snap on one end. On the other end tie a barrel swivel with no snap. Then, stinger or a couple of other companies sell snaps with one end dipped in rubber. There is a cut in the rubber for your line to catch in. Attach the non rubber side of the snap to the barrel swivel. When you want to put the slider on your line, attach your spoon to the ball-bearing swivel, let your line down with the ball how ever far you want. Then take the snap on the otherside of the leader and clip it around your line. Get the line into the slit in the rubber and then throw the spoon on the slider so that it lands strait out behind the main line. Proceed to set your line at the final depth. Maybe someone has a picture of their slider setups so you can see what I am talking about.

Sorry to hear that Jimmy, you are welcome on my boat any time.

I use this knot on all of my flies http://www.netknots.com/html/perfection_loop.html You can either make it big enough so that you poke it through the ring on the swivel and then put the swivel back through the loop. Otherwise Dream Weaver makes swivels that have a special end on them where there is a wire that makes a loop and then wraps back around itself. You put the loop on the end and then go around until it is in the loop on the wire (hard to describe, see picture below). It makes it really easy to change out flies with different colors/leader lengths and to take them off for storage (I never wrap the fly around the flasher because I don't like the leader to get all kinked)

Yep, that's what I do too. I've been fortunate enough to never loose one but if I do, i hope someone has the courtesy to return it if they find it.

Great Job Terry!

Sounds like you had a great weekend Jimmy, good job.

Here's one of the fish we got Friday morning. It was small but wasn't going to make it so we kept it. I got hungry on the way home so fired up the grill and boy, it turned out better than I would have thought for my first time ever grilling.

Ok, here are the pictures from the day This is my brother Daniel with the first fish of the day (Lemon Ice Mag free slider 68ft down) Missed a picture of the second fish This is my brother's friend Corbin with the third fish of the day on Blue Bubble Protroll/BW Goat Pecker Fly This is the fourth fish of the day, and the biggest at 11.2 lb (Blue Chilly Willy) This is Ryan with the last fish of the day, STEEL!!!! (BLL Mod Mixed Veggie UV) Here's the team picture with the day's catch As I said before, it was a beautiful day out on the water. I managed to get this picture as the sun was rising right after we got the first fish

Spot on with the report captain. Thanks for the update.

Great Job Brandon, I guess we should have set up a little deeper. It was defiantly a great day to be on the water.

Happy Birthday Terry

Larry, thank you for providing the spoons. We got our nice chrome on the UV spoon. I definitely will be getting a few more

Good job Ken. Thanks for setting things up.

Thanks for the trips Dave. It was definatly a rough morning Friday, but we made up for it Friday night P.S. If anyone ever needs copper untangled, me and Nate are your guys

We went 5 for 6 this morning out of Holland 200-238 fOW Lemon Ice Mag Mongolian Beef Moonshine Blue Bubble Protroll/Goat Pecker Big Weenie fly (green/gold) Blue Chilly Willy Big Lake Lures Mod Blue Veggie (UV) Like dave said, sounds like there were some bigger fish in shallower, but they shut off pretty early from what I understand. Good Luck out there, Ben Ben'den Rods

Fished the WMFL this morning with my dad, two brothers, and a friend on board. Based on fishing friday morning I ran out to 200 ft and waited for 6:00. Started setting lines right at 6 in like 203 fow. Got one rigger set with a BLL glow spoon (happy meal?) and a Lemon Ice Mag free slider. Went to the other side of the boat to set the other rigger and the rod I just set starts bouncing. Jump over to grab the rod and pop it (fish was on the slider). Get the fish in the boat and it's about a 1lb king. After a little debate, and the fish getting droped on the floor of the boat while trying to measure it, I put it in the cooler. It would turn out the be the filler of the box, an extera 11 points Got the rest of the rods set without a another hit. Made it out to 238 FOW without a hit and turned north to look for some fish. Next hit came on the 300 copper with a Mongolian Beef on the end of it. The fish hit and took off. My brother took the pole and started fighting. Every time we would gain a little, away it would go again. Ended up fighting it for abouot 20 minutes before we got it to the boat. Nice king around 8 lb. Shortly after that fish we got a hit on the wire diver (Walker 124 set on 1) 120 ft back. Trailing was a blue bubble protroll with a Big Weenie Goat Pecker fly. My brothers friend fought that fish and got it to the boat, a 6ish lb King. Went through that spot a few more times with now luck. Started searching again. Ended up in about 215 ft of water. Took a hit on the rigger with a free slider, can't remember what was on at the time. I started reeling with the pole in the holder, got tension and felt the fish. Pulled the pole out to hand it to my little brother and by the time he had it in his hands it was gone. Should have kept it for a second longer and made sure it was hooked good. Kept going around that spot. Took another hit on the 300 copper, but had changed out to a Blue Chilly Willy. My brothers friend fought the fish and landed an 11lb king. Our last fish came from the same spot on the 5 color with the BLL Mod Blue Veggie UV. That fish was an 8ish lb Steel After that, couldn't buy a bite. Changed speed, lures, even songs We did get a couple releases on a meat rig 100 ft down but I'm not sure if it was a slapper fish or just sea fleas pilling up on the line. Sounds like there were some bigger fish in shallow but also sounds like they turned off earlier. Anyway it was an awesome morning on the water. We finished 6th, which I'm more than happy with for my first tournoment. Thanks to all who helped orginize the tourny and to Big Weenie and Big Lake Lures for the lures all of them were awsome. I'll add pics after I get them off the camera

This is the first year in a while that I have seen some dead alwives on the beach. Hopefully that means there is more bait to keep the salmon/trout population healthy.

The Outdoorsman in Jenison. I keep taking them out but not using them

Ok, so it sounds like vacuum packing is the way to go. In that case, what brand/type of vacuum packers do you guys have/like?

Well, I took the boat out for sea trials tonight unknowingly. NOAA was way off with the 1-2 ft predicted waves. Mores like 3-5 with 6's and 7's mixed in. Anyway, headed out at about 6:30 with one of my brothers (Ryan), a coworker and his nephew from Colorado (Kyle and Alex) on board. Ran a 7 rod spread with 2 downriggers (spoon on one, f/f on the other), 2 wire divers (f/f and tincan/sng), 300 cu, 10 color, and 7 color. Headed out planing to run spoons for kings/steel and pounding bottom with f/f and tin to drag up some lakers. Started setting up in 80 FOW heading NNW into the waves. Got set up by 90 FOW. In 95 we took a small king on a Mag Blue Dolphin 58 down on the rigger. My brother grabbed the pole and handed it off to Alex for his first ever big lake fish. In 115 FOW we hooked into an 11 lb Hog with a white w/ white crush glow tape tin can followed by a glow white tiger sng. The rig was on a wire Walker 124 diver set on 1 240 ft back. It was Kyle's turn so he to have the fun of landing his biggest big lake fish ever. We made it out to 125 FOW and started turning around. Things blew up then cause we popped one of the divers, then the other started taking line and I ended up fighting it all the way to the boat. Somehow during the commotion, one of the down rigger switches got bumped and the thing let all the way out and then spooled up the wrong way. Soon after that we pulled lines and called it a night as we were all starting to feel a little queezy from all of the roller coaster action. On the plus side, got to take out some newbies and get them interested in big lake fishing, and there weren't many sea fleas. Another random thought. I love Blacks releases. On my old boat I struggled for years trying to work with pinch pad releases and always had false releases, especially in waves. Tonight I had the rods cranked down to the water and didn't get a false release ever. But, they still released with that tiny king. Blacks have made my experience so much more fun, i would recommend them to anyone.

Had the same sort of night tonight Jimmy, seems like the fish shut off again for some reason.

See you Friday And Saturday I guess

Man, that is a hog. How long was Don running his leaders on the dipseys? I looked like at least 12 feet:eek:

I defiantly plan on listening to him. It's great when I can come in from fishing on a fairly new boat and talk to an experienced charter captain and he has no problem telling me what was working for him and giving advice on how to catch more fish. Its just one of the reasons I'm glad if found this site before this season. As far as the rescue, I'd like to say that it hasn't affected me much but it really has, though hopefully for the better. That and a combination of other events lately have made me appreciate life a lot more. Sometimes I get mad that I can't go fishing or whatever but then I think about that kid and how is just takes one little decision or misstep and your whole life can change.

I read a book by Capt. Dan Keating, I can't remember what one it was exactly. In there he talked about trolling dynamic, or how all of the lures/attractors/presentations you are running work together. Every time you change a lure or presentation you are changing the whole trolling dynamic. If you are changing from a mix of spoons and f/f's to all f/f you have drastically changed your spread and the way it attracts fish. Personally I have never run a spread of just f/f's. I guess it's really just about figuring out what the fish want. If the bit turns off once you start changing over to f/f's, go back and put spoons back out.