Long Lines

A couple of friends and I get out every year...usually just once, to catch up and for some river steelhead action...usually right after Thanksgiving. This year our schedules put us out this past Saturday in that wonderful mid December weather! K-Zoo. Pretty rough fishing thanks to the cold, snow and wind; but Toby managed to land one. Chris (painfully retying in the one pic), had another nice fish on that never made it to the net. Yours truly got skunked. Gotta say that despite the good company and one beautiful fish, I was missing the big boat, big water, warm sun and cold beer! Let the count down to spring begin.

Agreed...been looking on line here tonight. Tacos really don't have a great reputation. The Coastals seem like a reasonable cost, a good light, and it sounds like GREAT customer service.

WOW....those Rigids are impressive lights! Thanks for the pics Josh. Well I guess you get what you pay for right. Good input on the lights guys. Will reconsider the Tacos and look at the Rigid and Coastals. Anyone have direct experience with the Coastals?

I used TX44s for 300 plus length coppers last year and like how they pull...stayed with the walleye boards on shallower coppers. We also picked up a couple of the high retrieve ( I believe Tuna Tom modified) CV-55 Okuma reels for those long coppers. Those are GREAT reels for the long coppers and big boards! We didn't lose that many fish, but definitely a few...some of the fish we lost I believe were big fish that would go from submerging the walleye boards or really tugging on the TX44 to running at you to the point where it was difficult to keep up. We even found that a couple of fish we thought were gone were still there if we didn't stop hauling on the reel. Perhaps that had something to do with some of the losses on the big boards with big fish running at the boat and getting slack. Tough to keep up w/o the high retrieve reels.

Starting to think about a few things I'd like to improve on the new boat. Haven't put a lot of thought into it yet but a rocket launcher has been discussed (mostly w/ Nick_DoubleDFishing_who fishes with me often); that could be an expensive, although very nice addition that may have to wait. Besides the money, lots to think about there...fit into current storage at home, hard or soft top integrated, etc. Spreader lights mounted to Bert's swivel trees seems like it could come in handy early morning and late evening. Was looking at the Taco Marine F38-4500 LED spreader lights and mounting it to the top of the tree tube...winding the wire around the tree. So, any comments, ideas, smart remarks?

I agree w/ Dave (Killin It) and Bob (Coralee). I am currently trying to sell my 18' Lund Alaskan. Put the Terrova 80 w/ I Pilot on the bow a few years ago. Was an awesome upgrade to a simple boat. Used a 6 hp kicker for thrust. Drop the Kota, turn on the gps autopilot and set your direction. Set your speed so it has enough thrust to control the bow and you are hands free. Remote control on your belt if course changes are needed to land fish or dodge traffic. Makes a great autopilot for several hours of big lake trolling and can always be used for perch or walleye with the electronic anchor feature. Buy two good AGM batteries though.

Anyone know if the docks are still in at the Holland DNR launch?

$10 I work in Hudsonville. Can meet you somewhere off 196 or M6 at lunch or after work. Sent you a PM.

I second Matt's (Hear Fishy Fishy) approach...and whether you're using wire or braid, learning when to use a high diver vs a low diver and when to switch is valuable to learn. Fished 6 rods for a few years on my 18 Lund until I added the holders and gear to fish 3 guys and 9 rods. Am just now figuring out the low and high diver thing. For the planer's, if you can put together 4-6 setups to switch out as needed, a couple of short cores (3 & 5 color; buy a full core of line and use the remaining 2 colors for a SWR for the riggers) and a 200 and 300 copper are tough to beat. Coppers are my favorite though. A lot of guys will go with 2 riggers and 4 divers early AM and then pull the high divers when they stop firing and deploy the planers to replace them in the spread. If you like this option, you may want to look into a couple more dipsy holders if its possible.

Thanks Keith from Hawghunter and everyone else. Feel free to give me a shout on the radio...if i am out there i will gladly share info with anyone. Learned a lot from guys on this site...can't say how many posts my fishing partner Nick and I have read from guys like Nailer, Dave Ash, Ben Lubbs, Dirty Dog, Wild at Heart, Far Beyond Driven and many others. Lots of good tidbits of info on this site from helpful people; especially for those getting started or struggling finding the bite. Will try to be as helpful as I can given my still very limited experience. Its on my list for mext year to play hookie more often!

A couple of friends and I took the afternoon off work and hit the water out of Holland yesterday at around 2:00 PM and fished until after sunset. Motored straight west to 180 fow where we started setting lines. Trolled west to 235 and turned back east as the Lowrance went blank. Best marks were in 170 - 200, caught all of our fish on west and east trolls in 185 - 220. Crazy thing is we took all of our hits from 2:30 - 4:00 or 5:00 and then nothing the rest of the night. Cold water (<50 F was down below 100' mark). 4/5; two steelies and two kings 100 copper with DW SS, Captain Gary's Orange MI Dolphin took the nice steelie right away. Rigger down 90 with UV blue dolphin came unbuttoned shortly after release. 250 copper w/ Moonshine, Happy Rock took a king. 300 copper with Moonshine, Blue Jeans took a king and a small steelie. Beautiful evening and had a great time; hope this isn't the last trip! http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/4/5/8/holland_10-2-13_2-1.jpg' alt='holland_10-2-13_2-1.jpg'>

Nice job on avoiding the skunk Jon. Its been pretty slow going out there lately. Agreed on those east winds; a steady/strong east blow creates some of the steepest, tightest waves I've seen on Lake MI...and they make anything but trolling to Wisconsin a wet, spine jarring event. In an 18 foot open bow, it also a dangerous proposition as I found out once a couple of years ago.

That looks awesome Frank. Can't wait to get over there next year and put some of those bay 'eyes in my skillet.

Agreed...very good info. Its nice to learn a little about the quarry other than how to catch them.

Wow! I was under the impression that only 4 yr olds spawn with maybe the occasional 3 yr old. That's messed up. So the fish we will be catching moving into October are 1-2 yr olds mostly?

Just reading through the stocking plan again as I remembered something about age and weight; so the DNR says they want 3 year old fish to be 15.4-19.8 or above to avoid further stocking reductions right? How do they age a fish....any info? So then, is a 2 year old fish gonna be 8-12 and 5 year old (if they fail to spawn at 4) 40 lbs? Pretty darn confusing. Guess I'll just show up and fish next year.

Definitely seems to make more sense than 3 yr olds packing on that many pounds in less than year. Especially if you believe that the DNR is right on the prey availability, size, and age structure. Agreed that it is difficult to age a fish, but when you catch a 9-12 lb silver hen Chinook (that has the start of next year's egg sacks/skein in her) in Sept or Oct, I am pretty sure that is not a two year old or yearling. Possible its 4 year old if Mark's theory is right. Question though: If that happens from time to time, how did the fish in the 70's and 80's get so darn big every year. Are the stories I hear that embellished? Was there that much more and larger bait? Or were those fish also not spawning consistently at 4 years old, but at 5 and combined with better predator prey ratios, just that much bigger on average? I know you guys don't have all the answers, but it pretty interesting stuff. Would love to hear the DNR's feedback on that.

The others are: Steelie Stomper (DW SS) Double Orange Crush (DW SS) Orange Kevorkian (DW SS)

Shane is correct. Moonshine Half Moon series. Craigs Flounder.

Didn't keep the greatest track this year, but based on pictures I went through real quick, I believe we boated 5 fish over 20# this year. And estimating 12 plus fish in the 15-19 lb range; didn't take near enough pictures. Didn't fish the piers at all. All big fish (and most of our good fishing this year) came in 80-130 fow out of Holland. 120-130 fow north of Holland was exceptional for quite awhile. 10" spin doctors with a meat rig or a green fly were consistent big fish producers; although we did take a few 17-19 lbers on coppers with spoons. Great fishing in my opinion! Hope we get some more of it next year.

Wasn't in a hurry to get on the water Sunday morning so we got to the launch by 7:30 but then proceeded to flood the engine starting it. Freakin newby captains! Got it started after a guy at the launch gave me a tip on using the throttle only button and giving it full throttle to let it breathe till it starts. Worked great. Anyway we went to 100 fow NW of Holland (motoring into the chop; love that new boat...nice dry ride). Trolled SW. Fishing was slow, but the marks were there in force in 120-135 fow so we zig zagged that on N or NE and then SW trolls and went 3/5. 2.5-3.5 SOG. Failed to take pics of the fish but they were all 3 young silver kings....guessing 7-10 lbs. And full of fight! Believe the two we lost were steelies...one of which slammed the 250 copper harder than I've seen all year and after several tumbling leaps must have wrapped or fouled itself in the line and hooks as it felt like a 30 lber and then the hooks pulled. Hope to get back out there and enjoy this fall fishery. Here's what worked. 200 copper; 1/2 250 copper; 0/1 Lots of bait out there on the sonar and in the fish. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/4/5/8/img_20130922_141126_937.jpg' alt='img_20130922_141126_937.jpg'>

Tite Loks are sold. Still available: 2 Seat bases 1 pedestal base 1 pedestal 2 Misc rod holders Transom saver and nav lights.

Sent PM last night and this morning. Let me know, I have another guy interested.

Found the anchor....can go with or separate from the winch. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/4/5/8/anchor.jpg' alt='anchor.jpg'>

Here's a pic I forgot. http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/gallery/files/3/4/5/8/nav_lightstransom_saver.jpg' alt='nav_lightstransom_saver.jpg'>