SeaCatMich

I agree that $200 is low for the Charter Boat Ticket, but since we didn't/don't have a lot of marketing time to get it in front of the Captains, it was decided to try to make it an offer they can't refuse. Next year when they can plan on being a part of the derby it should let the Charters market it to their customers as a feature of going with them over another boat. Personally, if I had a Charter Operation... I'd jump on it!

Adult Full Derby is the ticket for one person to fish any/all days in the derby. The Daily Individual ticket is intended for someone who is going for only one day. Maybe guys going on a charter or going to go with a friend... but for only one day. This page on the website should explain it all: http://www.michigansalmonspectacular.com/#!ticketinfo/cipy

I talked to Amanda at Big Bob's in Frankfort yesterday afternoon (Thursday, 8/1) and she said that they weighed a 33#+ King earlier in the day. Wow. August is going to be a fun month of fishing. Time to make sure reels are full and the line is in good shape.

After lots of debate and a very inopportune week in the hospital, every thing has worked out and I am very happy to be able to announce that the Michigan side of Lake Michigan will have a major derby for 2013! The Michigan Salmon Spectacular derby is going forward for 2013. The first year we have pretty good prizes but are keeping things pretty simple. The goal is to make this a big deal for Michigan that everyone can look forward to as an annual event and have a lot of fun. If Wisconsin and Lake Ontario can have big derbies for 20+ years... so can Michigan! Here is a quick summary of the details: Full Info: www.michigansalmonspectacular.com or www.salmonspectacular.com When: August 24 through September 2 (Labor Day) Where: Michigan waters of Lake Michigan from New Buffalo to Traverse City Cost: Early Bird Discounts: For the next 2 weeks (through August 15) online derby tickets are discounted on the website. Weigh Stations will have tickets for sale by the end of next week (8/9/13) Adult Full Derby Ticket: $30 => $25 Youth (12-17) Full Derby Ticket: $15 => $12 Individual Single Day Ticket: $15 => $12 Private Boat Full Tickete (anyone fishing on the registered boat can enter a fish): $150 => $125 Charter Boat Full Derby Ticket (same as Private Boat ticket, but for Charter Boats): $200 Prizes: Over $33,000 in prizes total 1st: $5,000; 2nd: $2,500; 3rd: $1,500; 4th: $1250; 5th: $1,000... down to 100th at $50 (details on the web page or the downloadable flyer below) $100 per port payout for largest fish weighed each day $100 for largest fish entered per day across all ports Ports/Port Groups & Weigh Stations: New Buffalo - St. Joe - Benton Harbor: Broadlow's Fishin Hole South Haven: Pyles Port Hole Saugatuck - Holland - Port Sheldon: Lakeshore Tackle Outfitters & Gold Coast Outfitters Grand Haven: Fish On Bait & Tackle Muskegon - Whiltehall/Montague: Shoreline Service & Tackle and Johnson's Great Outdoors Pentwater - Ludington: Capt. Chucks Manistee - Onekama: Tangled Tackle Arcadia - Frankfort - Leland - Traverse City & north: Frankfort Tackle Box and TC MC Sports Outdoor Center Click for downloadable flyer: Derby Flyer PDF

Except for GPS systems, no two units using paddle wheels or venturi tubes will ever give the same speeds. As for the Depth Raider, and 1 Maniac says it is measuring the speed at the ball (down speed) and it is the one to pay attention to. The DR is showing the speed of your lure relative to many things that can affect the actual speed of your lure -- sub surface currents, surface waves, cross currents... Let's say you are getting hits while trolling at due north 1200 rpms with a 1.5 mph current at the surface and the DR says the boat is going 2.5 mph. You run out of fish on the graph and want to go back through them so you turn around to go south. Now your boat is going into the 1.5 mph surface current an will need to increase your RPMs to get the lure speed (Depth Raider) back up to 2.5 mph so the lures have the same action as when you were going north and getting hits. There may be different currents at different directions depending on how deep your downrigger is at or your location on the lake. Where you have steep drop offs (such as the shelf from Ludington to Frankfort) this can happen depending on where you are relative to the shelf. Around river mouths the river plume will also create currents. This can cause your lures at one depth to be running a different speed than another. Overall with a downspeed unit on a boat, it is the speed that you want to pay attention to when trolling. The other speed measuring devices (GPS, fish finder paddle wheels, engine speedometer...) are not giving you a good representation of the speed your lures are running at. Even between different makes/models of downspeed units -- Depth Raider, SubTroll, Cannon Intelitrol, FishHawk...) the speed shown is rarely an actual measurement of the MPH the probe/cannon ball is running at. Consequently when another boat that is running a different downspeed than you are gives you a speed, it really does not mean much. What you want to do is watch what the speed is on your downspeed when you get a hit or catch a fish and then duplicate it. Like 1Maniac said... its all about repeatability.

I was out by the State Park about 2 weeks ago and stopped at the launch ramp to check it out. It looked too shallow for me to be comfortable with my 21' boat, but mine's trailer makes it typically more like a 24' V hull to launch. I wish it was better because I would really like to get use of my DNR Recreation Passport instead of paying the city for the Grand Trunk launch. It sure is a whole lot closer to Lake Michigan than the others too.

Moonshine RV Blue Flounder large size spoon or Brad's Cut Plug wonder bread.

I usually use the Grand Trunk ramp on the south side of Muskegon Lake as it is pretty close to the channel to get to the big lake. It is right next to where the Lake Express ferry docks. There is also a nice tackle shop right at the corner of the road that goes to the ramp. It is deep enough to handle most any size boat. Downside is it does not have a fish cleaning facility. At the east end of Muskegon Lake is the Fisherman's Landing ramp and campground. Nice facility run by the city with a fish cleaning station but it is a pretty long run to go all the way down Muskegon lake to get to the channel. There is a ramp on the north side of Muskegon Lake at the state park. I don't think a boat over 18' would be able to launch from it though. No fish cleaning but it is the closest to the big lake. It is a pretty long drive to get to the ramp by car though. It is a DNR facility so you need the DNR passport on your vehicle's license plate to use it.

Personally I would not go with any weight line presentation longer than 300'. If you need to get deeper than that add Dive Bombs or Torpedo Diver weights. It might catch fish but who in their right mind wants to reel in more than 300' of it. As for backing, consider that you will be deploying the entire weighted line then connecting to a board and let the board out to the side of the boat. If you let it out 50', that is 50' of backing from the rod to the board. Now when a fish hits it is going to take line. With many 25 to 35 pound Kings being caught on Lake Michigan, I would not want any less than 200 yards of backing on any weighted line outfit.

Both Ludington (Loomis Street) and Manistee (First Street) have nice city run launch facilities right at Lake Michigan. Both will handle almost any size boat and have lots of parking. Both also have fish cleaning facilities but Ludington's are much nicer with a grinder and screened in table area. For your size boat you could also use another ramp in each city. In Ludington launch #2 is at the east end of Pere Marquette Lake on Washington Street. It is a smaller ramp but will handle up to a big 20' glass hull easily. There is plenty of parking and also has a nice fish cleaning area with a grinder. Being off the big lake, it can be much easier to get a boat launched/loaded as it is not as affected by wind. It is also usually much less busy. From it to the Big Lake is about a 20 minute run across Pere Marquette Lake and out through the harbor. Manistee's other ramp is on Manistee Lake near the Tangled Tackle shop right on US 31/Authur St. Downside is after you launch you will have to go all the way through downtown by river to get to Lake Michigan which is around a 25 minute run. No fish cleaning, but you can always drive out to the big ramp to use that facility. There is limited parking here too.

Unless you were fishing a port where the river has a history of early salmon runs (Little Manistee, Pere Marquette, White...) I think it is a little early to expect salmon off the piers in any numbers. Down off St. Joe when when the Skamania hit the river mouth the action was often wild but it was rare to catch a slamon -- all summer run steelies. Skamania "normally" hit the piers to run the river when water temps get cool near shore due to wind or rain in late June through early July. This year everything has been pushed back quite a ways. We are seeing early July patterns in late July. If there were any salmon around, I would expect to have the best action very early in the day -- before sunrise until maybe 6 am. Especially if the seas were calm. If there were alewife on the pier heads any salmon may have been feeding on the outside of the schools and not coming all the way to shore.

Per what I was told a few years back, the copper "weight" is not breaking strength but rather the diameter of equivalent regular mono line. I would think that 50# test braid would be just fine. I always use a 20# test leader for spoons and a 30# leader for plugs and/or flasher fly/cut bait. I want the leader to break to "only" loose the lure and not the copper. I'm going to regret saying this, but so far have not had a leader break either. Did have to do a copper repair due to a bird nest trashing a segment on the reel.

Post what you think you want Dave. I'm always looking at boats for a couple of friends who have a perpetual case of twofootitis. Your Internet fishing network is your best source to find what is out there. Length? Style (cuddy, walkaround, center console, dual console...) I/O, OB? Single/dual/kicker? Age? How far away?

Another option would be a 120 to 150' 32# copper. Would give you a little different presentation and keep it shorter overall to the boat.

You can use a regular tip top guide but a roller or twillie tip is much better. Since the wire is going to run over the tip and keep pressure on that guide the surging of the boat, turns, speed changes... will cause the wire to move back and forth. This can act like a little chain saw on the guide. It isn't going to happen real fast but it won't happen with the roller or twillie. The rest of the guides will also experience this it isn't as much because the wire is in less contact with the guides except when letting out the diver or fighting a fish. I'd go with a Torpedo Diver Roller. As good as the other brands but less than 1/2 the price.

Give Give Bill Funk a call at 231 759-7254. He runs/owns Shoreline Tackle in Muskegon and is one of the most knowledgeable people on Cannon riggers in the country. He will be able to tell you what's wrong, how to fix it, and if you can or he needs to. He also knows this is fishing season and turns things around quick.

I fought with my boat getting lined up to go on the bunks for a few years before adding guide-ons this year. I went with the post style which has an aluminum post with a PVC tube. I went with the CE Smith model 27635 which could be bigger/taller than you need as it has 84" posts. They have shorter ones too. They have both U bolt bracket for tubular frame trailers and clamp on for I-beam frames. Mine has the I-beam and it took all of 15 minutes to install. On my boat the ends of the bunks are typically deeper than the hull so until the boat is about 1/2 of the way loaded. What I have found this year is that getting lined up is real easy and they keep it lined up perfectly all the way up. Another big benefit is that it is much easier to back the trailer in without the boat as now I have something sticking up I can see. Before on a lot of ramps I would loose sight when the trailer was on the down slope but the Avalanche was still above. I found the best price by far at this website http://www.sturdybuiltonline.com/Boat-Trailer-75-inch-Galvanized-I-Beam-Guide-Pole-Post-Kit_p_878.html. Actually ordered from Overtons though because they do price matching and also free shipping. Here is a picture of them from the company (just a coincidence that it is a SeaCat used as the "model" boat -- but it did help me decide):

Never seen anything like that on any of my graphs over the years. What brand/model is the graph?

I have 2 of the 9' Talora roller with the swivel tips. Previously I had 7' and 8' with the fixed roller tips. I don't get as much curl since going to the swivel tip rods, but I also pay more attention to keeping the wire taught when stored. If you're upgrading from non-swivel tip rods, I would not be afraid of going with the Torpedo tips. It is a quality product and you might as well save some money. I would think that changing the tip will void the limited lifetime warranty on the Talora though so keep the original tip to put back on if you ever need to send the rod in. I have 16 Talora rods and over the years I have returned 3 different rods to Shimano due to issues -- have received a new rod back in about a week each time. Worth the slightly higher cost of the Talora to me. I would also be very careful in removing the exiting roller tip as to not damage the rod blank. I'd also confirm that the glue used on the Torpedo Tip will allow the tip to be easily removed. Typically I use a cool flame to heat the guide/tip and melt the glue. That has always been with a metal guide/tip though. I don't know what the Torpedo Tip is made of.

I tried the pancake weights and found that in cross currents they really wandered. Even had shallower out/down rigger cross a stern rigger. Maybe I was doing something wrong but never had that issue with round or torpedo shaped weights. A buddy swears by the heavier Stinger brand pancakes which are shaped differently overall than the other round pancake types.

10# finned TruTrac balls are the lightest I run. Then I have 12# balls and Sharks and 15# balls and a 16# Torpedo Diver. What weights you should/can use are dictated by what your downrigger will support and how deep you want to go. Most riggers of the last 15 years can handle 12# with no problem. Before using the heavier weights make sure the downrigger is rated to handle it. It may be able to lift it slower than a lighter one but this could also cause your rigger's electric motor to wear prematurely. When the target depths are 80' or less and the currents are not too bad, I use the 10's and 12's. If currents are strong I go more with the Sharks to try to reduce side angle/drift. The Torpedo Diver is what I use on my FishHawk X4 probe rigger with the 15#ers on the non-probe riggers when fishing 80' or deeper. I have Vector and Big Jon Brute riggers that can handle the 15# and heavier balls.

For someone just getting started it can be overwhelming. Once certain lures start catching fish you remember the names of them. As you build up the variety you know the names of the good ones through repetition. The nice thing is that after a while you only add a few news ones per year so it is easier to remember them along with all of the others. Kind of like the first day of work where you meet 30 people but only remember the names of the 3-4 people you work with directly. As you do more things the rest of the people get reintroduced and soon you know everyone's name. When the new guy gets hired it isn't a big deal to remember his name since it is just one more to add to the mix.

On the right tackle those critters can be a lot of fun and some of the best for getting steady action for kids. Great to teach anyone what the drag is for and how to fight a fish. They have provided action on many days over on Erie that otherwise would have been very boring. I'd much rather have a bend in the rod vs nothing!

MP3 or CDs from Heart, Pat Benitar, Scorpions, Toby Keith, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Meatloaf, Bon Jovi, Bob Seger, Ted, Brad Paisley, and Maranda Lambert all get regular play on the boat. Best fishing song though has to be Brad Paisley's I'm Gonna Miss Her.

I set mine to not release. I didn't think having the board sliding down the copper was a good idea. The boards are set the same for my leadcore for the same reason.