Treblemaker

Sent you a pm about the divers and TDR rods.

I worked on the pulled pork this weekend, turned out fine if I say so myself.... Snow smoked pulled pork sandwiches available while they last.

35 tables registered with a week to go. Vendors once everyone sets up I will come around and collect donations for tables. Plan on being set up by 8 to get the best deals and get in on the early bird action. Just pull up when you arrive and we'll help you unload. Once you park we can help move you to a table to set up. I will arrive a little after 7am to open the doors. Early birds please pay the $5 donation on your way in, free entry after 9am. We will have coffee and fresh baked muffins available in the morning after 8am. For lunch we will have a hot dog plate and smoked pulled pork sandwich plate available. All proceeds to benefit Hand2Hand Ministries and provide food for local families in need. http://hand2handbackpack.org/impact

Over 20 tables reserved so far with a little over a month to go! Bob's Outdoors will be selling the remainder of his salmon stuff: I have a bunch of leftover inventory from Bob's Outdoors, including some F11 Rapalas for Browns, Some offshore tackle stuff, a lot of Opti-dodgers, some misc. reels in boxes, and bins full of samples still in the package. I also have a bunch of used equipment including rods, a net, some downriggers (Walker and Big Jon) This is it for my Salmon Fishing career, so everything will go at whatever price gets it sold. I plan on bringing nothing back home.

When: Saturday March 8, 2014 from 9 am to 12 pm. Where: Chapel Pointe Church, 3350 Baldwin Street Hudsonville, MI 49426 Saturday March 8, 2014 is the date for this years swap meet so mark your calendars. We are having a swap meet for anyone that would like to sell, swap, and buy excess sporting gear on Saturday March 8, 2014 from 9 am to 12 pm. We are thinking that the theme be related to items for fishing and hunting, but also are considering that it be open to all sporting goods in general. No flea market junk, just good used gear that one no longer needs or use. No guns or ammo will be allowed on the premises. Sellers contact me prior to the event to reserve a table. Donation will be $10 per table. Sellers are welcome to share or split tables. If there are left over tables we will offer them up for donation only basis for those who would like to sell, and cannot reserve, afford, or do not need a full table. Contact me at [email protected] for table availability and registration. Seller set up will happen between 7:30 and 9 am. Buyers can stop by free from 9-12 pm. This will be a free event for buyers, donations gladly accepted. Bring cash and change if possible to make it easier on the sellers who will have limited abilities to make change throughout the day. Early birds can get in before 9am only with a $ 5 donation, after 9am admittance is free. The Youth Ministry will be on hand to sell coffee,baked goods, and lunch. Please support them with their fund raiser. Location has been set at Chapel Pointe Church in Hudsonville, MI. The address is 3350 Baldwin Street Hudsonville, MI 49426. We will have plenty of tables, chairs, and room to spread out in this facility. Please DO NOT call the facility directly since this is a private event, contact myself with any questions or issues. Bring the family out for a day of fun, bargains, lunch, and good friends. Hope to see you there!

Too bad it is the same weekend as South Haven or we'd be there. They have the weekend tourney and a one day shootout for Saturday as well.

Last call, only a couple tables left and 46 registered so far. Vendors we will open the doors at 7:30 am. Pull up to the main doors and we will have volunteers to help unload into the lobby. Then you can pull forward, park, and come back inside to pick your table(s) and set up. Please line up and we hope to keep things flowing smoothly. Early Birds no earlier than 8:30 please so most of the vendors can get set up. Don't forget to register for door prizes. Also our youth will be unavailable to help with concessions, so all proceeds will go to benefit our Hand2Hand ministries to provide food for area families in need. This food is to ensure that the children, and their families, have healthy meals over the weekend. Please give from the heart to support this effort. http://www.chapel-pointe.org/hand2hand-ministry Look forward to seeing everyone Saturday!

A week away and over 40 tables reserved. Going to be a good one!

I loved it! Team Originator busted our balls when we had motor problems and arrived minutes late with big fish in the tourney, DQ, one year in Saugatuck. Good to see it came back around to bite them in the butt.

Bump, a little over 2 weeks out and over 30 tables registered to sell so far. If anyone can stay around to help move some chairs afterwards I would be greatly appreciative.

When: Saturday February 2, 2013 from 9 am to 1 pm. Where: Chapel Pointe Church, 3350 Baldwin Street Hudsonville, MI 49426 Saturday February 2, 2013 is the date for this years swap meet so mark your calendars. We are having a swap meet for anyone that would like to sell, swap, and buy excess sporting gear on Saturday, February 2, 2013 from 9 am to 1 pm. We are thinking that the theme be related to items for fishing and hunting, but also are considering that it be open to all sporting goods in general. No flea market junk, just good used gear that one no longer needs or use. No guns or ammo will be allowed on the premises. Sellers contact me prior to the event to reserve a table. Donation will be $10 per table. Sellers are welcome to share or split tables. If there are left over tables we will offer them up for donation only basis for those who would like to sell, and cannot reserve, afford, or do not need a full table. Contact me at [email protected] for table availability and registration. Seller set up will happen between 7:30 and 9 am. Buyers can stop by free from 9-1 pm. This will be a free event for buyers, donations gladly accepted. Bring cash and change if possible to make it easier on the sellers who will have limited abilities to make change throughout the day. Early birds can get in before 9am only with a $ 5 donation, after 9am admittance is free. The Youth Ministry will be on hand to sell coffee,baked goods, and lunch. Please support them with their fund raiser. Location has been set at Chapel Pointe Church in Hudsonville, MI. The address is 3350 Baldwin Street Hudsonville, MI 49426. We will have plenty of tables, chairs, and room to spread out in this new facility. Please DO NOT call the facility directly since this is a private event, contact myself with any questions or issues. Bring the family out for a day of fun, bargains, lunch, and good friends. Hope to see you there!

150# Power Pro works awesome for retying. A buddy bought a spool to try a stealth rigger and replace the DR cable, that experiment failed so we have plenty to use for this. Going to try the one hook treble rig on the next reties this winter. Thanks Matt.

We fished Holland in the am Sat too, set the first line at 8:30am in 200 fow. Trolled around from 200-230 fow and had 1 fish low diver set on 250 8" chrome paddle blue bubble fly green beads. Wind had picked up from the south as we had worked north toward PS. Pulled lines, motored back to Holland 165 fow. Set the troll NNW and went 4 for 8 before we got toward PS again and called it a day. Green/chrome 12" paddle oceana fly on the bottom took 5 hits and caught 3. White paddle oceana fly 150 down took a couple hits and a fish. One hit on the diver rig and we were out. Slow troll seemed to be the ticket 1.7-2.1 GPS. Saw a bunch of waterspouts, 1 even made it to the water. Nice day, got a nice tan too. Copper was dead.

We had a great time as well. Congrats to the winners and hope to see everyone next year.

What do you do, run fewer lines. Troll slower, shallower using big fish only rigs? No really, trying to figure this out. What kind of strategy looks good going into an event like this?

Pretty simple really, standard format used to be set up for everyone to compete as it was. Now it's like buying a raffle ticket and hope the fish landed are big where you set down. My favorite format for the larger events, and what I would like to see: Max 9 rods - 3 man limit so small boats can compete Max 15 fish - 3 man limit so small boats can compete Weigh best 10-12 fish because you have to get your fish to compete, and it ain't easy to do 2 days in a row. It also gives teams a chance to make a big move on day 2 and creates high drama. Open communication - difficult rule to enforce Bonus trout points - what ever happened to rewarding teams for versatility? Everyone must leave and depart same port Trending now the rules are all over the place from port to port and vary from a full fledged event to a simple club tournament like weigh 5 catch 10 which is fine if that is what the club wants to see. Everyone can catch 5 so anyone can win. With a crew of 5 you can each catch 2 fish per day, or 4 fish over 2 days, how fun is that? Might as well just make it a one day tournament at this point so guys can get back to fishing the rest of the weekend. Maybe even go back out that evening to catch the rest of their limit.

We also fished the triport and I am convinced that I will not fish another 5 fish tournament next year. The catch 10 weigh 5 format really changed how we fished, and although we did catch 9 fish each day they were not what we were looking for and we did not do very well considering we fished nearly 8 hours, that's 32 man hours each day, to weigh 5, and only catch 10 fish. Why 3-6 fishermen on a boat can only catch 5-10 fish with a 5 fish limit is ridiculous. I'd rather fish for fun than be forced to dumb down our fishing efforts. These tournaments want crews to fish 8 hours to catch 10 fish and weigh only 5. No thanks, maybe it's time to save up and start fishing Ludington and bigger events that stick with the traditional formats.

Okuma Solterra SLR 50L

Regarding the original question, I have tried soldering and it is too stiff. It won't bend around the reel like soft copper should so I wouldn't do it again.

Ken, what I do now is tie the mono onto the end of copper with a Uni-knot. Then slide the mono knot to where the loop end will be and bend the copper around the mono knot. Then tie your haywire twist. The knot is a lot smaller and more protected inside the loop.