Walleye Express

Dan. Question 1 about egg viability: Yes generally it is believed that younger walleyes have greater egg viability than older walleyes but studies on fish in general on this have shown that the decline in viability is slight and usually isn't apparent until a fish gets very old (most don't live that long any ways), so mostly we think its a non issue. Question 2 about tape worms: We heard a lot about tape worms last year so I am not surprised we are hearing more about them again this year. Tape worms have been around forever in our fish but it does seem to me that something has changed. There is all kinds of big change taking place in the food webs in Lake Huron and in Saginaw Bay so my hunch is that its tied to that. We didn't see any increased evidence of it in our main survey in September, but it may be a seasonal thing. It bares watching. The best advice is to always ensure your fish is thoroughly cooked. Question 3 about red sores on the swim bladder of a walleye. That sounds consistent with a VHSc infected fish. We know Saginaw Bay walleyes are carriers and this is the time of year they are most likely to show signs of it. You can read more about VHSc at http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_10950_46202---,00.html

Man, if toxins accumulate in fatty tissues. You better hope your not down wind when they cremate me. I'll probably start a chimney fire at the crematorium.

Wheeler. I've seen 3 bald eagles together before on the Tittabawassee in late November just above the Caldwell ramp. I've also seen an otter and beaver on the river. We also anchored near a 12 point buck sleeping against the Dows fence one after noon not 40 feet from us. He either was to scared to move or didn't care. He finally did move when Dow security came along on the road near the fence. It is truly amazing having this river and it's wild residents so close to such endustrial sprawl.

Well, I knew within the first 10 minutes of trolling this morning on the Tittabawassee things had changed big time from the weekend, when it seemed like everybody had limited out trolling 1/4 tots. With my 73 pound thrust Motor Guide almost on high we were barley moving against the current and the debri coming down river cloged both the line and the cranks in about 30 feet. I had launched down low on the river on purpose this morning, because a few major holes down that far were really giving up some nice holdover males. But I did not hesitate to explain my feeling to my clients that had came all the way from California. They had fished Saturday and Sunday on the detroit and only caught 4 walleyes for both days. As they used a boat with no trolling motor and the wind was brutal. So we puled lines and headed upstream where I knew at least the water woould be clearer, and it was somewhat. My next thought was keep their rods bent pulling smallies up by the spillway, but they wanted walleyes only. So long story short we trolled and kept removing the trash as much as we could. Had 5 on and landed 3. Talked to 6 other boats and the most they had was 1, so we didn't to that bad.

Only one spot North of the Gordonville ramp and several more downriver from there. All before the Immerman Park. They did mark other areas below that, but not sure if they are going to get the O.K. to do them.

The walleye run on the Tittabawassee this last year has already broken a few records. That may be due to much improved river conditions as a whole. Check out all the extensive work those survey boys I taxied around on the Tittabawassee for the last 2 years did on the river last summer. Makes me feel good about being a part of it. These new stabilized bank areas should produce some great fish holding holes and natural spawning areas in the near future. http://www.epaosc.net/image_list.asp?site_id=3298

This was an innocent enough topic when it started out, but became more heated as it progressed. I did not copy the whole thing but added my 2 cents at it's end. AndrewL the other day a 13lbs 3 oz 31 inches walleye was caught in Devils Lake, ND. it was a big ol mama. the guy who caught it was using a pink jig with white twister tail and a minnow. caught in the channel A area. mgrandick WoWWW. I'm afraid that would be a replica mount and returned if it was mine. Mike. AndrewL yeah that was a heated topic around some of the local baitshops. most of us said thats exactly what we would do. if we had people keeping their limits(5 fish) of 13 pounders then we would start seeing probelms. but theres a lot of educated anglers fishing these waters. Also Devils Lake is such a great fishery this lake is full of walleyes, you just gotta find them and get them to bite. this past winter we got into a lot of young walleyes. there were a few giants caught under the ice as well. O.K. Here's Capt. Dans new rules. #1. No more shooting deer with less then 3 points on each side. #2. No more shooting bears under 250 pounds. #3. No more shooting Pheasants with less then 29 Bars on their tail feathers. #4. No more shooting jake turkeys, 8 inch beards or longer from now on. Anybody breaking these new rules will be considered by me as a person not caring about our natural resources. Kinda dumb huh? Wadster makes a very good point. This whole debate always seems to boarder on personal opinions and when challenged, sparks more personally directed anger then political arguments. While at it's core, the facts and parameters set on each body of water is based on scientific data, while being balance and dictated by the law. And we do little but degrade our own ranks when we hate each other over a bar set by our own professionals on the subject. Nobody can stifle or change what other feel about our own personal decisions concerning such matters. But being faithful to your own rules or inherited convictions, while within lawful parameters, should be good enough for anybody. I've written to my DNR biologist buddy for his words of wisdom on the subject. When he gets back with me I'll post his scientific words of wisdom from our area on the subject.

For those of you who fish Saginaw Bay and know it's many fickle moods, planning a trip, reading and understanding what the wind forecasts means and/or flipping a coin to determine rather to trust what the wave higth forecasts are is usuall the norm. Well, after years of lobying from many of us that will soon be changing sometimes this season and I cannot wait. Greetings from NOAA, National Weather Service, Detroit/Pontiac... Hi Dan, I am happy to report to you that plans are finalized for installation of wind equipment on Light #1. The National Weather Service and the U.S. Coast Guard have worked out the details that approves the installation, but the actual date of installation is still being determined. We expect that it will be installed this season for sure and are hopeful it will be early in the season. We will be eager to announce its availability when the time comes, so stay tuned to our web sites. There has also been some discussion here at our office of using a rapid response water level gage as a wave height sensor at Light #1 as well, but this is still on the drawing board. Even just the wind speed and direction at that location will be a very welcome addition, I'm sure. New this season, please take a look at our new marine web portal at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/greatlakes/ Meteorologist/Marine Focal Point NOAA/National Weather Service Detroit/Pontiac, Michigan

Started out this morning with a good plan to hit several of mine and my buddy Bob's favorite walleye jigging waters on the Saginaw River. Things seemed like they were going to go as planned as Bob's cell phone rang while we were still in route to our first spot. It was another friend of ours who said he had his 5 walleye limit already fishing in spots well upstream of us, up in the Tittabawassee River. Being in Bobs decked out Lund versus my Jet Sled, that spot was going to be off-limits for us today, yet having that many fish still in the system and knowing they had to go past us to get out of it, made us feel like we were in for some fun. Well, we had fun alright. But never caught a walleye. We hit the White Bass mother load in a small section of river and could not bring ourselves to leave it. These Big female whites were off the hook for fighting ability. And I'm talking 5 and 6 casts in a row with these 2 1/2 to 3 pound Whites crushing the cranks and jigs we were throwing at them. Oh and I caught a 31 inch Northern that Bob voluteered to hold for me, quailfying this post for some of the boards that might frown on posting a trip about Bass.

I'm thinking the "reaction strike" had a lot to do with my success during those 2 years. And gunning and stalling the trolling motor has also put a lot of fish in my boat these last couple of years. All these fish back then had heavy layers of fat on them and with the over abundance of baitfish during those 2 summers, the walleyes could forage quit easily, efficiently and at their own leisure. This would shorten their aggressive feeding windows and your opportunity to catch them, especially if you were trolling at a slow speed making your own offering look much the same as all the other real ones, during times when they were not actively feeding. So I visualize all these fish just swimming slowly around fallowing and staying near their prey until that undisclosed feeding time arrived. Then here comes this school of hyper minnows pushing or sparking their feeding buttons.

This topic and my answer to it taken from another board. Capt. Dan. The last year or two I have started exprimenting with faster trolling speeds on both winnebago and green bay all year long. Sometimes upwards of 4 mph. I am thinking that this has been succesful for me for a few reasons. 1-i am covering more water and presenting my bait to more fish. 2- when I get a few fish these fish are generally very active since they are willing to eat a bait cruzin at 3 or 4 mph. 3- Its a reaction strike and the fish thinks that it has to eat that bait now or it will lose its oppertunity to eat. I would appreciate anybodys thoughts or opinions on this subject. Brad Korth Brad. In the summers of 2000/2001, during what was considered two bad year class's of fish for us on Saginaw Bay, I was having what was considered by many at my Marina as a couple of very lucky seasons. Just four pictures of the many I have is posted below, with one of them being a double 6 man charter and the most fish I ever kept (57) in one day. Forgive the quality as they were scanned. My charter catches those summers averaged 17 fish per trip and many were real dandys. My crankbaits of choice back then were 1/4 ounce tots in a variety of colors. But my fellow marina mates thought I was holding back key information of some type. But I was (I thought) sharing everything I was doing, much like I do here daily. In the fall of 1999 I bought a new LMS 350 "A" Fish Finder and a new Raymarine GPS for my boat. I liked the way I could enlarge the speed, temp and other things I wanted to see from anywhere on the boat on the graph, while enjoying the excellent, large, refined depths and contour views of the Bay that the Raymarine and the C-Nav/chip/map/whatever feature gave me in Plotter mode. So one day my bud asks if he can fallows me out to see what I'm doing different. Sure I said just hang back behind me out of the way some. I give him my trolling speed and we start fishing. Long story short I called him twice on the radio because he was hanging so far back we alomost lost each other several times. And all this time I was pulling fish while he was only getting one here and there. He finally pulled lines, caught up with me and started running even with me with his big motor. He calls me on the radio and says do you know how fast your trolling? I say ya, right now about 1.8MPH. B.S. he says, look at your GPS speed. Well, that was never easy on the Raymarine, as it was so tiny I had to squint to see it. It said 3.5MPH. :gasp: And there were days I'd kick up the graph speed read out to 2.2 before the fish would go. That must have been approaching Marlin Trolling speeds on the cranks. Yet for some reason I never noticed. That same year I caught a walleye that was tagged in Lake Erie, in the relativley shallow waters I was having all this "luck" in, which would be considered the extreme S.E. corner of Saginaw Bay. Then almost a year later, I read in our DNR's Fall Trawlings Survey that our waters attracted a bunch of Lake Erie and Lake St.Claire walleyes those 2 summers because of our unusual abundance of baitfish during those 2 seasons. So both the competition for, and the feeding frenzys created because of these added new, hungry aggressive arrivals, could do nothing but reinforce the speed troll factor.

That part is top secret. And if they tell you they have to kill you. In which case would negate your even being in restricted waters. All this is nothing more then paying for the hammer used for killing mosquitos. Burocratic overkill on people who will never need it but can fund it for the rest that might. So your $137.50 will help keep the people who really can be in restricted waters in cold beer. What we in the service used to call a SNAFU.

Drew. I'd bring in my CG license or a copy of it and ask to have that money refunded to me when you finally go pick up your TWIC card. Especially since both you and your dad recently got your Captains license. I'm betting the people who did your applications are so new to their job, they simply forgot to ask about your CG license status and apply the discount. You and your dad would truly be in the best position to make use of the discount, being your license won't expire for the full 5 years.

You'll need two solid I.D's. They'd like 2 pictured I.D.s, but would not accept my State CCL, my only other pictured I.D.. Drivers license and Passport if you have it, but S.S. card will work. I didn't have my S.S. card on me, but fortuetly had my Birth Certificate. You step into a curtained off area and everything is done/filed by Computer. Simply questions the official asks you and then types in. Theres a scanner of sorts that does your finger prints and takes your picture. Took me over an hour because I let a guy who works on the ships that come into town go ahead of me. He didn't have an appointment and was pissed. The captain told him if he didn't get a TWIC card by the end of the day, he'd be dry docked. I actually thought about asking if leaving any body fluids was going to be necessesary, but changed my mind.

GJ Frank. Don't look like those males have been long out of the river system.

Oppppsssss. Stop the presses. I remember I called Charter Lakes in February, removed the 1,000,000 liability that I was required to have on the Dow Corning River Surveyors I was taking up and down the Tittabawassee the last 3 springs. Their company insisted on and made up that extra insurance amount in my fees. So that job is over now and I'm back to what the CG wants and thats $300,000. So the $798.00 was/is the same amount I was paying previously. Oh well, it felt good for a minute.

Somebody at Charter lakes must be reading these threads. Got the bill today and it went down. Same coverage, same 2 boats $798.00.

Anybody have any links or numbers for The Insurance Shop. And the United web sites quote links seem to all be down right now. Hope they didn't leave town on you guys. I expect my policy and bill to be in the mail any day now from Charter Lakes. I pay $980.00 per year for two boats. $300,000 personal liability on both. 4 months active and 8 months layover on my Grady and 12 months active coverage on my 18 Smokercraft Jet Sled. How does that stack up to the others. Hard to see anybody beating that price by $300.00. But I'm always up for a deal.

Well, got my TWIC card taken care of yesterday. But there was some discrepency about what the cost was. I had taken in a scanned copy of my CG license with me and was told the discounted price would be $105.25, so I wrote out the check. But then the official noticed that my CG license expired in Sept of this year 2008. She then said there would be an additional charge because the background check back in 2003 (when I got my last CG license) was not the same as after 2005, so I needed to pay the additional charge of $27.25 for the newer background check. So it seemed that having a CG license issued after 2005 and bringing in a copy with you was the only qualification for the discount. But then she made another point that made little to no sense. She also said that the TWIC card expires on the same date as your CG license does. So if I had paid the smaller discounted amount and the expiration date had not been noticed, the TWIC card would have expired in September 2008 along with my CG license. So what the hell is the advantage even if your license was issued in 2005 and qualifies for the discount, if the card itself expires when your license does. She could not answer that question. I don't think they even know whats going on with this crap. They had no problem filing my checks though. Oh and they don't take personal checks, so bring a credit card. I happen to have a business account having to do with my charter business, they took that. And what the hell does Lockheed Martin have to do with all this? I thought they made airoplanes.

Like I said in my previous post Shu. You guys on that side of the world might escape the eforcement of this Documentation law/rule for a while or forever (who knows). But if you keep asking or probing somebody will see

Ya Adam. I talked to Tommy last night and asked about the plastic glue on eyes. I told him to stick to his spider pattern. All I need is something else that observant clients notice different about one rig over the other. I started adding a small piece of nightcrawler on the front hooks of some of my more stable running cranks 2 summers ago, with noticeably better success. But some cranks don't accept even that small added weight and work right. So every time I'd reel in one of those types I'd get the "Wheres the Beef" question.

Finally got my boat documented. I can now officially be hailed and identified as "the Vessel Walleye Express" BIG DEAL. And I know the documentation license (or whatever you want to call it) is renewed every year for free (if you remember to send it in). But what about the TWIC card/I.D.? And I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to feel a bit strange wearing an I.D. badge with my picture on it while fishing. Should make everybody aboard feel real warm and friendly. Like having your State Cop brother in law show up at the Super Bowl party wearing his uniform. If I don't somehow hit or scrape this badge off when working lines and have it fall off into the water I'l be surprised. Maybe I'll pin it to the cheek of my butt in protest.

Shown below is just one way I run my spoon harnesses and the new colors I made up for this years trolling season. You can run them in a variety of ways. Mainly keep about a 30 inch leader in front of the spoon harness and bait them with either real crawlers or 6 " Gulp Night Crawlers. Run them behind any weight you want. Keels, snap weights, bouncers or #40 Jets. I'm going to add a couple of Jets to my arsenal this year to run straight down beside the boat for 2 extra rods. A favorite way of mine is behind 1 1/2 ounce Keels. Every 2 feet out equals 1 foot down. You can copy and build your own spoon harnesses easy enough right off the picture I posted. The spoons are Michigan Stingers, Scorpion size.

Another law/rule this new guy will be enforcing while I'm thinking about it. Each one of your life preservers have too have a small signal light attached to them along with a sound signaling device. Each light is about $12.00 and the whistles I bought $3.00. Times that by the 14 life preservers I carry on board. But this is one law is one I was ahead of and all mine have lights and whistles attached.

If your boat displaces 5 tons of water or more and carries passengers for hire, by CG law it has to be documented. Roughly a boat 25 feet long with a 8 1/2 foot beam qualifies in that category. To apply for and get this document you need a (Fact of Build) documented blue print, factory build sheet and signed letter from the boats manufacturer/builder. Proof of boats ownership, (Title or registration). Your assigned Documantation numbers (once assigned) permanently affixed to your boat on the inside. Vessels name in letter 4 inchs high or higher on the side of your vessel. Vessels name and port on the back of your vessel. My first application was delayed because I chose the (Coastwise) designation and not the fisheries. I had to call Customs and ask if this was alright. Turns out it was and the officer handling my application himself didn't even know that. I ran the whole gauntllet and now have my documantation license and have the TWIC appointment made for the 16th. This whole thing was an exsisting rule/law already on the books that has been brought up and stressed by the new CG regional Officer over on Lake Michigan just last summer and was/is going to be enforced this year on that lake and Lake Huron. I'm not sure about over on your side of the world having to do that yet. God only knows why this particular officer got concerned over this law and decided to enforce it on honest people with outstanding safety records already. My advice to you is do not call your areas CG Regional Supervisor about this. Do not poke the sleeping LION if he is unaware of your presense.