Walleye Express

see next post.

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Frank. The size beads are 4mm. They are designer beads out of the Stamina catalog. I used to be a 6 and 8mm facited bead man for the longest time, but really like the action on the harnesses better with these big thumper blades and lighter/smaller round beads. They just seem to float and flip around in the water column better too me. I also noticed that my (fish in the boat) ratio went up when using the trebles at the back, especially since I went to a 2 hook harness versus a 3. And having 2 hooks also seems to bring the harness to life better with the real crawler or Gulp Nightcrawlers tail flipping around more at the back end of the harness. The front single hook is a 2X strong #2 Mustad 92141. The back trebles are also bought out of Stamnia Catalog. They are #4's VMC bronze 865GBZ. As far as the walleye fishing outlook on the Saghinaw Bay, things could not look better. We're in our 4th record year of natural reprodution of (YOY) young of the year fish. And if the last 2 years of ice fishing success is a measure, we're headed for another banner year of summer trolling on the bay.

Me thinks these kind of things are just going to get worse for the regular fisherman and even more so for charter captains. The new Coast Guard rules and regulations we have to abide by this year are unbelievable. Having your boat Documented getting (fact of build) papers from it's builder and all the rules about it's markings. Getting finger printed wasn't that bad, but you have to travel to Toledo do have it done. Seems they don't trust the State police in your own city. And now I have to become a TWIC officer and get a (Transportation Workers Identification Card) as well. And did I mention all these new things have fees from $135.00 to $165.00 each. I've already decided that this years 5th CG license renewal will be my last. With all the advertising cost, insurances, boat slips, repairs, marina gas and rules invloved in running this business now, I'm Getting kind of tired starting off $2,500.00 in the hole every season in an area where it's hard to make it all worth wild. Sorry for venting.

Thanks Adam. Tommy mentioned to me that the Holy Rollers were an old style of his and enjoyed some poularity for a while. Not sure if he did these special for me to try or dug them out of the archives and sent them along. They do have gold backs which I like and a color very popular with the walleyes last summer. But the smaller #4 size isn't my favorite. I think the bigger blades excite the walleyes a lot more and give more life to the Gulp crawlers I'm using on them.

Dans think alike. Full Canvas and plastic zip windows. Then adjust, remove, and/or leave on the curtains to the type of day that it is. Cannot count the compliments from clients about the extended canvas top on hot sunny days.

Erie fishermen off the hook on customs rule Background checks won't be needed for those entering Canadian waters Thursday, April 10, 2008 3:34 AM By Jeffrey Sheban THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH U.S. customs officials have scuttled plans to require background checks for Great Lakes fishermen and divers entering Canadian waters. Anglers and divers still will be subject to identification checks if they dock in Canada, however. Under pressure from charter-boat captains, sports fishermen and others tied to Lake Erie's $1 billion fishing industry, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service won't implement the toughest Homeland Security requirements for those simply crossing into Canadian waters on day trips. The decision Friday was not widely publicized, said customs spokesman Brett Sturgeon. The customs agency is a division of the Homeland Security Department. "For the average fishermen, this is wonderful news," said Rick Unger, president of the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association and operator of a boat in Marblehead. Unger's fishing season starts May 1, but some of Lake Erie's hundreds of charter captains already are in the water, he said. Fishing trips to deeper and cooler Canadian waters, where fish are more plentiful, pick up in June. "We're glad that they're putting common sense to use," added Steven Fought, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, who sent a letter this week to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking that the rules be modified. The proposed rules, shared with 200 charter-boat captains meeting in Sandusky last month, would have required captains to do the following whenever crossing into Canadian waters: * Ask for two forms of ID and fax passengers' personal information -- name, date of birth, driver's license and phone numbers -- to customs an hour before departure. Passengers would have been subject to security background checks. * Call customs at least one hour before returning to port to see whether anyone on board is wanted for questioning. If so, captains could have been asked to deliver those passengers to authorities. Now, Unger said passengers will not be required to show ID before fishing trips that dock in Canada, but they will be required to show a passport or two forms of ID to customs upon their return. Passengers can visit a customs office or use satellite videophones at various ports. Simply crossing into Canadian waters without docking won't trigger any ID requirements -- same as in previous years, he said. "This is big news and we're really pleased," he said. Unger said negotiations with customs officials are continuing to make the rules as simple as possible for everyone. [email protected] v/r, LCDR Greg Fondran Ninth Coast Guard District Public & Governmental Affairs 1240 E. 9th St., Rm. 2073 Cleveland, OH 44199 (216) 902-6021/27 (phone/fax) (216) 990-2611 (cell) "America's FRESHWATER Coast Guard" www.d9publicaffairs.com

O.K. This isn't going to be one of my better reports because I've been sworn to general informaton only. But it's reliable and may help a few to get on some fish right now. Very recently my bud went out in front of Hoyles in 14 FOW and they caught 5 walleyes in about 5 hours. #14 Huskies 70 back off In-Lines. Then went into 7 FOW (near there) and caught 80 perch with 40 being nice keepers, some 10 inchers. Good luck.

I finished off the blades last night using solid colors instead of mixing them. I think they look even better. What do you guys think?

No, this isn't a post about Southern Baptist habbits of rolling in the isles. Or some new religious sect or newly discovered Texas underground compound called the Thumpers. It's to show you guys a combination of both new and old school Tommy Harris blades I had order for this summers trolling season. The size #7 and #8 blades are what I call the thumpers. I've seen few other blades throw off more of a flash then these monsters. And along with the success I had running them last year, two other things happened that I witnessed and never experienced before when running them walleye trolling that stands out in my mind. Firstly, with how clear the water column has become on the Saginaw Bay, these things throw off a flash that can be seen over 30 feet away and several feet down in the water column. And I mean the whole surrounding area in back of the boat is flashing when a hooked fish is getting near, and I'm standing at the back ready (net in hand) looking down and waiting for a charter client to bring the fish up behind the boat. On one of these occasions I saw another walleye chasing and striking at the blade while his buddy was being keel-hauled in at the end of the harness. I know all of you have seen this before and it is quit common with bass, pike and a few other type fish species, but this was my first time seeing it with walleyes. Then on another occasion we had a double on fishing in 23 FOW. I could tell one of the walleyes was a bigger fish so we landed the smaller fish first. I removed the smaller one, threw him into the cooler, straightened the Gulp nightcrawler back onto the harness and lowered it just a few feet back into the water behind the boat, so it would not swing around and get tangled while we netted the bigger fish. This rig was no more then 6 feet down and maybe 15 feet behind the boat, and remember we were in 23 FOW. As I got ready to net the bigger fish the rod I just laid down bent and started overboard. I thought because of it's short distence out, it had gotten tangled in the trollling motors prop. But about an 18 incher had come up and slammed this rig virtually in the prop wash. I jumped on the rod before it went over, but that to was a first for me in that deep of water. As for the blades Tommy calls Holy Rollers, the smaller ones with the holes in them, I cannot vouch for their effectiveness. I've seen them before, mainly much bigger blades like them tied in on Lake Trout Cow Bells, but have never used them with harness rigs. The hole is supposed to throw the rotation of the blade off slightly and even create some cavitation bubbles occasionally when rotating, adding both more sound and a visual effect to the rig. That makes sense to me, and having something new to try always appeals to me.

Took this off another board and thought it worth posting. Is this how most of you guys fillet your bluegills? I usually cut right through the rib cage, quickly dulling my knife I'm going to have to give this a try, good video... Steve. Steve. Thats the same way I fillet my walleyes. And heres another cleaning suggestion for you guys. I first fillet all the fish like he did and skin them after, and in my case on my charters it can be an impressive pile of fish. But I use a set of channel locks when I get to the skinning part, to both grab and hold the skin near the tip of the tail section. This prevents the skin from sliding on any slime on my board and/or out of your grasp when using just your finger tips to hold the skin. Slide the knife under the skin and in a couple of forwards swiping/cutting motions from top to bottom the skin is off. Flip the skin in the bucket with the head, guts and spine, the flesh back in the cooler of ice I have nearby and start the next one. I average about 1 walleye filleted and skined per minute. I use two different knives, one for each job. My fillet knife is about 7 inches long with a stiff temper. Better for strong straight cuts next to the dorsal fin and down to the rib cage. The skinnning knife is about 12 inches long with a medium temper. You need a little bend in a knife for clean skin removal. Both were custom made by a friend and are kept surgery sharp. He also made me a bluegill/crappie knife 5 inches long that negates having to risk choking up on a very sharp knife. Capt. Dan.

Caz. Very good and the best question you've asked yet. I was going to chime in earlier about your whole post question, being I know where you live and actually how beneficial any of these answers would be to somebody living on the Lake Michigan side of Michigan. And boils down to the same reason I'd head West if I wanted a good/productive day of salmon fishing. Not that all the answers provided are not helpful of correct in their intention and meaning, but apply very little to guys stuck fishing the very few areas that productive walleye fishing affords on that side of the state. The best walleye fishing I've ever heard about on that side is Hamiln Lake or Muskegon Lake and the many flooded impoundments above the dams. And only during those certian times of year that either becomes extra productive and worth fishing at all. And Hot-N-Tot's are the last crank that comes to mind if I'm fishing any of those areas during those narrow windows. Well, maybe trolling Hamlin in the summer. Your best bet if your going to spend the money to rig and fish for walleyes, is make the trip across the state over here to Saginaw Bay. The knowledge gained and the secrets learned would be put to very better use over here where walleyes are many and the standard. Just my 2 cent.

I'm finding the TWIC to be the least of my problems. You guys also know about having your boats documented I assume. I just sent my Fact of build on my 30 year old Grady back into the CG Documentation center in Virgina for the second time. Seems the guy who checked mine the first time is that stations hard ass. Grady Whites rep didn't sign my Fact of Build proof paper so they want that. And when I chose the Coastwise designation not fishing then mentioned that I was a fishing charter, they made me call Customs to ask exactly what designation I needed. What a head ache.

Wow. Combining with Dow Corning and the Freeland Lions club, the PWT championship is looking to be one big deal this spring in Bay City May 15th through the 19th. I just recieved a vendors application to apply for one of the many Exhibitor tables that are going to be a part of a Sports and Outdoor Show, set up right on the banks of the Saginaw River near both the launching and weigh-in stage area of the PWT championship. I'm guessing every boat and sports shop dealers in the area will be there, with boat test rides being set up in the Vets Park Marina itself for very interested customers. I haven't decided yet about a table yet, but won't miss what is sure to be a real attraction for Bay City and near by residents.

I'm getting some interest to fish this tourney on my board. Where should I send them to both pay and/or sign up early for this event? If I didn't have a charter booked on that date, I'd be in as well.

Myself I use the same rods I do for trolling. 7 1/2 foot telescoping rods designed by Parsons and Kavejecz for Bass Pro Shops. But I watched a Next Bite show today where they were using their new 12 footers and man those did seem excellent if a man was going to make a habbit of bottom bouncing. Really flexable almost buggy whip sensitive, with pleanty of give. Exactly what you want with light biters or what I call grabbers that swim up behind the harness and simply grab onto the harness and load the rod tip without much tug at all.

E-mailed my DNR bud and heres his answer. The decision was made to go ahead and collect walleye spawn this year except on the Tittabawassee River. This is because Lake Michigan (Muskegon R. and Little Bay de Noc egg sources) is still designated just as a "surveillance area for VHS" while all of Lake Huron is confirmed with VHS. They will be applying some egg disinfection procedures to the eggs collected and they think between those procedures and the precaution of limiting the take to L. Michigan waters that the remaining risk is minimal. My understanding is that because L. Michigan strain eggs are being collected, that no walleye stocking in Lake Huron will occur (due to genetic considerations) but since we have suspended walleye stocking on Saginaw Bay any ways, there are not many Lake Huron stocking sites left any how. I think some of the L. Michigan fry will be reared in ponds in the Lake Huron watershed and some of those fingerlings will be used for inland planting. So the plan for 2008, as I understand it, is a sort of work-around intended to keep things moving as best as possible.

I'm very curious about this egg take plan. They stopped all the egg taking over here on this side of the state because they said there was no safe place to hatch them due to the VHS virus. That they were not going to take a chance on infecting any hatcheries with it.

I heard the Augres is open and it showed as much on the satelite photos. Check the Quanicassee River agian after this rain in the next 3 days. They should be in then.

I suspect many of you from different areas of the country have the same problems we do here with opening day headaches. You know what I'm talking about. People who have not started their outboards since last summer, or have trailer or other maintenance problems they should have kept up with, that always manifest themselves right at the ramp while their launching. Or the guys who simply don't know boating or really care about ramp ediquate. You tolerate these things the best you can, but it detracts from your own enjoyable experience. I used to deal with this like everybody else did for the longest time, but the whole experience was not condusive to having a good time for me, so I removed myself from this poison atmosphere and go during the week after the opener. And this post is not meant to cause trouble of degrade anybody new to the whole fishing experience. So please do not take it that way. But I had a weird and kinda funny dream about the opener, after a late supper and a #20 Vikaden for my ankle and shoulder pain that I would like to share. Dreamed I was launching on the Tittabawassee River on opening day with a friend and his wife. As we were in route I was telling him about the rudeness, the wait, the four letter words and just the sheer hassle we would encounter on the river being it was opening day of walleye season. Well when we arrived at the ramp (and as expected) there were cars and trailers lined up all the way through the parking lot out to the road. But for some reason everybody was smiling and waving me through and around them down to the ramp. When I positioned my truck and boat to back down the ramp, the guys who's boats were pulled up at the ramp and in the way quickly jumped in their boats and shoved off making room for me to back up. Then as I pulled out after launching, 2 trucks parked right in front pulled away giving me room to park my own truck and trailer right in the very first spot nearest the ramp. And in the dream I was still using my walking boot because of my ankle surgery and was actually helped by 2 strangers to get into my boat when I got to it. As we pulled out of the ramp area I could see both up and down the river hundreds of boats everywhere. I decided that we should go way down river away from the crowds and fish the Freeland high banks area in one of my favorite deep holes. So we started down river at a slow trolling pace. And as we past the first boat the guy in it asked "Where ya headed Capt. Dan". "I'm headed down to the high banks I answered". "Why don't you jump up on plane, you'll get there a lot faster" he answered. I was shocked, but I did and like I usually do, I hugged close to the opposite bank of the river that people were not fishing to keep both my wake and my interuption to their fishing to a minimum. And as I passed them they were all smiling and waving at me instead of giving me the finger and shouting four letter words at me. It was unbelievable. Now by this time and after that reaction, I should have realized this was a VERY BIG DREAM, but it went on. As we neared my favorite spot in the river, I could see many boats near it but nobody was actually fishing in it. So we positioned the boat and anchored. My very first cast was exactly where I wanted it and the THUMP that fallowed the tick (letting me know my jig had hit bottom) was awesome. What fallowed was walleye after walleye in the 8 to 10 pound range. All three of us were catching one after the other and laughing like little girls at a Barbie tea party. Then right in the middle of reaching too net yet another 10 pounder of my buddies I got this God Awful pain in the crotch area, that put me right on the floor of my boat. I then instantly woke up to find my 5 month old lab pup (who now weighs 65 pounds) had jumped up on the bed and right in the middle of my business. So the day did end in about the way I thought the whole trip might have after all, a big pain.

Your absolutely right Phishy. Walleyes and Pike are one of the few specie types that show you nothing about their gender in their skin or structual apperaence.

Taken from another board. This is probably a very rookie question, but someone out there must know how to visually tell the gender of a walleye quickly before releasing it. What are the differences in appearance between male and female? derek becker I agree with all said. But there is a way which involves looking/probing into the vent area and then having the training to recognize what your actually looking for/at. But personally, to many other strange looks, remarks and questions arise from close friend and others while your probing up a fish's butt to make it worth the probing or the knowing. Capt. Dan.

In my business running 8 to 10 lines of mast type boards is the norm. I don't have to tell anybody what running 8 to 10 inlines (4 or 5 aside) would be like without a mate or a helper. I love my Otter Boat boards when I'm trolling cranks at a fast speed, or when there is a pretty good shop on the water. None track straighter or stronger then the Otters in these conditions and were my main boards for quit a few years. But lately when running eyeliminators or other rigs at slower speeds, the otters simply fall back behind the boat to far or have to much continual line sag. So I added the double callaspsable Rivieras to my arsenal. I added some weight to the keel side of these boards for better digging power and they pull out straight and keep the tether lines very tight even when trolling below 1 mph. And in the last couple of years 3 mph is the fastest I've been trolling. The only draw back to this set up is when pulling them in. I practically have to stop the boat to get them in or risk pulling a muscle. But the use of each and what they can teach you about the fish's mood and how the fish want the lures action to be during the course of the day is more then just preference IMV. How they run and what action they impart on the lures you run is different given what water conditions and type boards you are running. Old timers who make a study of these little differences will know what I'm talking about. Or perhaps it's my type "A" personality.

To bad none of the Triploid Salmon our DNR tried planting in the late 70's ever showed back up. Everybody thought for a few years that a hundred pounder was going to eventually be caught. But don't ever think Mother Nature (Or man) wont find a way. Read below. "Production of Trout Offspring from Triploid Salmon Parents" Many salmonids have become at risk of extinction. For teleosts whose eggs cannot be cryopreserved, developing techniques other than egg cryopreservation to save genetic resources is imperative. In this study, spermatogonia from rainbow trout were intraperitoneally transplanted into newly hatched sterile triploid masu salmon. Transplanted trout spermatogonia underwent spermatogenesis and oogenesis in male and female recipients, respectively. At 2 years after transplantation, triploid salmon recipients only produced trout sperm and eggs. With use of these salmon as parents, we successfully produced only donor-derived trout offspring. Thus, by transplanting cryopreserved spermatogonia into sterile xenogeneic recipients, we can generate individuals of a threatened species.

And heres the ESPN link that tells the story as well. http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/news/story?id=2901070