1mainiac

Depends on the knife for me I have a couple of diamond hone setups along with a few steels and a lap hone. Final product goes to my 6in bench grinder with 2 buffing wheels on it and 2 stages of rubbing compond. Getting em sharp is one thing polishing them sharp is amazing. My dad could get them so sharp it would cut you if you looked close LOL.

Keep in mind you can vote every day lets keep em in the lead all the way.

Autopilot probably still out of reach if I want any money to put gas in the boat but still high on the list.

Keep them votes coming folks we have em in first place now but still close

My vote also and guys they are behind by 60 votes as of mine so make a few mouse clicks and help a fellow fisherman out.

About 4 years ago I went to a fishing seminar with my father in law. The guys kept it simple Owner treble hooks Gamikutsu singles Gamma 40lb Flouroleader Ande mono line and Power Pro braid. They only used 2 knots the Worlds Fair knot and the Palomar. They basicly stressed keeping it simple with stuff that works and once you get your pattern working make minor tweeks as needed. Most that fish with me will tell you I don't make a lot of changes once I have a spread down that I like I feel it is up to me to drive the boat to the fish and when I find them the spread will work. As such I try to put down a bunch of options and when something works I will add more of it. I don't pay much attention to the BS on the radio as many times I have met the guys talking about how great they are doing at the dock to find out they actually only got a fish or 2. I think Salmon are not as picky as other fish and it really comes down to are they hungary and does your bait look like a meal to them. For that reason I prefer to keep moving and target more aggressive fish rather than to sit in a area and try and find something they will hit. I think the heavier Flouroleader material puts a more consistant action in the fly and works best on flasher setups on dodger setups I like a little lighter leader material like a 25 or 30lb Flouroleader. And lengthen my lead between the dodger and lure to 4 or5 times the dodger length for flies and 3 to 5 ft of leader for spoons.

For me I use 40lb Gamma Flouro leader usually snell on 4/0 singles sometimes trebles but lately mostly singles. Sometimes I put glow beads between the hooks. Never put any blades or spinners on any of my flies but have put wobble glo's on them when combat fishing. I bought a bunch of glow squid heads that I tie onto but still trying to figure out a good holder have treid a couple ideas on my fly vise but nothing I really like so far.

simple thing back fill the canal and the problem is solved someone inform PETA we will stop killing them if they get the canal closed. And that if these carp get in the Great Lakes millions of fish will die due to starvation. Untill then rotonone the entire river system till they are no chance of any survivors.

Another reason I like my Big Jons the booms flex so not a issue.

I fished between Holland and Whitehall this year but only launched from Muskegon and Port Sheldon. Last year I had more money for truck fuel and towed to a few more ports but towing a 26ft boat is a adventure so I try to keep it simple. Also for the most part we always found fish close to home so travel was not needed.

I keep thinking I should join but have not done it yet not sure if i would join White River group or Grand Haven I fish the White and Muskegon more than the Grand but closer to meetings at Grand Haven. Let me know if you decide to join Don perhaps we could ride together to meetings.

How nice late but nice this should hv been done years ago now they threaten court action which will take years. While the lake could be ruined forever in a few weeks if not already. How many gallons of Rotonone will it take to clean them out of lake MI ?

My daughter stayed with her mom and started her own family at 17 did not have to go thru having her full time. The way she acted back then I might be up for paroll now as I would hv killed her.

Honestly I think the economy has dried up much of the sponser money and The government wants the rest. Sadly for many it is just too expensive to fish in them and many of the events showed little or no sign of trying to reduce the cost or prizes. Perhaps that is a good thing but maybe we need to get more turnout. The fishing is getting better in some ways worse in others as size is coming back slowly but still ports that used to have fish returns in the 500,000 or more with plant reductions are seeing less than half of that. Also most of our next generation would rather play video games than fish. The days of hour or more long waits to launch the boat are over as many of us have given up or are too old to fish hard anymore. Most of us have seen wage reductions the last couple of years but the price of everything has gone up so we all have less money to play with and need to make it last all summer. Without adding in the cost of gear I spent more on Tourny fees and gas this year than my entire season of fishing from last year. Add in that we bought more stuff to be competitive and I was beyond broke by season end. Did I have a great time YEP would I do it again probably but I know I have to figure out what I can Budget in and stick to it. For that reason I may skip all the smaller events next season and just do a few major events and fish for fun the rest of the time. It was a lot of fun but in the end I was actually happy to get the last few done and did not even put in much of a effort in the last event of the GLF as I was running the boat and my wallet on fumes. This why I did not even agree to show up for the Classic. Much as I hated to give up when I was in first place I could not afford to win so we did not run to the fish we pulled up and fished out front and took what we could. No complaints and I am not crying or whining I know in talking with others I was not the only one who either dropped out due to cost or cut back to a point they could not win and if you have to do that there is little sense in entering to begin with. I think this is what is happening to a lot of events as many are going to have to choose to either cut back on the event or cancel it. I am hoping many of the event managers find a way to keep this alive and perhaps build interest in the sport.

What did you not like about them? I would come but could probably buy a set for what gas would cost. Wish you were closer but a great offer Thanks

I have looked at a lot of rail mount holders and have found none I would would use for trolling. Well none I liked anyhow there are probably a few out there but we load up our rods way more than most so the idea of a rail mount is not that good in my opinion I would consider them for extra rod storage but would not fish with them.

If the alt won't maintain the load you will just run down 2 batteries instaed of one. Most alt are geared to put out max power around 1500 so you may gain some with a smaller pulley my bet is you either need a bigger alt or a smaller load ie go to LED lights to reduce power needed. I am going to convert most of my lighting for night fishing to LED's this winter I found a deal on some LED spreader lights that draw about .6 amps ea instead of the 5 amps my current ones draw so I could run 16 of them and use less power than the 2 I currently have. I am going to install at least 4 lights a couple of LED back up lights for interior light and a couple of these spreader lights for the rest. Running the cable to your trolling motor battery would make for a nice backup and I would suggest 1/0 cable in case you ever need to start the boat with the trolling battery. One thing I have carried with me from time to time is a very small Honda generator even though I have not needed to use it it is nice to know I can.

The last time I was in Armstrongs I asked for a set of Big Jon swivel bases was told they had not stocked them in a while and did not have any. While rummaging thru the junk pile of a store I found a set marked at 55.00 ea. Since he said they did not have any I went and asked if he would make me a deal on the pair he did not know he had. He quickly looked them up and told me 65.00 was the best he could do on them. I put them back somewhere in the store though I doubt they will be seen again for years to come. I agree he has nearly everything but it is a bad Easter egg hunt to find it. I have not been back in a couple of years and have no plans on returning any time soon.

My book say DHJ 12 goes to 19ft with 220ft of line out DHJ 14 gets down to 24 with Braid 21 with mono.

2 years no issues with my Lawrance 525 CDF a friend of mine has a Humminbird 797 and it is cool. I like some things about it better than mine and like other things about mine better.

Have to take my wife shopping but will be over there later this evening. Just no longer sure what time.

I will be back over there tonight if anyone wants to show up will be around the NOAA sta around 5 pm

Nice job Jay you guys kept talking about pizza and my wife called and said she was bringing one home from work. Went home and pigged out and hung out with her I will probably go out a few times this week.

I think the toughest part will be getting guys to kick in on fuel once they see what it costs to fill a 1500 gal tank.

Terry you should know the the government taxes and fees will drive it well over 1.3 mil. But on the bright side you could fish all the tournament trail events and write it off your taxes so in the end it would be free. LOL