1mainiac

Had a blast all summer Jay very few dull moments and a lot of great fishing. We always found a way to get fish in the box and lots of laughs on some of the ways it happened and didn't happen. Thanks for putting up with my crap all summer it was my pleasure to have you on board.

Great job as usual Terry we had a blast and boated 7 for 10 going back out in the morn to get a few more Steelhead.

Very nice John we made a couple of passes down the channel this morn and headed west for Steelhead and small kings.

I have to agree with Frank I have 2 300 copper setups on Okuma Convector 55 reels and have been down to the spool 2 times this year and neither was a monster just 15 to 17lb Kings. Mine came prespooled with 20lb mono backer and I am thinking I will go to 30lb Power Pro backing next year. The 55L holds 680 yds of 25lb mono the 57 diawa holds 380 lds of 25lb if you are going to fish copper size matters. Ask anyone how it feels to start seeing the spool and have to decide if the fish is coming in or leaving with your gear. Watching 40 or 50 bucks worth of tackle swim away sux.

Nice job Don I tried calling you later to let you know we were on fish and not to far from you but no answer so I guess you were busy filling the box.

Been out nearly every night this week and 6 or more every night but Monday. Went 7 for 10 tonight only 2 of us in the boat made it a bit tough to drive fight fish and land them but only lost one behind the boat and it was a ways back a steelhead wraped up in the line managed to spit the hook nothing much could do about it. we got 4 kings one about 15 lbs the rest in the 4 to 8lb range 1 Steelhead around 12 lbs and others about 6 to 8 lbs. Fished south from the 11's to the 8's 120 to 180ft never put a lure below 60 dn all spoons and plugs tonight zero fly action and never took a diver hit no matter what we put behind it 2 fish on riggers the rest on 5 color and 2 on 300 copper both came while setting the copper so it never got down. Short handed so put the wind behind us most of the night to make the boat handle better by itself.

I will be out there somewhere hope i can find some outside the arms i hate fishing in close. My bet is going to be north and south in 40 to 60ft hope to be real busy. I need 44 more kings to make my goal of 200 kings for the year. So likely going to hit it hard the next week or so. Out front fishing is better on my gas budget.

Will let you know tommorrow night will be out there for a while at least. begining to think I should hv went tonight

If you on the East side NE or E winds are great but wind direction only matter as it pertains to your location. Wind effects many things as it moves the surface water and as such helps determine underwater currents and water temps. Colder water is always better some wind patterns will trap cold water in areas and will hold lots of fish in places you would not think they are. Second the fish are already wet so rain does not matter to them they are cycloic eaters and they tend to eat on schedual also they love low light conditions as it gives them a better chance to sneak up on their meal. As such you will often hear reports like killed em in 105 ft from 5 am to 7am then the bite died and we moved out a bit and picked up a few more till around 9am then nothing more. When they are hitting all you need to do to catch them is be there when they settle back and suspend you need to work a little harder to find a snack they will grab. When fall fishing before you move in and join the pack see if you can figure out the pattern that most of the boats are fishing esp when inside ie if all the boats are going counter clockwise in the basin then fish the same way or expect to get yelled at a lot and risk your gear. The same applies to any situation where you have a lot of boats fishing a small area I avoid this at all costs and fish elsewhere .

Yep they are bronzed out right now the pig was full of eggs and pretty loose. Both of the bigger fish were getting pretty dark the 8 lb'er was still bright and one of the ones we lost at the back of the boat was bright but the other pig the got off at the net was very dark. I should have gotten pics of the 2 small ones we got on Siggs rigs but we lost the rig that caught the first fish on our 3rd fish. We were 2 for 3 on Siggs E Chip flys behind 11" boards Water is still very warm 70 dn to hit 50 deg water in 110ft. My Nephew left with the 8 Lb fish at the dock so no pics of it.

Out for a few hours this evening with my brother and nephew went 3 for 5, 2hits on a pro Troll 11" white with blue paddle second fish took a swim around the starboard rigger cable and left with the setup both came straight out in 105 ft 90 dn on rigger. One on a Pro troll 11" chrome and blue paddle 90 dn. 1 pig on a NBK 90 dn and lost one at back of boat on same setup Knocked it off with the net in the dark. rinsed all the other lines all evening. temp break was about 70 dn in 100 ft. The pig was a mid 20 lb Female 26 on my Rapala digital which is always generous in weight or at least seems to be as fish that weigh 17 when caught end up around 15 at tourney weigh in so somewhere between weight loss in the box and scale genorousty is correct I guess. In any event the biggest pig of the year. No nice porn had to clean em and get ready for bed decided to relax and post this. Lot of fish in the 100 to 130 range 80 dn and deeper. It was 2 to 4 pushing 3 to 5 when we went out and while it settled a bit at dark it never laid down wind was out of the NW. Still 73 on top every where we went.

For a cable steered boat the Simrad is hard to beat if you have the room behind the dash for it. I have talked to some guys who have the new X5 Samrt Pilot and they are pretty happy with it. But they also did upgrades to the package so neither of the guys I talked with have the out of the box package. I don't have the room for a Simrad and am annoyed with RayMarine so my plan is to convert the boat to hyd steering and go with the Garmin system. With the many rumors concerning Simrad and Raymarine's ability to survive the current market Garmin could be the only game in town. It is my understanding Garmin may be picking up some of Raymarine in a buyout.

Congrats Mike as you know we did the same thing you did this morn. I had the morning battle plan fully laid out to run north to Whitehall and troll back thru the fish. Except I also noticed the baitfish and huge marks in the channel and inside the arms and made the decision to fish out front and then run north if it did not work. We were 2 for 4 when I heard the other guys reporting how they were doing north and I said to myself I am just gonna take the loss and save my boat gas to fish another day. So we stuck it out and fished my bad choice till the end. Advantage to the small boats just could not afford to run in my boat one of many times I miss my 18ft as I am forced to watch my gas gauge.

All in all the weather has been pretty good the bad has been that nearly all the bad weather we have had has been on the weekends. Only 2 of the Pro events were canceled so far this year that I know of. I feel bad for those who have to travel a long way to get to the lake only to find it rough. For me I have been able to get out most every time I wanted to go but have seen a lot of ugly weather on the weekends which has mixed up the smaller tourney's I fish in. Some of the ones not canceled had lower turnout due to the weather calls. Which is sad because it means a lot of guys who planned on fishing them could not and also reduces the competetion level it is nice to do well but if there are only a few boats it's kinda like wetting your pants in a dark brown suit leaves a warm feeling that no one seems to notice. One thing to keep in mind is that much of our August weather is controlled by the huricane season storms in the Gulf are good for us storms out in the mid Atlantic are bad for us guess where the current storm is.

Marine VHF Designated Frequencies Channel Number Ship Transmit MHz Ship Receive MHz Intended And Designated Use 01A 156.050 156.050 Port Operations and Commercial, VTS. Available only in New Orleans / Lower Mississippi area. 05A 156.250 156.250 Port Operations or VTS in the Houston, New Orleans and Seattle areas. 06 156.300 156.300 Intership Safety 07A 156.350 156.350 Commercial 08 156.400 156.400 Commercial (Intership only) 09 156.450 156.450 Boater Calling. Commercial and Non-Commercial. 10 156.500 156.500 Commercial 11 156.550 156.550 Commercial. VTS in selected areas. 12 156.600 156.600 Port Operations. VTS in selected areas. 13 156.650 156.650 Intership Navigation Safety (Bridge-to-bridge). Ships >20m length maintain a listening watch on this channel in US waters. 14 156.700 156.700 Port Operations. VTS in selected areas. 15 -- 156.750 Environmental (Receive only). Used by Class C EPIRBs. 16 156.800 156.800 International Distress, Safety and Calling. Ships required to carry radio, USCG, and most coast stations maintain a listening watch on this channel. 17 156.850 156.850 State Control 18A 156.900 156.900 Commercial 19A 156.950 156.950 Commercial 20 157.000 161.600 Port Operations (duplex) 20A 157.000 157.000 Port Operations 21A 157.050 157.050 U.S. Coast Guard only 22A 157.100 157.100 Coast Guard Liaison and Maritime Safety Information Broadcasts. Broadcasts announced on channel 16. 23A 157.150 157.150 U.S. Coast Guard only 24 157.200 161.800 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 25 157.250 161.850 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 26 157.300 161.900 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 27 157.350 161.950 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 28 157.400 162.000 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 63A 156.175 156.175 Port Operations and Commercial, VTS. Available only in New Orleans / Lower Mississippi area. 65A 156.275 156.275 Port Operations 66A 156.325 156.325 Port Operations 67 156.375 156.375 Commercial. Used for Bridge-to-bridge communications in lower Mississippi River. Intership only. 68 156.425 156.425 Non-Commercial 69 156.475 156.475 Non-Commercial 70 156.525 156.525 Digital Selective Calling (voice communications not allowed) 71 156.575 156.575 Non-Commercial 72 156.625 156.625 Non-Commercial (Intership only) 73 156.675 156.675 Port Operations 74 156.725 156.725 Port Operations 77 156.875 156.875 Port Operations (Intership only) 78A 156.925 156.925 Non-Commercial 79A 156.975 156.975 Commercial. Non-Commercial in Great Lakes only 80A 157.025 157.025 Commercial. Non-Commercial in Great Lakes only 81A 157.075 157.075 U.S. Government only - Environmental protection operations. 82A 157.125 157.125 U.S. Government only 83A 157.175 157.175 U.S. Coast Guard only 84 157.225 161.825 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 85 157.275 161.875 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 86 157.325 161.925 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) 87 157.375 161.975 Public Correspondence (Marine Operator) AIS 1 161.975 161.975 Automatic Identification System #1 (AIS) - Special equipment required! 88 157.425 162.025 Public Correspondence only near Canadian border. AIS 2 162.025 162.025 Automatic Identification System #2 (AIS) - Special equipment required! 88A 157.425 157.425 Commercial, Intership only. NOAA Weather 1 WX1 162.550 NOAA Weather 2 WX2 162.400 NOAA Weather 3 WX3 162.475 NOAA Weather 4 WX4 162.425 NOAA Weather 5 WX5 162.450 NOAA Weather 6 WX6 162.500 NOAA Weather 7 WX7 162.525 9 and 16 are hailing channels Coast Guard monitors 16 21,22,23 and 83 are Coast Guard working channels if you call the Coast Guard they will usually have you move to one of these. 68,69,71,72,78,79, and 80 are pretty much all boat to boat channels on the Great lakes 70 is the DSC channel if your rado has DSC (the little red distress button) this is the channel it sends info on no voice comms allowed. As you can see by the list every channel has a application for it's intended use it is not supposed to be a CB radio it is for boater and ship safety. By rule every boat over 16ft in length on the Great Lakes is required to have a working VHF you are supposed to monitor ch 16 and call and receive calls there then if you are going to talk move to one of the boat to boat channels. Also if you have a problem use ch 16 that is where the Coast Guard is. This time of year when the BS on the radio gets bad I stay on 16 and only listen to 68 ( the local choice ch around Muskegon) now and then. Hope this helps

Well for me I catch way too many fish I never marked then ones I mark. My personal experience is that unless you have depth charges inactive fish will just stay suspended now perhaps you can get them to hit because they will get mad and hit for no reason. But the odds are active fish are looking for a meal and will swim into your spread to get one often without ever going under your boat. You have to trust that you have a good spread down and just run your pattern now if I have marked a bunch of suspended fish and I go a hour without much luck I may turn and run back thru them to see if any of them have changed moods. But honestly I have done very well for many years by just putting out a decent spread and running my pattern and have caught hundreds of fish within sight of the pack who are all trying to figure out how to make those marks bite. The biggest key is to find their food source if they are suspended a few hundred yds from the bait fish odds are they are full if you are sure there is no baitfish nearby then your odds of geting one to wake up hungary as you pass by increase.

Personally if I like my troll and gear I will just keep going every time I try and go back after marks it is seldom worth the effort. If I just went thru them and they are not hitting I prefer to keep going and look for active fish. Usually a return trip thru a pod results in more tangles and gear problems than fish. The exception is when you rig every thing short because you plan on pounding a area like the sand docks or doing harbor patrol.

Visability was bad in the rain usualy I run in with the top down so I can stand over the windsheild kinda nasty for that last night so just motored in slow. Watched the Coast Guard Helo for a bit looked like they were doing a water rescue with the basket hopefully they were just practicing.

I am Questionable may be there just not sure yet.

The lightning had us a little concerned and there was discussion as to who was in charge of reeling in the copper if it got any closer LOL. We were a little south

Out in the rain tonight 3 for 4 stayed away from the pack. Had lake pretty much to ourselves when rain came.

I very Seldom clear lines and almost never did in my 18ft either. I have had 5 fish on with 8 lines out and 3 in the boat on the 18 got 4 of them no tangles. On the other hand I have had a decent Steelhead take out my entire spread there are too many variables but most often in the heat of battle there is no one left to clear lines anyhow. My game plan is to drag them till they calm down when possible keep pressure on them and if they go nuts at the back of the boat let em run or grab them hot depending on how it is going. If they are willing to run I usually let run but if they try to mess up the spread just try and get em in the net and clean up the mess afterword.

Nice job Dan I have been running my Off Shores like that for years.

Nice job was out for a couple hours 0 for 0 first skunk of the year in my defense my brother showed up 2.5 hours late and sun was setting as we left the channel. So we ran out to 120 set lines and trolled for a little over a hour and came back in. Then I tore up my prop on the boat ramp forgot to tilt it up. It is kinda funny I have watched hundreds of guys do the same thing over the years and never hurt a thing but I had the drive turned and bent the prop go figure so now I have to put on the spare prop and go out and see if I hurt anything else.

I have a simple solution when some one messes up my fishing I make sure they are done for the day. I just pull lines and put my bow about 30 to 40 yds off their stern they usually get the point pretty quick and if they really annoy me they might as well go home cause they are done fishing.