1mainiac

Welcome aboard Peter you will like it here sometimes we even talk fishing LOL.

I would have been happy to have sold her to you she sat in my yard all summer long with a full tank of gas ready to go fishing. I accepted 2 offers for 1500 for her but neither of them returned with the money. So last fall my brother offered to trade a motorcycle for it and I said what the heck and traded him for it. He still has not brought me the bike but I got tired of waiting and hauled the boat up to him a few weeks ago. I left pretty much everything on her down riggers electric anchor fishfinders rod holders really could have brought a few poles and took her straight to the lake last year. Funny thing is since I traded it to my brother I have had a dozen guys try and buy it.

This is Ironic I just traded my 69 Holiday 18 to my next younger brother he is getting it ready to fish with his son. The original 85hp Johnson is on my next younger brothers 16ft boat in KY as it did not troll well so was replaced with a 80hp Merc. I liked the old Starcraft but my wife hated it and would not go out in it so I have a 1989 Four Winns 267 Quest now. However my cousin has you beat he still fishs out of his dads 1964 Starcraft 14ft it is the high side boat and has been catching Salmon on Lake MI since opening day.

My point is that most estimate the cost of closing the canals and transfering the cargo to great lakes only ships would run about 50 million a year. Most of this money would be added to the local economy in the form of new jobs to transfer the cargo and a few more Great Lakes only ships. So while as consumers we would incur higher net costs for those goods shipped in here. Much of it would wash out and on the other hand waiting will distroy a multi billion a year fishing industry. So like any other government controlled situation it does not matter how many billions are lost cause it is not their money.

You can use wire like lead core it gets fairly deep on its own add a snap weight or dive bomb and they really get down. Always been popular setup as a pump handle or tail gunner with a large weight and send it out till it bounces then bring it back in a bit. Wire is for more than just divers. While not as heavy as Lead core or Copper the smaller dia wire gets down further then you might think.

I guess some are not seeing my point which is we need to control the invassive species that swim in here and ruin our fishery. If they had chosen a differant fish to control the alewives in the 50's we would not be having this chat. If they had never ruined the lakes by putting in the canals we would not be discussing this either. And if we don't stop the Asian carp and who knows what else will swim in here or show up on the bottom of a ship coming in here we will end up talking about much of this in past tense like many of the old men who remember the great Herring Fishery. If we had realized our mistake with the alewife problem and closed the canals before we let the Zebra Mussels and Gobes and all the others sneak in who knows what we would have now. Instead the government will discuss the issues and sit on their hands till it is completely distroyed then they will spend billions of our money to try and fix what they allowed to get screwed up in the first place. Kinda like what is happening now in washington on a slightly smaller scale.

I have considered painting all of mine except the chrome ones black I honestly don't think the diver color matters much in most setups. We are not talking about a wiley adversary here Salmon will hit just about anything. They have a huge fast metabolism that requires them to keep eating till they begin their death march up the river to spawn. Yes there are times and conditions they are suspended and you have to convince them to take a bite but the rest of the time it is just a matter of right place and right time. People are always trying to tell me we should try a differant lure or make a change and my response is we just need to find the fish and run a good spread in front of them. They will tell us what they feel like eating or not then make some changes if need be. But most of the time it really is a matter of getting the lure in front of them.

If I'm not on the list put me on it Mike. Since Don has already accepted a chance for the skunk maybe I will do better LOL.

Nice first fish Mike wish I had been able to go I took the grandkids out to breakfast before they had to leave this morning and went past the storage to see my boat was still buried. We drove down by the beach and saw a couple of smaller boats runnig the shoreline south of the piers. There were a lot of boats perch fishing around the sand docks have not heard any reports as to how they did. I should have mine home next week so I guess that means I have to do some catching up on the fish counts.

While I understand this and it is true and there are also areas where stocking has been reduced due to natural reproduction. The fact is they were introduced in the Great Lakes in the 1800's and did not take. Now that they have been promoted and pushed for 40 plus years we are getting some reproduction. But given there are few good spawning areas I doubt we could come close to a fishery without stocking them. We just don't have a mountain range providing the steady clear cold streams they need to do well in the early stages for strong natural reproduction. Steelhead and Browns are likely here to stay but still have to find good gravel in smaller streams that won't get blown out with spring flooding. Just like The Muskegon river has one of the biggest Walleye spawn runs many years has poor results so they shock the river and harvest the eggs and sperm to breed them in controlled conditions. If they had never dug the canals in the first place I highly doubt any of us would be discussing salmon fishing here in MI.

I try not to get too wild on diver colors I think the only time it really matters is with shorter leads between the diver and flasher and there I tend to go with chrome divers to provide more flash and reflected color.

It is kinda a catch 22 we brought in the salmon to get rid of the alewives and now that it has worked people want to fix the alewives to keep the salmon. You have to see the irony in all of this yes we all love chasing salmon but they are not native fish and alewives or not don't reproduce and survive well here. We don't have ice coold mountain streams for them to spawn in yes we are getting some natural reproduction however some years it is hit and miss. Many of our rivers warm up too fast and also blow out in the spring and many times in the fall with heavy rainfall. As it is my bet is without stocking salmon would not survive long in our system.

I have heard a few complaints about them but all in all a good unit I would probably spend the extra money on the 14R but first make sure your steering cable will work. As you may have to change cables. I would have to cut a hole in the bulkhead and have it protrude into the Head or I would hv had one last year. Who knows I may even do it this year I really want a AP bad but lack the extra cash right now.

As much as I love The Outdoorsman if I was going to buy that much at once I would call Vince at Captain Gary's 1-800-325-7181 http://www.captgarys.com/ Vince is a charter captain and has a warehouse not a store per say he sells wholesale to a lot of dealers as well as online. So he is more likely to have everything and probably can't be beat on price.

Pretty sure Rich had me on the list but just in case I am in for all of the events. Thanks Nick

Owner #1 2x strong trebles and Mustad or Owner 4/0 2x strong octopus singles I also tie setups with both hooks. Gamma Flouro leader material snelled on no hook or leader issues in the last 3 years. If the hooks are in them something else will fail first.

I was thinking the same thing nice boat but awesome garage my little 2 stall is so full of stuff you can barely walk thru it and has never had a car in it in the 3 years I have lived here. The boat would not fit if I cut the front wall out.

If you really want to see where Vince fishes buy his old fishfinder he leaves nearly all his waypoints on them when he sells them. Vince does not beleive in driving past the fish to look for them and often fishes inside and out front when others drive right past him. However he does fish deep when he has to but as he says his job is to make sure people catch fish if he can find a way to do that without burning a lot of gas better for him. There were lots of days those of of who stayed in close did as well or better than those who look at the calander and say it is mid July we should start around 80 to 100 and move out from there. Those 3 and 4 year old fish by the end of June are thnking about the up coming spawn and want to feed heavily and not use any more energy than they have to so if they were out front at night feeding odds are they did not go very far. They are laying on the bottom not far from where the food is figure out how to wake them up and you have it made. Lots of guys have hooked up with Salmon in July perch fishing on the sand docks usually with the fish winning the battle cause who expects to hit a big king on your perch rig.

Don any time the guys are fishing the pier and getting anything trolling the shoreline north and south will find the fish they can't cast far enough to reach.

Honestly if the 140 runs and idles ok and the bow mount works I would pass on the kicker. Get a set of Buggy Bags ( Amish Trolling Sea anchors) to fine tune the low speed. Kickers cost a lot add a lot of weight to the stern don't usually have enough power for rough conditions and the last place I want extra weight is on the stern. I had a kicker on my 18 years ago and with 2 fat guys fighting fish the self bailer would be level with the water. I considered moving the fuel tank and batteries forward and then sold the kicker it was less hassle and put money in my pocket. I kept a small Minn Kota trolling motor in the bow for emergency use. If you have some poles the will handle Walleye with a couple hundred yards of 10lb or heavier line get some in line planer boards and any body baits that resemble Smelt or small perch etc and troll the shore line of Lake MI for Browns and Steelhead this weekend. You don't need a lot of gear if you get some of the right gear to go with what you already have.

I tried a set on some Hot n Tots in the river last year they snaged a lot of leaves and trash but no more fish can't say I was impressed. They don't look very strong to me I will stick to Owners and big 2x strong singles in either 2/0 or 4/0.

A few spoons and some dive bombs with planer boards will get you started. All you need is lots of line high capacity reels are a must line counters really help. Even consider getting one of the small ones that mount in front of the reel as you can hand hold it and use it on several rods. Don't get carried away on your budget there are very few fish out here that can't be caught on 8 or 10lb test you just need plenty of it. You can get Okuma MA20DX reels cheap and spool them with light line on a Diawa Wilderness rod and have a fishable setup under 50 bucks most places for a couple bucks more go up to 30 series reels. Get a copy of precission trolling Big Water edition and compare what they say about dive charts to the gear you already have. For the next month or so the fish will be scattered and in fairly close so pulling spoons or body baits will catch fish. Once you get a couple of bigger setups to mix with your light gear next I would look into a couple of 30 series rells with line counters and braid for divers the reels will cost more probable 40 ea but you can still use the Wilderness rods to save a few bucks keep in mind a braid diver setup by the time you are ready to catch fish will be in the 100 or better range ea. Don't skimp on terminal gear buy good snaps and swivels thousands of 5 or more apeice lures have been lost with 10 cent snap swivels. If you are going out further than you care to swim back get a marine radio. Personally That should be in the basic boat budget as safety gear. Lots of places have rigged ready to fish rods and many of them are great deals. Here is one of my favs http://www.outdoorsmenproshop.com/store/index.php?cPath=23_74 These guys know how to fish and you can go straight to the lake and catch fish with their stuff. Good luck

well growing up our idea of a garden salad was a pocket knife and a salt shaker walking thru the garden. Having helped plant and manage gardens that took 40 people to pick has tempered my garden plans a bit over the years. In the mid 90's my partener and me were the 3rd largest fresh market tomatoe growers in MI and they were a secondary crop we had 140 acres of apples and planted the produce to keep the crew busy our peak year we planted over 50 acres of produce dave still plants around 10,000 tomatoes a year and close to 14,000 pepper plants mixed varities all the peppers and tomatoes are grown on plastic and the tomatoes are all staked. during peak he will pick 400 to 500 half bushels of tomatoes a day. So as much as I love fresh produce every time I think garden I remember back breaking work and would rather go fishing. Anyone who has ever been to the Grand Rapids Farmers Market since the early 80's has likely seen me or Dave there. They sell flowers and plants in the spring produce all season and christmas trees in the fall.

Hi Frank do you still hv the chargers? I may want them. Have a ton of Makita stuff allready but my 110v charger appears to be dead.

My lowrance shows the balls in DF mode or if I turn up the gain a bit. In fish alarm mode it rings all day long marking the balls so I don't use the alarm anymore. In auto gain mode it marks the balls now and then which is fine I honestly prefer it to ignore them and just mark fish.