1mainiac

I find it easier to get forgivness than permission but I have been married several times so what do I know.

Nice spending some time with you and the boys Mike enjoyed the visit with my boat as well. How was the ride home the car looked pretty crowed with all that gear. Roughly 60 days till haul out then a few shake down cruises to knock the cobwebs out and it is fish on time.

Sadly NASCAR has been irelevent for decades they have made it a non issue since the early 70's when they began outlawing all the motors Ford and Chrysler built Then Chrysler went under and dropped out and Ford told them to jump off a bridge. So then you had 20 plus years of watching chevies go round in a circle now they don't require a single factory built part. Here's what made NASCAR great you could not race a car that was not available to the general public with the motor and options you raced it with. So in order to race a HEMI Charger they had to sell them to us as well Junior Johnson and Richard sold millions of fast cars to us kids growing up. When was the last time anyone saw a rear wheel drive V8 stick in a Taurus or a Grand Am or any of the crap they race anymore. Peel the decals off and paint them all white and let me know if any one can tell them apart. When King Richard and Cale Yarbough were winning nearly every race you could not find a big block Charger or Torino anywhere in the country GM whines and no more big blocks. Wanna see racing again make em race in what they sell us lets watch them V6 automatic front wheel drive cars going side by side at 80 or 90 and they can brag about gas mileage. I doubt any of these new cars could run against what they ran in 69 and 70. NASCAR was built on cars the common man could buy SCCA and the tuner cars are about the only thing you see raced anymore that you could actually drive to work.

Bluedevil is right untill apr 1st it is 2 rods per person max of 2 baits per rod for all fishing except Trout and Salmon on the great lakes. For trout and salmon on the great lakes you are allowed 3 rods per person 2 baits per rod. The problem has been that lets say you are trolling for salmon running a legal spread and you pick up a walleye you by rule have to throw the walleye back as you are not running a legal spread for walleye fishing. The new rule simplifies our rules as you can now run 3 rods to fish for any species after Apr 1st and you can now keep up to 5 Salmon per person ending the issue of being able to tell every species apart trout are still max of 3 per angler. But if you can't tell a salmon from a trout you should not be pushing the limits issue. There are a few places where the 3 rod rule will cause issues like on the pier where there is limited space as is and I think a gentlemans agreement will work to solve issues in those places.

mostly 8in for me until they stop being my most productive setup I will not change

Copper is supposed to run deeper however some of the new dive curves say not as much as advertised it is big and thick so huge reels are required. Wireline will eat your rod guides so most of us use roller rods I for one run a backer and put on 600ft of wire some guys just spool on 1000ft of wire that is kind of a personal choice. While I use my wireline for other things than just divers I would not hook them to my downriggers.

I have been considering the Sharks all winter also hv been looking at the new Ridgeback rattler with the removeable weight so it can be 13 or 20 lbs. I played with the pancake weights years ago and did not like them so went back to finned round weights as they are less effected by underwater currents I have a couple of the fish weights which work ok but are kinda light so I am thinking of trying the 12lb sharks on my out and down riggers as that is about the heaviest they like to work with but most likely will stick with 15 or 20lb round for my back riggers to get deep.

Caz still waiting for a PM so I can send u a check and can you put me back on the list.

I have a friend in TN who owns a gun shop he said he has not been able to keep any guns in stock and ammo has been selling by the pallet full.

Yep first we tax and spend till all the decent jobs leave then we have to create new taxes to replace the money we lost when the jobs left. And as the jobs leave more people become dependant on the Government to support them which means simply put we led the country on education reform with the teachers unions to the point we have the most expensive education system and the lowest test scores. Our children leave school with no jobs skills or work ethic and are forced to enter trade schools or go to college to gain any useable skill. We led the country with a 1 state recession for years now at least the rest feel our pain. What we need to do is elect me for Governer and I will personally guarentee that I can fix this State in 1 year. I have a simple plan we don't spend money we don't have we won't borrow money we can't pay back everyone will pay the same tax rate and we will compete to bring business back to MI. Our Unions did great things for the American worker in the 40's and 50's but then they turned to politics and criminal acts and are now somewhat of a blight on us. They strangle both the worker and the business and support policies in Gov that are against us and only serve to make them and the Government stronger. Ok I will shut up!

Sadly MI is even dumber than most when it comes to Government remember it is a 3 county state the other 80 counties don't count when making the rules.

gonna need one serious spud Mike guys are reporting ice out 14 miles in places anyone want to fish the 200ft mark better bring a extra set of boots caues it is a long walk. Might be neat to try and pick up some Steelhead thru the ice out front wonder how stable it is?

I personally think gun ownership should be manditory and those who shoot criminals should be heroes. Every state that has increased the right to defend yourself has lowered the crime rate there period. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner Liberty is a well armed sheep contesting the vote

my only Atlantic last season was about 4lbs

I just got off the phone with Tim from Yogurt Flies he said they will have their website up next month probably closer to the end of the month and they have several new flies coming out this season. They also hitting a bunch of bait shops including Captain Gary's to sell them soon I have pics of the ones I got last season posted on the website here. I was very happy with the flies and they are still rigged as received because I intend to continue the field test this season since I got them late last year and only had them for a few times out. I tie and rig nearly all of my own flies so it is rare for me to leave one in factory cond.

I run primarily Duo lock snaps which are every bit as round at the connection as the split ring and I have had split rings fail so my goal is less connections less chances of failure. I don't buy coastlock snaps anymore but still have a lot of them so untill they are gone will leave the split rings on the lures they come on if they are good quality rings. I am sorry but too many compaines develope lures with the finest componets then have them mass produced with lesser componets to hit the price market. Perhaps I am being to picky but I for one hate to spend full price on a fly only to get it home and find it made with Walmart quality fishing line and cheap hooks when there are guys out there making flies with top end componets selling for the same price. We spend too much on our gear and gas to risk failure with cheap crap. I can't say how many times I have watched people think nothing of snapping on a 7 dollar lure with a 2cent swivel.

Ok I see you are already using some form of stacker setup so the sliders would not add well. As to split rings they fail I look at every connection between the fish and me as a point of possible failure and the more I remove the better. Split rings are easier to connect to and I have left them on a few spoons but not many.

Sliders are a moveable lure and leader attached to the fishing line we use 2 terms fixed or free sliders. In a fixed Slider we let the downrigger and main line down a set depth and attach a leader and lure to the fishing line in a fixed position with either a rubber band to secure it or a device like the Alberta Clipper which will hold it in place till a fish hits it. When the fish hit a fixed slider it will trip the down rigger and then must slide all the way to the end of the line before it locks against the swivel or lure it often resembles a false trip when using rubber bands as once the rubber band breaks it is free untill it hit the end of the line. I prefer the Alberta Clipper as it maintains friction on the line allowing you to keep some pressure on the fish during the slide down the line. A free Slider is just that you set your down rigger as normal and after it is set you add a lure and leader clipped onto the main line and send it down it will follow the line down and back to the belly of the line usually 50 to 70 % of the ball depth but no exact figures as they vary greatly from setup to setup. When a free slider goes off it releases the the rod and goes slack till it hits the end of the lines so nearly allways looks like a false trip you just have to grab the rod and reel like mad to take up the slack often hitting the fish but sometimes the fish is gone before you get the slack removed. Stackers are a way of running a second fishing rod off the down rigger where a second release is added to the down rigger cable above the weight similar to a slider. You have a few options here as well in how you do it I use the stacker release made by Off Shore tackle it has 2 pinch pad releases and a snap you let the down rigger down a set depth and connect the snap to the down rigger cable and connect one of the pinch pads to the down rigger cable then attach a second rod to the other release and let the setup go down this allows you to run a lot of rods on a few down riggers while I have heard of guys running 3 rods per downrigger I have never tried it it can be done. In theory you could add as many stackers as you want to a down rigger however in practice the results are often not pretty as quite often a fish hitting the bottom setup tangles in all the rest or vise versa. When I run a stacker I say a prayer as I let it out and pray like mad if one of them goes off I run very long leads off my top rod in a stacker setup this allows the lure to run well back of the mainline from the bottom setup and reduces tangle when the top lure is grabbed it also gets me a second or 2 to pray when the bottom rod goes off that it clears the top rod sometimes it even works. but my best results are when the top rod goes off as it clears nearly every time and often as soon as the fish is clear and I will move the bottom setup up to where the stacker was running. So if I am running down 80ft with a stacker at 60ft and the stacker goes off as soon as I know the stacker is clear I move the rigger up 20ft and leave it I have picked up doubles doing this. I hope this makes it more clear.

Kjell I have a Maxi Mate and like it but to be honest none of my go to spoons are in it and it is stored below decks and a pain to get at. It is packed full of spoons that I seldom run once in a while someone will be on the radio bragging of how well they are doing with a certain spoon and I will dig it out and try that spoon. I keep my 30 or so favorite spoons in small clear plastic box's easy to access and can see what is in them at a glance. I made my first Maxi box out of a small old suitcase with lexan dividers what I did was installed 2 grooved boards in the suitcase and cut 0.125" thick lexan dividers to slide into the slots or grooves in the boards and I put foam in the lid to hold themin place when closed. It worked well and held a lot of spoons in a small package but being a cheap suitcase it did not take water well and rotted years ago. But if I was going to do it again I would get a better case and do it in a min. With the cost of shipping being so high I would consider making one.

Hi guys when I suggested this to Mike my thought was it would help some of the new guys get a base idea as to how we think and fish differant ports and conditions. It can also help some of us old guys see a differant pattern we might not have tried. So think of some ports and conditions you have fished in succussful or not and see if others fish the conditions as you would. I don't expect anyone to give away their secrets here so you don't need to name your baits just give a rough outline of your pattern and where you think you would start and what sort of things you would look for to help you find the fish.

No huge differance in board tracking here I suppose they change things a bit but I have ran a full core w 2 4oz Dive Bombs and a flasher fly and it tracked fine I admit it ran lower in the water due to the extra weight but saw no issues with it running. But hey I run up to 1 lb balls on snap weight behind my boards so I am a little out there idea wise. I have also ran boards on wire line setups and have even ran small slide divers behind boards so when it comes to goofy ideas I am usually game to try them.

It is the first weekend in June you are in a tournament the weather has been nice and mild with varible winds all week. You have a small boat with 2 riggers and 2 diver rods and a 5 color and a 10 color on inline boards. You will be fishing out of Port Sheldon with a six hour time limit waves are 1 to 2 ft sky is partly cloudy. Current winds are out of the north and have been for the last 6 hours or so.

I have been fishing lake MI since I was out of diapers mostly for perch in the early 60's with my grandfather.Went Salmon fishing with my uncle in 69 and have loved it since kinda gave up in the mid 80's with the problems fished a few times in the 90's but was not the same. I got back into it in 2004 and it is fun again but long for the bighogs we used to catch has been hard to get thrilled about a 3 fish limit that weighs less then 1 did years ago. Having caught hundreds of 30 to 40 lb Kings it is tough to get the thrill back. I guess I will have to head up and spend time at my sons place for the big kings but every time the rod goes off and the drag screams I am ready, no better sound in the world.

Read that the GL2S will not be running this year sad to see yet another aspect of our sport slowing down. http://www.gl2s.com/ These guys put a lot of effort into promoting our tournaments and produced some very nice video coverage of the sport. Hopefully things will improve and they can get things back going in the future.

You will like the Launch at Manistee it will handle your boat just fine and is right out near the lake no long rung to get out it has long been one of my favorite places to fish. easy in and easy out and great fishing also has the highest number of Salmon plants on west side of state so large numbers of returning fish every fall. If it did not cost so much for me to tow there I would fish it a lot more but I still fish it a couple times a year or more most years.