1mainiac

Here is some numbers I have been looking at and thought I would get some input from others to see if there is any trend building here. There are 3 major areas of Chinook Salmon released that I feel affect my fishing so those are the numbers I use. Those being Muskegon river Grand river and Manistee area. What I did was go to the DNR stocking info and look at 2 year stocking to give me a idea of how many possible returning 3 and 4 year olds we should have. For last years Muskegon class the number was 289,092 for this years class it was 290,568 for next year the number is 156,832. For Grand Haven last year was 786,457 this year was 785,131 and next year is 586,949. For Manistee last year was 1,375,311 this year was 1,281,674 and next year was 1,089,987. So for next year we have a drop of 523,599 in the 3 to 4 year old fish class for those 3 areas based on DNR release info. Now this is raw numbers and does not account for any natural reproduction nor does it account for loss. But I am guessing at around 10% meaning for Muskegon in 07 season we had roughly 28,909 adults to fish for in 08 we had 29,057 and for 09 we should have 15,683. For the 2010 season the numbers would drop to 11,893. This was a strange year for me as even though I caught more total fish for the year than last year I fished a lot more and had fewer limit catchs. I only got skunked a total of 4 times for the year but because of high gas prices I did make some changes to my program and one major change was I began a short program which involved selecting a area I thought would produce and driving straight to it and fishing it. Most of the time completely ignoring what everyone else was doing. A lot of time it worked with decent fishing other times not so good. But the big differance for me this year was that if my program failed I turned and drove back in rather than running to another area and restarting as it was most of the time I got 2 or 3 fish so not a total loss and I cut my fuel expense and got to fish more often. Because of that many of my trips were around 3 hours total now if I had a long drive to the lake this would not work. Also I noticed people were more willing to fish with me as they became aware that they would no longer be stuck on the boat till either the box was full or I ran out of gas ( no I never have ran out of gas but have had to run in on fumes before ). In my old boat it was time to quit when the main tank ran out and I had to switch to the aux tank. Back to the original subject does anyone think I am close to being right about the fish numbers? Perhaps the drop will do as expected and bring in larger fish that would be nice. I don't have any real data on how many boats fish out of Muskegon but I am trying to SWAG ( sceintific wild ass guess) and using 3000 trips a season the 07 and 08 seasons would break down to just under 10 fish possible per trip 09 would end about 5 per trip and 2010 would come down to about 4 per trip. Of course less trip would mean more per trip and more trips would mean less per trip and this is not real accurate numbers mostly SWAG and personal opinion as such feel free to dissagree with them but if anyone else has a thought on this let me know. Tight Lines Jim

When I was a kid our whole family used to go to the UP to smelt dip. Since I was too little to dip net I had to help clean em. They would get em by the thousands and we had to clean em and pack em on ice in the truck full of 55 gal barrels God I hated them I still won't eat them to this day. I don't think we wasted any of them one year we had a 25cuft freezer full of smelt and dad got a deer so we needed the freezer space. We ate Smelt for weeks and gave a bunch to the neighbors. We still had a lot of them to eat but I sure did not like em any more. Funny how you remember those things but anytime someone mentions Smelt I remember being cold and wet and cleaning em by the pailfull for hours and hours. But then I loved Head cheese untill my Great grandmother had me help her make it, one more item no longer on my food list. Tight Lines Jim

Well I don't spear fish or chase Smelt anymore so those 2 won't change my life however the 3 rod limit will make a big diff in my inland lake and river fishing especially for Walleye trolling. But for a lot of what I do it will still be 1 rod at a time as I remember my father in law pointing out that we were allowed 4 rods between us so he set out a 3rd rod and spent the next 2 hours jumping for pole to pole missing fish while I hauled them in. I told him several times they were hitting real light and to stick to one pole. When the evening was over I had caught close to 50 fish and had a nice limit he caught quite a few but we sorted out most of his. So there are still a lot of times I would not use the extra rods. Was anything mentioned about changing the Salmon limits there was a lot of talk of making it a straight 5 fish trout limit on the great lakes ending the the 3 of one species rule? Since the new size and slot limit will help to protect the Lake trout it would be nice to not have to target lakers to fill the box esp for the big tournies. Since I don't eat Lake trout I allway toss them back if they look healthy enough to survive. Tight Lines Jim

nice video Mike

Tony I grew up in Big Rapids when I was little we left in 73 but we allways fished out of Manistee or Pentwater. Too many boats out of Ludington and from Manistee you can run south to the point and lots of great fishing. Pentwater is also high on my list as I can't ever remember a bad fishing trip out of that port and we went a lot back then. Onekema would also be a good choice and you would have a home port advantage for Mikes big event. If I was not 15min from the lake here that is where I would be fishing. Tight Lines Jim

Yep they been selling spawn for a couple years I wanted some wax worms yesterday but all they had were long since dead. So I grabbed some leaf worms from the boat rental place on Half Moon and spent 3 hours getting skunked. But at least I got to go fishing. I gotta get me a small boat so I don't have to quit when I put up the big one. Either that or open up the front on my old 18ft Starcraft so I can use it on smaller lakes. Tight Lines Jim

true but when you fish most of the time with 2 or 3 in the boat would have to go after perch or Wallyeye to get a 20 box.

Well a 20 fish box would require a large enough crew to legally catch that many. As for the only time I had enough on board to catch that many no . We did limit out several times. Since I will not target Lakers we stop when we get our Kings. Tight Lines Jim

Report is they are getting a few outside the arms and inside still a lot of small ones but guys are getting some decent catchs. Wish I had a boat mine is in storage till spring. Will be happy to fish with someone if you need a body to fish with. Tight Lines Jim

I had to do some running around today so I stopped at Sportfishermen Center and looked at a couple of the Proline boats. They did not have a 190 on display so I talked to a salesman about it for a bit. He told me that none of the 190's they have sold had been reinforced for downriggers on the rod holders. The transoms are also not reinforced for a kicker motor. He said the first thing to do would be to remove the rod locker and see if the rod holders have been reinforced. After looking at the 20ft Sport they had I would seriously consider a track setup on each side then you could change setups any way you want. But no matter which way you go make sure the area is reinforced to handle the stress of downriggers. Tight Lines Jim

I have to agree with Nick 2 rod holders for 4 riggers is asking for trouble. I have been kicking this around in my head for a while. I am also not totally thrilled with my 4 rigger setup. I laid out the setup this spring to work with my canvas and was very happy everything worked as planned. Then I got to go fishing my setup does not work as well as it sounded. It works but not great I want my rear riggers a little further apart and my side rigger further back. But every thing I have tried gets in the way of my canvas. I am going see if I can afford a sliding track system then I can slide them out of the way for my canvas and get them where I want them to fish. Maybe you should consider the other option I am and that is to use 3 riggers one in the center and one on each side then you can get the seperation and put less stress on your mounts but it is still a lot of stress on the 2 rod holders. But like me you allready have 4 riggers so now you just figure out how to get them to work for you. Even though I know after fishing this season the 3 rigger setup would be less trouble I am still gonna get all 4 to work some how. Well as I reread this it may not be much help but as I told a friend a couple years ago when he counted every hole in his new boat based on how much it would cost to have them repaired later. Fishing is a psycosis we inheirit from our friends and family once we begin into this mind numbing state we are hooked like junkies we know that we can out fish anyone all we need is the gear. Sadly you have a beautifull boat so you don't want to punch it full of holes till you know for sure it will work. I don't blame you what you really need is to find a few guys with the same boat and see how they set them up and decide what you can live with. Tight Lines Jim

Sorry for short response before first thing I would do is have it surveyed by a qualified marine surveyer. Then get repair est based on what they say even if you are willing to do the work yourself know how much it will cost. There are to many good boats waiting for buyers to get stuck with a dog 5 years ago I started on a restoration project of a 1985 Cobalt 21 BR a very nice boat with drive problems ( someone stole the outdrive ) i paid 500 bucks for it after 5 years and getting riped off several times on bad parts from Ebay and other sources I gutted the hull and gave it away this summer and I sold the trailer it was on for 300 bucks so now I still have a pile of mis matched OMC parts to sell and am about 2 grand smarter. Unless you are looking for a hobby buy a boat that is seaworthy cause used boat hulls are pretty much free you pay for the drive and trailer and options but the hull is just about free every time if you subtract what some of the parts are worth. I paid 10,500.00 for my 89 Four Winns 260 Quest this spring from Halls in Muskegon it books as purchased with the trailer and everything for 15,900 according to my Credit union where I fiananced it. They also stood behind the boat all summer and fixed every problem for free untill we got all of the storage bugs out as it had sat in storage for 3 years before I bought it. So you can take close to 30% off from book on nearly any used boat now just cause boats outnumber buyers. Do you have a trailer for it or how are you gonna get it home or to where you need to have it fixed? Could cost 4 to 5 bucks a mile to have it hauled I have not seen the boat but in my head I am down to around a grand if you really like it. My bet is you can get one that runs and drives under 10k easy maybe not that exact model there is a 26 ft Starcraft up by Marne MI that has sat there all summer the owner told me 6500 would tow it home it is sitting next to a 25ft Aquasport for about 10k also on a trailer. I am not sure if he sold his 26ft Renegade with twin Hondas it was also on a trailer he wanted 13,500 for that. Tight Lines Jim

Low Retail Average Retail Base Price $9,350 $10,650 TOTAL PRICE $9,350 $ 10,650 thats from NADA subtract 6 to 8k to repower and make seaworthy.

Great read Dan made me think of a post from another website pointing out the huge harvest of Lake Trout during the first 3 Tournaments on our side. One of the guys had noticed how many lakers had been taken in the first couple events his estimate was that between the pre fishing and contests close to 3000 Lakers had been taken. He also noted that a couple of the boats that had been bringing in limit catchs every day were having a harder time finding fish. So when you over fish a area and take fish like Lakers that grow very slow. They have similar growth rates to Brooke trout meaning it is very likely that the monster Laker you caught was older than you. A 8 to 10lb Salmon is usually a 3 year old fish with roughly a year to live no matter what and is a planted fish ( yea I know we get some natural reproduction but they are all non native fish ). The same size Laker could be between 20 and 30 years old. So it is not only how many but what kind of fish you catch every body of water has it's limits on what you can take without damage. Maybe all of the fishing report's are a little to blame as I can't say how many times I have told a few people where I was catching em at only to come back they nextday and find everyone in my spot.

Guys I have a few ideas some of them are even good. I am however tired of coming up with good ideas that others take credit for and even make money off of. Not that I feel I need to make a bunch of money off of my fishing buddies but if I give the idea away some one else will take your money in a hot second. So I am wondering if any of you have a honest connection at a company like Big Jon who would be interested in a new trolling product. Tight Lines Jim

Happy Birthday Joe

Jay I think 50lb flouro will be stiff as a ball bat in cold water. I don't do much tip ups for Pike or any other ice fishing for that matter. I can see the disire to not use wire leaders but have you looked at some of the tieable steel leader material I don't remember the brand name but I looked at some camo steel line last spring for one of my fly fishing ideas I liked the idea of the tiny dia to strength and flexability. Steelhead don't have the teeth of Pike but they will tear up the tiny leader I use when tossing Stonefly patterns in early Jan in trying to get better presentations I have been playing with a bunch of differant ideas. I often use leadcore in my leader setup it works great in slower holes and I don't need as much weight so using a steel line for a leader could add to the sink rate and increase strength at the same time. Something to think about anyway. Jim

Thanks Terry I still catch fish with the old lures just like everyone else I have a obsession with new toys so admiting that my old lures will do the job just fine gives me no reason to shop for new toys. And think of how the lure companies will feel when we stop shoping for the next best thing. Quite frankly I own enough tackle to last several lifetimes so without the dream that someone can come up with a new color varition that will kill the fish and that they are compelled to bite even when not hungry I have no need to go to the bait shop. If our wives ever learn this we are all done. Anyhow I will do my part and not let my wife know about this. Tight Lines Jim

Hi Mike dropped my boat off at storage today talked to Brett really nice setup. Took a quick look at your boat you have a mercruiser cable operated power steering system. As such you have 2 options for autopilot one wait till Raymarine finally releases their new system the one I waited all year for and is now schedualed for release in late Nov according to Mariners Center as of today. The second option would be to find one of the Sim Rad AP12 or14 R systems. There is some talk that Sim Rad is going to stop making them so they might be a risk. So as of today you have to choices take a chance on the Sim Rad or wait in line for the Raymarine unit to be released. The only other choice would be to do what I am and that is to convert to Hyd steering then the options increase I spent a couple of hours at Mariner Center today and decided on a Garmin system fo my boat now just gotta save the money to pay for it. I chose the Garmin setup because once we compared cost and features it won hands down and Garmin is not gonna go away anytime soon. The Shadow drive feature was the most deciding feature as you can change course without shutting the pilot down so you you can grab the wheel and make changes without haveing to put the pilot in standby first. And manual course changes will be maintained when you let go of the wheel so if you want to change course you can just grab the wheel rather than trying to reprogram on the fly. Mariner Center will have all the info on this system in a week or so but they can price it out and order them now takes about a week for shipment to arrive. One other thing for you to consider is it is the only system out there that will maintian course in reverse so you can backtroll with it if you want with a little practice and some programing it will back you out of the slip and drive you to your favorite fishing spot and all you would need to do is shift and change speeds. One of the last items I want to do on my boat is to add rear controls then with the remote for the autopilot I will be able to drive the boat from the fishing station. Well good luck. Tight Lines Jim

Well as for the new Raymarine SP5X system I paid for one in Mar when I bought my boat. However Raymarine spent the whole summer again talking about it and never actually delivered it. I was actually told by one of their company reps who was at Mariners Center this spring that Raymarine considers us fishermen a small portion of their business so even though they had advance orders for hundreds of them they would not deliver em. So after 3 years of promising a replacement for the Sport Pilot they would not deliver it. I had not heard about the Simrad rotary unit being discontinued but there are several dealers who have them in stock but I don't have enough clearance behind the helm to install one so it don't matter.In late Aug I gave up for the season and got my money back and vowed I would never invest in anything Raymarine builds as they made it clear they could care less about my business I will return the favor and not care about theirs. If your boat is cable steered you have very few options so I am converting mine to Hyd steering this winter. Once you have Hyd steering your options are wide open and only your wallet will limit you. I am assumeing since you have twin Mercruisers with power steering it is cable operated power asist steering which is the most common form of I/O steering on the Great Lakes. Here is a link to the Sea Star page that will give you the base componets you need to convert to Hyd Steering. http://ww2.seastarsteering.com/STERNDRIVE/stern.htm I am only short the Cyl as I found a complete sys used cheap but it has the wrong cyl but if anyone needs a Mercruiser non power steering cyl I have one. Another advantage to Hyd steering is you can add as many helms as you want and the wheel cannot be turned by the drive or any other part of the system. This means when you let go of the wheel it stays put even when the autopilot or other station changes the course. Tight Lines Jim

I still catch fish on lures I used in the 70's they all still work we just stop using em cause we got new ones that also work. My uncle allways said that Salmon will bite anything that don't bite them first he has been a a commercial fisherman in AK since the 60's. He has probably caught millions over the years and still runs a lot of the same setups he ran in the 60's.

I bought my Depth Raider at the Sport fish show in GR 3 years ago I went back and forth between 3 venders till I got the best price. I just told them flat out I was leaving with one so they should make their best deal I also had shopped the internet heavily. So I had pretty much everyone elses best deal as well and I went on Sun. I did the same thing this spring when I bought a couple of new electric downriggers ended up getting 2 Fishlander gold units for 600.00 with 4ft booms ball cradles and 2 rod holders ea. I will bet by this years show there will be a few shops there begging for some sales. Most of these guys would rather sell it then pack it back up cash is esier to carry then equipment. Tight Lines Jim

I for one prefer to fish at night the bite is great and less boats to fight for the good spots. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone complain about fishing being slow on their way in while I am heading out to fill the box it would have easily paid this years gas bill. Last summer we limited out 5 nights in a row just after sundown in same area Salmon are agressive night feeders. Also the wind always seems to die at sunset for a while so the waves improve and the fishing gets hot at the same time. Tight Lines Jim

GUYS HERE IS A OPTION TO CONSIDER CHK THIS OUT. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MILITARY-GRADE-LAPTOP-NAV-CHARTPLOTTER-w-CHARTS-GPS_W0QQitemZ120319426428QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120319426428&_trkparms=72%3A727%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1308&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

Nice job Jarod brought boat home from shop today gotta finish cleaning it and take it to storage next weekend. Kinda wish I had waited but after getting skunked fishing out front decided to call it a year. Then after I put it in the shop I start getting good reports from guys still fishing from 150 out but heck had to put it away sometime and having a couple nights in the upper 30's 2 weeks ago and having to sit at dock last time out scraping the frost off the window only to get skunked out front was the deciding factor. Tight Lines Jim