2UNREEL

Nice Jobs Guys... Great way to shake the Dirty Dog down for 09' And those look like some healthy fish!

Welcome aboard Ron... I fish out of South Haven most of the time, there are a few others on here that do as well. I also love going after the perch out there. I have never drifted for salmon but drifting for perch is alot of fun and you don't have to dink with the anchor. Let me know if you need some help riggin up.....or read through the vast libraray of old posts or make a new one.

My son has yet to catch his own salmon, but he is good at reeling in the rigger rods....he's fighting a mag spoon in that pic. I am going to work on the boat this weekend and if I remember I will take a pic of my light system.

If you go with the Berts you will never look back, they are worth the investment. In my mind there is only 1 other rod holder that compares to the berts and thats the new cannon one. When you have a diver rod loaded hard with a 20lb king ripping on it the last thing you want to do is hang over the side of the boat to pull the rod out in rough water or fiddle around with loosening a clap or lever while holding the rod. With the berts and the cannon you can just grab the rod and start fighting the fish like it was never in a rod holder. I love my berts for divers.....

I was tired of the maintenance every year of teak. So I replaced all the teak on my boat with Timbertech composite decking. There is no maintenance and it looks clean and easy to work with. See the kick panel on the floor, the back pocket for misc stuff while fishing and the top where the rigger and rod holders are is all timbertech. Also I don't have a pic of them but I installed some 55W halogen fog lights up on my bimini top to light up the water and back of the boat for those early mornings or late nights. I mounted them using RAM mounts normally used to clamp a gps to a motorcycle or bicycle. They U-bolt right to the pole of the bimini top and I can manipulate them any way I want to. They stay put and don't melt a hole in the top if they get too hot. An when I don't need them I can pop them off and i only have a little rubber ball attached to my top.

I like my black coated shark 12's and never had an issue. But I have never had them deeper than about 120 down with managable blowback. I'm sure the 15's would be better for your riggers especially with a probe attached.

First of all welcome aboard Chris! Last year I picked up a sundancer and I like to think of it as "Beer and Salmon slabs" ..........anyways I will be spending most of my time out of South Haven this year and we can link up and help each other out. Just give the 2UNREEL a shout. My fathers boat (Voyageur) has been slipped in Boat Yard Basin since the 80's. Whats your boat name?

-Great lakes planers triple verticle rod trees -All new rods -Several new reels -Couple of Nuclear Beavers Did I want them YES Did I need them Not Really, but sometimes I just can't help myself Oh I forgot a Siggs Riggs Fly!! Look for it soon on the photo contest thread!

Some guys tip their transducer up alittle bit to bring the cannon balls into view. It will throw your depth reading off some but if you want to see the cannon balls this could help.

I have read up on the subject a few years back and it sounded alright if your boat or riggers created a wierd charge. I have talked with atleast a dozen different people who have used this and most all said that they couldnt tell a difference. Hey if it does work we should build some reels with the positive ion technology built in for running wire divers! Opps theres my million dollar idea...

I went to the show yesterday and found some great deals on reels and tackle and talked to some really great people. All of the sales reps I talked to were very helpfull. The show is for the most part the same every year but if you know what your after and good at a little haggling than it can be very productive. I just wish I could of brought the baby bear home with me cause it was precious.. I just wouldnt be able to afford feeding it after a few months.

My father bought the HDS-5 over the winter. I am huge lowrance fan and this on the outside was very nice. After playing with it we discovered these wonderful built in base maps are for the most part innacurate. Being that they are new they may come up with a patch to fix the base maps eventually but in the mean time if you want an accuarate chartplotter depth contuors you'll need to spend 200 bones on some Navionics. And even though the unit said it was capable of the lakemaster chip, mine would not work in the unit. We wound up returning his and got a great deal on an older model and a lakemaster chip for it and saved hundreds. Sometimes when products are pushed to market they can have some issues that over time get fixed.

Would the make-up date be another weekend? It may restrict the entrance of people comming from far away. I like saturdays with sunday blow dates in case of bad weather.

Don is not only a world class fisherman he is also a world class metal fabricator. The only thing that board is missing is blood and scales....Great job Don!

If you set up for a slider I would match the spoon to the rest of your spread to make sure you get the action you desire. Not all spoons react well at the same speeds the others do. I would lean on the heavier spoon size to create more bow in the line. This is my opinion others might have other suggestions....

Welcome to the site Keith, there are a few of us here that fish in the South Haven Saugatuck area and we can help each other out this summer and land some nice ones. Post up a picture of your rig so we can check out your setup!

To save some coin I would buy the chip for your chartplotter. I would reccomend researching the software your looking to buy and use it first hand to make sure it does what you want it to do. Many software packages out there tell you they have depth contours for the great lakes but only in 10ft increments and 1 mile off shore. Make sure your get what you want and play with it at a show or store before you buy it. DO NOT RELY ON THE SALESMAN....I am using a Lowrance Fish finder/gps combo and a dedicated lowarance chartplotter to run a Lakemaster ProMaps Michigan chip. My fish finder stays on graph and I only overlay the gps if someone onboard is curious about our tracks.

Don, you may want to try the reciever and servo by the motor first before you spend alot of time on it. You might get alot if radio interferance from the engine causing the servo to jump around vigerously and unpredictable. This setup could also be dangerous for people to try cause it could potentially create an unsafe senario.

I agree with Dirty Dog....

I have an alltel motorola cell phone with too small of a screen, but my access to this site is limited.

Here is a lure that I invented. Don(fishsniffer) will be field testing them.

I have heard of great reports on the big south branch of the PM for Steelhead but not as far north as Traverse area.

Our nations history is built on record keeping.... It's not about beating someone up over losing a salmon it's understanding why you got that fish to the boat and how you can get it in the boat the next time. Keep up the log book Don and everyone out there who keeps records, our fishing depends on it.

I went snowmobiling yesterday after depressingly watching a few fishing shows. Snow just won't give up....

I would like to thank the Muskegon Charter Boat Association for putting this wonderful seminar on. This is the second time I have been to this and it is a great way to pass along great information to the new and the seasoned anglers. All off the speakers and sponsers put on a great seminar. I would also like to thank Don(fishsniffer) for helping my dad and I carry all the great raffle prizes to the car!