2UNREEL

I would hate to think of what it would cost to replace all my lures with single hooks. I might experiment some day but I'm not convinced its better.

Competitions and Tournaments make us better fisherman. The spreadsheets do help but the problem is you almost need a dedicated court recorder on-board to keep up with it.

This is what I use....great info http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/

I they work the best to attract fisherman to buy them, its just one of those marketing tricks. If anything they are a rattle. In order for that device to produce enough electricity to overcome the conductivity of water it would need much more than what it has inside that little can. It may produce a small charge out of water but give me a break when it hits the water its toast. The jig is up E-CHIP.....

I find that honesty is the best policy........I tell the wife I NEED to buy $XXXX dollars worth of tackle and she says, "hell no" and I say."I guess we don't eat this summer. Do you want to starve our childeren?" And she says, "what ever do what you want...."

Sorry, I wasn't sure what pier to fish so I got drunk instead and my head wasn't clear when I wrote that message.

Nice Steelie...what pier were you on?

I mainly use the 8" spin doctors. I will be doing alot with various sizes and shapes of flashers this year. Seems like every time I tryed one of the big pro troll paddle types I got tangles so I stuck with what worked for me.

We have got some great responses to this poll. I love seeing pictures of when people started out there salmon fishing careers. The one thing in common is you can see the passion that we all share for the love of the sport. I started salmon fishing around the age of 5. To this day I remember holding a rod with a flat line and a blue and silver tad poly attached and caught my first coho salmon. 1 fish is all it takes to be hooked for life. Here is a picture of one of my earlier trips out on the big lake, I believe I was 6 years old in this picture.

I run the 12lb black coated sharks. I have not had an issue with them and the blowback is much less than a roundball. I like the fact that when they hit the water they instantly track strait. I the past with round balls I have had them spin and get my line wrapped around the rigger cable when I used pad releases.

If you can pop in a lakemaster chip in your chartplotter its well worth it. The depth contours can clue you into where the big boys swim.

It is very possible to run 2 rods with fixed sliders on each rod with one downrigger. Shorten up your sliders to around 6ft and that makes it more manageable at the net. When you put your rods in the rod holders spread them out from each other and this will help with releases on the bottom setup. If you are releasing them your self just pull the top rod first......Give it a try....I agree with Paulywood on the split rings, run them how they came in the package. I would look closer at the type of swivels your using on the non split ring lures and make sure its nice and rounded on the side the lure hooks to, that will keep that lure movin and groovin.

Don shows us the unique way us left handed people can get the job done.

Lets get an idea of the years of experience of the people that visit this site have. I know some have been around since the days of taking canoes in the lake was the norm and some may be fairly new.

First I would start the year off fishing at Cabelas for a new fish finder. That is the most usefull tool you have to target fish. With a decent unit you will see the fish that are biting your riggers. Otherwise you will be chasing the radio, if guys are talking, and you can't always trust what you hear. If you want to have sucess anytime of the year the fish finder will put you on fish any time of the year.

I have the cam rigger kit for my aqua-vu. I bought it about 5 years ago. Once I tried hooking it up to a downrigger with a 10lb ball in 3ft waves... I would suggest never trying that it was a mess. I have wanted to try it in calm water with my 12lb balls but never got around to it. There is a great deal of blowback involved so depending on how deep you want to go, you have to adjust the angle the camera is pointing. I have however used the camera perch fishing the big lake. That is amazing. In 30ft of water I have a sight distance of about 20ft or more. When you see a school of perch comming across the screen be ready for action. I also use it ice fishing if the lake is clear enough.

#18 NBK and #16 Green Monkey puke I think are the ones I would keep. I have done well on Monkey puke styles when others arent working that great. The NBK is on the line about every trip.

Nice shot

JoeMan, I have a blue diamond diver rod that I attached a twilly tip to last spring. I have a CV30D fully spooled with wire that I have had 0 probems with. As far as that little black end piece falling off.... Before season hit, I ground off the gimble edge of the rod so the foam piece would fit all the way then I spun the foam piece on my finger against my grinder to get the diameter the same as the rest of the rod. To finish it off I coated the inside of the foam piece with hot glue and a quick slide of hand and reattached it to the rod. Now it looks like it was made to be there and the little black piece will not come off and float away.

10 color lead core was one of my top producers. However this year my riggers with sliders were also on fire. Just goes to show you looking at everyones best producers that you need to run alittle bit of everything and give the fish what they want that day....

Nice job Jarod looks like you've had a great year.

I am not a salmon biologist or anything but I belive their sense of smell is not there best sense. I could be wrong....I think in a case of pond or ice fishing when you have a fish that has time to sniff and sample it may be better. In a trolling situation your target senario is sight, and sounds for that aggresive bite. But I think that if you do use a meat rig that it could have its day and as long as its a smell they like that it couldnt hurt the spread.

Nice way to put it Frank, I coudnt of said it better. I heard of alot of guys moving away from magnum size spoons this last summer. But everthing has there time and place. As far as Jim talking about a daytime and a nightime spoon size I have not seen a difference but I will generally run a mixed bag of sizes untill I know what they like.

WOW! Nice buck Tom, thats going to look good hanging on the wall! Happy Birthday

I know your frustration. I live on the southern tip of the Allegan State game area and I wait to venture in there around muzzleloader time. Unfortunately my private land did not work out as well, no good deer to be had. I am heading north this weekend to try some rifle action I hope things get better. I have heard of several guys getting lucky this year with one big 11pt down near South Haven......I can't help but think of catching summer kings while trying to keep my fingers and toes warm sitting and waiting for luck to change this year..