salmonquest

Rules are made to be broken though. This year I have had some success running a 15' lead 40' down but I was also running an 11" flasher off the ball and the lead ,run on a stacker about 2' up.

I hesitate to make light of a serious situation but you guys seem to have a sense of humor so......"I was thinking why do they call it a near miss isn't it really a near hit? I mean wouldn't you really hit someone in a near miss like...awww I almost missed em." -Gallagher:no:

Rubbing it on your hands is pretty die hard. I admire that. The ultrabite smells so bad I try not to get it on my hands. The good news is it wears off in only a week or two. Apparently I need to man up.

Does anyone use any lure additives? I've heard the Ultrabite is supposed to work pretty well. Anyone have other favorites if so how often and how much do you use?

I particular like the top pic with the swimbaits. I would think this would have a great action. I'd love to hear if anyone has any success with them.

I was watching a show about fishing for stripers and they used an umbrella rig with swim baits. I know it's a different species but has anyone thougth about trying it for Salmon? I was thinking it would look like a school of bait.

If any of you trolls ever get a chance to get up to the St. Mary's river I recommend it. I went out with my dad last Sunday. We set out from Detour after stopping by North Country Sports. The owner is a great guy who gave us great info. We trolled for about 2 hours and picked up 2 nice salmon. It's cool trolling with huge freighters going buy. Just don't cut across them and expect them to avoid your long lines The great part was after we got our two for dinner we picked up took a ten minute drive to a bay and started hammering the herring. Talk about a great experience. Those little guys put up a great fight on light tackle and their soft mouth make them challenging to land. It was an awesome day. I highly recommend giving it a try. Salmon in the morning herring at mid day.

My dad and I keep a starter pack in our boat. We have jumped with the truck before but that was on the trailer. The other thing I've found is that a trickle charger wouldn't recharge it once it was dead unless the charger was on start mode and giving it a full blast of juice. Good luck with that. Is there anything more frustrating?

Sunday I caught two salmon from the St. Mary's river. One had a bulging red eye and they both had one deformed stubby pectoral fin. they seemed fine and I didn't think anything about it until I was reading about VHS. Has anyone else seen this. I'm wondering if the fish are safe to eat.

I like the swim noodle. I have an old one to cut up. I'll definatley be doing that. I think I've discovered another alternative. I was cleaning out my car and found a softsided CD case. The type that has plastic pockets and can hold 20 or more CD's. I thought I could use the pages to index different leader lengths. I mentioned it to my dad and he's been using it for walley crawler harnesses. He says it works great.

I know a lot of people have luck with flies but I haven't so I've been a little gun shy. When I do use them I tie the supplied leader right to the spin doctor. I take it by the posts you guys use the Bechold and Son fish catchers a lot. I have a couple I'll give them a try. Good idea about the finances. I'll have to find a good spot to stash the goodies.

O.K. here is something I could really use some help on. It usually takes me forever to set up because of leaders being tangled or kinked and needing to be re-tied. How do you all store your leaders. I've been thinking about using snack size zip locks and labeling them with a sharpie. In addition what type of snap swivels do you use. I didn't have great luck with the barrels so I started to look for ball bearing snaps. I've heard Sampo are great but they're a little pricey. I was going to try Cabela's I think they're ball bearings are 24 - $12 anyone use these? Also what size?

You guys have given me a lot to think about I'll have to try a few of these suggestions. The straits aren't over crowded with boat traffic so I think I can swing the leadcore. It sounds like a great option. I appreciate the feedback. I have a ton more questions but I'll wait to post those later.

Thanks for the feedback. I was afraid the leadcore issue would come up. It's something I've been considering but after paying for the riggers I've used up my savings for this year. I will definately plan on trying to get a set up this fall or for next year. I do want to ask about running the spoons clean. I have two questions. Where do you run your flashers? and Would you still put on a leader for lower vis? 10 lb flouro or something I'm running 20 lb. big game on the rigger rods. I've read about running flashers off the ball but I'm concerned with the wrapping on the main line. Anyone know how far up they'd run the line from the ball?

By the way it was my wife's first trip and she caught the salmon here is a pic:

Being this is my first post about fishing I have a lot of questions. I just started getting into salmon last fall. I've met with moderate success. I usually fish the Straits area out of St. Ignace. I usually manage about one fish per trip. I don't get skunked very often but it's not actually hot and heavy. I was hoping some of you trolls ( I just realized a nice pun there) could give a few pointers for greater success. My typical spread are two dipsy's and two downrigger lines. I just upgraded to big jon captain's pak's so I hope to run four downrigger lines. Off of my dipsys I run a small snubber, 3ft. leader, spin doctor, and then a 6' leader to a spoon or attatch a fly with it's own leader to the flasher. Off of the down riggers I run 11" pro troll flashers with a six foot leader to a spoon. I usually set up 20- 30' back or so. I use 17lb flourcarbon for leaders. Around the straights and mackinac island the water is pretty clear and Sunday was a great day. 80 and sunny so I ran chartruese flashers and blue and green bubble spoons on the down rigger and metallic green dipsys with natural born killer spoons off the spin doctor. (left my fly's at home IDIOT!!) I think now I probably should have went with a pearl or holographic dipsy since it was bright out. We marked quite a few big fish but only had one hit wich we landed a 10 lb king. I use my garmin GPS for speed. It read between 1.8 and 2.3 mph all day. Near the end without a hit I bumped it up to 2.5 and that's when we got the king. I've read that kings prefer a slow presentation so I'm wondering if I should be in the high 2's and low 3's on the GPS. I was running my riggers at 50 and 60 and had 90 ft and 100' out on magnum dipsy's wich should have put them around 40 and 45. we got the king on the 60 foot rigger. The water depth was between 90 and 150. Maybe there just aren't as many fish in the straits but we marked a few and I'd like to start hooking a few more. I know this is a lot of info but any comments are welcome.

I would like to know what kind of vests you have. I just purchased one from my daughter who is 2. I assumed that kids life vests would keep them face up. I'll have to test it out. I was also under the impression that not all adult life vests would do that. I think there is something to the rating of the life vest. Some are just meant to keep you afloat. I think it has to be a category 1 or 2.Check out this link: http://www.boatus.com/onlinecourse/documents/SAFETYEQUIP.html#lifejackets