Paulywood

I ordered a Garmin 740s from Calumet Marine. It just shipped yesterday so I'll give a review when I get it installed. Picking up the boat today. I plan on using the GPS to connect to my autopilot but am keeping my old GPS to use for charts so I won't be splitting the screen much.

I use the Stinger Dive Bombs more than snap weights, they seem more effective to me. But same concept.

Yeah, we sometimes forget that salmon were planted to get rid of the alewives, which are now gone out of Lake Huron. More browns, steelies and Atlantics to go with the walleye and lakers would be a good fishery for sure. I found it interesting that the usage of launch areas on the Bay is impacted so much by the perch population. Hopefully the cisco rebound to help out the perch.

Looks like it doesn't, the website has a "What license do I need" search function. Here are the results: License Option: Annual Fishing Legal harvest: Legal game fish, except trout/salmon (requires purchase of Indiana trout/salmon stamp in addition the fishing license). See fishing regulations for more information Price: $35.00 Additional Information: License Option: 7-Day Fishing Legal harvest: Legal game fish, except trout/salmon (requires Indiana trout/salmon stamp). See fishing regulations for more information Price: $20.00 Additional Information: License Option: One-day Fishing Legal harvest: Legal game fish, including trout/salmon. Price: $9.00 Additional Information: License Option: Trout/Salmon Stamp Legal harvest: Legal trout/salmon. See Fishing Guide Price: $11.00 Additional Information: To fish for trout/salmon, the trout/salmon stamp is required, in addition to a fishing license. Records 1-4 of 4 Looks like 3 1-day licenses would be $4 cheaper. Or you can wait and buy one each day in case the weather is bad.

I know that Canvas Innovations resews seams, they advertised it at the show. Wouldn't hurt to give them a call, especially if the canvas is still good.

Canvas Innovations were at the Lakeshore show in Holland last wednesday and they seemed like decent guys. I have no idea on price or anything but I talked to them about making some custom dipsey/planer holders and they were willing to work with me on it, more than some other canvas people I talked to.

Welcome Jared.

Welcome Tim!

I had some Mike but sold them last week. Sorry.

When I went through this a few years back there was nothing but horror stories about Lowrance customer service so I went with Garmin. I was very happy with performance and customer service. Dropped my plotter of the boat onto the concrete drive on monday, had a new one at my house friday. No cost. Mine are quite old and I plan on replacing one of them this year with the new 740s from Calumet Marine. I already upgraded to the Airmar transducer so it is a plug and play installation. Lowrance may have fixed their issues but Garmin never had any and I don't see any reason to change. I have used Humminbird on others boats and found them easy to use. Either them or Raymarine would be my second choice. Really it's just personal preference and what features you want. I am sure all of them can get the job done. I would recommend talking to the guys at CM, they are very helpful. I think the 740s is on sale until the end of the month.

Very nice!

I put the Scotty stpos on last year and they slip all the time. Maybe I'll double them up this year.

Thats a good deal for anyone who needs riggers.

I was there today to pick up some spoons from Russell Gahegan. He has a big display set up if you need anything. Talked to Terry at the Wolverine Tackle booth. Stopped by the Fish-On booth to look at their arch display. Hoping one might be in the budget for next year. I really like how they flare out the ends of the rod holders so you don't have to deal with end caps. Swung by the Fish Hawk booth but it was crowded. Talked to Karen in the Big Weenie booth and placed an order with her. By then my arm was getting sore so I called it a day. First time I had ever been there and I thought it was a good show.

Ken, you can always just replace one and then keep the other expired flares. I keep my old flares on board as back-up and keep the new ones close at hand. I on;y have hand-held but might add a gun, also.

Unfortunately I couldn't get Ken to buy me anything. I talked to him and Jon, Mark and Kevin. I will say that the shoulder is very sore today, but I didn't notice it last night. Must have been to excited.

We had a great time. Great bargain for $10. Talked to the guys at Canvas Innovations about some custom board/dipsey holders. Captain George Freeman of Free Style charters gave me some info on Ludington, talked to Fish Hawk about the new X-4D, got a free Big Weenie meat head from Phil and instructions on how to run it. Oh, if anyone is interested in shorter copper rods the Okuma rep told me about a saltwater rod that is the same as their copper rod but comes in 7'6". I like the new yellow releases from Church for their planer boards, plan on trying those out. And won a $50 gift certificate for Morgan's Copper from Lakeshore. It was worth the drive. I know we picked up a couple of tricks from Captain Brian during his talk. Now we just need spring to get here.

Good luck Matt! You should have a lot of GLF company to the north and south.

I'm jealous! Good job!

My dad caught the brown on this page: http://fish-ludington.com/ in the spring off a meat rig over 10 years ago. We were fishing with Ed Stell and I think it was just a 3 fly teaser and meat head, no flasher. So they will work in the spring.

Thanks again Rob. And thanks for the offer Tony but I'd like to get one so I can measure backer for other rods, too. Now I always have to spool it on backwards and then re-spool. Very time consuming.

Thanks Rob, thats kind of what I was thinking but wasn't sure about 32# versus 45#.

Since so many of you are copper lovers I want to experiment running copper on one side of the boat and lead on the other. I am keeping my 300' but plan on spooling the rest up new with 45# copper and want them to run the same as my 10 color, 7 color and 5 color. What lengths do I need to run these depths.

I know there was a post about using an add on line counter when filling reels off bulk spools. If I remember correctly there are a couple but only one works for copper. Can someone tell me which one works for copper? Thanks, Nick

You just want to make sure its uv resistant silicone. And marine is even better.