Paulywood

Tony, are 1 & 2 buoys the ones close to Bay City? I'm not real familiar with the names you guys use. I do have one of those Saginaw Bay maps but the only "slang" term I saw on it was the Black Hole. Where is the best place to launch my boat coming over from Midland? I launched out of LBM last time but hit a rock coming back in & wasn't real happy about it.

Saw the reports of catching perch on the Bay and I'm thinking of bringing the boat with me to work one night and heading over in the morning. I was wondering if someone would be willing to give me some tips on where to go? How do you rig your lines? Minnows or wigglers? Never done it before. If your interested in riding along I will probably have room also. Day depends on the weather but thursday would be best. Tuesday and wednesday would be the other options. Thanks in advance.

For $5 you can clean your fish @ Fisherman's Landing if the office is open. There is still a cleaning station @ Snug Harbor (as far as I know) but I can't launch there.

Thanks for the report.

Snug Harbor is not really an option for larger boats Ryan. I launched out of there with my 20' bow rider before and got hung up on sandbars a few times. I have never even tried with the new boat, it just drafts to deep. Besides the sandbars there are old wood pilings that are on the charts and can be avoided, but Snug Harbor itself is very shallow and you churn up a lot of muck.

The crowd at the DNR launch is one of the reasons I avoided Holland on monday and launched out of Muskegon instead. I also figured everyone would be combat fishing and if I ran away from the piers I would have a big chunk of water to myself. Launched out of Fisherman's Landing and had no issues launching or retrieving. Our last trip out of Holland we had issues with, you guessed it, a sailboat. We were just inside the no wake zone in Big Bay when we passed a sailboat. Guy asked us where we were going. I said to the ramp to pull the boat. He said he was too, but acted all pissed. I said I would see him there. Got up close to the ramp and there were 1/2 a dozen boats idling around, waiting. I stayed back, waiting my turn. Sailboat guy pulls up right to a launch dock and ties up. Cutting in front of not only everyone waiting to pull their boats, but also everybody launching at noon on a saturday when it was 100 degrees out. He must have taken his sweet time getting his trailer because we waited out turn, got to the dock, I ran and got the truck, and he was still trying to get his sailboat on the trailer. We loaded up quick and were pulling the boat when we watched a guy try to back up a small Boston Whaler with a cargo van, back doors open. Of course he jack knifed it and took out a door. Then as we got up the ramp we saw Mr. Sailboat pull his boat out with the tiller still down. He took a large chunk off the bottom. I couldn't resist and threw a few comments his way. Surprisingly for me they were even profanity free. He got what he deserved. The Holland launch can be a zoo on weekends.

There are plenty of options depending on budget. Wire reels are where I like to spend my money as a smooth drag is a must for wire. I tried a few reels but settled on Shimano Tekota's. My second choice, and a little more budget friendly, are the Daiwa Sealine reels. Good drags for the price. I think that I have tried every kind of rod for wire. Started with a cheap roller rod, lost 3 dipsey/flasher/fly setups in 1 day as the wire kept jumping off the guides and getting caught. Got rid of that and went to a Twilli Tip on the end of a regular dipsey rod. That seemed to work ok but the Twilli causes a lot of resistance. After that I tried the Torpedo Tip. I just installed them on a regular dipsey rod. I was very happy with this setup but the issue I had was that I wanted to run 7' rods for wire and couldn't find a regular dipsey rod that short. This year I went to a set of Shimano Talora wire rods since they make them in 7'. I have been very happy with them. The roller guides are high quality and the wire hasn't jumped off the guides once. They are not cheap, but I found them on sale and got them for about $110 each. My second choice would be the Torpedo Tips. They cost about $25 each (I think) and if you pair them with a decent dipsey rod like a Daiwa Heartland (about $30) in whatever length you want you can get a very good wire rod for about half of what the Talora's cost. The next choice for me would be the Twilli Tips and then after that a cheap roller rod. As for wire itself I used the Malin 7 strand and the Torpedo 30 strand. I like the Torpedo wire better as it seems a little more forgiving but either is good. I use a full spool of 1000' for each reel as it fits perfectly on a Tekota 600 or Sealine 47. I am sure other people will have opinions but I think I covered a lot of it.

After checking the near shore/off shore wave forecast knowing my dad was going to be aboard I made the decision to head up to Muskegon so I could get to deeper water while staying close to shore. Dad tends to get a little sea sick. Since we got to the launch early I decided to run all the way up to Duck Lake. I like fishing up there but haven't been able to in a while due to weather/time constraints. Put the boat on the last sand bar and ran 30 mph all the way up there. Set up in 60' on a west troll and took our first fish in 115' on a green scaly back Ace High 110' back on a mag wire diver on 1. Nice 6# coho that ended up being full of eggs. By the time we hit 150' we landed 2 more fish, a nice 10# steelie on a green/double crush glow SD and green fly from one of the last 2 DW tournies on a 300' copper and a 15# king on a full core w/ a mag Moonshine Shelley Snack. We also discovered our very close proximity to the nets that are set up just south of Duck Lake. We swung out around the net to 200' and fixed a small equipment issue and then headed back toward our targeted area of 115-145'. As we hit 140' we took a nice 8# coho on a Blue Bubble SD/ blue fly combo from one of the last 2 DW tournies. This was on a mag wire dipsey set 145' back. We started swinging north and the 300' copper w/ the green spinny & fly started screaming, board dove and I thumb breaked it to get it back to the surface. As soon as I unhooked the board I could tell it had broke off. It was about then that I noticed the line of barely floating buoys marking a net running north & south. First time I have seen a net set on a north/south line out there. Figured I caught it on the net as we turned north. Luckily it only broke off the leader and nothing else tangled. We had an uneventful rest of the morning telling lies and I noticed a rigger standing up but don't know if we had a hit or not. We marked quite a few fish, some bait and a thermocline off & on around 70' down but couldn't get anything else to go. Also noticed a lot of weeds floating in the area. Not sure what that was about. Anyway, good luck if you get out.

That's it Robert. The fleas really stick to the braid, I put it away when they show up. Wire is great and besides the Flea Flicker line try going to larger diameter mono. I started using 30# for my flashers and plugs on the riggers when the fleas got bad this year and it worked much better.

Welcome aboard Allen!

Glad to have you here Dave. I too have been a long time subscriber and used to frequent the GLangler site. I have met you before at the Brown Blast and have successfully used your tip of running Rat L Traps in the prop wash off spinning reels in the spring for coho. It sure is a fun way to catch fish. I have also been to one of your and Dan's seminars in Birch Run. I learned a lot of info when I was first starting out from you guys and look forward to anything you can contribute here. Personally I think this is the best Big Lake Fishing site on the web and it looks like it will only keep getting better.

Welcome aboard! Look forward to your posts and insight. Let us know if you have any questions and good luck the rest of the season.

We'll be out there in the morning, good luck.

Thanks for the report, think we are going to head out of Muskegon tomorrow.

Ryan, I actually grew up in Fowler and know quite a few people in the Dewitt area. My brother works at the waste water treatment plant there in town. I used to work in St. Johns and my wife worked in Midland so we ended up in St. Louis since it is halfway. Now with both of us working in Midland we are looking to move to that area. There are a few salmon fishermen around here but not many. I know what you're saying about being close to no where, but not far either. I'm 2 hours from any port on Lake Michigan between South Haven and Manistee, 2 hours from the Bay. Needless to say I put a lot of miles on my trailer. We live about 2 miles out of town and have 3 of the wind turbines around the house. To be honest, I barely notice them anymore. Sounds like there are going to be some more coming in soon. Good luck the rest if your season, mines almost done.

Great to have you around Ryan. You helped me out a few times when I had more time to spend online and still went to the glangler site. With a new job and 18 month old son I cut back on my website visits and and now I'm pretty much monogamous here on GLF. I even bought a couple of walleye reels from you a few years back. Your experience and advice will be welcome around here.

I use clear divers on one side and black on the other. That's just so I don't set them wrong in the dark. Other people swear by certain diver colors but I haven't seen a difference.

You can move your nav lights back if you have access. I have individual red and green lights on each side.

About 5 years ago I was fishing on a friends boat and setting a half core with a Mixed veggies. I didn't even have all of the backer in the water when a fish hit. Reeled in a nice 7# king. The spoon couldn't have been more than 25' behind the boat and only a couple of feet below the surface.

Lots of good info here, thanks for sharing. You are obviously educated in this area and I appreciate you helping us who are less informed. I have been actively voting and responding to questionnaires from a fishing perspective but it's always good to hear the scientific reasons for any changes. Nick

I'm originally from the St. Johns area and used to have them work on my boat. If you have a specific question you would like to ask feel free to PM me.

I use the light weight Tech H2O GM rainsuit. I don't use it a lot but I have used it in the spring, summer and fall and have no complaints. I bought it big enough to go over my Carharts to help keep me dry.

Welcome aboard Dave. Don't worry about questions or uninformed opinions, they bring on discussion and that's what this site is all about. I'm far from the most experienced guy and I chime in all the time. You never know when you'll learn something new or who you might learn it from! That's what makes this sport so great, nobody has all of the answers, we are all still learning a little every time we go out.

Welcome aboard Karl.

Nice job guys!