Paulywood

Yup, that's the guy. It's been a good year for me, I have been limited in the number of times I've been out but have done pretty good this year. I really can't complain. Too bad summer is ending fast.

Craig, I used a charter captain out of Grand Haven who was also a surveyor. He came highly recommended but for the life of me I can't remember his name. I was very happy with his work. I'll try to figure it out.

You know, we tried in closer at one point but never took anything in there so we headed back out deeper. Oh well, we tried our best. I wish we could have fished sunday night so I would have had a chance to get things figured out.

Well, our planned trip to Ludington didn't go as I hoped. We went up sunday afternoon knowing that it had blown hard overnight. Water was still a little rough as we headed out in the evening. Having a rookie to the big lake onboard plus my buddy Kerby who doesn't get around so good we didn't get out deep enough to where we wanted to be to find fish. Did a slow troll back in to the pier heads from 80' and never marked a fish or got a bump. Monday morning we got up and headed down to the 51's in order to set up south of the nets. Marty (ratchet) had done well down there saturday morning and we were hoping the fish were still around. Sorry to say we couldn't find them. We did find a net in the 51's though that we managed to avoid. We trolled almost down to Pentwater picking up a fish here and there, different depths of water, directions, and depth down. Not really marking much. Took 2 fish on the green SD/fly set up from the DW last week early in 100' on a south troll and 130' on a west troll 125' back. Took a fish on an east troll on an SWR 70' down with a Princess Frog in 130'. Double fish scale white paddle with a green Sigg's glow fly took 2 back 200'. One on a west troll in 130' and the other on a northwest troll in 140'. Full core took a fish but can't remember what was on it. Also in 140'. Any way, we ended up 6/8 with 4 kings and 2 coho. Nothing big. I was disappointed in how we did but the guys with me who had never fished or don't fish much enjoyed it. I might have 1 more trip left but then I will be done for the year, I have to much going on the rest of the summer. Good luck to everyone.

We fished out of Ludington this morning and were surprised to find nets set up in the 51's. 50's south were clear all the way to Pentwater. Good luck.

Nice job Brian! Hope you didn't leave anymore rigger balls out there.

Nice job! What kind of DW paddle on that Fat Nancy rig?

I got it today and already submitted it. Thanks for the post, Ed.

So far my only experience with copper has been 2 300' setups that I got already spooled. I'm not sure what kind of copper they are but I will say that I don't see any reason to switch out the rest of my leadcore rods. Copper is a pain to run, much harder to work with than core IMO. Maybe I just have been runner the wrong kind of copper but for now I'm only running copper as very deep rods.

1 rubber band for spoons, 2 rubber bands for flashers. As far as dipseys, I usually set them just tight enough to not trip on their own. This past weekend with the bigger waves I had to tighten the releases up. It took me a couple of times to get it right.

Good to hear!

I quite using Sampo's as I had 2 of them break apart at the casing around the ball bearing. I have been using the Dreamweaver's and have been happy with them.

Good job Ben.

I use 15# Ande on my spoons rigger rods and just switched to 30# Ande for flashers this year. I have been running the 15# for 5 years and never had a "break off". I have lost gear due to tangles or fish rolling in the line and cutting it off, but never just flat out breaking off. I would definitely take a look at your releases.

Nice job Don, good box of fish. I was a little worried for you when you said you were 0/0 but I guess I should have known that you would turn it around and fill the box.

There are some disadvantages to the braid lines. The first has been mentioned, no give in the line. The second is that the fleas will fill the braid up in a hurry. That's why my braid divers stayed dry over the weekend. I started running 30# when the fleas come out because I'm so sick of the fleas. I do know a charter captain that runs braid on the chute rigger for lakers. They tie loops in the braid to attach it to the release. Since they fish the same general area for lakers all of the time they just have a few loops that they leave tied in permanently. I will be sticking with the mono for my riggers. Is there a reason you are asking about the braid Steve?

Been there done that Jon. They want a fun trip more than a successful one. Good job.

Very nice, we'll be up there sunday afternoon, I'm looking ofrward to it.

Sorry for the late report, you'll see why later. Anyway, for my first trip out of Muskegon we headed out around 5:30 pm friday and were greeted by 2-4' waves with occassional bigger waves making it interesting. The waves were mostly out of the north so we motored out to 150' along the net that is just north of port and setup on a south/southeast troll. Ended up in 90' of water when we ran into the first set of nets to the south of the harbor and were 2/3 when we decided to pull lines and head back to the north and set up on another south troll in front of the harbor. Went 1/2 in there and then pulled lines and headed in. Saturday morning we set up in 85' at the north set of nets and put the boat on a 180 degree heading. We took a few fish right away on mag walker divers set on 1 100' and 125' back with the spinnie/fly combos. We missed on a fish on the blue spinnie/fly. When we got south of the harbor things got fun as we hit a pod of fish and landed a quad. The green spinnie/fly back 125' went, a fullcore with the mag white/glow/dot went, a rigger with the regular white/glow/dot went and the other rigger with the mag green spoon went. We had to make a hard turn west to avoid the south nets and we only had 2 rods in the water so we decided to pull them and motor back north, the waves were still a little sloppy. That didn't work out for us as we didn't take a hit on the next pass so we started working out deeper and picked away at a few more. Rigger down 65' went with the Sportsman's Special spoon, 300' copper took a steelie on the lemon ice and I think we had a few more I don't remember. Ended up 10/13 with 7 kings, 2 steelies and a nice fat coho. We fished from 90-135' and just bouced between the nets that are set up north and south of the harbor. Had a great time and caught a few fish, but more importantly $8,750 was raised for Benefit4Kids. We will be back next year. Thanks to everyone who organized this again, it's a very well run event. The reason my post is so late is that the wife called and said I had to be home sunday morning instead of fishing as I had planned so I was on daddy duty the last 2 days.

Good job Mark.

Phil, I don't see where anyone attacked you, unless I missed something. You are far from the only person I know who refuses to fish tournaments, for many different reasons. But other people enjoy them. Neither opinion is wrong, they are both just that, opinions. All that being said, I have never fished one of the big Tournament Trail events. In order for me to justify doing it I would need to feel like I had a chance to compete and maybe win. With the distance I live from the lake and the few times I am able to fish during the year I just don't feel like I am able to do that. I would just be donating. So I try to fish as many of the club events as my work schedule allows and fish the Dreamweaver every year. That allows me to "compete" to a certain extent but they are more fun events. Maybe in the future if the large tournaments are around I will fish them. Just my opinion.

I wouldn't worry about it, everyone screws up on fish once in a while. I know I have.

Good job Steve, thanks for the report.

Great job!

I usually drop low divers in and loosen the drag. While they creep out I set riggers. Then I set out high divers. After that I start setting board rods but usually set the inside boards first. I kind of start in the rear of the boat and work forward. Not sure why, that's just how I do it.