Paulywood

Here are a couple of posts from the Dreamweaver/Big Jon Benefit4Kids Tournament from last year: http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10777 http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11313

I agree Frank. I started switching all of mine last year. I'll finish this year.

Shimano Tekota's would be one of the best linecounters out there. Price tag around $160. I use Daiwa Sealine's. They are around $90. Rod length varies greatly. Some people like rods shorter than 7' for every rod. Some like long, 10'+. I use 7'6" rigger rods, 8'6" wire rods, 10' braid rods, and 7' leadcore rods. Hope this helps.

I usually use this method: Talk for a few months about things that I want and then tell her how I have decided to save money and only buy a few things that I really need. Like a bunch of rod and reel combos and 20 flasher-fly combos. But I'm not buying the radar and $2000 worth of downriggers. See how fiscally responsible I am:lol: Another good one is how it's a safety feature. That's how I got my chartplotter. Of course, my wife is insisted on an autopilot for our new boat when we get it. Even after I explained the cost. That's for her so I'll go along with it:D

I think the point that was being made is that the Toyota Camry has more US made content than any other vehicle. Last I heard it was around 97%. There was even speculation that eventually it would be 100%. However, all of that corporate money leaves the US. And Jim, GM brought back the Camaro. I would love to see them racing production cars. Camaro versus Challenger versus Mustang. That would be something to see! The new cars that are knockoffs of the old cars look pretty sweet. I'm a Chevy guy so I'd have to cheer for a Camaro though. Either way, it's still just entertainment. everything changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

Sold. Thanks guys!

Tackle Haven, Brian's or Pier 1000 would all be worth a shot. I am positive Tackle Haven has slips available that early.

Very few people run dacron for dipsey's anymore. I only run braid (Cabela's Ripcord) or wire. The wire achieves deeper depths with less line out than the braid. There is very little stretch in braid, but none in wire. I learned this the hard way running wire on 1 side and braid on the other. The wire hit bottom. I can't help you with the dacron dive curve.

Sounds like you guys did alright too Matt, except for the phone. I bet the lake was a mess when you left saturday night.

Fished Higgins last night and tonight. Caught 100 smelt last night and went 1 for 2 on lakers this morning. Smelt were in 50 ft. of water out from the Legion grounds and laker was on a slammer tip-up in 110' ft. with a grey shiner fished just off the bottom. Also had a hit on a silver/green Do-Jigger tipped with a big grey. Apparently it was too big. The shiner had teeth marks on the tail. Great weekend with Mike (Redeagle). LOTS of slush out there when we came off the lake at 2 pm.

Welome! There are quite a few walleye fishermen here inluding guys who fish Erie and the Saginaw Bay. I know you'll find some useful information. Good Luck!

I took the wife up to Higgins last night for her first smelt trip. The guy at Higgins Tackle gave us a tip to target deeper water, 40-50 ft. So we walked out at Little Creek to 45 ft. and set up camp. Powered up the light and immediately started getting fish. Caught a meals worth by the time the battery for the light quit. Non-stop action. I will be having fried smelt for my supper tonight. Now I need to go buy a deep cycle battery. The lawn mower battery just doesn't have enough juice. I always just used my boat battery, but no boat this year:( As soon as the light went dead, the smelt disappeared. It sure was a lot of fun though!

The ice is a good thing Mike. It means less water lost so hopefully the water levels will continue to rise. If we have a wet spring it should bring the water levels up. Besides, it's winter time Mike. You can always go icefishing:D

With some of the wicked currents we run into the cannonballs with fins are m ore trouble than they are worth. Tangling 2 riggers together is ugly. As far as snap rings, if they come with them I run them. If they don't I don't add one.

That's why I like my Big Jon's. There is hardly any plastic at all. Solid aircraft aluminum. No issues.

I can't go during the week, I have to work in the morning. Maybe next weekend though. I don't have anything going on. You up for a friday or saturday night smelt trip?

Here is the thread on wire setups: http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12232 Randy, I am surprised that the braid doesn't cut into the innerflow rods. Other guys I have talked to have had problems with it. Kjell, I am glad to have guys like you on the site. I just showed my wife pictures of your gear and told her compared to you I don't have much at all:) I think you have 1 of everything. You seem to be missing a few Spindoctors though. You might have to take care of that:)

Don't use the wire or braid on the innerflow rods. It will cut right through them. There is a good discussion on wire setups somewhere. Salmonquest started it. I will PM Mike to see if he can move this and you can repost your want ad. Sorry to move it off-topic. Wire is a great tool. You can reach a lot deeper depths with wire and braid than with mono. I will look for a few threads that discuss wire and braid dipseys.

OK are we talking down speed or surface/GPS speed? I usually like to start around 2.5 mph GPS speed. Then I adjust from there. I don't have any loyalty to one brand of spoons. I think that Stingers run better than other spoons at slow speeds because they are so light. The Moonshine spoons seem to run better at higher speeds but they are very heavy. I also run a lot of Dreamweaver spoons. They seem to be very speed tolerant. I do have some Northern Kings and they seem to be speed tolerant like the Dreamweaver's. Very similar spoons in my opinion. I am also going to try running some of the Pro-Kings that have been sitting in my box this year. I was told that they are very good spoons but I never ran them because I have no confidence in them. Now that I know they work, maybe I will keep them in the water for a longer period.

I see those are all dodgers. Do you run any flashers like Spin Doctors or Pro-Trolls? I see you run riggers and dipsey's, do you also run leadcore? What kind of depths so you target? Do you run wire dipsey's or braid? Just curious if there are many differences between the area's we fish. By the way, I have a lot of the same green spoons as you:D

I wonder what they charge for shipping to Sweden?

I've got one but it's not for sale:) I'll keep my eyes open, I see them come up for sale occassionally.

We almost lost a dipsey rod 4 years ago in the Dreamweaver when my friends homemade schedule 40 dual rod holders broke. Good thing we had tied them off with ropes. He now has aluminum ones. However, I know someone made a whole arch out of schedule 40. I'm not sure if he ran rods out of it or just used it to hold them. I know he ran it in the Brown Blast last year with no problems.

Feel free to post it in a discussion forum. Then everyone can participate. Should be interesting. Hope you had fun at tennis this morning! I'm off to work.

Welcome aboard Kjell! I'm Nick. I fish Lake Michigan for salmon and trout. I would be interested in hearing about your techniques on fishing the sea. You could compare it to the different ways that we fish the great lakes. Maybe someone has the magic trick for us! I saw the pics of your boat, sweet ride and nice job rigging. I hope you find the site informative and entertaining.