Paulywood

With the Fish ID off it shows fish as arches. I will try to find GLF's post of fish finder pictures and link it. I used to use the Fish ID but only when fishing with my girlfriend, she likes to see the fish pictures. With my Garmin at 87% I marked the thermocline the other week and downrigger balls, when they were close enough to the boat. Also had no problem marking bait balls.

You only had 6 rods in the water, therefore you only needed 2 licenses. They probably thought you looked suspicous, 27' boat and only 6 rods:D

If you had the gain up to 100% it was probably showing every little thing as a fish. I just put in a Garmin 340c this year and have been running it at 87% w/ the fish symbols off. I am able to mark the thermocline and any bait or fish, seems to be working pretty good.

Here's my report. First off I'd like to thank Rich, Dreamweaver, Big Jon, Captain Gary's and all of the other sponsors and volunteers that helped out. It was another great time. Also, thanks to Brian, Hunt4Ever, for the wild boar brat saturday night, it helped take the edge off sunday morning. Now to the report: Due to multiple issues our original plan to run north past the nets was replaced by a new plan, set lines outside of the harbor because it was already 5 am. We angled south out of the harbor and started setting lines in 40 ft. Pointed the boat northwest through a hole in the pack and worked out to 70 ft. with nothing going. Turned north and picked up our first fish in 80 ft. out from the stack. Wire diver on 3 100' back w/ Double Crush Glow SD/Sledgehammer Fly took a real nice king. Took our second fish around 90' on a half core w/ Super Glow Lemon Icicle. Another nice king. Turned west and took a third fish on the Hello Darlin' as a free slider on a rigger set 45' down in 110'. Good king. Turned around and weaved through the pack up to 80 ft. with nothing happening so we headed back out and promptly took a fish on a 7 color w/ Mixed Veggie spoon in 100'. Another good king. Trolled out to 125' and then turned back in. Worked our way in to 80 ft. again w/ nothing happening so we turned back around and trolled back out. In 115' we took another king on the half core Lemon Icicle set up to end our day. Took a rip on the Double Glow Spinnie wire set up and a rip on the half core w/ no one home. Also donated a full core/board/Glow Frog setting up when we snagged, don't know what on we were nowhere near the nets in 70 ft. of water. Our big fish was 13.6 lbs. and small fish was 10.8, 5 fish box of 59.4 lbs. Great day on the water and the whole crew had a lot of fun.

Great Job Rob! Hopefully you will be able to make it to one of the events before the end of the year and we can thank you in person. Nick

Here you go. http://www.passport-america.com/campgrounds/united_states/michigan/muskegon/fishermans_landing_launch_and_campground/Default.asp

Rich, Just wanted to let you know that we will not be sticking around for the potluck. I need my nap before I go to work. I plan on coming up saturday afternoon and staying at Fisherman's Landing. See you this weekend.

Here's Mine!

I'll get my pictures up later but here's my report. We motored out to 60' and set lines. 2 riggers, 2 wire dipsey's, a full core and a half core. Just after the sun came up we had a triple, both riggers and a dipsey. First fish was on the holographic spoon as a free slider over a rigger 50' down. An impatient crew member decided to tighten the drag and winch him in. When the fish reached the back of the boat he went nuts and dove into a wire dipsey, down one fish and one spoon. The other rigger had gone off during this and after some confusion we boated a nice king on a watermelon 45' down. As a bonus he brought my full core in with him. In the meantime a dipsey had gone off 125' back w/ white Pro Troll/Blue Fly. The 2 rods changed hands a few times and while boating the first fish(and Core) we managed to tangle the net. After untangling we attempted to net this fish but due to equipment scattered all over the boat and a captain who didn't know how to run a net, the fish was "released". Did I mention that this same captain had removed the spare net from the boat the night before because it "marked up" his vinyl trim. We set back up, w/ a 7 color replacing the full core, and continued trolling west. We took a rip on a Chrome/Green SD/Green Fly 150' back on the other dipsey but managed to tangle the rod with a core rod and let that fish go so it would grow bigger. At 160' we turned south to head back inside and took another fish on the Blue Fly dipsey combo. Even managed to get it in the boat. Trolled back into 100' then turned and ran back over our original path. Took a double in 115' with both wire dipsey's going. I had changed out the flasher on the green fly, putting on an 11' White Pro Troll. The Blue fly was back 175' and the Green back 225 ft. We landed the fish on the Blue fly while I struggled with the "monster" on the Green. It ended up being a 6 lb. king and an untripped dipsey. We cycled back out to 150', turned in to 90' and worked back out to 125'. We were going to go deeper but the wind had changed and was straight out of the west. Instead we trolled north/northeast and then spun back southeast. Got in to 80' and decided to try bouncing bottom for lakers. Set one rigger on the bottom and pulled in the Green fly dipsey. It pulled extremely hard and I figured it hadn't tripped again. Ended up being a 5 lb. lake trout riding behind the boat. He just squeezed into the slot limit (because my girlfriend's mom's cousin once removed is 25% Native American) for our 5th fish. It was 10:40 so we pulled lines and cruised in. Just wanted to thank Rich, Brian, and especially Northern King for a great outing.

I was running 50-60' leads and it wasn't a typo. The lake was flat calm and we were running everything up high. I don't follow the 100' rule all of the time but it is a good starting point. Even though we lost a lot of fish they weren't due to fish not hooking up, there were other factors involved. I would say that a normal lead for me at 50' is 30'. I stretched them out on friday due to a bright sun and calm seas. It worked for me but might not work all of the time. Sometimes it pays to change things up. Nick

We were fishing our riggers in the top 50' so I ran long leads, 40-60'. We lost fish every way possible, a lot of them due to tangles or break offs. The only fish that we just lost were ones that came out of the water. The one steelie jumped multiple times before it came off and we had 2 kings that jumped also. They were both hooked in the top 30'. I dropped my temp probe down later in the day and 50' down it showed 41 degrees. After that we kept everything above that.

I want to start out by saying that the following report is true, I have tried to remember everything but it was a little crazy. I'll post our final tally first......get ready...... 8-16:tease: I know that our landing percentage was bad but it was a great morning of fishing. I took my coworker Mike out with me this morning. He had never caught anything bigger than a bullhead and the only time he had been out on Lake Michigan was with me the morning my boat broke. We got to Snug Harbor around 4:45 and started getting ready. But the stern light on my boat wasn't working so we ran back to the gas station for another light bulb. Finally hit the big lake around 5:30 and started setting lines in 50 ft. Put a Kevorkian Stinger down on 1 rigger and a Moonshine Happee Meal on the other. We were hearing great reports from other boats already. I started setting a dipsey when the 1st rigger fired. I grabbed the rod, handed it to Mike and he reeled it right to the boat. I figured it was a little one. Turned out to be a 12-14 lb. angry king. He went berserk at the back of the boat and dove straight for the prop. 0/1 Reset that rod with another Kevorkian and set a braid dipsey with a Mountain Dew Spinnie and new Sqwuinchee Green Fly. Just got it in the water and the Moonshine rigger fired. That fish fought for 15 minutes and then also went nuts at the back of the boat. He dove under the boat and we managed to drag him back out and net him. Nice 15 lb. king. 1/2 I reset that rod and it immediately fired again. I fought a nice king to the back of the boat where he ran straight for a dipsey line that cut him off. 1/3 The sun was coming up by then so I reset that rod w/ a Stinger Mixed Veggie. As I got that set the first rod fired. Mike landed another nice king, 14 lbs. 2/4 Dipsey screamed line but didn't release. I fought the fish and dipsey for a while but it got off. 2/5 Reset that dipsey and a wire dipsey w/ Custom Flasher/Green Siggs Rigs fly Also set a full core w/ NBK. Then the Kevorkian rigger fired again. After a short battle he got off. 2/5 The wire dipsey started screaming line and 15 minutes later I landed a 12 lb. king. While I fought that the fullcore took a rip but we lost him trying to handle both fish, the boat, and the net. 3/7 We then proceeded to lose 1 fish on each rigger, and 2 more spoons. 3/9 After that we boated a nice 10 lb. king on the fullcore. 4/10 And lost one on the fullcore. 4/11 And boated one on a Mixed Veggie on the rigger. 5/12 We never set our 6th rod through all of this and rarely had more than 3 rods in the water at once. Looked at the clock and it was only 7:30! What a blast!! We heard other boats that had boxed their limit of kings and were heading in. We were still one short. We headed deeper to avoid the crowd and reset lines. By 8:00 am we finally had 6 rods in the water and sliders on the riggers. But the fishing slowed way down. We moved out deeper and found more fish in the 120-160 foot area. Around 10 am we took a 6 lb. king on the fullcore/NBK to fill our box. Started pulling everything high for steelies and landed and released 2 more kings, 1 on rigger w/ Moonshine Yellowtail and 1 on 3 color core with an Orangecicle. On our way back in we had a monster steelie take my new Northport Nailer w/ green/glow/red 50 ft. back on a slide diver. This fish put on a show before shaking free 15 ft. behind the boat. After that we pulled lines and headed in. What a great morning! I've got some pictures that I'll try to post.

Sounds good Caz, can't wait. Hopefully the 22nd will be as good as my day was today. I'll post a report in a second.

Caz, I'm off wed-sun. also. I will probably be fishing at least 1 day out of Muskegon. Let me know if you want to tag up on some fishies.

Caz, Here's the best way to do it. I carry a jump pack in the boat with me. In case something happens just hook it up and you're good to go. Nick

Just wanted to update everyone on how my niece is doing. I’ll quote my sister-in-law. My 100 day tests show that I'm proud to be Leukemia FREE!! Or in Maddie speak, "No more 'kemia!" P.S. I'm also 100% DONOR!!! For everyone who doesn’t know this is the best news we could have hoped for. They are weaning her off her medication and she is slowly returning to a normal life. Thanks again everyone for your donations and prayers, they were much appreciated. I’ll update again at the end of the summer. If you are interested I posted her website below. Nick http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=madelinethelen

Congrats to everyone and thanks to Caz and everyone else who helps run these tourneys. It's always a good time and sunday was no exception. Also thanks to Custom Fishing Products and Siggs Rigs, the combo I got put our big fish in the boat. I accidently left my Squinchee fly in the truck so I didn't get to run it but I will next time for sure. On a side note congrats Jimmy, hope everyone comes out ok. My friends daughter was born 2 months early last year (weighed in at 4 lbs.) and she will be celebrating her 1st birthday this week and was causing all kinds of trouble when I stopped over there saturday to drop off some fish. So I'm sure that your wife and kid will be fine. I look forward to getting outfished in the years to come by Sixshooter Jr.

I'll post my saturday and sunday report here. Saturday We set lines north of Port Sheldon in 75 ft. of water around 5 am. I set one rigger and was working on the other when I noticed that the other rod had released. My crew failed to notice this. I reset it and went back to work when the first one fired. Dave Ash was fishing with us and he reeled in a 6lb king on a Moonshine Yellowtail 45 ft. down. I reset that rod and finished setting our other rods when right at sun-up a full core with Moonshine Shelly Snack started screaming. That ended up being our 14lb 15 oz king. My buddy Ross tackled that one for me. Minutes later a 3 color core w/ Goldilocks Stinger went off and we landed a 10lb steely. I quickly reset that rod when it fired again. Another large steely that put on an aerial display before coming unbuttoned 50 ft. behind the boat. We reset that rod without checking the spoon, a mistake we later regretted:grin: As the sun came up we started working our way in and took 3 fish in short order. All on a Dreamweaver Orangecicle (I think) that was set as a free slider over a rigger 60 ft. down. These ended up being 2 steelies and 1 coho. All of this action happened before 9 am. We continued to work the 60-85 ft. section of water but never had another bump before we pulled lines at 11:30 am. When we pulled in the 3 color we noticed the hook and split ring were gone. Always check your bait. That's what I learned this weekend. Final score 6-8, 3 steelies, 2 king, 1 coho. Sunday We set lines in 50 ft. straight off the stacks on sunday. Had one release right away on a Moonshine moonshine but no one home. That was right before sun-up. Then we had nothing for 2 hours. After marking fish in shallow but not hooking any saturday we decided to head west after the sun came up. We made a pass from 140 ft. to 180 ft. about 4 miles north of the stacks and hit 3 fish. 1 king on a full core w/ NBK at 13 lbs. 1 king on wire diver on 3 back 125 ft. w/ our brand new 11" Custom Flasher and Siggs Rigs Green Crinkle fly that was 13.4 lbs. And a steely on a half core/Goldilocks (complete w/ brand new blood red hook and split ring) set-up that weighed in at just over 10 lbs. We turned around at 180 ft. and headed back in. We lost another big steely on the half core/Goldilocks set-up. I had just reset it(the board released in the waves) and placed the rod in the holder when it started screaming. Unfortunately the board was still behind the boat and it dove as the steely hit. We watched it jump around behind the boat but knew it was gone when the board finally popped back to the surface. We trolled back to 130 ft. and then turned around and ran over the same water. We took another steely on the full core/NBK set-up on our way back west. Unfortunately he destroyed the spoon and I didn't have anymore. We reset the rod w/ a Michael Jackson and took our last steely on our way back in on that set-up. Final score 5-7, 3 steelies, 2 kings, 54 lbs. All 4 steelies we hooked came out of the water and put on a show. My friend Mike was with me and he landed both kings and 1 steely, he also caught his first fish on a wire diver. All in all a great weekend on the water. Nick

I looked, the Sampo's are #1's, 30 lbs.

I use Sampo's after having a cheaper swivel break on half, at the bearing, last year in september. 30# and I'm pretty sure the number is 3. For my dipsey to spinney leaders I use big Opti coastlocks that I got a good deal on. 50#ers. I use crawler harness keepers for my leaders. But I think that a swim noodle or foam pipe insulation would be better, less winding.

I'm not sure if I understand your question. When I run spoons I don't run a leader, just my mainline (which varies from 12, 17 or 20 lb.). I also don't run a flasher, just a spoon. A normal set-up for me would be run the spoon out 35 ft, attach it to the release, drop ball down 65 ft. I use the 100 ft. theory, though not religously. (100 ft. Theory, depth of rigger plus lead off ball equals 100 ft. 50 back, 50 down, etc.) If I'm running a flasher I either place it tight to the ball, like 10-15 back, or way the heck back behind everything. The farther you let them back the bigger they spin in a circle. If this doesn't make any sense maybe I don't understand your question. Nick

Do you always run flashers in front of your spoons? I almost always run my spoons clean. If you run your spoons clean on the riggers then you can run longer leads. I don't know a whole lot myself but I went to a seminar by Dan Keating this summer. He also has a book called Keating on Kings. It has a ton of info and might give you some good ideas. Also, Rich's leadcore idea is one to think about, some days core is all that catches fish. The good news is that the best fishing for the summer is yet to come. Good luck and welcome.

I have 2 sets of dipsey rods, braid on 10'6" and wire on 9'6". The long rods makes setting them a lot easier and lets you use a longer leader. I have 2 different lengths because when I get a bigger boat I would like to use both sets. The shorter wire rods would be inside and deeper than the longer braid rods. I prefer shorter rods, 8' or under for cores and boards. I also like a lighter action because I use 12# test on my boards and like to have the action in the rods to help fight fish. For slide divers I use a short, stiff rod. This makes it easier for me to set on my boat because I don't have a lot of empty floor space.

I use rubber bands on the line to keep the board from sliding. I just half-hitch a rubber band on the line and then put the pin in the back of the board through the loop. My boards are set-up not to release. These are Walleye boards.

After seeing all of the bait and fish south of Muskegon friday night I decided to head there on saturday. We hit the water around 4:30 and made a pass in front of the channel. We marked a lot of bait but no fish so we ran out to 70 ft. and set-up. We trolled out to 100' but pulled lines when we heard a thunderstorm was supposed to come through. Found a shaker that we threw back that was on a Blue Dolphin 65' down on a rigger. Ran up and anchored off the pier until about 7:30 pm when the storm had passed (it actually missed us completely, oh well). Ran south about 2 miles when I spotted a buoy that I assume was marking a set of nets. Turned west and trolled parallel to the nets out to 150'. By then it was about 9 pm and we pulled lines and set-up a glow program and set course back to the piers. Trolled in to 50 ft. where we pulled lines at 10:30 pm. Took 1 3 lb. king on a Glow Froggy free slider over a rigger 45' down in about 100' of water. That was it for our trip. We marked a lot of bait and quite a few fish from 100'-50' but couldn't get anything going. Even pulled lines and recharged lures. Some guys out deeper took a few fish but it sounded pretty slow. The chatter from Port Sheldon and Grand Haven sounded like they were having more success than us. It was a beautiful day on the water and a good time for my brother-in-law and girlfriend on their first trip out this year.