Priority1

Mike, Nice work out of Ludington.

I fished with Larry M, Chuck G, and Canyon G, both days. Canyon is a super good 8 yo that loves to fish. The storms that we had Thursday and Friday had a negative affect on the fish. Thank you Larry, Chuck, and Canyon. We ran meat both days. Thursday we didn't bring in one legal walleye and very few trash fish which is unusual to say the least. We waited for the early morning winds to subside and launched a little after 9AM. We have had trips in the past where we were done by that time. We enjoyed the day on the water but catching some fish would have made it a touch better. We marked a lot of fish but getting them to hit was another story. We were in perch country and the bandits lived up to their name stealing our bait at every opportunity. Friday we launched at around 6:30 AM and shut down and checked a few places before setting lines. I definitely wanted different water than yesterday. We marked a quite a few fish but the bite was challenging again. We picked up our first walleye while setting lines which is usually a good sign. We were blessed with 2 more keepers for a mornings worth of fishing for a total of 3. We did have a couple of undersized walleye and all fish didn't need measuring. They were either obviously keepers or throw backs. The first fish came high and the rest deep. I hope we get some stable weather soon.

I don't see why it wouldn't work the same as core.

Alan, Thanks for the info.

First a warm to the site. I too have seen sonar units that just seem too fish happy. I fish with an old LMS 350 combo. I have a color Garmin next to it that seldom gets turned on. My old black and white seems to perform best for me with the sensitivity set @62% and the scroll rate fast. When I mark fish I'm usually catching them.

Bump

Clean power does have it's place however the reality is if not for the subsidies that we pay for it would not be practical. Like grain being used to produce fuel. We are only fooling our selves.

I checked the winds off the light and buoys when I got up and the NW winds were in the range to produce the predicted two foot waves. I fished with Gary K, Joe S, and Tom K, The two foot waves quickly built to 3s with an occasional 4 footer. I think it must have been one of the two foot waves that washed the top of my cooler. With the conditions we couldn't run the patterns that I wanted only go with the waves or back up against them. The screen was filled with fish almost constantly with few takers. We did get into some active fish towards the end of our trip. Joe works 2cd shift so we had to pull lines around noon. I would have liked to have stayed an hr longer as the fish were cooperating better towards the end. 11-29 FOW pulling BB and meat off two down rods and 10 OR 12 Offshore boards. The down rods did more than their share. We ended with 11 walleyes and a 10 inch perch. The perch are schooling up and it should be a good yr for them. Joe had to run to get on the GM clock and Gary and Tom took their limit of walleye. I kept one chunky 23" fish and the perch for our fresh fish dinner last night. They yielded 1-1/2#. I'll have the leftovers for lunch today or take on the boat tomorrow. Out best color was glow chartreuse on the down rods. Hammered copper and hammered nickel on the boards. It was a good trip with good people. The only time it really felt rough was on the turns when for a brief period we would be broached in the waves. Thanks again Gary, Joe, and Tom for joining me on the ever changing Saginaw Bay.

I'll have some more available soon. Thanks for inquiring. I do these in my off fishing time and the response was far greater than I had anticipated.

I'm glad you and Beth had fun with the A Team. Enjoy these times. They will be full grown before you know it.

Kevin, It's bad enough when something like this happens to an adult. It bummed me out as it did Ryan. I'm going to try and capture his reaction when he first sees it.

Mike, Nice work out of the Joe.

The picture is of Ryan M aka never enough holding a smallie replica he created for my grandson Alex. Alex is 12 now but in 2011 Alex was fishing with his dad on Houghton Lk when he caught a 24" Smallie. He was fishing with Offshore Planer Boards pulling one of my homemade Smile Blade harnesses. The smile blade was made with a plastic cookie box and some prism tape. There were no pics taken and the fish was immediately taken to a highly recommended taxidermist in the HL area. The taxidermist moved to TX with the deposit and heaven knows what he did with the fish. Ryan M helped me turn this bad situation into something good. Alex will get this for Christmas from his grandpa. A big THANKS Ryan.

You got it. One boat in particular. He even shut down right in front of us and everyone onboard started pulling lines. I think they reset for different depths and then started back to trolling. That move made it impossible for me to hold course pushing me on to some shallow structure. We were able to make a couple more short passes but were never able to hit the mark I wanted because of the added traffic. I had the tools to really make their day but decided to finish elsewhere. It was looking too rough for me to plan any fishing for Sun. If you do get out GL to you and Griz. Give my best to Beth and the A Team.

I fished with Ken R, Joe W, and Skip S, on Fri in 24-34 FOW. I fished an area that I hadn't fished since the late 80s. Maybe I'll try it again in another 20-30 yrs. The bite was slow and tougher than our last trip, but at one point we took 4 nice ones in about 10-15 minutes. The boats crowded in and after one particular move I left the area.:yikes: Good rod handling can make or break you on these tougher days. We ended with 12 chunky walleye. Our best color and rod combination was glow chartreuse on the down rods. The 2 down rods took over half our fish with one rod in particular really doing it to em. Other colors hammered copper and antifreeze. I'll fight the weeds next trip. Speed had to be around 1.5 MPH or they wouldn't hit. A couple of big cats, gobies, and a few smaller sheep head also liked our speed and presentation. 2oz bb with spinner rigs off the boards, and 3oz on the down rods. Thanks Skip, Joe, and Ken for making my day. I didn't take any fish home.

Mike, Nice work again in tough conditions.

It was my pleasure to fish with Bob S, Karl M, and Joe S, on the beautiful Saginaw Bay. Two of my friends are GM shift workers and we were done in plenty of time for them to filet their fish and get on the time clock. Glow chartreuse on 3oz BB off the two down rods accounted for about 1/2 our fish. Hammered copper, and antifreeze on the 10 Offshore boards did well also. The guys that were with me were very capable of doing anything necessary to get it done. We also caught a feisty small mouth that was quickly released. We were fishing in 3 foot rollers for awhile. At first the fish were lethargic and we had to slow to 1.4 to 1.5 MPH to get the fish to hit. Later I was running about 1.7-1.9 and that kept the trash off and the walleye were cooperating. I forgot to mention that last trip we got some lip bling on a 21-1/2" walleye. I saw Hog Eye Chaser and was in contact with him. We never had to measure any fish and we didn't have any throw backs. Gotta Love what we have in our backyards.

I had the pleasure of fishing with Natalie S, Jerry S, and Joe S. Joe is a shift worker so we called it quits with 17 very nice walleye and we farmed about a 17-18 inch small mouth. None of the walleye needed measuring and all that were hooked made it to the box. We had a quite a few come off without really being hooked up. A lot of the fish unhooked themselves in the net. The down rods with 3oz BB and glow chartreuse did more than their share of the damage. The best color on the boards behind 2oz BB was a dirty hammered copper and then the antifreeze. We ran all #4 Colorado spinners. 19-27 FOW doing 1.5-1.8 MPH. Natalie is Jerry's 16 yo daughter and she did most of the reeling. It was a good trip with great people. I may just have to work a couple of more trips in this week.

Mike GJ as always.

J Dog, Nice work.

I fished with Ted W, Joe M, and Joe S Saturday morning on the Saginaw Bay. We concentrated our efforts in 20-27 FOW. Glow Chartreuse on the down rods was the hottest ticket. Antifreeze and Hammered Copper were also good. 3oz BB off the down rods and 2oz BB off the boards. The water temps had cooled down to 72 on the surface and the fish wanted it a lot slower than the 1.8 - 2.2 we were running the meat on the last two trips. 1.4 -1.5 MPH was getting results. We didn't catch a single undersize walleye and none of our fish needed measuring. It was a good day with good people. Thanks Joe M, Joe S, and Ted W, for joining me on the bay this morning.

Skiff Guy, You are so here. Take a few minutes to fill out your profile. Everyone here is helpful and friendly. Just let us know if you need any help.

Mon, I had good friends Skip S, Joe S, and Chuck A, join me on a recon trip. I set down on about 6 spots over a 5 mile area. We set up and picked up 11 nice walleye before calling it a day. Joe had to get on GMs clock. 2oz BB of the boards and 3oz on our down rods. The down rods did more than their share. Chartreuse Glow, Antifreeze, Hammered Nickel, and Hammered Cooper, were the best colors in that order. Speed was 1.7 to 2+ mph. Tue, I fished with Joe S, Tom D, and Mike T. We gained some knowledge from the previous trip and set down and stated catching fish. We had seven in the box the first pass and then the bite slowed a touch. We continued to ice some eyes at a reasonable pace. Same setups and colors as mentioned above. Both trips we had a nice mix of decent size fish. Our largest being about 24" with a quite a few in the 20" range. Down rods with glow Chartreuse did more than their share of damage. The fish were just aggressive enough to hit the spinner rigs @ 1.8-2+ MPH. When we pulled lines the surface temps made it to 80 degrees. "But wait there's more." While going to get the truck and trailer to pull Priority1 out I met Capt. Mark from "Reel Fishing". It's always good to put a face with a name. Mark seems to be a REEL nice person.

Capt. Mike nice work again.

Nick, I'm glad you made it out with Parker and grandpa.