Adam Bomb

Boy Tommy does some awesome work. Harnesesses look good Dan. That spotted, goby pattern im guessing, reminds me of a blade i use from Fishlander. The Fishlander blade is use is called Gold muffin. I like to run it on a rootbeer bead string off a bottom bouncer. That thing is killer. The pic doesnt do it any justice, but it has a bit more of a copper schene than a gold one. http://http://www.franksgreatoutdoors.com/item.asp?id=259316 I bought some of those blades with the holes in them years ago. Infact, they are the exact same holographic color scheme, without the scale pattern in them. I wonder if Tommy's bringing that blade back from when the company was Viper Blades?....Anyhow, i havent personally noticed any difference in the catch ratio one way or another with them.

Kings get my vote!

My biggest King last year hit the 20# mark. Caught it out of Ludington on a standard sized Super Glow Green Froggy Fishlander 30' back 40' down on the rigger. I had to net two other fish for my buddy while i had her on. What a firedrill at 5:30 in the morning. She tore me up goooood!

Im a homebrewer when it comes to flies. My super glow blue or green chaos flies have been consistant producers for me behind spinnies.

Yeah, i forgot to mention that. The head does come on thier fly. But, after its tore up you can add it to your own creations. Itll slip right over that mag head like you used on your flies. The inside of the head is perfectly molded to do so.

Congrats!

Nice work Yooper, and some great color combos. Ive tied some up that look just like that. Ive always made allot of my own jigs/baits etc., but i just started tying my own trolling flies a couple years ago. Its very gratifying to catch fish on them and have them hold up to the beating big kings deliver. You think its cool now, wait until you catch some fish on them! Try some 12 mm super glow beads on them. You can get them from www.fishertackle.com They also have some new rattling fly heads this year that will slip over the mag fly heads. They even have some large glow eyes, check em out. Another place to get the tubes is Franks Great Outdoors in Linwood www.franksgreatoutdoors.com Theyre located in the NW corner of the store on the West wall.

When i run harnesses, i generally run inline weights or bottom bouncers. I fish Saginaw Bay, so for the most part the deepest water im going to encounter is 30-32', unless i get up towards Augres where you can hit water 35-45'. For water depths of 30' or less i use 1 oz inline wieghts. Ive fished them allot and konw where they are in the water colomn, so i dont mess with other weights a whole lots. Its a confidence thing and works for me. And just as with any lure you use, distance back will vary depending on where the fish are in the water column. A good rule of thumb is 2' back, 1' down with 1 oz at 1.0 S.O.G. up to about 60' back. Anything beyond that and line drag starts to take over lifting the bait. When i run BB im generally targeting fish that are tight to the bottom. To do this i like to lay my rods out flat like i do with dipseys. I let out enough line so that the BB makes contact with bottom every so often. I dont want it to drag, but a "tick" every now and then.

Your right on in that assumption Phishy. This winter my uncle iced a 31 1/2" 9.9# male out of Saginaw Bay. What a brute. In addition we iced a fair amount of males in the 22-24" range with a few that hit 26"-27". I love those big males, theyre all "shoulders" from head to tail, what a battle!!!

Shhhheewwww!!!!.....Now thats a dandy. Damn nice fish!

Excellent points Treblemaker. Cool water periods definitely merrit a more subtle action bait. Rapala-like baits fit that bill perfectly. Deep and shallow versions are excellent choices. Gotta love that night bite! Only thing ill add is that you can go a little larger on the baits if you wish. Walleyes will readily hit a big minnow bait. Like Treblemaker I use allot of the HJ14's, but i fish the Original Floaters in the 18's just as much.

Thats a bummer, i like the peir cam....Only bad part is the hell my Dad would get from Mom when she spotted the truck in the parking lot.

Hey Caz, When i run tots i run either the 3/8 oz. rattle tots(no longer available:() or the 1/4 oz version. There are allot of newer tot imitators like Dave Kabooms Winning Streak etc out there that have the rattles, but i have yet to try them. I have lots of the original tot stock and just havent found the need to invest in them. Now, length back is hard to determine because that will likely vary from day to day. As a rule of thumb productive lengths back are usually in the 80-120' range in my experiences. That said, ive pounded fish high in the water column running leads as short as 15-18' off the boards. Your best bet would be to set up one side short and one side long and see what the most productive leads would be. Set one side say 40-70 back and the other 80-110' back. Shorten and lengthen as needed. Another option would be to run different sizes on each side of the boat to let you know what the fish prefer in that aspect. Again, mix up the leads until you find whats most productive. Besides tots, you may want to consider inlines, bb, or snap weights with crawler harnesses. There are variations that involve spoons with harnesses as well. You could use a smaller spoon as an attrator ahead of it or actually run a hook end off a harness in place of the treble hook. And last but not least, dont overlook jet divers, mini disks, or dipseys for that matter. You can run spoons, harnesses and stick baits behind them if need be. In general i like speeds in the 2.0-2.5 SOG for tots, just make sure theyre tuned properly and you give them ample spacing whether you run them on inline boards or traditional style boards as tots have lots of lateral movement in the water. If theyre not tuned correctly theyll run to one side or the other and will likely flip over evenutally and be skiing atop the water. If you see seagulls back there circling your spread, its likely you have a tot skiing back there. In regards to color, i have many many favorites, but Blue/Chrome w black herring bone with a red gill slit and bill or "Charter Choice" as its called here on Saginaw Bay, is tough to beat day in day out. Other solid choices seem to be combos involving Chrome w/ black, green, purple and red. Gold w/black or orange back are also consistant producers. Perch patterns with gold schemes seem to peak walleyes interests. I also like to carry a variety solid metalic colors for dark days. I cant count the walleye ive caught on dark cloudy days on a solid purple metallic tot with a black back or "purple tuxedo". Finally, no walleye arsenal would be complete without Perch or Firetiger patterns. Other non metallic or "painted" colors as we've dubbed them produce well at times. Theyre more or less neutral tones. Baits with white or grayish bellies, they may have a dark green, purple, or blue scale side and lower back accented with a black strip along the very top of the back. Copper is a color that for whatever reason has had a slow following here on Saginaw Bay but has increased popularity in recent years. It seems to be a go to down on Erie. I hope this helps, and best of luck with the toothy criters.

Exactly, thats why i like the soft tip and then the back bone to put her home. The 12' would be nicer when your running say 4 right off the boat and not on boards. Itd allow you spread things out a bit more.

Yup, i sure have. Im a bit of a tackle crafter and make my own. Thanks for the heads up though. I believe you can get them at Franks Great Outdoors in Linwood if anyone is interested. I checked their site and theyre not on there, but theres allot in that store that isnt on the site. They do have Dan's Wiggle Disk Harness listed on there though. http://www.franksgreatoutdoors.com/items.asp?id=1097&manufacturerid=2556&categoryid=1

I like an 8' composite rod with a soft tip and lots of back bone. I couple this with a line counter reel and spool up with 15# Power Pro. Most times i run my BB directly off the boat and often times ill hold a rod in my hand and manipulate it to trigger strikes. I like the braid for the added feel and instant hook setting abilities, not to mention the thin lines leaves less blow back. In turn that leads to easier managing if im running a combination of BB off the corners and boards with inlines or snap weights. Makes it easier when you have a fish on. Allot of times i dont even pull the rods on the corners because theyre so verticle....I should add that i use big BB...Most times the 3 oz variety.

I like hooking minnows in that manner as well. Going in the top of the head and out the bottom definitely keeps them on the hook much better. ...and obviously walleyes dont mine the imposed minnow because that one sure took it down to the fuel pump.

I drew my ZZ tag as well. Cant wait for the 21st to roll around. Im ready now!!! Good luck guys, and dont forget to take some pics!

Overall, id have to say i use Silver Streaks for the most part. Probably because thats what i used years ago and were succsessful with, so i continue to use them out there....MJ, Walmart, Glow Screwball, Blue and Green Dolphins readily come to mind. Now that they have the walleye sizes i like to deploy them when fishing Saginaw Bay....when im not pulling meat that is....I do use a fair amount of Stingers in my walleye applications as well.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey guys, I have a pair of Hodgman Duramag 1200 waders that has a leak in the left boot. The problem i have is that the rubber seam where the sole and the boot upper come together is coming apart where the boot bends. Ive attempted to fix it with a few different sealants with no luck at all. The area is only about 1/2 long, so id like to try and save em if i can. Plus this is only the third season on those waders. I know its a tough fix because its where the boot bends, but does anyone have any advise on how I can fix them? If not, looks like ill have to get some new ones. Thanks, Adam

Thats a sad story all the way around....I hate theivery!

Ive run my flashers anywhere from 10-35' behind the ball. The higher up the longer the lead. Normally though, my flashers and flies are most productive off the dispseys. Ive found that the longer the lead off the dipsey to the flasher/fly, the more productive they were. Ive tried various leader lengths and the 6'6" has been the most productive on our boat. It can be a little hairy netting at times, but its worth the trade off IMO. My best length behind the flasher is 20" from the end of the flasher to the head on the fly. I had a fly leader get a knick in it, so i retied it. By the time i was done cutting and retying it was only 15" from the flasher to flie head. It ended up being one of my hottest set ups. So dont be afraid to go short either. That was more so for Kings though.

We get most of our Steelhead on spoons, but we've got a few on a 8" Mnt. Dew Glow Blade SD w/a Glow Bloody Nose fly. Been killer on Kings as well. Heres the last one to fall prey to this set up.

Sounds like a great piece of calling to me. Nice way to bang em. Bummer on the lost bird.....Gotta love that bling.