I'll be here more!

[SeaCatMich]

As you can see from my GLF user profile, I've been a member since 2006 but have spent most of my time lurking and not posting. I spent most of my Internet fishing time over at the Great Lakes Angler magazine size helping out my good buddy Dave Mull as the forum admin on that site. But that site decided that my association with Dave warranted me being demoted to general user with his dearture. That's okay and I'll probably still make some posts there, but I'll be spending a lot more time here at GLF and making more contributions.

I started fishing the Great Lakes at 11 years old in 1970 when Dad bought a small outboard boat that was really more suited for our 1 acre farm pond that it was on Muskegon Lake where we went to try to catch some of the fall run Chinook salmon. Went out jigging off the mouth of the river near the power plant and hooked one. Unfortunately the 12# mono on the Mitchell 300 reel and 6 1/2' Garcia Conolon rod was no match for the 30# King that was on for about 30 seconds including a 3' jump about 30' off the side of the boat just before it broke off steeling my spoon. About two weeks later with some upgraded tackle, we took the boat up to the High Rollways landing upstream on the Muskegon and caught our limit of Kings casting copper Marathon spoons. Did that two more times that fall including some wading just downstream from Croton Dam catching them on spoons while the crazies around us used Newaygo nuggets and Croton crawlers to snag them with pool cues with reels. Dad had no idea what he had done and I was hooked for life to try to catch these big fish. Just a little different than catching bass and bluegill on the pond.

Over the years we got twofootitis a lot and cured it with an upgrade in boats. From the 11' plastic SportYak "pond" boat to a 15' fiberglass Larson dual console tri-hull which we outfitted with a pair of fancy Riviera 300 downriggers from Armstrong's in Whitehall. Then a 16' aluminum Lone Star which we added a pair of big long arm Riviera 700 rigger to, and then a 20' aluminum cuddy IO with leaking rivets that we never got on the water which was replaced by then a 18' Alumacraft center console with twin 55 hp Chrysler outboards my freshman year of college. A couple years later we bought a 1968 20' Bertram cuddy IO that was what I would really call our first "real salmon boat" and upgraded to electric Invader downriggers. Six years later we went "big" with a 24' Chaparall cuddy.

The Chaparall was not a well made boat and two years later got a very cool 22' Cruisers SeaDevil walkaround cuddy with an OMC SeaDrive. Really outfitted it with new Big Jon Captain Pack riggers, a huge Humminbird CVR50 video fish finder and LORAN-C. While the SeaDrive and closed full transom was great, it was a gas guzzler and most marinas didn't want to work on it so that too was expensive and time consuming when we had mechanical issues. In 1997 I got a job at the Palisades Nuc plant near South Haven and found a condo in St. Joe with a boat slip out the back door. Moved the boat from a slip at Crosswinds in Ludington to St. Joe for daily use and 2 years later decided with all the solo fishing I was now able to do, a twin engine center console boat would be a better fit. Sold the SeaDevil and found my current 21' SeaCat power catamaran. Wow was that a lot of boats to let me/us catch salmon more effectively . Interesting that this is actually my second "cat" hull... that first 11' SportYak was also a tunnel "cat" hull boat.

Being a computer analyst specializing in networks and servers, I'm also a computer geek and this carries over to my salmon fishing too. My boat is outfitted with almost any and all of the electronic gizzmos to help find and catch the fish. Mostly a Raymarine setup with 3 displays (helm, stern, and bow) that can show sonar graph, GPS chart, radar, and autopilot. Standard Horizon VHF and chart plotter w/ C-Map charts. Two Vector riggers and two Big Jon Brutes with a FishHawk X4. More electronics per square foot that any boat on the Great Lakes

Now I'm back in the Lansing area (DeWitt) and the boat gets trailered in all directions to follow the hot fishing. St. Joe for spring Coho and Kings, Sterling State Park and Saginaw Bay for walleye and then Holland, Muskegon, Whitehall, Ludinton, Manistee, or Frankfort all summer through fall for salmon. The worst thing about DeWitt is that it is 2 hours to get to a Great Lake for fishing. The best thing about DeWitt is that it is 2 hours to get to Lake Michigan or Lake Erie or Lake Huron/Sag Bay to go fishing!

Have spent lots of hours on the big lakes -- probably averaged running from Lansing to Ludington 2 out of every 3 weekends with the dock at Crosswinds and then averaged fishing 4 days a week out of St. Joe with the condo. Not nearly as much the last few years between new jobs, gas prices, weather and being 2+ hours away... but this year have managed 10 trips of 1 to 3 days to Lake Michigan from Holland north to Ludington.

I see lots of member names here at GLF that I recognize from GLA and other sites too. I hope I can join my buddy Dave here at GLF with some good contributions. My SeaCat (the CATtitude Adjustment) does not have the name on the side yet, but is one of only 3 SeaCat's I know of in the state. If you see me at a ramp, flag me down and say high. I'm always ready to share what I know to help others with Great Lakes Fishing.

[Special K]

Welcome!

[Nailer]

Welcome Ryan to the friendly site. We look forward to your expertise.

[1mainiac]

Hey buddy nice to see you posting over here. If you fished the Croton to Newaygo area in the 70's we probably fished next to each other back then. My friends and I made our living off the DNR when they were buying eggs. I pulled a lot of 30 to 40lb kings out of that stretch esp the Thronapple launch area and right below the dam. I still fish that area for Steelhead all winter when I can get up there.

[SeaCatMich]

Hey buddy nice to see you posting over here. If you fished the Croton to Newaygo area in the 70's we probably fished next to each other back then. My friends and I made our living off the DNR when they were buying eggs. I pulled a lot of 30 to 40lb kings out of that stretch esp the Thronapple launch area and right below the dam. I still fish that area for Steelhead all winter when I can get up there.

In college me and a couple of buddies would pay for fishing trips by selling the eggs to the DNR at the trailer on the north side of the dam. Funded food and gas for runs over from Mt. Pleasant (CMU) in '81 to '84. Actually scheduled fall semester classes to have mostly morning classes with none on Thursday afternoon and all of Friday open. If we could get a nice fresh run fish, also made for some good eating of smoked salmon back at the dorm. Yes, many people thought we really nuts.

[Paulywood]

Great to have you around Ryan. You helped me out a few times when I had more time to spend online and still went to the glangler site. With a new job and 18 month old son I cut back on my website visits and and now I'm pretty much monogamous here on GLF. I even bought a couple of walleye reels from you a few years back. Your experience and advice will be welcome around here.

[sjk984]

Welcome ryan. I be looking forward to hearing from you here too.

[SeaCatMich]

Thanks Nick. I see you live in St. Louis. Grew up there -- north of town on the river (Riverside Drive) but went to Alma for high school as my dad taught and coached there. Drove by on US27 yesterday -- towed a travel trailer north to Farwell for a friend. All of the windmills south of town along the highway are quite the site.

Looks like you have a pretty nice boat in your avatar. When I was growing up there, seemed like I was about the only one who went salmon fishing. I'm guessing you get quite a few weird looks towing it around town there as I do down here.

[Hotdog71]

Another has turned from the "dark side".

Welcome to the site Ryan!

[KJ pluggin]

It's good to have ya out of lurker status Ryan! I am looking forward to your input.

[GLF]

Ryan,

Thanks for taking a minute and finally doing an introduction(6 years late. ). LOL Once you have been bitten by the salmon bug, you can not get rid of the disease.

There is a great group of guys/girls here, and this is one of the friendliest websites on the net. We look forward to having you around more.

If you need anything, let out a shout!

Mike

[Paulywood]

Thanks Nick. I see you live in St. Louis. Grew up there -- north of town on the river (Riverside Drive) but went to Alma for high school as my dad taught and coached there. Drove by on US27 yesterday -- towed a travel trailer north to Farwell for a friend. All of the windmills south of town along the highway are quite the site.

Looks like you have a pretty nice boat in your avatar. When I was growing up there, seemed like I was about the only one who went salmon fishing. I'm guessing you get quite a few weird looks towing it around town there as I do down here.

Ryan, I actually grew up in Fowler and know quite a few people in the Dewitt area. My brother works at the waste water treatment plant there in town. I used to work in St. Johns and my wife worked in Midland so we ended up in St. Louis since it is halfway. Now with both of us working in Midland we are looking to move to that area. There are a few salmon fishermen around here but not many. I know what you're saying about being close to no where, but not far either. I'm 2 hours from any port on Lake Michigan between South Haven and Manistee, 2 hours from the Bay. Needless to say I put a lot of miles on my trailer. We live about 2 miles out of town and have 3 of the wind turbines around the house. To be honest, I barely notice them anymore. Sounds like there are going to be some more coming in soon. Good luck the rest if your season, mines almost done.

[Line Dancin]

Welcome aboard Ryan. I have talked to you a little on the other site. Mainly a lurker there. The guys on here are great and willing to help a rookie without the negative replies that you see on some of the other big lake boards. Your contributions are greatly welcome as we are all learning every day. Something some people just cant understand on some of the other boards. I too have been at this for a long time about 30 years now starting with my dad in the late 70s.

[mriversinco]

Welcome Ryan.

[Sly Selea]

Alma, you say? Pizza Sam's, YUM!

[SeaCatMich]

Alma, you say? Pizza Sam's, YUM!

Have eaten many a pizza from Sam's growing up! I also remember a Pizza King place that was very good... 30 years ago or so

[Just Hook'n]

Awesome to have you and Dave with us on GLF.

Thanks for taking the time to explain.

We look forward to many helpful posts.

[buster107]

Welcome Ryan!!!

[MegaByte]

Hey Ryan, I've been out of the loop for awhile. Too much work travel this year so the fishing has suffered. Just finding out about the stuff going on over at GLA. I look forward to reading your posts here.

Gordy...........

AKA WI_VikingFan at GLA.

[Priority1]

Ryan, Glad to have you full time.

[Salmon Assassin]

They promoted a flatlander to run the site now, you got out just in time. I've seen the damage they do first hand ( miller park, Wisconsin Dells, Minocqua)

[floorboy]

Hey Ryan, Good to see you here.

[SeaCatMich]

Hey Ryan, Good to see you here.

Hi Rod. I'm starting to feel pretty welcome with lots of guys I have known through the web for years here too.

[EdB]

Good to have your contributions here Ryan. My location and putting miles on the truck and trailer to go fishing is much like yours but I don't mind burning some gas every weekend.

[Cork Dust]

Welcome to the site, Ryan. Having had a recent bad experience with the newly appointed moderator (never sent the rod he agreed to sell me) on your former site, there is even less motivation to post since you and Dave departed.