cliftp

Beautiful critter. Very impressed with your patience too! Congratulations!

Just a note, I took one of Lance Valentines all day classes in Jenison a few years back. This class was Lowrance based, which was fine. I learned a lot that I am now using with my Humminbird. He gives a GREAT class!

Paul C.

Actually out in Keeler Township.

Paul C.

Thought you all may enjoy my "pronghorn whitetail". (Have to use your imagination a little)

Lots of pictures, no deer older then 2.5 years old yet. Lots of turkey, raccoon, opossum, a few coyote, a grey fox, maybe a weasel or possibly a mink, lots of squirrels. Love Michigan!

Paul C.

Mattawan, MI

Thanks for the recipe. My wife made it with some fresh kings last night. Very good!

Paul C.

During my two week stint in Ludington, my FishGilz glasses finally broke after two long seasons. I thought I would hit a few places in town and pick up a good quality pair of whatever brand glasses in the $70-90 range. I thought I would. What I found was the $150-200 Costa Del Mars, Maui Jim's, and Raybans. Also a great selection of $12-15 junk at most stores. Nothing between. What are you guys using that your happy with and is there any hope of finding quality in my targeted range? I know that the lens quality is definetly in the upper end glasses, but I also know that they aren't any more able to withstand me sitting on them than a $15 pair.

I broke down and bought the Costa's with the 580 glass. All I can say is what a difference. Only thing I wish I could have done different is to get the Bifocal glass. Yup, getting old.

Thank you all for the great info. Going to need to do some saving though.

Really appreciated!

Paul C.

Thanks for the responses so far. Just looked, the X-4 is $600 plus. Something to save for!

Paul C.

I have been trying to figure out what would work best for a speed/temp probe. My boat is an 18 foot Lund, set up with Big Jon Down Riggers. I've been doing some reading and research and listening to you guys on the importance of speed at the ball. Yesterday I read the post about the vast difference in speed on the surface, vs at the ball, and even a large difference depending on direction of the boat, eg, north troll vs south troll.

Seems to be a large price swing so was wondering what would work the best?

Thanks for any advise.

Paul C.

PS, perching out of South Haven yesterday. Only got 30 for 3 of us. Waves were awful. Couldn't hold the boat.

Cameras are addicting for sure. Thanks for sharing.

It be pretty cool to see one of your guys get him!

Paul C.

Very nice. Michigan is great!

I know its fishing time but thought you'd all enjoy this.

You sure have great posts. Thank you. We were out in front of the piers on Friday and stayed for 7 hours total and ended up with two. The traffic was terrible on Friday so can't imagine the traffic you dealt with.

Paul C.

Mattawan, MI

Thanks for the report. Those darn perch have been kind of ornery this year. I marked clouds of "stuff" perching and decided they must have been alewives.

Guess I need to load the salmon stuff back on the boat.

(I did find the gobies though)

Paul C.

I bought the 898 this spring and have been pretty happy with it. Lots of buttons though. (A work in progress, I'm learning). Nice thing about it as opposed to my old one, not a Humminbird, it always turns on and works. I think you'll like it. I went with the Lakemaster Michigan chip. Really like it.

Have fun shopping.

Paul C.

My wife and I went perching out of South Haven this morning. Found lots of gobies, only kept 7 perch. Biggest was 10.5 inches. Mostly in around 30 feet of water. Went out to 50 feet but didn't really see anything. We only went south of the piers. Getting closer to getting started. (I hope).

Paul C.

Got this one yesterday on Cedar Lake near Lawton, MI.

My biggest to date, 14.25 inches, caught on a 1/16 oz jig and a large ice mite plastic bait. No live bait used. Two of us fished for 6 hours yesterday and only got a total of 25 Crappies, most 8 to 10 inch range. Couldn't find the bluegill.

He tasted pretty good too!

Paul C.

Great report. Thanks. Saw at least 4 toms this morning, they thought the hens they were with were better then my calling.............go figure!

Thanks for the great report!

Looks like fun, any idea on the kind of Kayak he was using? I'd like to get something similar for my little lake blue gill fishing.

Paul C.

I got mine late last year and like them so much better then rubber bands. For those of you using them, I have had some problems with shakers when pulling lines, (small Cohos). Can I back off the horizontal tension some more and still get hook ups? Have it really lite now.

For those of you curious about the releases the owner has a really good You Tube video that can be found at:

http://www.downriggerrelease.com/index.html

Also, talked to the owner at the GR show, he almost has the stacker version completed, looks pretty slick.

Any thoughts on backing off the horizontal tension some more appreciated.

Thanks

Paul C.

Mattawan, MI

I really like the Sportsfisherman Center in Muskegon. They are a very smart group of guys.

Paul C.

Hey Jim, the ones you sold me last year sure caught some nice fish! Are you going to be at any of the fishing shows with a booth?

Paul C.

Mattawan, MI

Great pictures. Thanks for posting. Michigan is GREAT!