Plugs

Thanks - it was not a half glow, so Moonshine - Moonshine it is!

Steelie came on a MS spoon with black dots on one side - not sure of the name.

Set lines at 6:00 in 130 FOW and headed south west. Fished from 145 – 105 all night, but did not really figure out a good pattern ending up 3 for 7 heading in a little after 9:30.

Fish came on:

1 - Can’t remember on a 150 copper - 7 pound Steelie

2 - Wire dipsy back 100 with a Coho Killer spinny and an aqua fly – 14 pound King

3 - SWR rigger down 80 with a Blue Flounder Pounder – 12 pound king

Had one nice fish break off a rigger rod after a fight and another one break off the other rigger rod just after it tripped:confused:. Don’t know what the deal was as we rarely have any issues like that. The Fish were fighting hard then making a big run at the boat and then yanking back hard again. Also managed to tangle a 2 color SRW with a Braid dipsey at both ends including the fly leader – had to cut everything:mad:.

Water was very nice with a current coming out of the north. We marked the most fish in 145, but could not get them to go. Several boats at the dock found hungry fish in the 80 – 110 range.

Note: BRING FLY SWATTER & good luck:grin:!

Have a freind looking for a charter recommendation in St Joe which is a little far south for me to come up with names. They would have a total of 5 people with a couple kids.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Shane

I was not trying to imply anything about any post in particular, it was just an observation about all the posts I have read, talking to other boats & my own experiance. Just curious if there was any additional feedback.

I have done everything I can think of over the years to improve including, sharpen hooks (or put new Owners on), check lines, change line type, etc...

It just seems to me that I have read a lot of posts this year with slighlty low hook up ratio's and I have had a couple trips with the same - maybe it's just me. I got some feedback recently (Tangled Mess & Real Stories - thanks) that said to speed up if fish are hitting short, which was new for me & appreciate the reminder on the troll direction. I was only trying to get a little additional feedback.

Thaks for all the info and I really appreciate all the info shared:thumb:

Shane

Nice work & thanks.for the report!

Quick question for one of the guys who seems to pay attention to all the details. Reading posts and based on some of my trips, do you think the hook up ratio is low for the number of fish this year? I have not crunched any numbers, but it seems like a general observation is that it is lower than normal. Do you think there are a larger number of coho's in the area this year?

Tom - Yep it was one of them:D. They have not all been tested yet, but two of them are doing quite well. Crock's debut was last night and took the first fish. Dragon fire had been out a couple times and did as good, or better than any other lure we had out. The new Stinger Red Head Dolphin had been pretty good as well.

Set lines at 6:00 in 100FOW straight out from Tunnel Park heading North. Did not mark much in that water and started to work our way deeper. Based on the graph, there did not seem to be a ton of fish around, but we caught and marked the most in the 120-140 range. It was nice and calm for the first time this year:thumb: and we pretty much did loops from Tunnel Park to spyglass pulling lines a little after 9:30.

Ended up 6 for 7 all kings and everything on riggers landing one double.

-3 hits on a rigger parked at 90 with a homade lure called Crock (silver, green with white dots)

-2 hits on the same rigger on fixed slider with a MS Schizo running at about 50.

-1 hit on the other rigger with a UV mixed veggies at 95.

Radio sounded like it was a bit of a slow night.

Good luck!

Can I ask if you went north or south? Nice work and thanks for the report!

Nice work! I am still looking for a day with some flat water, but the last trip did not require long jons which was nice.

Thanks for the report.

Left the dock around 5:00 and set up in 140. We headed west to around 200finding most of our fish and marks in the 155 range. We trolled East, West and South with no real pattern other than the FOW.

Riggers worked best for us tonight with spoons down in the 100 - 130 range, but we got a couple smaller fish on a 150 copper and a 300 copper.

We ended up 9 for 12 & two doubles with the following working well:

Red Head Dolphin

Dragon Fire - Homade lure!

MS Blue Jeans

Jager Bomb

We had 4 spinnies and flies out with nothing going.

Good luck tomorrow - it was a great night on the water:grin:

Got on the water a little after 9:00 & set up in 100 heading SW. The waves made it a bit interesting and had a little of a slow set-up. Once we got 7 rods set, had a wire diver with a blue spinny and green fly set at 220 go off. The fish went to over 500 feet in a hurry before getting off and man did he make a mess. Wire Diver mixed up with a full core and a 400 copper which took a long time to figure out, but we ended up with all the gear back just having to scrap the full core line.

Headed out to about 160 before turning around as the wind was just howling and waves were building. We ended up the day 5 for 10 with 3 kings and 2 Coho. When pulling lines one of the riggers had a Lamprey hooked right through the middle of the body:eek: - man those things are ugly. I have never heard of anyone just catching one with no fish.

Fish were caught all over the place and the biggest king around 12 pounds coming in 50 FOW.

Lures that got hit were:

Blue Spinny - green fly

Pink Panties

Dragon fire - homade lure took three bites:thumb:

UV Blue Mango

Moon shine Bloddy Nose

Boat ran good and we had a good morning.

I have been browsing another another boating forum that mainly deals with salt water off shore fishing for fun this winter. They tend to be making much longer trips, but talk about having Ditch bags and what they have in them.

I typically have plenty of supplies on the boat, life jackets, cloths, food flares, an extra hand held radio, etc..., but would be hard pressed to put them all together quickly if we were taking on water in an emergency.

So, I am thinking about putting something together and wondered if any of you have one and what you have in it? Also, maybe a strange question, where would you get such a bag for a decent price? Are they just dry bags that you would use for canoeing, or camping?

Thanks

Great looking boat!

That would be great, I'm sure we can figure something out. Let me know what day you are looking at and I will try to keep it open.

The new ride looks very nice!

Tony,

I do want them. Just need to figure a way to get to your shop. I don't get out that way much.

Thanks

Tony,

I am interested in these. You have my name on the used rigger rods. Will u be at the gr show & can I grab them all there?

Shane

Thanks guys - can you tell my kids (and maybe me too) liked the dots this year?

I cannot remembere where I got the info, but loaded a free app for my phone called "Earth NC Lite" I have not tried it out yet, but has charts for Lake Michigan & looks like something that might be a good tool on the boat along with the graph/plotter.

Good luck.

This the second year I have made some lures with my kids over the winter for some fun. Our previous versions have caught a few fish which the kids really enjoy. We have not had one that was a hot lure yet, but I think we are getting a little better and look forward to trying these out.

From the left, these are :

1. Dragon Fire

2. Striker

3. Mr. Eyeballs

4. Super Spot

5. Crock

If they work out, my kids will work for candy:grin:

I have Cannon Manual riggers that are about 8 years old. They have always been stored in the basement for the winters and the cable looks good. I have always run 10 pound balls, but just bought 15 pounders to eliminate blowback for the days where we fish a bit deeper.

Is there any reason I should be changing the cable out for this extra weight? Does it go bad over time?

Thanks,

Shane

Thanks for the input guys.

Rob - That definately looks about what I had in my head. I may shoot you a PM this spring if you wouldn't mind. It is a little more pricey than I was thinking and I would really like to see if something like that would work with my hatch and some fish in it.

The Bass bag is one of the things that got me wondering about this, but I was thinking of something a little different. When I use the fish box, I typically take them out of there and put them in a cooler to transport them to where they will be cleaned. I am then cleaning out the boat and the cooler.

I was thinking of a bag that would go in the fish box. It would have to be big enough to hold 10+ salmon and then I would need to be able to get it out the hatch with the fish in it. I have seen some bigger bags watching the guys fishing in Florida for King fish. Their weigh in bags are a similiar idea to bass bags, just much larger & they look to be insulated.

I will keep looking to see what I can come up with, but otherwise thinking I will try to do a good wax job on the inside next year to see if it cleans easier.

We have been using a cooler on the boat for the fish like everyone - pretty standard. I have a fish box under one of the seats that I typically use for storage & I when I do use it for fish I hate cleaning it out. At the end of last year, I used it a few times & I liked the extra space in the boat without the cooler. Been thinking about a way around this a bit this winter and found some some large soft side bags that look interesting. These look to be mainly for salt water type fishing, but was curious if anyone had any experience with anything similiar for the big lake? Not sure how durable these things are as I would have to try to pull it in and out of the box which just has a hatch door on it that is approx. 2 foot square.

Any input would be great - Thanks

:(I have cannon riggers and Big Jon rod holders and they are not the same pattern. Also, depending on the age of your boat, make sure the angle is correct. I was told that the older boats have a different gimble mount angle than most of the newer boats/products.