The Rodfather

looking for First Mate for Charter for tommorow, 7 am , EST.

Kirks group with nice Kings and Steelhead

The Rodfather is on the water. Pro am tournament. Wish us luck!

Lake trout killers

18 of 24 , todays nice catch wit Dave Hersberger Charter

Boat fishing is crazy good. Going for record catch tomorrow!

That's in 14 foot of water off the beach

Reports of limit catches out of Michigan city the past week. The Coho are in. The Rodfather is already for her First Charter Friday

Headed to the lake

4 more Cold Waters to spool up tonight!

40 Reels/rods done with retying all knots,, finally

Indy show. Come on down!

Out of Michigan City 6/29 Fly Bite, Those nasty black flies that nail your legs and drive you off the lake,.... love em. They have a life cycle out there in deep water that causes them to come to the surface and spawn. And the fish go wild. Wow, Saturday was a slaughter from the charter boats out in 80-150+++++ . The surface was a wee bit warm at 63 but down 30 to 45' coho magic. Below that Kings. We had one 14lb king and lost a treble hook on a gold blank Kevorikian, and also a lost fly ; alll on 250 coppers. The best baits at these times for me are black coho flies on the same setups we use in the spring. peanut flies and 2 inch flies, my best was one that Ryan Koepke of ITO flies made for me, black with some marabou in it. behind a OO orange dodger on a cuda torpedo rig, 30' (not kidding) down. I duplicated that on both port and starboard sides. The dodgers the guys are using are varied. I found 8" orange, 8" spin doctors and pro troll all worked with the black flies. some boats are using dreamweaver 4" spindoctors yellow with orange tape. Other biats- stingers UV mixed veggie and orange tuxedo on sliders, Downriggers were hot at 40 and 45', with leads at 25', Dipsy #3 setting , 90 to 120 out. Board rods- 7&8 color lead cores, Coppers 150/175 to 250. We didnt run any thing deeper, I didnt have enough licenses on board. The rumor was that no one was catching anything below 60' but I know the big boys are there.Just not as plentiful as the coho.

I have never heard that anyone has had problems like this before. It started when there was a complaint from someone to the DNR that one captain was bragging that he was not going to get his Michigan liscence. They then on July 14 went out and inspected as many boats as they could find looking for that one guy. They noticed that after that there were a ton of applications coming in, so they figured their sting caused that, never thinking the process sucked. Labeled us as all guilty, and gave out 18 tickets. I am the only one fighting it because in many cases the judge has given out fines of only $10 plus 280$ court costs. (Not all though). Trying to stand up for what is right but not sure if I will win. I need some charter captains who will say they thought they were suppose to report every time they fished, not just when chartering. They would help my case a lot.

At this point the decision to prosecute was not made by the local officer but by his superiors. They do have all my evidence, and are still pursueing it. I have a court date set May 14th in St Joe. Fortuneately Wally Laaksonen, Captain of the Blue Fairways is representing me.

I am going to fight it. Some of the guys aren't because they cant afford it. The charge is a misdemeanor though and not something I want on my record. It's really disappointing how they have judged all of us as trying to subvert the law. I really respect the DNR guys for what they do, I am not wanting to go see guys every day who are carrying loaded guns and tell them there wrong. I think when you deal with the public day in and day out, you sometimes think that every one is trying to get away with something and you dont listen to someones story and figure out why they did what they did. Thats the case here, my purpose in posting this is to get the it public, try to get the DNR to think before they act.

Turkey Season, Michigan DNR and Indiana Charter Captains Synopsis: The Michigan DNR used creel reports to ticket approximately 12 Indiana charter captains after changing the rules regarding reciprocal licenses. In 2012 they required Indiana Captains to get their boat inspected by the Indiana DNR, wait 4 weeks till the actual license is received, send in a copy and then wait another 4 weeks for the Michigan DNR to process them. Since all Michigan licenses expire on May 31st of each year, the Indiana boats could not meet the requirements in time, especially when the Indiana DNR could not get the inspections done due to conflicts with the spring Turkey season. Before 2012 they allowed a copy of the officers dockside inspection worksheet, but that changed in 2012 and 2013. Most charter captains do not launch their boats till after April 1st or even later, thus making an actual Dockside inspection and the required paper work impossible. Full Story The Michigan DNR ticketed more about 12 Indiana Charter Captains without ever talking to them Last year they made a change in the way they wanted the reciprocal charter license application. To fish in either state a Captain has to have his boat dockside inspected by the DNR of each state. They inspect for all the safety equipment, up to date and in working order to keep the charter boats safe for the public. Both Indiana and Michigan DNR will honor each other’s dockside inspection and will issue a license once you have shown that you have a currant license in your own state. Until last year, you could send in the copy of the Indiana’s DNR officers inspection that you received at the dockside inspection, with $100 and you’d get the Michigan license. But early in January 2012 the Michigan DNR sent out a letter stating they no longer will accept the carbon copy from the dockside (it is unreadable) and will only take the actual license. So Last year after launching April 1st, I called the Indiana DNR to get my dockside, in early April. Turkey Season. No Indiana DNR officers were available to do it. They are all out in the woods. Each week I was told to call back next week, and finally to just wait till Turkey season was over. I finally got my dockside on May 24th. That’s good because the the Michigan license expires each year on May 31st. But I still needed my actual license, and when I finally got it in July, it has the date of the inspection, May 24th right on it. I sent it the application to the Michigan DNR Plainfield office, and they forwarded it on to the Lansing DNR office and finally cashed my check 3 weeks later and issued the license. The next part of the story was told to me by the ticketing officer of the Michigan DNR. Last year the Michigan DNR got wind of a rumor that one Indiana Charter Captain was bragging that he was not going to get his reciprocal license because he never saw the Michigan DNR in the waters we fish. After all there is only one DNR boat that covers the water from South Haven to the state line. So on a sunny calm Sunday in July he went out and checked every single boat he could find. I was in 150 fow fishing with my daughter and her family , 15 miles out when he pulled up. The three officers on board checked our fishing licenses and left to check other boats. After that day, only time I have ever been checked, the Michigan DNR noticed that there was a flurry of reciprocal licenses applied for, including mine. So they figured there little inspection scared every one into applying for their license. The Michigan DNR then went to the “anonymous” fish creel reports we are required to turn in for each day we fish in the state of Michigan. We are required to turn in our no of fisherman, fish caught and species, and what section of the lake we caught them in. I did think this was a good thing for all, since it was a great way for data collection for fish counts. But apparently its not as anonymous as they claimed. They went through each day we turned in and ticketed us for those days we fished and did not have our license. Even if we were not chartering we got ticketed as they assumed we were chartering because we turned in the report. My problem with the DNR is my story and so many of my brother charter captains are the same. Due to timing its not possible to follow the rules and get the license on time. One captain had his boat being worked on and didn’t get his boat in till near the middle of May and could not get the dockside. One captain sent in last years inspection, and it worked. So that is what we are doing now. Not getting our boats inspected but sending in last years Indiana license to get the Michigan reciprocal license for this year. But they still require that we send in the Indiana inspection for the current year. It doesn’t make sense. I didn’t do anything wrong. I tried, I really did. I am not pleading guilty to this. They have made it impossible to comply. Captain Jeff Eck of "The Rodfather" , out of Michigan City

Is this still on?

There are some great seminars coming up, I plan on attending the following This forums seminar on Jan 19, not far from, Lansing , 2.5 hr drive for me but I don't ice fish, Keatings seminar in South Bend on Feb 2, I always learn something new from him, wont be giving a talk but I will giving two free seminars at the Fort Wayne outdoor Show, January 25-27. I also have a booth at The Indianapolis Sport show Feb 15-24th. if you see my booth look me up, good to swap tales.

Looks good, interesting. Always learn something new, and can't beat the price. 4 may come from my boat.

I have plenty. But you have to get a background check before I give them to you.

We bounce dipsys for lakers. Drop it down till its on bottom then bring it in about 4-8feet. Gets the lure in front of them above the bottom. Works great.

Yes, thats me. I have one of those cabela probes, but it only went to 100 ft, works great. Never had the guts to troll with it though since it "was" irreplaceable.

The only one I know of is the Protroll trollers handbook. But It has some controversial data on the Copper lines so not too many guys swear by it. It will be interesting this year as there are 2 companies coming out with probes that will attach to your line so you can measure depth and temperature. This way you can tell exactly how deep they go. Having 2 probes is my goal, since turn changes will affect the depth of a lure. I'd like to see the difference between inside and outside dipsys, leadcores and coppers. As far as the wire lines, on a #2 setting, you can guess the depth is about half the distance out. That also depends on the boat and currant speed also. The faster that is, the higher it will be. Up till now, the only real way to know the depth is to let it out in whatever depth you happen to be in untill it starts to bounce the bottom. Then you know for sure, the distance for that depth, that speed, that dipsy setting, that lure. There are a lot of variables that go into it. Sounds like a science experiment for my 11 year old next year.