SUPERTRAMP

Nice job glad you were able to get out.

I work at Galesburg Ford in sales, and we have a Simoniz protection plan that does exterior and interior, protects against UV damage, bird droppings, tree sap and more, interior protection against spills. Its not cheap but it works.

You might want to look at the wave forecast for Sunday, the smallcraft advisory will expire but the waves will recede to 2 to 3 feet and then build back to 4 to 6' in both SH to Holland and Holland North.

Be careful, and don't go out in a boat smaller than 23 to 25 foot, with auxillary power and a good VHF for emergencies. This Lake has already taken 2 lives in that region, and is just waiting to take some more. Water temps are too low for survival more than a few minutes.

Ed, you have to remember fish are cold blooded and we have had two extremely cold winters in a row which would cause the growth rate to suffer .

If you are aware or not the Ideal temperature for Chinook Salmon is around 42 degrees. That is their natural water temperature in the Northern Pacific. The Largest Chinook Salmon in the World come out of those icy cold Alaska and British Columbia streams.

well i think we have a whole lot of other issues but this could be a good experiment. ANOTHER thought i read on john kings website close season. . MANY SPECIES have closed season during spawning but not salmon. if the dnr is selling this natural reproduction line shouldn't spawning females be protected just like many other fish ?

I personally am open to closed seasons, but the Salmon Spawn has been a hit or miss thing the last few years, I am not against anything that will bolster the Salmon return.

I am starting this thread, because this last season was abysmal for Salmon, We had a great year for Lake trout, and Steelhead were awesome. Salmon, in particular Kings have been the bread and butter for Lake Michigan fishermen for over 48 years, and now we are seeing dwindling numbers of mature fish. I would like to propose a size minimum of 24" for Kings and 15" for Coho, this past spring I released at least 40 10" to 12" natural reproduction Kings, and then get to the marina and see a Charter cleaning these same fish. The DNR is not going to plant more fish, we can protect our fishery by putting restrictions on not only numbers, but size too. I regularly Fish in my home state of Oregon, with my brother who has a rig for river and Ocean fishing, they are limited to barbless hooks, and a 24" length. All Non Hatchery fish have to be released. I don't think that is necessary here, but if we want bigger and more fish, we can do a lot to help ourselves.

For the money they are not a bad rod. I'm not so sure about using a medium action for divers -- maybe for walleye but for salmon I'd want a med-heavy and also probably go with an overall better quality rod.

Yep. Heavy action, I run heavy action Okuma dipsy rods, 8 and 81/2 footers. The only Issue I have had is loose fitting ferrule and 1 reel seat that spun. I use the 8 footers with a twill tip for my wire dipsy's and the 8 1/2 footers for my high divers usually power pro. They are really durable rods. Have not broken a wire rod in 3 seasons.

Yeah I'd like to have his bad day, too.

Any time you want to go out of St. Joe, your are welcome to join us. We fish Tuesdays and Sundays with some holiday weekends spread in there. Not sure when we will splash in 2016, but later than normal as we are having some repairs done first, getting the aft decks re paired, and new bottom paint. PM me here if you want to fish. We do ask for some help with fuel as the boat is expensive to run, we burn about 20 to 25 gallons on a short day inshore, but can burn up to 90 gals. if we run offshore to 200 or more.

Supertramp, I'd love to have your bad days.

Jason:

I have been fishing St Joe for 40 years, and I run a big boat 31' Chris, our minimum spread is 12 rods, I have a Chart plotter gps , a big screen graph, Fishawk, and auto pilot. It is not fair to compare. I fish 1 port, and I was at one time a Charter Boat Captain. Now we fish for fun. You do just fine, I would love to have you join us next spring for a day out of the Joe. Jon Marvin was out with me this spring, and Darkmind fishes with me often.

My King and Coho totals were way down, my Lake Trout totals and Steelhead totals were up. We did not get to fish the Brown bite early and only got a couple. My fish per trip count was down too. Last year we averaged 12 per trip this year we struggled to average 7 to 8. We were down from over 180 fish to just 97 for the year. We also did not fish as much. Wasn't on the lake from June 16 to Aug 4.

Fellas the reason the J plug type harness is there is so if you have a leader or line break the plug body will float up. Everytime I see someone put a snap or a swivel on the bead chain on a plug I know they have never read the instructions on the package as to how to set up the plug. 3 to 4 ft leader tied directly to the bead chain and a snap to a loop at the line end. They don't spin, they swim. The Ace Hi is a semi copy of the old Canadian Grizzly plug just doesn't swim as wide.

Sea Foam is a Gas stabilizer, and u should not run it in your crank case. BOAT+ break out another thousand. Take the boat to a qualified Marine Mechanic, you will never regret having your boat serviced properly. It is a safety issue. If you are ever stranded by a failed drive system, you will also want to be a member of BOAT US, they run TOW BOAT, AND THE COST OF A MEMBER SHIP IS LESS THAN 50 BUCKS, A TOW COSTS A MINIMUM OF $500. 1 call and you get towed to the marina. Be safe out there above all. Cutting corners is dangerous.

Is this boat still available?

Yes it is still available.

Sunday was a slow day on the SilverKing, took a young family out, The Tuhacek family and Mike Merling. We left the slip @ 8:30, and fished south to the Dunes. Took 2 Lake Trout, an 11 year old fought the big one, 25# on the pocket scale, and he was stoked. The next was an 8 year old on a kind of team deal on another laker. By noon it was so hot the kids wanted to go swimming, so that ended the day. Monday left the slip @ 6AM and set lines in 75 Fow trolling south into the supposed 1 footers. After we got set up we had a rip on a 10 color, fish took the board under and the backer broke lost the board the fish and the 10 color. right after that we had a rip on a 300 copper, drug in someone else's copper, got their spoon, and a part of a rod. Got reset and deep rigger with a Trash can and spin n glo fired, Nice 6# coho, didn't have that one in the net and another rigger fired, Nice 10# King, Just netted that one and another rigger strike on a Pro King purple ladderback spoon. Reset and turned to go with the waves, and one of the guys got sick. So we pulled lines @ 8:30. Nice temp break down 55, and there is cold water on the botton, 65 down I found 41 degree water. 55 down it was 46 and @ 49 feet it was 55 degrees. I want to thank the Marine forecast for their accurate prediction 1 to 2 turned into 3 to 5.

Call Brian's Marina in St Joe, 269 983 0760. They are really good and when I was slipped in S. Haven they got me right in when my outdrive broke down.

6:15 am, we did take a 240 off the piers to 75 FOW. And worked out to 85, then North and back toward the piers. Made big circles and picked up fish in all directions.

Was 8/30 not 2/30

6 for 8 out of the Joe this morning. All fish inside of 80', cold water down 60 a perfect 45 degrees. 3 kings all mature fish, 1 coho about 9#and 2 lakers. lake trout on riggers down 58'UV echip 8" paddle with a home tied blue bubble fly., Kings on wire Deeper diver 125, out 150 with modified Blue Dolphin Stingray, the others were on 5 color with Pro King Oil Slick, Marking lots of bait up high, and a lot of fish. Big spoons were the ticket, 10 color and 5 colors of leadcore. No hits on the 300 cu. Good morning for a full moon period.

Thanks for the report, I was planning on going out but a little worried taking my 7 yr old out with a chance of thunder showers, hopefully tomorrow. Do you know what the water temp was?

It looks like the storms will be gone by 6AM, hope you can get out.

Nice job Kevin. Not sure why you are having the tangles, but well done on the Kings Saturday.

John:

Welcome to the site, where are you located, and we have guys always open to riders on fishing trips. I personally run a 31' Chris Craft Commander and usually have open seats when we go out. We fish out of St. Joseph. You can contact me here if you are interested we fish most Sundays and Tuesdays, weather permitting. Again welcome aboard.

Some of the best information out there is in Dan Keating's book Keating on Kings. Highly recommend that you look into that. Also Ken Neidlinger made a couple of videos, they are really good for how to looks at fishing all of the species. Not sure if his videos are still available but they were made back in the 80's.

Pulled out of the slip @ 5:30, started setting lines @ 5:55 in 80 FOW 5 and 6 colors . 10 color lead core, 2 300 coppers, all with stinger magnum modified blue dolphin and green dolphin. First 5 color fired before I had the 2nd rod set. The rest of the set up was 4 riggers set from the bottom up 56' 2 wire deeper divers set on 1 out 100 and 120. Fish came on both the 5 and 6 colors, the port 10 color and the coppers. Port downrigger with a 1 color SWR, and stbd rigger with a 2 color SWR both took fish. No hits on the tin can dodger and spin n glo. Ended the day with 11 for 14, 1 nice steelhead lost at the net when It got into another rigger line and the captain messed up and netted the hook.(oops). Fish count was 3 kings, 2 Lakers 1 coho and 5 Kings. We did release on shaker. Not bad for the first trip since June 14. Thanks to Andy (Darkmind) His step dad and his buddy. My pal Dick Beatty and Dave. We finished @ 11:50 with a nice box of fish. The one thing I did was go to an all spoon presentation, and it worked pretty well. Temp break was from 57 to 66 down depending on the depth of water.

Water is too warm in close, Sports Widow Charters in ST JOE is doing well on Steelhead and Lakers in 120 to 150 Temp break at 55' down water temp is 46 degrees, He is catching Steelhead on spoons on 150 copper and 8 color setups lakers on the bottom.

yep fleas no issue, i had shorts on n black flies were biting.

My Charter buddy Doug Wiggins (Sports Widow Charters) told me today that you gotta have bug dope on or wear long sleeves and pants.