Satisfaxion_Gauranteed

I'll be getting the boat out of the barn this weekend. I'm hoping for a 3rd weekend of March outing as well.

Fish on!

South Haven because it's very rarely busy, closest to my house, and the fishing is generally pretty good. I'm sorta partial because that's where I met my current wife for our first date 5 years ago.

A close second would be Pentwater. I just like the geographical location, the town, and it's not too busy either.

I was fishing out of South Haven the first weekend of March last year. I'll be getting the boat out of the barn this weekend.

Here fishy fishy fishy....

Nice setup on the Lund! I've got a thing for those Lunds! Where did you get the front seat pedestal rod holder post you mentioned? Is that a Bert's item as well?

I would LOVE to have highspeed internet. Here's the problem:

I can't get DSL because the phone network systems have not been upgraded where I live to accomodate DSL. It does not appear Verizon is at all interested in upgrading the area, unless all of the phone lines go up in flames.

I can't get cable because they don't run it out to the country.

I'm having an incredibly hard time finding a satellite provider that has high speed internet access. The best I've found is Dish Network, who doesn't 'yet' offer high speed internet for my area(SW MI 49045 zip).

So, my highspeed downloads come from work

If anybody else is in the same situation I am in and knows of something, please let me know!

20lb Berkley big game on the dowriggers, unless I'm heading walleye fishing, then it's 12lb.

All of my divers have 30# Spiderwire with 30# Berkley big game as backing. Leaders tend to be 20# big game, unless it's early spring or I'm walleye fishing, at which point I'll use 12lb.

Leadcore has 50' of 20# Berkley Big Game as a leader.

Are you fishing the Big Jon Pro Am?

That's a lot of snow. It reminds me when I was living in Houghton of the Lake Superior coastline. They had two story mail boxes and and doors on the second floor of houses with no decks attached. They get some snow. It was good fun.

GLF--I will be fishing the Big Jon event ouf of South Haven. One of my teammates works with me. Another co-worker is also fishing it, but for another team. It's been good fun watching them talk smack about who's going to catch the bigger fish.

Either one would love to finish 2nd to last as long as the other finishes last!

Wow, sucks to be NY!

I'm totally ready to be out on the water again. My whole fishing crew has been emailing daily about getting out.

Unfortunately, the boat is not ready. I haven't pulled it out of the barn yet. Once I do that, I've got to un-winterize it and install some new goodies. It'll probably be the last week of March or first week of April before I'm out on the lake.

On the plus side, it's only 8 weeks from Sunday for the first West Michigan Fishing League event and only 10 weeks from the South Haven Big Jon pro-am.

We are sooooooo close:)

I'm very ready, but the boat is not yet. It'll take me about a weekend to get everything in order for the boat. I'm guessing my first trip will be the last weekend of March or the first weekend of April.

I'm having fish dreams though, so the time is near!

That was awesome! I'm not going to be able to work now after that!

Thanks for the sweet post!

That's a horse! Nice fish!

Awesome! Thanks for the heads-up!!

Pictures would be great, too! I happen to be in the market for downriggers.

That's my type of rig! I've got a good place in my heart for those sexy Lunds!

I run charters during tournaments. My guests have the option of entering or not. If they want, we go in as equal partners, or they can opt to just hire me and Sporty and if we were to get lucky enough for some dough they can have it all.

I run for the charter fees, the rest is just for the fun and excitement of the competion.

Last year was my first year fishing in a league and I really enjoyed it. The fun and excitment of the competition is a blast. Plus, even if I opt not to run a tournament, I always like to go see the weigh-ins.

I actually thought they messed with my spread also. Especially if we got near a beach. they had a tendency to attack swimmers without provocation.

Ahh, the sharks just thought the swimmers were seals

When I first started fishing, I used cheap lead weights with small fins. I slowly converted to black coated weights with small fins. Toward the end of the year last year, I went to using pancake style weights with black coating and really like them. I think it gives me good 'tune ability' to set up my spread, particularly with my boat that only has an 8' beam. I personally think that downriggers weights is as much a success based on comfort as it is the type of weight you use. I've never used the shark weights, so I don't know much about them.

Any other thoughts on the black box/positive ion control? I have never run one, so I don't have any experience on them. I have always been curious though.

I'm with Dirty Dog and Priority 1; I have a kit that I keep plus a couple spare spark plugs and plug tool.

The best tool offshore is good maintence inshore.

I have a Uniden that is 3 years old and don't have any issues with it. The reception is very good. I can't comment on the transmission. Although, I paid a little(lot) more than $100.

My buddy has a Raymarine radio that's 8 years young on his boat. The transmission is very good. The reception is also very good. I can always receive his transmissions very clear from quite a distance away. His also has a multi-channel programmable scanner that mine does not. I personally like that feature.

When I bought mine, the guy at the store told me two things. First, get a good one that you want. Second, the reception is much more determined by the sender than it is by you recieving. The higher quality radios with good atennas will be recieved better than others.

Happy shopping

You not using the name this year Rich?

Well, maybe one team uses "Broke Back Boat" and the other uses "Balls Deep"(cannon balls of course ).

It'd be like a strategic alliance, or maybe a 'life partnership.'

In your figures does that include the indians with their lovely fish nets?

No, I didn't consider fish nets.

Although the 8lb cannonballs found in those nets would make my guess of 7.5lbs average seem pretty good

My guess would be about 1.8 million pounds of trout/salmon taken from Lake Michigan annually out of Michigan ports. That's a lot of fish.

My estimate approximates that, on average, 0.3 fish are taken per hour per angler. I'm also guessing that the broad average size of a fish taken is 7.5lbs. And to add to the list of guesses, I'm approximating that charter excursions account for about 65% of the total number of fish taken from Lake Michigan.

All of my guesses are just approximations on my part based on information I got from this DNR weblink:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/2004report_125898_7.pdf

The weblink doesn't spell out any exact catch rates, so you can't just read the number of fish taken from Lake Michigan. The link does go into how charter reporting is used to delevope data to explain great lakes fishing. It also describes a study that is used to examine how to rate successful fishing. All the way at the bottom of the study are some tables created for several great lakes.

Hey, there's a guess anyway.

Isn't it ice-out yet??!!??

What is the word on why the Brown population is struggling as of lately?

In the last 2 seasons, I've only caught 1 brown. Thanks all the way around for the tips. I'll be putting them to use this spring.

Great advice, Caz! I also switched last year from using 30# mono to 30# spider wire. It works great. The dipsys run much better in currents, release much cleaner, and depth control is much better. I also agree that having some mono as backing is a good idea. The spider wire stealth has a coating on the line that really helps it to work smoothly through the rod and reel. The coating also help to keep the line from sticking.

I would add to make sure you have a good, smooth working drag on your reels to make this combination work well. The last thing you want is a sticky drag when running spider wire because there will not be much line stretch to help absorb the attack of a big fish. Also, I think it's more important to keep good tension on the line when installing spider wire than it is with mono. Since the spider wire doesn't stretch, a little more care winding it will go a long ways to keeping it peeling off a screaming drag more consistently.

Fish on!!

The coverage was aweful. The only thing worse than the coverage was how the Bears played. The only worse than that was the half time show.

I've been a Bears fan all of my life and suffered through a lot of 4-12 seasons. It's good to finally see my team playing well. NFC champs for this year. Next year, another crack at the superbowl!

Still wearing my NFC champion Bears gear proudly.

I don't know the details of Iran's policital motives, but I am pretty good with the energy and oil cost. I don't believe the country of Iran can influence fuel costs by 30%.

Of the top ten oil producing countries, only three are from the middle east. In order, they are Saudi Arabia(17% of daily production), Iran(6.6% of daily production), and the United Arab Emirates(4.3%). Only four are from OPEC; the above 3 and Venezuela(3.5%). Of total oil production, all of the middle east accounts for roughly 35-40% of total oil production. For comparison, that is about the same as Russia, Mexico, and The United States combined.

OPEC's aggreement is to not price combat within countries of the organization. However, it doesn't protect them from price competition from other vendors, such at Russia, Mexico, Canada, China, and The United States. It is also highly unlikely Iran would have the ability to significantly influence pricing since they only produce less than 7% of the worlds daily production. OPEC could make up 7% in production.

I completely agree with the point about keeping tabs on our elected officials. The power in a democracy comes from the voters.

For more energy/oil information, type department of energy into a search engine. To keep tabs on your elected officials, visit their websites. Most of them have links to their legislation and voting history.

Wow, talking about politics/oil/energy! It must be the offseason!