Satisfaxion_Gauranteed

I have Penn 209s on my down riggers and half cores. They have worked flawlessly after 5 seasons of abuse. A 209 reel has plenty of space for down rigger and half core applications. For the topwater/steelhead presentations, my preference is to use a linecounting reel.

For August and September, there is also room onboard Satisfaxion Guaranteed for a couple of guys. Just drop a line if you'd like to go. We'd be happy to have ya and this is a standing invitation for any time. Good luck with the boat repairs!

This spring, I did some experimenting out of South Haven(where the depths don't change very fast). What I found is that placing the weight on a half core after 2.5 colors, then letting out the other 2.5 colors plus 50' of the dacron backing I use, then the line will sink about 8-10' per oz at 2.5-3.0mph. I determined this by trial and error. First, I set up in 30fow trolled with the above setup and 1oz of weight. The spoon hit bottom. Then, I tried again in 35fow of water and the spoon hit bottom. Then, in 40fow of water, the spoon did not hit bottom. I determined that the spoon hit bottom by pulling the line in and checking the lure to see if there were muscles on it. If there was, then I assumed it was bumping bottom. I could also tell by looking at the drag on the planer board. It wasn't very scientific and all I used were half cores(just because I didn't want to do trial and error like this with a full core) and spoons. I have used this rough idea of sink rates this season and I have improved the number of fish I'm getting on the cores, but I can't prove for sure that my method of determining this was correct. Next spring, I'm going to do the same thing with a full core. Hope this helps,

I use snap weights with my lead cores or highlines. I normally use plain old medium or high tension spring clips that are too worn to continue to use on my planer boards, but will work fine for snap weights. They come off really easy when they get to the boat and don't drop off to the bottom of the lake, which means I don't have to buy replacements! I have sparingly used the dive bombs this season. They work pretty well; about the same as a snap weight setup. I'd probably use more of them if I didn't have the worn out planer board releases that work so well for snapweights. Dive charts with dive bombs would also encourage me to get more of them. Fish on!

I've used the Berkley strips with success. This is the first year I've run it. Thus far, I'd say they produce roughly the same as a herring strip. If I can't get the real strips to go, then I can't get the Berkley strips to go. If the fish seem to want cut bait, then I can ussually get both kinds to go. The scent is STRONG; not for those with weak stomachs. my 2cents,

Done! The almighty dollar strikes again......

Cannon downriggers have counters that reset. They simply slide off the gear that runs the counter and you can manually spin the wheel until it reads zero again. It's very easy and convenient and only takes about 10 seconds to do. Both the cannon models I have(mag 10s and unitrolls) do this. I'm not very familiar with the Big Jons/Walkers, but will the counters easily come out far enough to manually reset them?

LOL I see some green, so if it's a colonoscipy, then somebody got clown holed.

That's a good 3.5hrs of fishing. Thanks for the report. We plan to head out of South Haven Thursday night.

That's the one! Thanks for jogging the memory.

I believe the name of the store is Big Lake Outfitters in Saugatuck. I've been in the store and it's a good one geared toward big lake fishing. They have a lot of variety, including some of the harder to find stuff like the Lyman plugs I like to use. It's easy to find, less than a 1/4 mile west of the expressway on the south side of Blue Star Hwy. For the moonshines, I use both the regulars and magnums, but have caught more fish on the mags. I really like the moonshine lures as they are extremely durable and really catch the fish this time of year.

I've had a day like that this year. It's good that it didn't ruin your fishing though!

We opted to fish South Haven Friday(7/27) night to get back to fishing our home port. We went out, fished for about 2 hours, pulled lines to dodge a thunder shower, and went back at it. We were out from about 5:30 until about 10pm, minus whatever little break in the middle for the thunder shower. Typical setup was 10 lines with 4 riggers, 2 dipseys, 2 half cores, and 2 full cores. We finished the night 8-11, 6 kings and 2 steelhead. Size was mediocre with the average fish going 8-10, but we did manage 1 15lb king and a 11.5lb steely. We fished 80ish fow about 1 mile north of the pier heads. White pro-chip flasher/white fly combo behind the dipsey set on 1.5 back 140, blue Moonshine lure that had a blue glow behind the dipsey set on 1.5 back 120, and black/white moonshine lure off the rigger down 50' took 9 of our 11 hits. The other two hits came off a Kevorkian spoon down 60 off the rigger and a half core with a Fishlander Chimpunk spoon. Prior to the thunder shower, 3.1SOG N-S trolls worked best. After the thunder shower, 2.6SOG E-W trolls worked best. The currents really changed after the thunder shower which, based on the sonar graphs, seemed to scatter the fish a little bit. We did not get a hit for about an hour after the thundershower, which prompted us to go to the new speed/trolling direction. Once we did that, fish started hitting again. It was a good night and felt great to be yelling, "fish-on" after a hectic work week Good fishin',

Not all units have adjustable ping speed. If it's not in your manual, then I suspect niether unit is adjustable. Double check your manual for dual frequency capability. Not all units have dual frequency capability. Some units require the settings to be changed to match whatever transducer you have. My Garmin can run various single frequencies or the dual frequency transducer I have on it while my Lowrance is locked and cannot operate without a 200kHz transducer.

I swear that there have been days this year that I can't do ANYTHING right! On the flip side, there've been days I've tried my hardest to screw things up and couldn't do anything wrong That's part of the fun in fishing. Just about the time you've got things figured, it changes and does the opposite:D

In the instruction manual on my Lowrance, it says to leave the fish symbol off to see more detailed information. My Garmin manual says something very similiar; it strictly interrupts signal strength as fish. With the gain all the way up, everything will come back strong and be falsely interpretted as a fish symbol.

Thanks for the report. I was working late while you were fising!

3-4 weeks ago out of South Haven, the DNR/Sheriff's deputies were checking boats for safety prior to launching at Black River Park. This was the first time I'ver even seen anybody checked out of South Haven. We were coming back from fishing in the am and we got checked for safety gear and fish and licenses. The deputies were extremely friendly and very quick and non-intrusive. I've also been asked to show a DNR data collector my fish after fishing. He generally asks me how long I was fishing for, how many licenses were onboard, number of lines in the water, and looks at the fish to get an idea of size and species. I'd guess that happens 2-3 times per season.

LOL, no, but that'd be something if I did end up finding it off the end of one of my lures one day! I'm pretty sure mine was lost at the campground somewhere. If the cell isn't set to vibrate, is it still effective in catching fish??

Congrats Catfish! I wish now I hadn't given ya quite such a hard time at the first WMFL event..... Good work to all of the teams. This was team Satisfaxion's first Dreamweaver and we look forward to doing it again.......hopefully with a little better luck..... Good fishin,

Thanks for the report! I'm heading out again soon, no later than Thursday night.

If anyone found a silver and grey motorola V60i cell phone at the Fisherman's Landing pavilion or campground in Muskegon, please let me know. Some time between putting rods away on the boat and weigh-in(noonish on 7/22) at the Dreamweaver, I lost it. It's an older phone, so I wouldn't even mind loosing the phone. The bad thing is all the numbers that are in it! I don't even remember my wife's cell phone number and can hardly remember my home number. Many thanks in advance, --Jason

That reminds me of the South Haven Steelheader in May! It seems like for the last few years that event as attracted a Sunday boat hill climb in addition to the fishing.

My wife had a bald eagle come into her clinic. The vet there is the only licensed wildlife vet for a long long ways and specializes in raptors. Anyway, unfortunately for the eagle, it had contracted West Nile virus. One of the symptoms of West Nile is blindness, which may or may not be permanant. The eagle was starved and so weak it could not eat solid food. The vet had to tube feed it soft cat food for weeks. After some time, it finally began eating whole foods again. The eagle regained 'most' of it's vision, but not enough to be released in the wild. As the eagle slowly got stronger, it developed Vitamin D defficiency and got dizzy and couldn't perch! That was from eating too much salmon in it's diet while at the local rehabber and not being out in the sunshine where its body could make its own vitamin D. So, after some supplements, it made it through a second close call. The eagle now lives in a bird sanctuary in Missouri. The sanctuary is large enough for the bird to fly and be natural, but safe in the respect that it will always need a human to put half dead mice or other food source out for it. I got to see it and hold it and those things are amazing. The eagle was just gripping my arm enough to make it able to perch and it's talons pierced my thick leather welding gloves.

Thanks for the posting on the nets. I have not fished Muskegon at all this year just due to the long drive for me to get there. That helps save me some time going out to mark them. We will not be able to stay for the potluck either. Hopefully we'll be able to next year!