Gone_Fishin

My Dad came up from Toledo, and I went out with him and my son who is home from college for the summer. We left the launch about 4:30 and fished till about 9:00. Finished the evening 3 for 4 with 2 kings and a shaker steelhead which we released. Our kings came on flasher and fly. wire mag diver, 175 out set on 1.5 in 105 FOW took a beautiful 13 pound king that fought like he was twice the size. He wore my Dad out, and I picked up the fight. At the time I think he was further out than when he was hooked. This setup had a green becholds with moon glow tape, and an icicle horse fly (green beads, white / and silver tinsel). Braid dipsey, 125 out set on 1.5 with a Mt. Dew SD and a Green Bay Packer hypnotist fly took a small 3 lb. king. I think we were in about 119 FOW. Single core with fuzzy bear yellow tail spoon took the shaker steelie, and lost another hit. I think we were in 100ish FOW, we drug this guy around a while and found him when we were pulling lines. We fished from 95 FOW to about 150 FOW, but found better action (not great) when we were in 100ish FOW Great memories.

My brother came up from Colombus, OH, and I took him out on the big lake. We ended up 5 - 7 in 140 - 150 FOW. Mag dipsey / wire diver 100' on 1.5 took 2 plus another hit. Green hootchie, white/green fly. braid dipsey 150' on 2.5 with purple spoon took one (don't know brand name) 12 lb mono on rigger 115 down with NP nailer spoon half blue bubble tape, half green bubble? with holographic tape on inside took 1 hit 2 color SWR, 75 down on rigger with blue dolphin took 1 full core, with regular size yellow tail took 1 Braid dipsey blue bubble flasher / fly took 0 Our last fish was a shaker that was safely released to grow 2 more years. He fought like he was a tough little guy. We started at 4:00 and fished for 3 hours missing the dusk bite. Dave decided that heading in early and eating fish was the best choice. Can't argue that. I sent him home with all the fish.

Finally able to get out on my first trip of the year. Met my buddy at 5:00 at the launch and took off. We washed lures for 3 hours fishing between 90 - 140 FOW. We marked a couple of fish in 116 FOW at different times. About 8:30 someone turned on the switch, and we were into fish starting off with 2 doubles. It was a bit of a fire drill as fish were flopping on the deck while we battled another. After an hour, we headed back to port. We ended up 6 for 8 fishing 105 - 115 FOW. When the fish turned on, color didn't seem to matter as we had an assortment in the water. Most fish came on a south troll, but that wasn't the only direction that worked. Most came on regular sized spoons. Rigger 61 down. Rigger 75 down with 2 colors of lead. Wire dipsey w/ mag ring 125 out set on 1 with white spin doctor and UV fly. Largest fish might be 10 lbs, all kings.

I just finished a rebuild of an 18' open bow Lund. I coated each board (all sides) with Durabak for the reasons Steve mentioned. Fiberglassing the boards seemed like a lot of unnecessary work. This is my first season with the rebuilt boat, so no information on durability of the Durabak. I love the non-slip properties. I wish I had filled the hull with water as suggested here. I did a visual inspection for a small leak I have, but found nothing. In hind sight, I wonder if I have some water logged foam under the floor boards. My flooring was 1/2" in the bow area, and thicker at the back of the boat. I replaced it with marine grade of the same dimensions. The two layers of coated 1/2 inch as mentioned would be rock solid, but in my opinion adds a lot of unnecessary weight and work. Save as much of the old wood as you can for templates. Even then, it is a lot trial and error fitting and trimming. Build the whole floor of bare wood and test fit it in the boat, before you commit to fiberglass or durabak and screws. Make allowances for the thickness of the finish at the joints. Do the same assemble first process for your consoles, bow storage areas, etc. I found the worst rot on the vertical pieces of wood rather than the floor. I lost 1 1/2 inches to rot on the bottom of my consoles (walk through windshield). It was held together with the carpet used to cover the old wood. I'm sure the rubber backed carpet trapped in moisture and contributed to the problem. I bought the boat used, so I don't know how it was cared for previously. It looks like it spent a decent amount of time outdoors. I hope the coating of Durabak I gave it prevents that in the future. I replaced all screws and nuts with stainless steel. Jamestown Distributors has an online presence and had everything I needed. All nuts have the nylon insert to prevent vibrating loose. Good luck, keep us posted.

Stange has been preaching them for years on an Owner salt water 1/2 oz jig head. I like the setup you have with a weight and treble on a long leader for trolling. That might be worth a try off a downrigger with a long lead. Given the size of these baits, I'm not sure a Rattle Tot will pull them deep enough. I'm thinking the swimbaits will pull the Tot out of the zone. A small dipsey might be better (but you lose the long lead). Thanks for sharing, you have got my mind to thinking... Let us what you learn from your experiments.

Fished Muskegon on 11/7 and 11/8 after dark. Both tough nights on the water because of the wind, rain, and cold. Caught one fish for all of the effort -- but she was 10 pounds on a certified scale. I was trolling a #14 Ghost Husky Jerk on a breakline. Water temp was 51.