tgafish

Yup this suggestion is dead on arrival at the Mi DNR The only reason they are still planting kings is to justify budgets, have field workers keep their jobs, and lessen the blow on charters. The best thing to do to continue the fishery would be to drop King and Coho plants for a period of 5 years. Help the alewife population build some spawning year classes and then reintroduce them slowly to find a balance.

Unfortunately this would be too much for many businesses to survive so we have to continue with this precarious balancing act.

Throwing back salmon is the worst thing you can do for sustaining this fishery.

My biggest complaint with the cheaper rods is the awful guides they have. Probably had 1/2 of the wilderness and cheap shimano rods lose at least one guide insert. Otherwise I haven't had any break or splinter

Thanks for all the great reports this year!!

My catching was pathetic this year. I did not target lakers at any point. I did target Steel twice. After the anemic spring king bite I seriously cut down on my Lk Mi fishing. I only went out about a dozen times this year. Spring ho's were good to average. I landed about 2-3 fish per trip the rest of the year with one skunk. Best day was 8 landed with 4 being kings. I will most likely switch my target to spring ho's browns and summer steel next year and travel more to Saginaw and Erie for eyes. Might try to learn inland lakes for panfish.

Would be interested to know if a plug could run correctly with a single treble off the back point similar to the back of a rapala. That would solve all of my plug concerns

Tgafish , you couldn't be more wrong . I have a 48 ft Sea Ray sedan bridge with 700 hp MAN diesels and they aren't for running miles off shore , in fact we never lose site of shore . Diesel boats handle easier, last longer and have added value to them . You'll have to make sure you have trolling valves on it to slow it down . I had mine installed and damn they work great . I'd never buy a 36 foot Gasser boat. And oh I can make this boat sip fuel too. When I'm up on plane I'm burning 80 gallons an hour , when I'm trolling I burn less then 5 gallons an hour both engines. Diesels are the only way to go in a boat over 35' period .

Pm me if you need any advice timeout!!!

Boltman

Well Boltman I would say you are one of the few folks that has turned that platform into a Great Lakes fishing boat so I wasn't exactly thinking of a 20 ton48 sedan when the question was asked. So in your case I would agree it's not even an option to run gas. I would also agree that a diesel engine is a superior machine for the job of pushing a large heavy boat through the water. But obviously that all comes at a hefty price. At what point does the extra tens of thousands spent on diesels pay for itself in a 17 to 22K lb boat running 10-30 miles per trip 4-5 months per year? Somebody could take that money and buy a 20hp kicker that would burn 5 gallons a day and still have enough money left over to totally deck out the boat in top of the line electronics and holders. I would argue there are respectable gas options for a boat over 35ft. if somebodies budget called for it.

Thanks guys. Another picture of the happy teen

I'll start with #2. No there is no scare factor

#1. I've done a lot of recent research on this. According to the experts a 36 foot boat is the minimum of when you should start looking at diesels. Forget all the things you will hear about gas savings, longer life, less maintenance. The added upfront cost will make recouping the gas costs a long term proposition. Long life is associated with constant running diesels not ones that sit for long periods of time. And the cost of parts and service basically evens out the maintenance costs.

The one thing you want to consider is performance. You're going to at least double but most likely triple to quadruple the weight of your current boat. The torque in a diesel is built to get those tubs out of the water or push them along at low rpm non planning speeds. The big bored out gas burners are sometimes undergunned for the job or need to run pretty hard to push that weight.

I think the diesels are a bit overboard and for most freshwater needs. The guys who need the diesels are running 60-80 miles one way in 4-8 foot seas on a typical day trip.

Good luck and God Bless!

9-5 Went 3 for 6. Lines down at 6:30. Took a small King on a plug 300cu right away. Then a screamer on a high diver set at 130 with a NBK. Hook came out of the split ring. First time for that. Took another rip on the high diver that let go. Lost a rigger bite down 110 on a Blue Dolphin chrome flasher and ice fly. Took a small ho on a muffin slider.

Son landed a beautiful 19 lb laker on a blue bubble set up down 90. Deep blue color. White and red accents on the fins. Huge head. Very tempted to take it to the taxidermist but I couldn't get any pics to do it justice for him to work with.

Sunday night went out from 630-830 with the Mrs. 2-3 foot chop made it a bit challenging. Fished 195-135fow without a bite. Very happy to have my Mrs join me though

Nice trip Martin!

Funny but the last couple of years I have also had relative success running solo. I have been seriously wondering if running more lines could be scaring some fish away with all the disturbance in the water

If the DNR continues to stock less kings for the next two or three years the alewives will over run the lakes again. By the time the DNR gets back to 5 million salmon it will be too late because it takes them a couple of years before they do any damage to the alewives.

Not true. Year 1 Chinooks eat year 1 alewives. That is why we had large fish in 13 and are seeing larger fish this year. 2010 and 2012 are the only alewife hatches in recent history that were not considered poor. Plants have an immediate impact on the numbers. The alewives can't overrun the lakes again as there is not enough food for them to do so thanks to quagga mussels. The only concern would be large numbers of alewives starving and collapsing. The nice thing is that the bottom of the food chain can recover quickly so sudden starvation events in plankton predators is rare beyond catastrophic events.

The ecosystem of the lake is completely different than it was when those events occurred in the 60's and 70's. There will still be comparatively small alewife die offs because of spawning stress if the commission manages to save the population.

there is way more bait than the dnr claims, they need to change where and when they do the trawl samples.

They did change some of the trawls and sonar samples last year. These changes did not correlate with the opinion that there is more bait than they claim. Alewives have shown to be more adaptive than the kings in finding alterative foods. Hopefully they have a couple successful spawns and there is enough food out there for them when they do

Think we've had one shaker the past two weeks too. And no lakers at all. Kings are actually getting pretty good. Everyday there's a few 18-20# fish caught on the docks. There's a lot of bait out there. And not enough fish. Should have been more fish planted.

Glad you're doing well in the mud in GH. Kill all the ale eaters you can. You're comment about more fish being planted is insane.

It will be 5 years before they resurvey the king size, that is how they will decide weather or not to increasekings, not by number of ales but size of 3 year old fish, I believe they will not increase stocks untill over 50% of 3 year old females are 18lbs or better is what it was, unless they have changed that. The fishing will getworse from hear on out untill plants are bumped up.

They changed this. I forget what they changed it to but I believe it is tied to a predator prey number ratio. Covered it during the meeting in Ludington.

Thank goodness the charters are taking out shakers and hammering the lakers. Need to build up some ale year classes:thumb:

Might have to sell the Islander to someone that would use it on Saginaw Bay for walleye. Because I could care less about catching lakers. And when I went out last week all we could catch was lakers. From a 3 color leadcore all the way down to 90 all over 120' of water. Every rod had a hit in a 3 hr period.

If I didn't enjoy going over to Saginaw and Erie I would be considering selling. I have a feeling there is going to be a large number of salmon boats on the block next spring and a glut by the end of the year.

As of this year we have approx. 2.76 million less catchable Chinooks swimming in Lake Mi than we did in 2012. This does not take into account the poor spawning conditions experienced around the lake in 2012 due to low water levels so the number is most likely greater than that. Figure less Chinook being caught this year and last year and the number probably evens itself. That is a substantial drop! And remember the adults this year are still from the 2012 plant so we'll have 1.38 million less fish to fish for next year than we do this year! You think this year was tough for kings you better get ready......

22 islander 4.3. I usually run 5-7 miles out from the heads and troll for 6 hours. Burn 12 gallons on avg. Put in a can of seafoam every other trip so add $3.50

Lines down at 615 about 4 miles south of GH in 110fow.

4lb king on a rigger 25 down in first 5 minutes

6lb king on a 225 copper

Hooked a fish on the wire out 110 on meat rig. Gone when we pulled it out of the holder

Knocked an 8lb king off with the net. Meat rig 50 down on a rigger.3

Lines up at 10pm

Bites all came in 105-115 fow in 53 degree water which was the warmest we could find.

1 bite against the current and 3 bites with the current.

Both spoon bites were mag spoons

Sweet box of hos!

Yup a bigger set of bags or you could also prop down a bit in size or pitch. Bags are gonna be cheaper than a prop. I run my bags off the side cleat and tied to the rear cleat. Easy to flip in and out. The back of them is almost even with the back of the boat. Probably a foot short

Are you sure that's a Steelhead? Tail looks awefully forked

Really is a fun fishery for anybody who has not tried it yet. Friend and I took 27 fish Friday- sunday. Threw back about 10 shorts. Caught a few enormous white bass, couple of sheep and one sheep that would go 12-15 lbs, one catfish. 2 downsides are it can get very crowded out there. Sometimes similar to combat fishing. And that damn chop:mad:

I don't think you need to worry about stressing the engine. If its going fast enough that you need to slow it down I think you could pile weight on and or pull bigger bags and not worry. Start by posting what size motor and bags you are running. If nobody thinks just going to a bigger bag would help then you need to experiment. I thing one more may do it. See what the cool kids say and report back what worked.

What he said:thumb: I have the same boat and used 2 36 inch bags to get down to .9 to 1.2.

It has the 185hp 4.3 with a 14X19 alum prop

Charter boats have been boating LOTS of lakers in the Saugatuck/Holland area this spring.

Talking about salmon not lakers

Check out the charter catches. The ones that usually do good are still doing good.

Which ones?