SPOONWASHER

Which end of the lake and how thick was the ice? Cant wait to get out there!

If your gonna fish in the spring make sure you have an arsenal of red and black Brads Thin Fish! Other hot setups have been orange and gold spoons and natural looking spoons like black and silver, in small sizes. Peanut flies pulled a few inches behind a small red dodger can also be hot.

Thats a bummer! Yeah this was the first time hunting here and I like it...a lot! Its a flooded river pond with creeks flowing too it and the mallards liked moving in there later in the day. At about 11 we went up to the trucks to warm up and from the trucks watched a group land in the dekes:rolleyes: Seems like that's always the case! I, too, am ready for October!

Just wondering if anyone got out over the weekend. Our sweet spot had 50 ducks in it on Wednesday when we scouted it and went back Thursday and there were 4:mad: And yes I counted them all there were actually 47 but close enough lol. So that spot got ruined and we didn't plan on hunting but I got a last minute call from my buddy last night for the invite out this morning. Ended up going to a piece of state land on the river and ended up with 2 hens and 1 drake. Shot a lot, missed some, and had a ton of fun which is all I care about. Had some issues with my buddies dog that ruined a few groups of birds but that's hunting. It was sure nice to get out there again, haven't been out in awhile!!

I would love to stay there all my life! One of my favorite ports;)

Way back when, when we started we did this. We asked as many questions as possible, colors, setups, etc. The next day we did really well, we got advice we would have never gotten. I would definitely suggest booking a charter.

Yeah Ken posted the right one but have fun finding what you need! The gosh darn thing is a pain in the butt.

Got word of 4 inches of good ice on a Marina down by me. Ill try to be out this weekend

Don't know if we will ever get a chance to fish but I like the 8 rod rule, not too unfair for the groups that can only have 2 people and still gives the 3 people teams a slight advantage...

Also do not be afraid to ask questions here. Everyone is more than willing to help...some info one here from some of the seasoned veterans is just as valuable if not more valuable than books. A big thing that helps is to get the precision trolling guide. It takes some of the guess work on how deep your lures are running and copper, core set ups. EDIT-Just saw this in the classifieds here! http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20391

Yup watch the ice, if you ever plan on fishing around Kalamazoo or Van Buren, PM me and I would be more than happy to help you out on specific locations. There are quite a few lakes around here where you can set tip ups and while waiting for them you can stay pretty busy with gills and perch or crappie.

Congrats on the victory!

Yeah that sounds right, I have an 8 rod dryer and love it for the ice rods. I have made close to 60 so far this year, need to stock up instead of getting behind. I never heard that about Gudebrod so that is very nice to hear! Where do you get your salmon blanks from, Batson? Or somewhere else? I think I am gonna make a couple this spring.

I do a ton of ice rods so I am not sure how a power wrapper will be for it, but I think it would be essential for Salmon Rods. It will probably be my next purchase though. That thread looks a lot like Gudebrods Gold Metalic, which I am on my last spool of:mad: Sucks that they are no longer making thread. I can tell a lot of time went in to those guides, you are correct, metalic is NOT easy to wrap.

Beautiful rods Eyeful. Just curious what wrapper you are using, and how you like it? I will be buying a new one shortly and I have no idea which one I want.

Yep! Call me crazy but I have one spot that the gills are BIG. I regularly catch them on minnows so my "go to" rig is a Custom 27inch UL rod with an Okuma reel and some good 4lb test. Other end of that I put a real small treble hook with a minnow hooked through the eye and a small horizontal jig above that 8 inches. The minnow brings them in and they hit the jig, IMO. Watched a lot of fish on camera, you can learn so much about how the fish react to certain presentations. Ill grab a few favorites and post 'em in a bit.

Well Happy Birthday Mark!!! And Happy Thanksgiving to my GLF Family! Hope everyone has a good day.

Great deer, Roger!!!

Me and Matt were!! I have been working all day, so that would be real nice right now...

Hes even sticking his tongue out at you, probably laughing! Awesome deer btw!

Very nice buck Steve!!

Very nice!! Sounds like fun to me, our boat got winterized yesterday.

Inland lakes can be hard, but usually once you put together a pattern your set. Where are you located? Planner boards are a must, popular brands are Offshore Tackle, or Church Tackle. Both work well. Some basic riggings are running ReefRunners off of the boards. I like bare naked, and pink lemonade colors best. You could also run hot n tots off boards in purples, firetiger and yellows. The Precision Trolling Guide is a good investment so you have the dive curves for the popular brands right on hand. If cranks aren't working try some crawler harnesses. Run them SLOW, I have had best success with # 4 and 5 Colorados at about 1mph. Good colors are glow, purple, and red. I think it is easier to run the harnesses with clip weights, better than bottom bouncers IMO. Hope this helps, you really got to experiment. Walleyes also love mini spoons like the Scorpion Stingers and the Jr Silver Streaks.

The doe has been very good! Had backstraps the night after:p I wont be mounting the buck; however, I might do a Euro mount! Thanks guys! I hope everyone has had a SAFE and fun season.

Well guys, I have had a good season so far. Season started out with hunting a big 8 behind my house that ended up dissappering. Don't know if he was shot or what. Hunted hard without much success, passed up a lot of doe's and a few small bucks. I have bowhunted for 4 years (ever since I legally could) and have never connected with a deer. October 15 rolls around and this keeps repeating in my head. I wanted to get that first bow deer under my belt, and when a doe stood quartering away at 10 yards, I did just that! Perfect double lung shot, ran 60 yds and piled up. I was super excited about that first bow deer! Hunted on and off for the next few weeks. Saw again a number of small bucks and a few doe's. Some rut action-bucks chasing does, scrapes, etc. Nothing much happening. Then this weekend rolls around. Saturday night I hunted a stand that overlooks a swampy field on one side and a small clearing that held 9 scrapes on the other. I had hunted this spot hard lately, I knew there was a big boy running around on our property in Paw Paw and it was just a matter of time. I got a text from my dad that night saying he jumped a MONSTER 10 pt walking in. I later found out this deer had massive tines, and was real wide. Saturday (last) night ended up seeing a few doe's, one small buck, and a buck chasing a doe. Also heard some bucks fighting. This morning I planned on sitting the same stand I did the night before. Walking in the moonlight lit up the woods and I could tell some of the scrapes had been hit in the middle of the night. Around 7:00 a 7pt passes my dads stand (my dad hunted about 60yds away) and came strolling right on in to me. It was hard to but I had to pass this deer up. I had seen him several times and I knew he was just a 1 1/2 year old. Next year he will be awesome. At 8:30 I hear a crash and see a buck chasing a doe through some real thick stuff about 40 yds away. I hit the grunt call and he spins around and is now making a b-line for my tree. At 30yds he stopped but the shot wasn't favorable so I let him keep coming. 15 yds in the wide open, slightly quartering to from 22 ft up, I mouth grunt to stop him and hit the release. THWACK! Shot was a little high but definitely where it needed to be and I watched as this buck got wobbly 100 yards away and fell over, double lung. He is a older deer for sure- no teeth, thick gray body, gnarly horns, and has a lot of fat. He broke quite a few tines but is still an 8pt! Not the biggest deer ever but I am happy! My dad watched it all unfold from his tree which was neat, glad I passed up the small buck earlier:D First bow buck is now down! Hope everyones season has been good!