xpndbl3

I run 80 pound power pro on my dipsies and never have to worry about cranking down on a big king when running large meat rig setups. Lots of money in tackle on that line to lose it because you are running too small a line.

nope

let me know when it'll be in the water though and i'll go for a ride.

few buddies got some out of portage, just waiting on all this pack ice to disappear finally. I'll be heading out of east chicago, IN sometime this week/next week for our first spring voyage. Will be doing a mixed bag of perchin and hunting for those silver fish.

You guys are lucky down south by us the entire lake is SOLID ice still. It'll be a while before I can get out there.

Hi Steve,

A little more info please. you mention the new gate system for collecting fees. Last years improvements and ask for floating docks. There are 3 floating docks at the ramps. Are you asking for a place to tie up for pre trip or pre retrival prep away from the ramp?

Thanks to everyone, looking foward to more great info.

Yes I've used their floating docks, they are fine but the ramp angles are a pain. Like I said the concrete in some areas is torn up and it takes far too much distance to get depth of water needed to launch our boat. The gate system is kind of a pain compared to the old attendant on duty. Not to mention there is no jet skier only lane and several times last year there were jet skiers blocking 2-4 lanes of launches while they were at their vehicles. They should only be allowed to launch at the shallowest area and stay out of the boaters way. Also there is a lack of parking while setting up before launching, if you go to patrick there is probably a mile worth of area where you can pull around in their lot and setup. Like I said on a busy spring day when coho are in at patrick marina, there will be hundreds of boats and it goes much smoother than waukegan. Also I was stopped by the sheriff's boat last season for going 3.4mph out of the harbor in 2-3 footers, they yelled at me for creating barely a 6" wave behind me while I was getting pounded pulling out. Waves were bouncing me around and that was the bare minimum speed to control my boat and stay in my lane while boats were returning. He stopped us, was extremely rude asking me immediately if I could read english on the signs. Then pointed out that I was to maintain a speed under 5mph, when I told him about the 3.4 mph being the lowest to maintain safe control I was told that next time he sees me speeding like that he will write me a ticket. He was extremely rude and put a bad taste in my mouth for that harbor at the get go.

Just install floating docks and make the lanes wider Also that token system right at the launch is kind of pain, not to mention the angles on the ramps are off since I have to the rear tires way into the water to launch our mako center console. If you want to model a nice ramp, go look at pastrick marina or east chicago, IN. This launch will get out 300 boats QUICKLY with 5 wide lanes(maybe 6?) along with security on duty 24/7. Price is much cheaper than waukegan as well.

i was there for the seminar, it was crammed in a short amount of time, and i thought he was kind of vague in setups.

tim

hit me up on chitown sometime and you can talk to me about my spread since you're kinda local to me. Been doing this for a few years now out on my mako center console, got a pretty good system down for south end lake fishing.

We run the meat rigs on the south end of the lake and they're on fire for the beginning to middle of the season for us. Late summer into fall they don't get hit nearly as much. The black mamba, blue mamba work great always and glow in the dark are killer before sunrise.

Sounds great and in the early spring if anyone wants to head down for some GREAT coho action out of the south chicago area feel free to hit me up. Although I must say, we had tons of strange looks out on Long Lake running planer boards and downrigger rods trying for walleye Guess that far up north it's just jigging, whereas we can fish a 150 foot wide path with 8 lures at various depths to find them.

First I want to thank everyone for all their advice and for those who called me up. We trailered the boat out there only to find the waves too large for our liking, guess the 4-6 footer report was spot on. So we headed back to traverse city and fished a Long Lake which had reports of walleyes and perch being caught. Ended the day with 5 dink perch after changing spots around 30 times all over the lake. Didn't mark a single walleye, so it's anyones guess where they were. No one at the launch at dusk when we pulled out caught a single thing, so I guess we were "lucky". Maybe next time I can get in a good quality salmon trip in michigan besides new buffalo.

I did check them out for depths and presentations, those spoon colors must be a michigan thing because they don't match any of the stinger or warrior spoon names that we use down south.

if anyone else is launching out friday and could shoot me in the right direction that would be great. So far I'm bringing my usual box of j-plugs, a box of spoons and a box of body baits on the odd chance I can run a shallow spring type setup for us near shore off planer boards. Will have 2-4 rods on riggers, 2 dipsies and 1 ten color lead core setup.

I won't be checking this after tonight since i'll be leaving tomorrow but if anyone would like to give me a call it's: 708-404-5626

thanks Steve

thanks maybe friday i'll try manistee instead of frankfort then looks like I'll get a day or two to fish up there and have to be back in the chicago area right after.

The whitefish was for the grand traverse bay area, so we decided to just try the frankfort area for salmon if they're still around. No one seems to know if the Grand Traverse bay would also hold salmon since it gets rather deep as well.

Anyone have any info on the frankfort area for launching out of and fishing? Seems a local bait shop told us we'd have a lot of water to cover to try to find the whitefish this time of year.

well got our 3 man perch limit in under 2 hours, non stop action, nothing under 10" kept so the south end of the lake was on fire. No salmon caught while trolling for them for 2 hours before heading home. Heard the whitefish was in the grand traverse bay, looked on google, they appear to be a salmon type fish with a smaller mouth? How would I fish for them?

Thanks for the welcomes guys. I'll look around online for that elk river launch and also frankfort and manistee info would be great as well. We're heading out of indiana tomorrow for some lakers and perch, hoping to get our perch limits early and then chase some steelies/browns/lakers around with our shallow winter/spring setups.

thanks, guess I'll report back after next week when I head out that way. None of the local bait shops have anything to add either about fishing this late in the season, guess you guys don't run it year round like we do on the southern end of the lake. We fish until the harbors freeze up and then at first thaw we're back out there chasing cohos near shore.

Looking to fish the grand traverse bay area at the end of next week, hoping to get any ideas on setup and/or FOW to fish. I didn't know if up there the fish are in the 20-30 fow area like they are at the southern end of lake michigan in the indiana areas I normally fish. Should I plan on running our typical early spring setups of shallow dipseys and planers with small crankbaits/spoons that we'd do in april or are the fish still out deep? Would be launching into the grand traverse bay I'm assuming.

none that i know of either